Rugby League Clubs as a business

  • We had an issue with background services between march 10th and 15th or there about. This meant the payment services were not linking to automatic upgrades. If you paid for premium membership and are still seeing ads please let me know and the email you used against PayPal and I cam manually verify and upgrade your account.

Dan

Kim Jong Dan
Staff member
Administrator
Tipping Member
A point that has always made me scratch my head and i brought up in the "If you were CEO" thread, is the following.

- Why does the business side of a Rugby League club have any influence from the business side of the club?

The way I would imagine things are done, would be that the company is run by essentially autonomous parts with little bearing on each other.

Sure you need an executive, Vp's Directors etc of those departments and areas, but as a whole you let each area manage itself and report up the line.

I see many stories about CEO's being directly involved in football matters, player retention etc. I'd be lucky if my CEO ever said hello to me if we were the only two in a lift.

He has no idea essentially what I do. A CEO does not need to understand all of the parts of every area that make the whole, that is what his staff are for.

I would love to see a new era in Rugby League, where we have a CEO who's background is solely in business and concentrates and is concerned with only the Sea Eagles as a business

Dan
 
You raise an interesting question. The issue of private ownership also comes into play here. The aims of the football club may not always coincide with the aims of private owners.

We can only assume that all the current owners - FC, Penn, Quantum and Leagues Club - all want the NRL side to be successful. But what level of success are they chasing, and how much are they prepared to invest to accomplish this? Do all the owners expect, or even desire, the Sea Eagles to be financially profitable?

A CEO takes his brief directly from the board - and in our case we can assume in reality directly from the majority private owners. They do not generally explain themselves to us, and they are the only ones who can judge success or failure, for example of a CEO they install, because they are the ones who lay out the job description.

The script will differ to some extent from club to club. Brian Waldron's employers were probably quite chuffed with his performance right up to the time they had to publicly distance themselves from his creative strategies.
 
I see your point but the CEO has to allocate resources (ie $$$$$) to the various parts of the organisations, tough job when most NRL clubs are money losing ventures. Do you sign 3 less players so you can hire a marketing manager ? If they were turning a healthy profit then much easier to adopt that approach, as you have a bit of fat to play with. Also the other thing that determines the success of the Sea Eagles "business" is on field performances, so ineveitably the CEO will want to get involved in influencing those on field performances as it is bascially the sole driver of his/her revenue streams. No one is going to want to sponsor, support, buy merchandise of a team that is getting their arses handed to them on a plate every week. Much easier to make money from a successful team. Look at Cronulla vs Broncos for example
 
Whilst Dan is correct so is C&C.  A football club has scare resources in terms of $ and needs to allocate those resources carefully.  Obviously the on field performances of the team are the most important part of the business as it flows down the tree from there.  This is why having our owners as major sponsors is so frustrating from my point o view.  If we secured a outside source they might have been able to funnel some cash into the marketing department to employ a experienced membership manager to drive this side of the business.  As they say you have to spend money to make money.  However football clubs generally don't have the $ to spend. 
 
Garts link said:
Whilst Dan is correct so is C&C.  A football club has scare resources in terms of $ and needs to allocate those resources carefully.  Obviously the on field performances of the team are the most important part of the business as it flows down the tree from there.  This is why having our owners as major sponsors is so frustrating from my point o view.  If we secured a outside source they might have been able to funnel some cash into the marketing department to employ a experienced membership manager to drive this side of the business.  As they say you have to spend money to make money.  However football clubs generally don't have the $ to spend. 

Bull****. Look at the Toronto Maple Leafs. Crap product. Losers all the time. Plays in front of sold out crowds night in, night out, and marketed like a Mofo. Their CEO has turnover always increasing, and they are sound as a Bank.

We have been let down. Plain and simple. And we get what we deserve with Lowey.
 
Ryan thats comparing apples and oranges.  However I do not disagree with you last sentence.
 
But Ryan, ice-hockey is a way of life in Canada and has no opposition during their season.  The Canucks are sold out for years as they are the only show in BC really,win lose or draw.  The same would be Toronto, the only team in a city of 6 million.  No comparison.  The Canucks have a boutique stadium seating 16000 so they can bank that seat money up front.  Tickets to their games are in the hundreds of dollars.    
 
Come on guys.

