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SWANSBEST
26th March 2003, 05:03 AM
Bulldogs fight for survival
By Caroline Wilson
March 26 2003





The Western Bulldogs have moved firmly to the top of the AFL's critical list and must rely on the support of the 15 other clubs to survive.

The Age believes that the AFL Commission is on the verge of extending the annual $1 million funding that has been keeping the club afloat, but will seek the approval of all the clubs before increasing the special assistance lifeline.

Bulldogs chief executive Campbell Rose, who upon taking the job last year described the task of turning around the club as "Herculean" and who has cut the club's operating costs to a bare minimum, admitted yesterday that the job had proved even tougher than he expected.

Rose said the club still had major cash-flow problems, had failed to reach its sponsorship targets and had managed to sign only half the 25,000 members it needed to survive.

The club lost $2.9 million last season and, despite winning AFL approval with Rose's savage cost-cutting measures and securing a three-year $3 million sponsorship with LeasePlan, both the league and the Bulldogs have agreed that the club will require long-term multi-million-dollar help.


AFL chief executive Wayne Jackson said: "The Bulldogs are financially challenged and it will take an enormous amount of work and support to get them through.

"If the clubs say 'no, we don't agree to that', then they would be saying 'no, we don't want a 16-team competition'. They've never said that before. The AFL would want to go back to the clubs and we would have to do this on an annual basis."

The AFL executive is on the verge of completing a revenue-sharing equalisation paper, which not only looks certain to make way for the Bulldogs to receive funding for longer than the present maximum of $3 million over three years, but also increase the $11 million pool made available to struggling clubs over the five-year period ending in 2006.

The paper is expected to be ticked off by the commission next month and the new proposals to bridge the gap between the struggling and successful clubs would then be put to all 16 teams.

"Cash flow is a challenge for us," Rose said. "We've got our fair share of challenges in the marketplace. The product hasn't been as popular or as attractive as I might have expected . . . We're probably not the shiniest of products in the marketplace."

With more than 20 players out of contract at the end of 2003, including Luke Darcy and Nathan Brown, and the club still facing significant cost-cutting pressure - it will operate at between 94 and 95 per cent of the allowed salary cap this season - Rose said: "There will be a number of contracting issues in the new year.

"You get yourself caught in a bind. The less-fortunate financial clubs are doing everything in their power to cut costs but you've got to spend money to make money.

"We will only be as strong as the support of our membership and our corporate supporters.

"We need 25,000 members and we now have 12,600 - that's only half of what we need. If we don't reach 25,000, there's implications in terms of the viability of our club."

The club's significant second-tier sponsor from 2002, BenQ, has indicated it will not renew with the Bulldogs on the same level this season. Instead it will be supporting the club with a smaller corporate hospitality package.

To add insult to injury, Burbank Homes, which furnished the club last season with the proceeds from a house-and-land package sale worth an estimated $150,000, has instead struck a deal with Collingwood.

The Bulldogs' membership of 12,600 is roughly the same as at this time last year but at least 1000 below the club's conservative expectations. The Kangaroos' membership tally is 1400 ahead of the corresponding 2002 total.

And on a day when both Melbourne (BMW) and Adelaide (Europcar) have announced significant new agreements, the Bulldogs' sponsorship targets remain worryingly behind schedule.

While the Western Bulldogs remain critical, the AFL was cautiously optimistic yesterday about the prospects of the Kangaroos - long considered the other endangered Victorian club.

Kangaroos president Allen Aylett and chief executive Geoff Walsh met the commission last week and reported that the club - which has received $ million in special-assistance funding, compared with $2 million to the Bulldogs - has met both its sponsorship and membership expectations.

"I think the Kangaroos have made very, very good progress in the last six to eight months," Jackson said.

"They have some significant challenges ahead, but Allen Aylett and Geoff Walsh have done a very good job."

http://www.realfooty.theage.com.au/articles/2003/03/25/1048354597586.html

jude_boltons_babe
26th March 2003, 05:18 PM
thats not good news at all poor doggies

Norris Lurker
26th March 2003, 07:40 PM
It's not the first time they've been in this position. In 1989 they were going to merge with Fitzroy before their supporters raised the money to bail them out. Then in 1996 they were in real danger, and restructured themselves as the Western Bulldogs (as seen in Year of the Dogs).
They've been successful for most seasons in between those years. Just shows how tough it's getting for teams to survive - for years attendances and memberships had been spiralling up but now it appears they've peaked and are on the way back down again. And with that source of income drying up, the gap between the haves and have-nots is only going to get bigger.