Firstly to Sevens, I don't think anyone here that has commented has anything but compassion for Paul Osborne's situation, I can only empathize with his feelings and understand them. But that is not the point we are discussing.
We as the membership of the club elected seven representatives of the club, seven of them; they have appointed another, the CEO making eight. Now of those remaining six representatives, we couldn't get one of them, to the NSWRL AGM? The league our constitution affiliates us with, and the league on which our constitution is based, considering the plethora of Paper talk about this meeting being used to discuss the leagues independent commission, we could not get a single elected representative to this meeting?
I believe John Fenwick did Denis a disservice in mentioning the Life Membership to Denis, it allows other to see it him as a petty man who was upset no one from his club was there to see him receive the honour, personally that is not the problem I have with our club not having a representative.
Indeed Hellsy is right, that Paul Osborne was quite forthcoming in his praise of the club and the way it had been run, stating the only reason he accepted was that it was Parramatta and the club that it was, and that was in no small part to Denis and Alan Overton.
To Butch82, no there was no talk of sponsors, or any other form of revenue raising, Just memberships and the reduction of reliance on the leagues club.
Stagger talks about Mario Libertinni and his statements I have mentioned in my review, I spoke with Mario and Suitman in relation to the stadium, the Leagues Club board wants to see 75% of seats for Parramatta home games either Pre-sold (Season Tickets) or sold to Members only with the rest going to the General Public (Parramatta fans and Opposition supporters). If we could get Parramatta Stadium at 75% in Season Tickets, so 15671 members would be great with the Average cost of ticketed membership at $190.5 (apart from the Hayne and Platinum) would give us approx $3m a year in Membership dues.
The problem as Mario pointed out, but as I have heard before from previous club PR people and Boards is that at Parramatta Stadium, we need to get a crowd of over 7,000 people before we even start to see a single cent of profit. Which means that unless we crest 7000 ticketed memberships, our club is not making a single cent per year on the memberships vs. the cost at the stadium, and must rely on further fans coming to the ground for any monies from attendance.
7,000 a game to break even, vs the deals some other clubs have in not having to pay a cent and indeed getting paid to play at a venue plus getting cuts of the gate and all their Membership fees then go back to the club. Mario spoke about the great atmosphere it could generate, and I am sure we all agree a packed home stadium is great, but at what cost? If we pack it out every game then yes we will make money from the other crowds but when some clubs talk about ticketed memberships to survive they already have a 2million dollar play contract at their venue, and not a approximate 1 million dollar expense. That there is a 3 million dollar turn around between a club like the Bulldogs and a club like ours.
