David Barham - Our new Board Overlord

We have Pokies. We don’t need to diversify.

One of our two premierships of modern times was from the eSports team, if I’m not mistaken.

Which I could be, because we don’t do that.

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EFA

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What’s the revenue stream from co-location with the Paras and Para access to the Hangar facilities?
Also, IIRC there was something about the club’s association with tertiary facilities and the Hangar having campus status.
There was also some Government arrangement where donations could be accorded charitable gift status for tax deductions.

My understanding is they got the govt funding to build it in part on basis they incorporate the Para into their facility.

I know they were getting about $500K pa from Western United as rent however they’re leaving / left so I assume that’s half a million they aren’t generating.

I’m not too sure about the RMIT arrangements. I assume there’s a commercial deal there but I’m not privy to it.

They were going to do a big fundraiser next year and sell plaques to seats in a refurbished Reynolds Stand at WH. However, I’m pretty sure as part of the AFL club funding model Essendon’s share of funding has dropped by $1M pa. So with Western United gone, adverse AFL funding they started the year I believe -$1.5M gap… That’s why they brought forward the fundraiser for the Reynolds Stand into this year is my guess (without proof). I don’t believe it has been too successful btw.

So, the club is just plodding along off field and hence the need to be thinking about diversification as the club for too long has relied on wealthy benefactors and fan fundraisers to bail them out and cover infrastructure spend… IMO of course!

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Allegedly , after the Saga, X as CEO had the role of marketing the club to restore the Brand. To that extent he had some success, at the expense of other CEO responsibilities.

True. A bit to unpack there. He was given the poison chalice. He had to eliminate $10M in debt and recover lost support of stakeholders.

His biggest obvious failing was not hiring a great head of football and investing enough in football. However, the clubs huge debt meant it had to be fiscally aware / responsible so in some ways he was on a hiding to nothing.

Look how hard the new regime is finding it unwinding ‘Essington’…… Xavier had a very difficult task. He handled the commercial stuff well, the footy stuff not as well. That said, there was so much going on around that 5-6 years period it would’ve been really difficult for any accomplished CEO.

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Get the past 2 annual reports and study the financials. We pay a lot in salaries given how big the club is.

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Pokies revenue is one thing but profitability is another. Inflation has caused all the input costs to dramatically increase. Wages, food, drinks, security, rent, maintenance, gas, electricity have all jumped. It will be interesting to see if the club tries to hide / bury the true picture of the 2 poker machine operations. Gambling is being heavily scrutinised while profits are declining. Not a great business to be in or rely upon (Star Casino anyone?)

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I can’t be bothered going through other club annual reports. Essendon from what I understand has tightened its non football expenditure the last 24 months and even then it was running a pretty tight ship.

You know Essendon isn’t generating anything like the profits that many of its competitors are, right? It’s generating losses after paper costs (amortisation) and pretty small surpluses based on cash. It’s not rolling in cash and raking it in like it did yesteryear.

you know that’s a lie dmapes.

Nah, I seriously can’t. Takes too long.

That is a furphy Davo. Any debt was guaranteed by at least five Bomber people. One, who sadly passed away, had a special Bomber fund which was very large, and the only strings attached was access to the playing group. And none of these serious commitments were ever needed, so your conspiracy theories are bunk.

Got names of the five faceless men?

Little would be one.

but that’s besides the point. An appointed executive of a large organisation shouldn’t be planning the org’s operations based on daddy’s chequebook. If the club didn’t need them; so much the better.

Yeah, but two have died and the rest are stupid old blokes like me now. It is normal in most clubs that well heeled members guarantee debts. Allegedly Little guaranteed the payments to players from the saga, and while most was eventually covered by insurance, much allegedly came out of his pocket. And so the fark it should, as he let the whole club down by kowtowing to AFL.