A memo to Hume City Council

I know most of the people that read this couldn't care less, but I had to vent, and vent I will....

As has been published in recent times, the Hume City Council has decided to enforce a law on our local clubs that doesn't allow them to charge spectators on the gate at our local games.

I would like to delve a little further into this decision.

Some will respond favorably with what I have to say, while many will say "just get the permit" or "just ask for a donation", before I go into the detail of why this ruling has the potential to end the future of our local clubs and our local competition, I would like to respond to these two points.

"Just get the permit" - If most had the opportunity to view what is required to gain this permit through the Hume City Council (or any other that follow suit) they would be surprised by the amount of requirements that are needed to be met, just to submit the application. Local football clubs are run by volunteers, people that provide their time free of charge to the club and in extension the local community. To ask these people to have to jump through the hoops and over the hurdles placed in front of them is completely unfair. The permit exists, as mentioned earlier, for an event like a rock concert. Since when, after 100 plus years, has a local football game ever been compared to an event like a rock concert? Where do the similarities exist, the only place where one exists is that people are charged for entry.

"Just ask for a donation" - While the local community, especially in the RDFL is tight knit and all clubs would support each other 100%, there will be examples of people that, when they find out about this story, refuse to pay at the gate. Currently, and RDFL club could budget for between $1000 - $1500 on the gate for every home game. Facing this uncertainty, how could you possibly expect to set your budget at that level into the future?

Now lets look at how this all came about.

A Hume City Council "Employee" attended a game of local football at Clarke Oval and refused to pay the entry fee. He was quite rightly asked to leave if he wasn't willing to pay the entry fee. This employee then complained when he got into work on the following Monday and started this spiral that is attacking the very fabric of local football. Because after 100+ years of local football, one Hume City Council employee was too tight fisted to pay $10. Shameful.

Finally, and more indepth, lets look at the impact that this ruling could have on our local clubs.

I will base the following on estimates of my time, local clubs could probably give you more accurate numbers.

Gate takings for a regular season home game would be budgeted for between $1000 - $1500 per game, 9 home games = between $10 and $15K per year.

Gate takings for finals, which goes to the RDFL, would make up approx 30% of total revenue per annum.

Hosting a final, with bar, canteen, raffles etc - Budgeted would be between $8K - $10K

Loss of gate takings for the RDFL during finals would mean the requirement to make up losses in other areas, most likely league affiliation fees, this rise would equate to anywhere up to $2K.

So using the Sunbury Kangaroos as an example, they had intentions of hosting a final in 2011, they would lose.

10 - 15K on gate takings during the year.

8 - 10K on revenue from missing out on hosting a final.

2K increase in league affiliation fees.

All in all, the Sunbury Kangaroos would lose between 20 - 27 thousand dollars a year in Revenue just by having the ability to charge a gate fee taken away.

If they were able to take "donations", a guaranteed loss would occur, irrelevant of whether people think it wouldn't happen, but up to 50%. So over the course of the season they would still lose 5 - 10 thousand dollars in gate takings as well as 8 - 10 thousand dollars in a probable final. Best case scenario would be a loss of revenue with this change of 13 thousand dollars!!!!!!!! How could a club possibly survive into the future?

This is my take on what the future holds for our clubs. It is already known that this rule is in place across all councils. While the other local councils are not going to impliment now, they haven't ruled it out!!! Local Football is under threat, it is as simple as that!!!