Will the Raiders move from Canberra ??

[Chachi]

As per other comments in the thread, whether this is a legitimate concern or not is debatable. What gets me is that this region is still a League stronghold and for the life of me I don't know how the NRL could possibly allow one regional team to relocate to another region - especially considering we are still very much financially viable, self sufficient and competitive. I thought the whole idea of the $10M incentive to move (or whatever the hell it is) was for a Sydney based club to relocate. There is ABSOLUTELY NO BENEFIT to Rugby League in Australia for the Raiders to move to the central coast. All they would be doing is handing over the whole ACT area to AFL or Union.

This whole scenario reeks of incompetence. I have no idea what Furner earns, nor do I have any idea what his old man or the McIntyres think of the situation, but I just can't see how they'd allow the club they built from nothing to up and move just because Donnie Jr can't get his sh!t together regarding recruitment or sponsorship.

The fact is, even without buying any big names from other clubs we are still on the verge of something special. Henry is "coming home" to be part of the CANBERRA Raiders and big Mal obviously still cares enough to pull Mogg out of oblivion into State of Origin. I also know David Gallop cares for the club and our town, so we still have a lot of friends in high places. For this reason I'm not packing it in yet, but I'm considering sending a letter to the NRL just to see what they think of the proposal.

 

[Edwahu]

Where is the sense in the Canberra District Rugby League, who's charter is to propogate the game in the Riverina, moving to the Central Coast? If its purely financially motivated then they should stop fielding a side all together, there are much more profitable things to invest the money in.

 

[Bay56]

As the article states, the Leagues clubs chipped in with the shortfall necesary to run a football club ...

1. isnt that their charter, the sole reason for their existence
2. which other club in the competition could survive without support from their Leagues club ... take a look at Newcastle who have no Leagues club support and were (and prob still are) in a dire financial position.

The fact is that this club, per capita, has more support than most clubs in Sydney. Only clubs such as Newcastle and Townsville can boast of bigger crowd numbers.

I'm not sure what it takes to remove the people who currently run this club, being imo a boys club. But if there was a body willing to take them on I'd definitely like to part of it.

 

[Copa]

I just can't comprehend Furner's motivation or angle for these statements. If he's trying to elicit more local sponsrship, or even local government funding,

on local goverment funding... i received this today..

Regarding your query concerning funding allcoated in the 2006/07 Budget for AFL/Kangaroos games at Manuka Oval. An amount of $828,000 has been allocated over three years for at least three premiership games per season ($276,000 per year). Additional funding as part of the package offered to the Kangaroos in late April comes from the corporate sector.

This is (comparatively) less than the the annual amount provided to the Raiders to play their home games at Canberra Stadium. The Territory currently provides the Raiders with more more than $1.4m per season, including $200,000 in payroll tax exemptions, under a deal that runs until the end of 2009.

 

[Edwahu]

One thing I cant work out is how it costs 12 million to field a side. We have a wage bill of about 5mil across the grades + lets say 1 mill for coaches and support staff. We own our training grounds and facillities etc and we get paid to play at Bruce. Were are the other 6 million bucks going?

 

[Raider_69]

I support the clubs I follow for meaningful reasons...

Newcastle Utd FC - my Grandma on my Dad's side was born there
Toronto Maple Leafs - lived and "grew up" there, and a best friend lives there
Newtown Jets - local club, helped me kickstart my new career
Country Origin - my Dad was born in Wagga, and family heritage in rest of Riverina
etc...

My passion for them is inexorably linked to the place to which they belong.

and thats fair enough, i totally understand that logic and cant fault any one who would stop following the club if they relocated, i have links with the club not based on anything other then i picked them as a youngen and have beeen fanatical about them, but relocating would test my resolve to the max... anyone who has followed them as a local team or simular reason, has every right to ditch them IMO

 

[Timbo]

It'd definitely sour my following of them...But footy season for me is about fanatically supporting my club...I couldn't suddenly start supporting Easts because their my local team.

I'd stick with them if they moved.

 

[Boing Boing]

Nope. No way. I'll tell you right now, watching your team play its home games out of another team's stadium is awful, especially when that team is Manly.

The club will be receiving an email from me in the near future.

 

[Copa]

Mr Furner just called me to dicuss the email I sent to the raiders...

Some of you may also get calls.

 

[Boing Boing]

I take it you can't talk about the contents on here?

 

[jed]

Copa, if you are unable to divulge the content of your chat, are you at least able to let us know whether you're feeling better about the situation after talking to him?

 

[Copa]

Copa, if you are unable to divulge the content of your chat, are you at least able to let us know whether you're feeling better about the situation after talking to him?

Wait til he calls you... if you sent the raiders an email re this newspaper article.

I was quite surprised when he said who he was down the phone line.

Got to ask him about the proposed u20 national comp too... interesting.

 

[Copa]

I take it you can't talk about the contents on here?

sorry dude... a conversation is a conversation..

Was quite nice and all considering how nasty my email was :x ... said i could call him anytime if I have any further issues.

 

[Raider Azz]

well at least he was willing to take the time out to make the call, credit to him must be given for that at least.

 

[edabomb]

Well he does have a pretty difficult job in all honesty. Some people here make it seem like he's managing a McDonalds, not a struggling football club.

 

[Boing Boing]

sorry dude... a conversation is a conversation..

Was quite nice and all considering how nasty my email was :x ... said i could call him anytime if I have any further issues.

I knew that. I'm really not sure why I asked!! :lol:

 

[Edwahu]

Well done to him for calling the fans. Better then alot of clubs get.

Copa, can you at least tell us if he thought the u20's comp would go ahead? It would be a great comp to watch if it got televised and we would have a handy side too.

 

[Poida_Raider]

whats all this proposed u20 stuff about?? could someone refer me to an artivle or thread, or something.. sorry!

 

[Edwahu]

whats all this proposed u20 stuff about?? could someone refer me to an artivle or thread, or something.. sorry!

From what I can gather they want to get rid of Flegg and Premier League and replace it with one under 20's comp which mimics the NRL. So every team would have a side in it. Older players would go back to local footy when they dont play first grade.

I also think it involved moving the mimimumn age for first grade up to 21. So you cant debut untill you are 21. THat might of been Gus's rantings though.

 

[Boing Boing]

Wan't it "In addition to" PL? PL isn't an age restricted comp. I think it would replace Flegg.