In the modern world of sport, there are many things that money can buy. It can buy you players, buy you the best coach in the league and now it can buy you success. Yes, gone are the days where the best team’s success stems only from the pure and raw talent of their playing group.
It is becoming quite evident in sport across the world, in particular the Australian Football League, that success on the field is achieved due to a variety of factors with many of them being concerned with the off-field setup of the club, franchise or brand, the term I like to use when labelling a sporting club these days.
In a world of sponsorships, marketing and television broadcast rights worth billions of dollars; the respective clubs within the AFL are beginning to learn that money can ultimately buy them a premiership.
No, money won’t simply guarantee you a premiership but it can provide you with the required tools to achieve the desired result. These tools include knowledgeable coaching staff, high quality medical staff, and innovative training facilities as well as players that are obviously good at what they are paid to do.
The evidence has been there for many years now. Let’s use the Geelong Cats as an example.
At the end of a disappointing decade during the 90’s, the Cats were heavily in debt and had just lost coach Gary Ayres who resigned to take the reins at the Adelaide Crows.
The club replaced Ayres by appointing former Essendon player Mark Thompson as their new senior coach whilst Brian Cook was appointed the CEO of the football club.
They began recruiting younger players to their club with names such as Gary Ablett Jr, Matthew Scarlett and Joel Corey the beginning of the future for the Cats. Off field, they began wiping their debt through fundraisers and through the securing of new sponsors.
It wasn’t an immediate fix, but it was a slow yet good start for a club that for so long had failed to meet the expectations of its fans and the football media.
After a few average years in the early to mid 2000’s and a disappointing start to the 2007, the penny finally dropped and we all know what happened next.
Sure, the wiping of the debt and the new found off-field stability didn’t bring them immediate success but it clearly set the club in a new direction which has led to them being the second most successful club of the past decade with two premierships and three grand final appearances.
Without the financial resources which were increased due to the wiping of debt, increase in membership sales and greater corporate funding, would the club have been able to secure the services of some of the best players this competition has seen in the last five years ultimately leading to their successful reign ? I personally do not think so.
A more recent example would have to be the mighty Collingwood Football Club. In short, they are the richest club in the league, have the most up to date facilities in the competition and have an extremely powerful and successful president in Eddie McGuire. Not to mention the class of Mick Malthouse as the senior coach and the pure talent of players such as Dane Swan, Scott Pendlebury and Dale Thomas.
All of these positives for the club haven’t been extracted out of nowhere. They are the result of McGuire’s ability to draw major sponsors in Emirates, McDonalds and Westpac as well as the clubs ability to continuously increase its membership tally having exceeded the 50,000 this year.
Through their hard work off the field, they secured the 2010 premiership and are almost a certainty to be a challenger for the next one or two flags.
At the other end of the spectrum, you have the likes of North Melbourne, Port Adelaide and Richmond. The first two are prime examples of the on field struggles that occur as a result of ordinary performance off the field. Both clubs are heavily in debt, struggling to sign members and even struggling to fill the seats at their home games.
The sad reality is these clubs will not move up the ladder unless the turn it around off the field which is not an easy task. Yet, it is also not insurmountable. Just look at the Demons and Tigers recently.
Jim Stynes, similarly to Eddie McGuire, is a major influence on the commitment of fans and sponsors to the Melbourne Football Club. He introduced the Debt Demolition a few years ago that has enabled the club to become debt free which in turn has led to Melbourne having a crack at the top eight within the next few years.
The Tigers, thanks to ex-player and current CEO Brendon Gale launched their ‘Fighting Tiger Fund’ which is similar to the clubs 1990 ‘Save Our Skins’ campaign that aimed to wipe the debt of the club and to secure their place as one of the Melbourne-based clubs.
Like Melbourne, this has led to the Tigers being able to update their facilities with the construction of the new ME Bank Centre which features state of the art training equipment. Ultimately, this is going to give the young Tigers a real shot at achieving some much needed success within the next decade.
Not only does a strong financial position allow the elements that create success to be gained, it also lifts the overall morale and corporate culture of the club.
As a brand, you become a greater player on the marketing field and attract even greater interest from powerful sponsors nationally and globally.
So yes, it’s true; there are some things money can buy. For everything else, there is the desire to win and a little bit of luck. Money does make the world go round.
The Cattery
Roar Guru
No, but it might yet help them.
Tom
Guest
1.25billion dollars of cash did not help the suns on Sunday. 94 - 1 after the 1st quarter reflects this. -- Comment left via The Roar's iPhone app. Download The Roar's iPhone App in the App Store here.
TW
Guest
The main question to ask is how long the Cats and the Magpies can stay at the top given all their advantages at the moment. Can they overcome the draft system and all its implications. There are a lot of Eagles supporters very suprised over here at the improvement so far in the team including our family. There were no signs last season at all of a turn around. They were playing terrible footy in 2010. Their foot skills were appalling, and their handballing was not much better. It appears that there is no single factor in a club climbing the ladder.
Nathan
Guest
The last few years of Eagles misery has taken place under sustained financial strength, so I don't think having the money is actually a fast-track to success as this article might imply.
Redb
Roar Guru
Tiges up and about at the minute. See you Round 9. :)
Damo
Roar Guru
My article which has appeared just after this one covers a similar topic looking at North and Port, and i agree whole heatedly. Bombers this year have proved that off field success= on field through better coaching and facilities. Its funny how a team like my Crows can be content in making finals year after year with little success but still stay a power house and continue, all thanks to the backing of its ~50,000 membership bass and supporter network, not to mention one of the strongest sponsorship deals in AFL history!
Go Tigers
Guest
The Fighting Tiger Fund is nothing like our S.O.S. campaign of the 90s. S.O.S. was simply about survival and that's all; whereas the FTF is about quickly eliminating our bank debt now so our current young group can benefit from improved resources. Our debt is manageable and was being paid off at $500k a year but that would take 10 years to pay off hence the decision to raise the money quickly and more for additional resources via a FTF. Richmond should also not be lobbed in with the North Melbourne's of this world. Richmond's financial problems and lack of facility issues are self-inflicted from total mismanagement both on and off field during the mid-1980s. Richmond lost the equivalent of $15 million in today's money in a single year. That would've killed off most clubs then and there and almost did to Richmond but we survived albeit just and still with 1970s facilites.It's only now that we are recovering from that disaster. In 5-10 years Richmond will be a very strong club both on and off field as we have our large supporter base to make us so. North, Port and Melbourne don't have this and so they will always be financial strugglers.