The Eels today sent out a media release as per below announcing a "partnership" with the Parramatta City Council.
Unfortunately, the subtext of this announcement is we've failed to sell our shorts sponsorship for the start of the season. Given that we're "supporting" the council I presume we've simply given them the space so we don't have an empty sponsorship space.
It's somewhat disappointing considering all the talk at the end of last year was how much new corporate money was going to flow into the club.
As was posted on here by Tabone last year, the Eels lost the Park Lea sponsorship after they basically botched looking after the minor sponsors during the grand final period. I know Ozzy said he was restructuring our sales and marketing during the off-season and I hope we do better at it, because it's definitely not an area the club has done particularly well at, in the past.
Ozzy said to me he was confident all the sponsorship arrangements would sort themselves out, and hopefully it's simply a case of not being able to sign off on a deal before the season but still you'd like to think we'd have these matters sorted out before kickoff. Bloody Bulldogs have even just sold off their coach!
Pirtek Parramatta Eels announce new Partnership
The Pirtek Parramatta Eels are proud to announce a new partnership with Parramatta City Council.
The Council’s logo will appear on the players’ shorts in a prime position in a show of support for the Council’s bid to hold the NSW Tourism Awards in Parramatta.
Parramatta Lord Mayor Paul Garrard has been a proud supporter of the Parramatta Eels, hosting the recent Fan Day and announcing the re-signing of Daniel Mortimer.
Parramatta Eels CEO Paul Osborne believes this is a further step in a growing relationship with the Council as the City of Parramatta continues their unrivalled support of their local team.
“We have a great relationship with Parramatta City Council and we are now supporting them in a bid to raise the profile of Parramatta,” Parramatta Eels CEO Paul Osborne said.
“This would be a major event for Parramatta and we are supporting the Council, the same way they have supported us.”
The opportunity to host the NSW Tourism Awards is an exciting proposition for Parramatta as it is an event which has always been held in the Sydney CBD and will be attended by hundreds of people across the regional and metropolitan areas of New South Wales.
Replies
I certainly know one of the properties they sold was on Grose St near KFC as I funded the developer into the sight and the purchase price would have made a significant hole in the Club's debt position.
Refer to the Telegraph article for more info: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nrl/eels-swim-in-cash-after-...
"Osborne also secured a new shorts sponsorship with Parramatta City Council's tourism arm last night."
That's not how I read the release, there's no mention of any sponsorship anyway?
I'm not being critical at the new board who have obviously done a great job, but this was always Fitzgerald's argument - that the club had property assets that it could sell at any time to turn around the result.
Obviously as a Parra fan its nice to see us get good press like this, but I do media analysis for a living and the Telegraph's sycophantic support of Ray and Ozzy is really quite appalling. Mind you they got Josh Massoud a Walkley nomination last year, which was a joke in itself considering how one-sided his coverage was, so that probably explains where the love is coming from.
I'm supposed to be blatantly one-eyed and I provide a more balanced perspective than this mob.
So much so that when reading that article this morning I was left with the nagging concern as to whether the sale of property assets by the club was necessarily a good thing. Don't get me wrong, I have no idea what the fiscal state of the club is and what real assets they hold - and I'm not suggesting the club is doing this - however, to divest itself of surety for the sake of a short term profit would be obvious folly.
I'd be far happier reading about the club's involvement in a commercial/residential development (similar to that being built at Top Ryde) which would bring income to the club well into the future.
The Club did not physically lose $8M from their bottom line it was more an equity loss that they suffered. The purported $9M loss was accentuated because the Club most likely would not have valued their property assets in 2007 and subsequently would have over valued their assets on their balance sheet.
As the 2008 financial year was during the economy crisis valuers were grossly reducing their property valuations, which would have also likely affected the Club's overall result.
Finally, as much I would like to see the Club undertake property developments for further income sources the 'white elephant' across the road from the Club was developed by the Emperor and they still haven't fully leased the property. Unfortunately that doesn't give me much confidence as that development was completed in 2008.
And I don't know if we should be celebrating the fact that the Leagues club has massively cut their grant to the football club, which has forced all this cost-cutting.
Anyway, again, I don't want to have a go at the board - I am more just pointing out how appallingly uncritical this journalism is.
I agree that over time we want the grant brought down so the FC can be self-sustainable but we should be in growth mode this year and when you cut costs at the same time as your growing then you get problems like we have with the club struggling to get membership kits out.
I agree the memberships haven't been smooth, but I'd say that hasn't just been down to growth and cuts, it's also been down to changes in the membership package structure as well. Perhaps a little more was bitten off than they could chew, but provided it isn't an unmitigated disaster (which despite issues it hasn't been) I'd rather that than sitting on their hands doing nothing.
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