Just got home from the first Eels Member Council meeting.
Let me say one thing off the bat - what we are able to tell you or anyone is going to be VERY, VERY limited. Chief Operating Officer John Boulous himself said that pretty much EVERYTHING divulged at the meeting is confidential and will remain so until the club announces it.
That's the way it is and there's no point trying to berate myself, Muttman or Gol to tell you something, because it just isn't going to happen.
Today was more of an introductory meeting. Individual photo, information about us, group photo at the end. The stuff you would expect to see.
A lot of club officials present. As above, John Boulous was there, as were CEO Scott Seward, Daniel Anderson & board members Tom Issa, Peter Serrao & another whose name currently escapes me.
Onto the content itself. This is a groundbreaking initiative by the club. The Eels are the first NRL side to implement an initiative such as this and it's one they've been working on for a while. One club has decided to replicate the idea and you have one guess to decide who. Shouldn't be too hard.
The club are passionate about this and are keen to make this work and you can bet your house, it'll work. And swimmingly at that.
And again, just let me stress, the magnitude of the information we'll be able to say every week is pretty much limited to the above. Who was present and that's basically it.
Hope you all understand that and feel free to post away and ask what you wish, keeping in mind that I and the others, won't be able to answer everything.
Oh, and one more thing (they may or may not read this but that's not the point) - can I just thank Sarah, Larissa, Ben & Daniel. These guys love their jobs, love the Eels and are amazing at what they do.
The club is lucky to have them.
EDIT: As posted by Gol -
Scott Seward gave a good speech that hit a lot of the points he's made in the past, the club are going to be ruthless in their quest for continued success, merely being there isn't good enough anymore. They club is targeting 50,000 members by 2020 and are open to a lot of ideas, unique or borrowed from other clubs or sports and given an Eels twist.
Seward is pretty happy with the 'three star' system of pricing for games this year and was unapologetic about the club needing to maximise revenue from these games that are guaranteed a good crowd while also making sure we get people through the gates for games against out of town teams. He made a point of how critical good crowds were to getting Parramatta Stadium upgraded. You've probably heard all of this at various times before but it made an impression that the CEO, COO, half of the board including Steve Sharp, and Daniel Anderson were all present.
The focus is definitely on improving game day, the club are making big plans for the Manly game that they kept close to their chest. They were pretty happy to have a rivalry game to lead off the season. The council themselves are a reasonably diverse group, some experienced and successful in business, some long time contributors to the club, a few who traveled a long way to be there. The meet and greet was pretty standard, everybody got up and introduced themselves, there were a few speeches and then a fair bit of time getting to know each other. I was impressed at how enthusiastic everybody was, turns out I wasn't the only one really looking forward to this, but the next meeting will be where we start to see what the council can do and what we have the scope to change.
Replies
Had to be that way, Ron.
And to be honest, it's the right move by the club.
It was anything but.
Let me say this - our club is going places and they're going to use all their resources, willpower and smarts, to take this club to the next level both on the field and off the field.
It's about the vision moving forward. It's about making the club an elite player on the commercial market, an elite player in terms of brand name and an elite player in terms of revolutionising the rugby league landscape and the landscape for us, the fans.
The club is committed to all of it and all of this, and to ensuring that the suggestions are well received and acted upon accordingly and in the best way possible.
This initiative is worth it and when all is said and done, fans are going to ecstatic.
Not spilling anything, Johnny.
As I said above, we had the directive from the top - confidentiality. Most posts are going to be vague and that's just how it is.
Not putting my spot within the Council in jeopardy by talking about what was discussed and what the club wants/plans to do about it moving forward.
Abso-freakin-lutely.
To keep the fans somewhat informed.
Figure I make the blog and tell it like it is and tell what we can, rather than have 50,000 blogs created with people wanting to know what has happened.
Not to mention a further 50,000 comments that lead to nowhere,that result in me having to repeat myself over and over again.
This way, it's all out there and fans can appreciate the delicate subject nature that will be discussed at future meetings.
And besides, my answers to Ron & PM should tell you and everyone else, that the initiative will be worth it.
There are some things we can answer and some things that we cannot. That's just how it is.
Ok, were you able to voice some of things from the blog regarding suggestions?
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