ok... i've sorta calmed down now.
Firstly - Tinkler has definitely shot himself in the foot with all the carry-on. not very smart.
Secondly - i don't think i could gather an older, more fuddy-duddy, resistant to change group of people if i met every person in the country and hand picked them myself. many were not interested in the deal whatsoever. many of them wouldn't have been had the Tinkler carry-on not happened at all. there could be $500 million on the table and many of them would have turned their nose up at it without a second thought. this, in particular, is the point that made me so very angry.
tinkler will need to quadruple his spend on PR over the next month if he is any hope in hell whatsoever of aquiring the Knights. after tonight, my personal opinion is that we will never be a privatised club until most of these people die. plain and simple. everyone - your club is currently in the hands of the least-progressive, most ignorant group of people i've ever been in the presence of. a private dictatorship is a dream compared to the mob that currently has the final say, and i'm seriously not even kidding. i would prefer one self-interested man to be making the big decisions than the rabble i witnessed tonight. the board fully supported the proposal and each got up and gave their 2c... and even then they turn their nose up. these are the members own chosen representatives telling them that they support this deal - that it is the best thing for the club - and they will not accept it as reality. they will not give up their right to control this club, period.
we should be thinking about who we want to administer the club under the Patrons Trust model moving forward, because regardless of what happens i can't see our current admin and board hanging around too much longer. you would be wise to stop wasting time dreaming big about what dreams may come under a Tinkler establishment, because unless something drastically changes, it's not going to happen for any amount of money in the world.
look, we will move forward, i'm pretty upset at the moment because i've just been made aware of a brutal truth about our club and our town... a truth that i know all too well but never readily wish to accept. we are governed and controlled by dinosaurs that wish nothing more than to live out their remaining days without change, without rocking the boat. the fact that we are - i would say - an 85-90% chance of turning this particular deal down irks me a bit, but the mentality that will eventually lead to this likely decision is what makes me so f**king irate.
roopy said to me a few weeks ago that our newcastle siege mentality has served us well in the past. well, i would wager a decent amount that it may just cost us the opportunity of certainly this decade, and we may not see another opportunity like this ever.
the good news is that, in spite of our inpet bunch of members - and on occasion their own ineptitude, the administration and board has genuinely done a great job through this ordeal, and has also set us up with an alternative that will guarentee we exist into the future. more than that, the future does look settled financially with a great deal of money to start flowing back into the club through increased NRL grants and a full stadium to work with. the good news is that, Tinkler or not, we are a very viable business entity moving forward - we aren't going anywhere.
the bad news is, of course, that we're ultimately run by a bunch of colostomy bag weilding old cockheads that have their head firmly buried in the sand. i just really hope that what i saw tonight wasn't indicative of our entire voting membership, but you just know that it totally is, all the same.
*deep breath and sigh*
ok, i've said my piece.
