I thought we had reached peak ridiculousness with e-sports. Apparently not.
All these clowns keep saying they donāt follow football, they follow Essendon, what do you expect them to do?
Iām surprised they havenāt opened a chain of bakery shops.
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I think we (and some other clubs) are seeing the writing on the wall about financial dependency on pokies. Poker machines are increasingly becoming a political issue (in SA and Tassie especially) and if serious attempts are made to reduce their numbers, it could leave some clubs exposed for income streams.
(Not to mention the ethically questionable side of funding your family-friendly positive high-moral-standard club using soulless robotic money vultures that prey on the weak and vulnerable)
All clubs with big gaming investments are going to be looking at diversifying. If the NBL can be a good money-maker (I didnāt believe it was, but @benfti knows much better than me on that front and I stand corrected) then this seems like a reasonable option that leverages the sports club management skillset we already have inside the club admin.
Was it GWS or GC that announced a major investment in childcare centres this week? Thatās another good option. Reliable income stream, constant demand. When Bomba was still at the club i assumed weād look to diversify into property development, as Woosha (of the Welsh variety) went down that path post-footy too so it seems like weād have had the contacts and expertise floating around.
I think starting to put our fingers in a bunch of pies is a very necessary thing, because at the moment weāre in the position where far too many of our eggs are in the pokies basket, to mix food-related metaphors.
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What if you look at it at purely investment terms?
You invest in something; that something actually has a demographic that is interested in sports as well which is a not inconsequential cherry.
Iād actually be really interested in the club looking at the Melbourne Renegades.
And as @benfti mentioned. Some.NBL clubs kill a pig. Wildcats do very well financially over here in the west.
Note* I hate basketball
Make an Essendon branded danish and Iām THERE
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I think your right.
I donāt want to see us purchasing new licences, starting a fresh and under the āEssendon Bombersā brand. Then witness all of them sitting on the bottom of each competition for years on end. It does nothing but embarrass the brand.
Buying a certain percentage, of say, the Melbourne Renegades makes sense. Purchasing a percentage of Melbourne United makes sense. Purchasing a percentage of Melbourne Victory makes sense. Then all the partnership opportunities these create.
Buying a new licence in The NBL, A-League or Australia Netball competition and calling ourselves the Essendon Bombers. Then have everyone witness the club sitting at the bottom of the table. Thatās not good enough.
The last thing I want to see is all the AFL clubs making a mockery of these sports by having each AFL club making up the bottom 4-5 of each sporting competition simply because itās a cash grab, and they donāt want to invest heavily in quality players and coachesā¦ and donāt care about the sport because they are a football club.
DEFENCE DEFENCE DEFENCE
BETA flavour
This is so true.
A night out watching is the 36ers is pretty good. The league is on the way up and kids participation is amazing. One small town just down the road from us struggles to fill u15 and u17 football teams but has 14 different basketball teams of various age groups and the local government has tipped in $3m for a new four court indoor multi purpose arena. Basketball participation in SA has gone through the roof
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Noe of this stuff is making sense and I really am starting to wonder where it is all coming from.
From the NBLās perspective, why on earth would they want this?
At best, Melbourne could/should have 2 teams. 3 at absolute most if the league is even viable. Apparently they are already looking at moving back to winter due to getting crushed by cricket etc.
If there is to be 2 or 3 teams in Melbourne, why would the NBL want one (or two etc) basically an AFL club - meaning their potential supporter base is just so small.
There are reasons why these types of things dont work. The market for local basketball in this country just isnt big enough to divide it like this.
Rubbish. Soccer has proven that participation and professional leagues have little to do with each other.
Why would they want one of the biggest clubs from the biggest league to bring their brand to their tiny organisation?
I can think of about 60,000 reasons.
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You can eat 60,000 danishes?
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Maybe we can sign Pendlebury.
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Here is the reality. Ages between 6-18 have dropped off according to reason data coming from AFL clubs including Essendon. While AFL will always be significant I can easily see Essendon looking to put their brand stamp on this age group which means esports for fast growing gaming crowd and basketball for their rapid growing audienceā¦and itās growing fast with NBA subscriptions up over 25% this year alone. Helps with both Bogut and Ben Simmons being Essendon supporters too.
I would rather Essendon take risks and be first in looking to capture this audience and align it to their brand. Itās a sound business approach for me.
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Thats because they are all so tall I presume.
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Transitioning kids to play Australian Rules football, has no benefits to the Essendon football Club.
Unless we have an academy zone area, its a complete waste of time, money and resources.
Let the AFL squander billions of dollars on such things.
Have people saying this will take kids away from AFL forgotten about Scott Pendleburyās basketball background?
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Doesnt Ben Simmons barrack for Essendon? I think Delly does too? Dante and delly our starting Guards, Raz can play small fwd (lets be honest Raz can do anything) and Ben Simmons PF with the Bogie man at C.
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Dante Exum too? Not that heād forgo NBA for NBL