I would welcome the offer of the Sea Eagles doing the grass maintanence and paying 220k for the lease of the facilities but that offer hasn't been made in writing. It has appeared in the media but not in any formal negotiations. This offer is also quite the turn around from less than 12 months ago when sea eagles management agreed in writing to the licence fee subject to having a clause of exclusive naming rights in the contract. Joe Kelly knows my number but hasn't called or even emailed. Instead he threatened staff that he would start a media war if he didn't get his way. So they have lobbed the first volley on a phoney war via the media. My message is - " if your position has changed from that of last year when you were happy with the 375k going forward, then by all means put that in writing via a formal offer instead of wasting people's time and emotion and using them on your personal phoney war. And Dragging sea eagles living legend from his sick bed is a new low".
In regards to statements by Ken Arthurson, I will send him a note (and a get well card) to ensure he knows the facts and not the spin from management. All fans, especially club heroes like him, deserve to know the facts.
And you have to feel for the players... Every year a new management crisis to start the season.
The Sea Eagles, their fans and the community in general need to keep in mind that the State Government has advised that under the terms of the current merger process, a Council can not encumber a new proposed Council with substantial changes to existing assets or licences - i.e this years licence needs to be on the same terms as in previous years. The reason for that is simply that the new Council may have different priorities etc and therefore should only honour existing licences. To accept a lower lease fee would mean that a new council would be encumbered with additional liabilities. This proposed new Council will include Mosman ratepayers and Manly ratepayers and will be smaller than the existing Warringah Council. Members need to be weary of that.
In essence, it costs 600k real dollars per year to maintain Brookie. The Licence on offer is 375k for 12 NRL games and 20 additional uses - i.e more football games. Total ratepayer subsidy is over 200k annually.
The ground is closed to the public for around 5 days each NRL game for bump in/bump out so for close to two months of the year, they have exclusive access. And for the rest we are limited to who to hire it to re the ground must be in Nrl standard.
The sea eagles signed a five year licence in 2007 for 350k per year.
Council and the State then invested over $11 million to extend the Jane Try stand for additional seating and corporate boxes as well as a complete internal and external refurbishment including keeping the wooden seats as per the sea eagles request.
Given these improvements, in 2012, the Sea Eagles agreed to a new deal of 375k per year. This represents approx 2.2% of their reported 17 million dollar budget last year.
Council does not have nor is holding any promised money from the Federal Government past or present.
The Council and Sea Eagles agree that the ground should be in a State Trust if it is to be a bigger seating capacity ground. The state govt does not agree with this position - in fact their Stadia strategy ruled that out. A simple new stand to the east of about 4000 undercover seats will cost about $25 million.
As for the misleading claim by the Sea Eagles that other sporting groups are only charged $1000 this is simply not true - our fees and charges are easy to find and open to the public to view.
Finally, we are unaware what other Councils licence or lease fees are. We do know that all of them are struggling. Look at Leichardt. Look at Gosford. Stadiums are inherently expensive to maintain even to a minimum standard. And is the main reason the State govt has focused on The SCG/ SFS, Homebush and Parra stadium.
At the end of the day, we are proud to support our team. We are the only Council that does in NSW to my knowledge, prob in Aust. It is well known the management have wanted to take more games away from Brooky, but get blocked by the other board which has allowed them two only. Read my Mayor's message in Saturday's paper. They just want someone else to blame for taking more games away so they can earn more money. Keep in mind they made over 17 mill last season consistent with other seasons. But.. They sacked their coach, payout, CEO, payout, Senior staff staff, payouts and so it goes on. Is it Councils responsibility to pick up that tab? We already pay around 600k annually for game day expenses. Publicly available documents. That doesn't include depreciation or capital improvements.
Appreciate the time you have taken to write to me, and if you have any follow up questions, Or I haven't answered something specifically, by all means, let me know. I will be back from OS later this week. Am at a family wedding.
Michael Regan
Mayor of Warringah
(02) 9942 2422
In regards to statements by Ken Arthurson, I will send him a note (and a get well card) to ensure he knows the facts and not the spin from management. All fans, especially club heroes like him, deserve to know the facts.
And you have to feel for the players... Every year a new management crisis to start the season.
The Sea Eagles, their fans and the community in general need to keep in mind that the State Government has advised that under the terms of the current merger process, a Council can not encumber a new proposed Council with substantial changes to existing assets or licences - i.e this years licence needs to be on the same terms as in previous years. The reason for that is simply that the new Council may have different priorities etc and therefore should only honour existing licences. To accept a lower lease fee would mean that a new council would be encumbered with additional liabilities. This proposed new Council will include Mosman ratepayers and Manly ratepayers and will be smaller than the existing Warringah Council. Members need to be weary of that.
In essence, it costs 600k real dollars per year to maintain Brookie. The Licence on offer is 375k for 12 NRL games and 20 additional uses - i.e more football games. Total ratepayer subsidy is over 200k annually.
The ground is closed to the public for around 5 days each NRL game for bump in/bump out so for close to two months of the year, they have exclusive access. And for the rest we are limited to who to hire it to re the ground must be in Nrl standard.
The sea eagles signed a five year licence in 2007 for 350k per year.
Council and the State then invested over $11 million to extend the Jane Try stand for additional seating and corporate boxes as well as a complete internal and external refurbishment including keeping the wooden seats as per the sea eagles request.
Given these improvements, in 2012, the Sea Eagles agreed to a new deal of 375k per year. This represents approx 2.2% of their reported 17 million dollar budget last year.
Council does not have nor is holding any promised money from the Federal Government past or present.
The Council and Sea Eagles agree that the ground should be in a State Trust if it is to be a bigger seating capacity ground. The state govt does not agree with this position - in fact their Stadia strategy ruled that out. A simple new stand to the east of about 4000 undercover seats will cost about $25 million.
As for the misleading claim by the Sea Eagles that other sporting groups are only charged $1000 this is simply not true - our fees and charges are easy to find and open to the public to view.
Finally, we are unaware what other Councils licence or lease fees are. We do know that all of them are struggling. Look at Leichardt. Look at Gosford. Stadiums are inherently expensive to maintain even to a minimum standard. And is the main reason the State govt has focused on The SCG/ SFS, Homebush and Parra stadium.
At the end of the day, we are proud to support our team. We are the only Council that does in NSW to my knowledge, prob in Aust. It is well known the management have wanted to take more games away from Brooky, but get blocked by the other board which has allowed them two only. Read my Mayor's message in Saturday's paper. They just want someone else to blame for taking more games away so they can earn more money. Keep in mind they made over 17 mill last season consistent with other seasons. But.. They sacked their coach, payout, CEO, payout, Senior staff staff, payouts and so it goes on. Is it Councils responsibility to pick up that tab? We already pay around 600k annually for game day expenses. Publicly available documents. That doesn't include depreciation or capital improvements.
Appreciate the time you have taken to write to me, and if you have any follow up questions, Or I haven't answered something specifically, by all means, let me know. I will be back from OS later this week. Am at a family wedding.
Michael Regan
Mayor of Warringah
(02) 9942 2422