TonyK
CibbuanoRoos not out of the woods yet: Arocca
November 10th 2008 06:07
THE future of North Melbourne is far from secure despite the club announcing its first ever $1 million plus proft on Monday, according to chief executive Eugene Arocca.
Since rejecting a proposal from the league to move permanently to the Gold Coast at the end of last season the club's membership has jumped rom 22,000 to 34,000 resulting in the Kangaroos' profit increasing by more than $800,000 in 2008 to a club record $1,088,941.
As a result the club has been able to reduce its debt of $4.2 million down to $3.2 million.
But Arocca said the club would soon be making losses again unless they received a better stadium deal at its home ground at Telstra Dome.
"We have got a long way to go," he said.
"If we don't stay above 30,000 (members) on a regular basis and run a tight business model, we would be making losses."
"The elephant in the room for us is stadium deals."
"One of the key figures this year is we generated about $1.7 million in match returns this year of which $1.2 million were from our Gold Coast games."
Arocca said the Kangaroos, who will play all of its 11 home games in Melbourne next season, were forced to pay out of their own pocket to Melbourne Stadiums Limited (MSL) which controls Telstra Dome if it failed to attract 30,000 to home games even though the ground's capacity is 53,000.
Even when the Roos fill the ground they only make a profit of about $180,000 while Geelong makes about $500,000 in profit for every home game even though its ground holds less than 30,000.
Arocca said it was up to the AFL to talk to the MSL to ensure a better deal for tenant clubs at the ground.
"Our job apart from working with the AFL (to fix the issue) is to promote the issue about the (inequitable) stadium deals and I would like to think by 2010 we would have something in place but if you were a real optimist you would say 2009 would be achievable."
AFL media manager Patrick Keane admitted there was a need to improve stadium deals for clubs but could not say when clubs would see a greater financial return from home games at grounds such at Telstra Dome.
"The AFL told the club presidents at their last meeting mid-year that we heard their concerns on stadium returns," he said.
"We undertook that we would talk to venues about the returns for clubs and those discussions have been initiated and are continuing."
Since rejecting a proposal from the league to move permanently to the Gold Coast at the end of last season the club's membership has jumped rom 22,000 to 34,000 resulting in the Kangaroos' profit increasing by more than $800,000 in 2008 to a club record $1,088,941.
As a result the club has been able to reduce its debt of $4.2 million down to $3.2 million.
But Arocca said the club would soon be making losses again unless they received a better stadium deal at its home ground at Telstra Dome.
"We have got a long way to go," he said.
"If we don't stay above 30,000 (members) on a regular basis and run a tight business model, we would be making losses."
"The elephant in the room for us is stadium deals."
"One of the key figures this year is we generated about $1.7 million in match returns this year of which $1.2 million were from our Gold Coast games."
Arocca said the Kangaroos, who will play all of its 11 home games in Melbourne next season, were forced to pay out of their own pocket to Melbourne Stadiums Limited (MSL) which controls Telstra Dome if it failed to attract 30,000 to home games even though the ground's capacity is 53,000.
Even when the Roos fill the ground they only make a profit of about $180,000 while Geelong makes about $500,000 in profit for every home game even though its ground holds less than 30,000.
Arocca said it was up to the AFL to talk to the MSL to ensure a better deal for tenant clubs at the ground.
"Our job apart from working with the AFL (to fix the issue) is to promote the issue about the (inequitable) stadium deals and I would like to think by 2010 we would have something in place but if you were a real optimist you would say 2009 would be achievable."
AFL media manager Patrick Keane admitted there was a need to improve stadium deals for clubs but could not say when clubs would see a greater financial return from home games at grounds such at Telstra Dome.
"The AFL told the club presidents at their last meeting mid-year that we heard their concerns on stadium returns," he said.
"We undertook that we would talk to venues about the returns for clubs and those discussions have been initiated and are continuing."
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