TOPIC:

Yeah they oversee the competitions but dont put any money into the juniors. Every junior football self funds without any assistance from the wafc. I think the amateurs might be the same. I dont disagree with much of what you said but subi oval gave footy a good dividend. That old financial setup has changed, but my point is the WAFL has got to find ways to find its own feet, and i dont think it has helped itself with the contempt and disinterest it has shown its zones for the last 15 years. I remember other clubs getting bailed out of financial distress over the years, hell imagine if the Peel thing happened to another club close to the bread line nowadays in a tighter money market. My old man told me the wafl used to own a heap of units in subiaco near subi oval but sold them and the clubs used it to pay players and the like. The perception outside of the wafl world is this has
been coming for a while. when you read recent annual reports from the wafc they have must of spent nearly 100 million dollars on the wafl in the last 10 to 15 years. If that is accurate you can see why plenty of footy fans are shaking their heads. I reckon the afl need to fund footy more in wa, they do in the eastern states.

there is plenty of money in WA

the Eagles
the Dockers

most of the clubs have money in the bank, includding Peel. Wp is a special case

Theres only one wafl club thats solvent in the comp and thats Subi, how much longer they stay that way is anyones guess.
The clubs cannot sustain themselves on their own, gate bar trade sponsorship is so small now its negligible, 100s of thousands are being pumped into subsisdies to keep what have largely become financial black holes, one woonders how much longer this can go for, Dinosaur like facilties that were designed for 10,000 people a week, now with 1000, costing massively little or no public interest in the product, sponsors walking away in droves.
Unless their is major changes it will all collapse.

Baz: yes it is largely subsidised by the AFL clubs, but that is why they joined the competition in the first place.It won't collapse for that reason alone.

The subsidies that go to the clubs from the Eagles, Dockers and the Commission, are on a par with AFL subsidies to Sydney, or, takeing another sport, cricket, ACB monies ussed to fund the Sheffield Shield.

I hope as many West Perth members as possible can get out to the Arena for the meeting scheduled for tonight.
Apparently due to start at 6pm.

chaddy22 wrote: The biggest mistake was made 30 years ago when they decided to redevelop Subiaco instead of redeveloping Perth oval.The late great George Grulisich even said that.Unfortunately small minded people made sure that didn't happen and we ended up with a hotch potch Subiaco Oval.As soon as footy had to move to a location which wasn't under the control of footy we were at the mercy of the people who paid for the stadium.

This is a very valid point, circumstances could be significantly different if the tack on after tack didn't happen to Subiaco Oval and control remained with footy. But that's done now.

There are or is a long list of mistakes, errors or whatever in the history of the WANFL, Westar, WAFL and WAFC.

In recent times you could start with the ill fated Indian Pacific venture, move on through the decisions involving a team in Mandurah rather than in SW (but that would have consequences for EP and SD), the decision to allow Subiaco to retain its exclusivity at Subiaco Oval ( this not a shot at Subi good luck to them) the consequences of which are that a source of funding for all clubs was allowed to utilised by one, again this not a shot at the club but at the WAFC for not having the business sense to understand allowing this denied it access to a revenue source. Allowing, making and cajoling WP to go to Joondalup based on a political imperative ( the JCC and Pickard et al) when a lot of folk felt the Kingsway option was a better outcome and so on!

To me the biggest mistake of all is that the WAFC did not place all clubs on business footing and requiring the same level of reporting as other businesses are required to, the annual reports a farcical and worth the paper they are written on! The WAFL clubs are about being financially viable and delivering a product to a community and that community deserves the best product it can have! You only need to see that there are clubs that are business basket cases. EF report a profit or close to made up of asset rationlisation where clearly the assets are not worth a pinch of, WP have no real source of income outside of their membership and sponsors (many of which have bailed due to the Joondalup naming issue) how can they owe money to VW when they (VW) are the controlling body. Peel need bailing out every 5 years and have to rely on the farce called royalties for regions to turn their cow paddock into something close to being a sporting arena. Then we get to my club which due to many reasons finds itself in a relationship beholding to the AFL club, yep it has enabled us to become financially independent but at what cost to our reputation.

Fault is a wonderful thing just like blame is an easy out but we need to stop and work out what is best for the WAFL and its continuance. Is it with one Fremantle team, with a colts competition that is region based rather than club based with clubs having primary access to players based on the district boundaries, is it with an 8 teams configuration that encompasses the whole of the Perth suburban area etc etc

I don't know the answers just the questions but the first thing I would do is MAKE the Joondalup falcons a team in the WAFL or move to Kingsway with the Amateurs, share the bar, share the ground and go cap in hand to the WCC and see what they can offer.

Yep agree Grump, time to have a "future" meeting and plan for the WAFL, the old crew are gone and this is about the new generation and world the WAFL will confront in the future not the past.

Some other points, on finances and club management, a large part of the problem I see it now ( and this is not limited to WAFL ) is attracting quality people with genuine financial and business nowse to boards of clubs, its becoming increasingly difficult to attract people to boards of clubs never mind quality people, people just don't want to get involved any more and with the declining status of WAFL clubs the people they are attracting are tbh just making up the numbers in a lot of cases. The boards are just not up to the job.

Another thing to remember is the declining economic fortunes of the state, there are corporate collapses and retail, cafés, restaurants going under on a daily basis around the city, sponsorship is getting harder to find, clinging to symbols of the past like the name West Perth doesn't cut it anymore, to for go thousands of lucrative funding for that is just one example of poor management.

WP die-hards would probably disagree but is it time to become the Joondalup Falcons and partner up with the WAFC and the local council to be a team that is run by the WAFC with support from the council ?