I got an interesting letter at work the other day from Michelle Den Dekker (nee Fielke) OAM. In case you’re in the dark about MDD OAM, she’s a retired South Australian netballer, who captained Australia from the late 80s to the early 90s. She was one of the first professional netballers and I remember her visiting my primary school when i was 6. She was getting in contact with me in her capacity as coach and sponsorship manager of Garville Netball Club looking for sponsors. One of her players was studying animation at uni and thought my studio was a good candidate for a player sponsor. In any case, it got me thinking about revenue models for sports clubs.
A lot of amateur sports clubs have sponsors and fundraisers, but it’s rarely enough to make it a semi-professional living. But what if there was a way Volleyball clubs could make enough money and to pay for players and coaches? I found a terrifying answer years ago, when as the treasurer at Henley Hawks I was pondering this very question and got a scary idea from a friend. My friend mentioned that his father’s billiards club had been struggling for money for years, so they added in 2 poker machines to their licensed bar, and ever since then the club’s financial situation had improved. The idea was both horrifying and compelling.
Pokies are terrible. They destroy lives and families. But the reality is, without them, a lot of pubs, clubs and bars would cease to exist. The State makes good tax revenue from them too, but I feel it is at too high a cost. The politicians and publicans will argue that a lot of this money goes back into the community to build hospitals, schools and services etc. But does it have to be at the expense of those with terrible addictions?
If we had the money the billiard’s club had coming through, we could have made it free for senior and junior players to play, decent payments for coaches, a full-time administrator and possibly even fund an AVL team. All exciting possibilities. But it was practically impossible – we had no licensed facility. And ideologically, it was just wrong. After all, we were the most community-based club in SA, and based in an area that wasn’t exactly posh. So I forgot about it and didn’t think about it again until now.
It’s a sad fact that isn’t publicised well, but without Pokies, we probably wouldn’t have an SANFL. Interest in the AFL had taken away a lot of the supporter base for state leagues, and a lot of clubs were struggling financially. One thing that really helped them was putting pokies in the bars and pubs they owned (something that helped just about every hotelier here when they passed the legislation letting them do it).
In 2006, Chartered Accountants Australia published a report detailing how the on and off-field fortunes of several SANFL clubs related to their choices to put pokies into their licensed facilities. The results were scary. Central Districts, which has won every premiership since 2000 except in 2002 & 2006 made the most revenue from gaming and was able to build on-field success from this and finished the year with a 300k+ operating surplus. Clubs that introduced pokies went from being in the red to being in the black. Neither Norwood or Sturt, clubs based in Adelaide’s wealthier Eastern Suburbs received revenues from pokies and continued to make bigger losses.
Central Districts is based in the outer Northern Suburbs, quite possibly the lowest socio-economic area in Adelaide. I’m sure Centrals domination in the SANFL is a great source of pride to the community, but one must wonder if it is built on one of the worst scourges that plagues the very same community. In business I’ve learned that organisations that take care of their communities are blessed with longevity. Those that damage their immediate environment will perish. It’s just nature’s way.
How sports clubs find money from the apathy of the communities that have abandoned them remains to be seen. Any ideas?
