Two articles in the sunday papers today made me wonder at the economics of us agreeing to extra games at Docklands.
Did they even go ahead with it? We have 8 home games at the G and 4 at Telstra.
Can anyone remember the sell the club gave us for the decision to have extra home games there this year?
I think one reason was a cash sweetener ($500,000?)from the AFL to do it.
Another was to do with interstate teams, but I can't remember the details. We still go interstate 5 times, and Port is the only interstate team we meet at Docklands.
It will be interesting to see the economics of the decision to give up games at the G at the end of the season.
From RealFooty
Butterss may give Dome the boot
By Nabila Ahmed
April 06 2003
St Kilda could move its home games away from Telstra Dome at the end of the season because of financial problems, club president Rod Butterss said yesterday.
He said that playing home games at the ground had cost his club 20,000 members since 1997, when the AFL began investigating the sale of the Saints' former home ground Waverley Park.
The AFL struck a compensation deal with St Kilda after the sale of Waverley to play home matches at Telstra Dome. The three-year arrangement ends at the end of this year.
Butterss told ABC Radio's pre-match program the club would have no hesitation in moving away from the much-maligned venue. "If we cannot negotiate an arrangement that sustains the club from a financial standpoint, we will not be playing here," he said.
"We will not be playing at a facility, we cannot play at a facility that we lose money week in, week out."
Butterss said the numbers the AFL had projected when St Kilda moved home games to the venue after Waverley became defunct had "failed dismally".
"They were forecast numbers and forecasting numbers is like measuring an invisible piece of string, your best guess," he said.
"I'm not real happy. It put a terrible impost on clubs that were travelling along quite nicely from a financial perspective. The decision wasn't ours. It's a magnificent stadium, granted, but it's like giving an 18-year-old kid the keys to a Porsche - he can't drive the damn thing because he can't afford to get it serviced.
"We have either got to get in excess of 30,000 week in, week out or we cannot afford to play here, full stop, end of story."
Yesterday, St Kilda's exciting win over Adelaide was witnessed by 19,131 - nearly 10,000 less than what Butterss said was the break-even mark.
The AFL would not comment on the issue.
Meanwhile, the Telstra Dome surface attracted further criticism, with former stars Paul Salmon, Tony Liberatore and Scott Wynd weighing in on the debate.
Bombers champion Salmon said on ABC Radio the venue was "the worst AFL ground at the moment".
"The fact is that it is hard, the fact is that it takes players longer to recover from after a game at this stadium . . . It's a wonderful stadium, it's a beautiful stadium but the ground . . . is a danger to players, given its hardness," he said.
Former Bulldogs captain Wynd agreed, saying his recovery time was always longer after a match at Telstra Dome. "There are issues there, it's simple. A lot of players you speak to, who play consistently at the ground, seem to pull up very sore in the legs purely from the surface," said Wynd.
Stadium boss Ian Collins, who hit out at Wayne Carey after the Adelaide recruit slammed the surface earlier in the week, would not comment yesterday.
From a similar article in the HeraldSun.
Did they even go ahead with it? We have 8 home games at the G and 4 at Telstra.
Can anyone remember the sell the club gave us for the decision to have extra home games there this year?
I think one reason was a cash sweetener ($500,000?)from the AFL to do it.
Another was to do with interstate teams, but I can't remember the details. We still go interstate 5 times, and Port is the only interstate team we meet at Docklands.
It will be interesting to see the economics of the decision to give up games at the G at the end of the season.
From RealFooty
Butterss may give Dome the boot
By Nabila Ahmed
April 06 2003
St Kilda could move its home games away from Telstra Dome at the end of the season because of financial problems, club president Rod Butterss said yesterday.
He said that playing home games at the ground had cost his club 20,000 members since 1997, when the AFL began investigating the sale of the Saints' former home ground Waverley Park.
The AFL struck a compensation deal with St Kilda after the sale of Waverley to play home matches at Telstra Dome. The three-year arrangement ends at the end of this year.
Butterss told ABC Radio's pre-match program the club would have no hesitation in moving away from the much-maligned venue. "If we cannot negotiate an arrangement that sustains the club from a financial standpoint, we will not be playing here," he said.
"We will not be playing at a facility, we cannot play at a facility that we lose money week in, week out."
Butterss said the numbers the AFL had projected when St Kilda moved home games to the venue after Waverley became defunct had "failed dismally".
"They were forecast numbers and forecasting numbers is like measuring an invisible piece of string, your best guess," he said.
"I'm not real happy. It put a terrible impost on clubs that were travelling along quite nicely from a financial perspective. The decision wasn't ours. It's a magnificent stadium, granted, but it's like giving an 18-year-old kid the keys to a Porsche - he can't drive the damn thing because he can't afford to get it serviced.
"We have either got to get in excess of 30,000 week in, week out or we cannot afford to play here, full stop, end of story."
Yesterday, St Kilda's exciting win over Adelaide was witnessed by 19,131 - nearly 10,000 less than what Butterss said was the break-even mark.
The AFL would not comment on the issue.
Meanwhile, the Telstra Dome surface attracted further criticism, with former stars Paul Salmon, Tony Liberatore and Scott Wynd weighing in on the debate.
Bombers champion Salmon said on ABC Radio the venue was "the worst AFL ground at the moment".
"The fact is that it is hard, the fact is that it takes players longer to recover from after a game at this stadium . . . It's a wonderful stadium, it's a beautiful stadium but the ground . . . is a danger to players, given its hardness," he said.
Former Bulldogs captain Wynd agreed, saying his recovery time was always longer after a match at Telstra Dome. "There are issues there, it's simple. A lot of players you speak to, who play consistently at the ground, seem to pull up very sore in the legs purely from the surface," said Wynd.
Stadium boss Ian Collins, who hit out at Wayne Carey after the Adelaide recruit slammed the surface earlier in the week, would not comment yesterday.
From a similar article in the HeraldSun.
