CEO - Xavier "Drive Purposeful Innovation" Campbell — well… bye!

Yeah that’s right!!

Rugby has Hookers, … why can’t AFL?

We do!

5 Likes

Do we have any recent recruits who would be down for the task?

They also have tight ends.
Don’t they?

Rugby, …??

Where as we have the Lloyd and Fletcher ends

A quick look over the figures seems to show that over $4m of our our profit came from donations towards our capital works and without that the profit would be around $900k. Is this correct?
Still plenty of work to go but club appears in a decent state financially but we can’t rest on it

You forgot (mainstream) ■■■■; bit of a money spinner I hear.
And mostly legal.

Surely alcohol is far worse than gambling.
It’s addictive.
It’s destructive.
It can destroy families
It causes impairment .
People under the influence cause road and other accidents and it is responsible for chunk of our health care budget.
Shouldn’t we as a club refuse to sell alcohol at all our games?

6 Likes

Or keep it and just get rid of the pokies.

I don’t smoke any longer, but I am not a farking Nazi about.

If the Board is so keen to get rid of gambling, then maybe they should put it to the Members, and Wowsers like you can get a vote.

Have you ever been to the Melton Club ? Low key place where local Bombers supporters and other Members relax. Some of us find gambling entertaining, and why do you and your puritans ways want to spoil it for those that legally enjoy it.

And as Scorpio says alcohol kills, and more people than guns do in our society. So let’s go full Wowsers and ban everything, and maybe Members shouldn’t have sex during the season as well, we all know the trouble that causes.

5 Likes

How exactly will EFC selling off this revenue stream save those lives? I’m not defending the pokies but I’m not seeing how changing the owner of the venue changes what the pokies are & what they do. Unless there is some suggestion that EFC members are gambling there only because its owned by the club & would otherwise not gamble at all then I’m just not getting your position. It might make you personally feel better about the club but I can’t see how it effects the actual gamblers at all. Personally I’d rather the club make the profit from them than say Bruce Matheison or some other interest that gives the community nothing in return. Again this is not a defence of pokies but the reality is they will still be there regardless of the clubs participation. If the club wants to set an example - make the club a leader in fairer gambling. There’s nothing stopping the club from returning even more to gamblers at their venues in the form of giveaways, discounted drinks, food etc etc. Have a venue that provides actual gambling help in the form of regular counsellor visits & actually identify problem gamblers & genuinely try to get them assistance. Maybe be part of a solution rather than simply passing it off to be somebody else’s concern.

6 Likes

…or they could get rid of the pokies and run programs to help problem gamblers. That’s being part of the solution without also being part of the problem.

Aceman’s post summed it up beautifully - It’s fine if the club can find alternative revenue streams but you don’t cut your nose off to spite your face.

How about if we make sure we are debt free before we start moralising too much? A lot of people around here getting on their high horse…

2 Likes

?? I guess sex could lead to children… and those children could grow up to be footballers who have a laugh in public after a loss. Yep, I can see why full Wowsers would want to ban that.

1 Like

Ok, so I’ll tell you why I’m against this. Firstly, as soon as we shut down our pokie machines, someone else will open up the same amount somewhere else, as these provide great revenue to the government. Secondly, people need to learn control rather than preventing anyone enjoying themselves. So rather than removing them, invest in programs or technology that prevents people spending too much.

6 Likes

Thought I might help with some of the arguments circling in here re: gaming revenue.

Firstly, I’m not a gambler. It’s not my thing. I don’t like that our club derives revenue from something that is fairly destructive. Yes, so is large amounts of alcohol - but that certainly isn’t a line in our financial report.

  1. New laws coming into effect soon will increase the costs of owning pokies.
  2. While I understand the argument regarding being a moral compass, as a club we want to create great communities - yes more pokies will pop up, but they won’t be ours.
  3. No one is suggesting we would get out of gaming if we couldn’t replace the revenue stream. That would be madness.
  4. Gaming revenue isn’t exactly stable. Personally I wouldn’t want to be relying on that revenue going forward, and would rather be building some of the other ideas we have in the works that actually grow and give back, while also driving revenue (sorry, secret squirrel for now).

I hope that helps explain some of the rational for what we are trying to do.

22 Likes

They could also run a drug rehab centre, sponsor an AA chapter, the list goes on.
But their core business is football.
Should stick to it. As should the AFL.

1 Like

AFL get more $$ from Gambling than any club I believe.

It is a good thing to move away from it being a revenue stream, but i dont see have a couple of pokies being a issue.

At a local level there are interesting investments I know footy clubs where
Supporters donate cattle to the club and they bank the profit. Another footy club owns a pokie machine at a local Bar which is a sponsor, and they get the earnings from that machine. Thats on top of regular stuff like raffles, footy margin tickets, BBQ’s, Horse racing days, functions and other fundraisers, clothing, Sponsorship Plus the old canteen, & Bar sales. Memberships make up a very small margin of a small footy club.
But for us we have Critical mass with the amount of members we have now and are doing well out of it. But it is part of a revenue stream.

As for running a rehab centre - leave that to the specialists, but encourage footy players to volunteer there in their down time. I think its great how our club has given guys an outlet with Mark Boltons help and others involved in the club to give back to the community.

1 Like