+ Manly is a VERY marketable product. It is a great footballing club and is steeped in history.
+ Manly's fans are very passionate.
+ We are in a relatively large market. Hell, try Toukley odd to North Sydney.

I'm sure with a CEO like Greenburg, who is selling **** sandwiches to the people was in the job, we'd be bursting at the seams marketing, advertising, playing roster and income wise.

It doesn't take much. Just energy. Just someone who doesn't get a photo taken putting a membership brochure on a car outside his very own office.

THAT'S embarrassing.
 
Manly are competing against 3 other football codes and against 6 other teams in their own market. Manly fans might be passionate but I've seen plenty on here who aren't even prepared to dip in $25.00 to become a football club member and help the club. Tough sell in my book.
 
Because it isn't a value add the club starts doing things right and I start being interested in it as a product.

Happy to support tge team, less happy to support a division of the club that I see as somewhat detracting sometimes.

However I digress and will not let this thread turn into a membership debate
 
Agree C&C mate - but there has to be a more compelling reason to buy. Others have stated they feel unloved by the club....whatever that means. There needs to be a re-tooling, or there needs to be new, fresh designs and ideas about making Manly a family.

Example - The Travelling Supporters thing. Excellent.

That being said, I personally think THE TEAM are great. I also think the majority are fantastic ambassadors, and a lot of what they do goes unrecognised (which is an issue in itself).

What's frustrating, is that we are so bloody fantastic, but we aren't getting the kudos we deserve from it, and like DSM5 said, and I think I agree - management as a whole need to look at themselves for it.
 
What Rugby League team to you hold up as setting the benchmark in the marketplace ? I think you'll find that they are all struggling except maybe Brisbane, which is a sole player in a massive market. There are some slicker CEO's then Lowe who are still struggling to make ends meet. Look at Newcastle, a one team town in a rugby league stronghold and they can't even break even let alone make a profit in a walk up start market.
 
Chip & Chase link said:
What Rugby League team to you hold up as setting the benchmark in the marketplace ? I think you'll find that they are all struggling except maybe Brisbane, which is a sole player in a massive market. There are some slicker CEO's then Lowe who are still struggling to make ends meet. Look at Newcastle, a one team town in a rugby league stronghold and they can't even break even let alone make a profit in a walk up start market.

Your not looking at it right mate. It's not about what other teams are doing wrong. It's about what WE can do better. I don't care about factors that affect Brisbane, or Titans, or Sharks.

WE need to get better. Less focus on others misgivings, more focus on what we can do better, please Mr Lowe.

What drives any business? Cashflow. The stronger the cashflow, the better the business. Cashflow means more players. It equates to more sponsors. It equates to a more attractive marketing and advertising campaigns. It mean being able to pay for appropriate, highly skilled staff (which then could lead onto MORE cashflow in its own right). It means hiring a better CEO. Cashflow means spending money to make money. Etc Etc Etc...

With that in mind, I have to ask you, honestly, if this was your business, would you want:-

a) a CEO that could sell a donkey to a horse racing trainer?
b) a CEO that is a mediator?

Your business, meaning cashflow puts food in your belly. With the two above choices, I'm assuming both have an "element" of each other, but one is more skilled at their respective strength.

You tell me.
 
Ryan link said:
+ Manly is a VERY marketable product. It is a great footballing club and is steeped in history.
+ Manly's fans are very passionate.

That is the problem Ryan. Point 1 is yes. Point 2 is no.
 
Ryan I see your point, I suppose we are like any other heavily regulated and price controlled industry (salary capped).....your leverage is in your customer service and how you market yourself and how you build your brand identity. I hate that type of talk but it's probably a stark reality these days. My brand attachment is based on years of support and childhood memories, I'm probably considered a dinosaur.
 
Owners appear in general to be in it more to make themselves look good/important across the board and want things as their own little experiemnt/game in NRL with Egos being number 1 just look at Crowe, Tinkler, Delmege, Penn etc.
 
Chip & Chase link said:
What Rugby League team to you hold up as setting the benchmark in the marketplace ? I think you'll find that they are all struggling except maybe Brisbane, which is a sole player in a massive market. There are some slicker CEO's then Lowe who are still struggling to make ends meet. Look at Newcastle, a one team town in a rugby league stronghold and they can't even break even let alone make a profit in a walk up start market.

I think people are starting to realise this. Hence the reason we haven't had any threads bagging the salary cap for a while.
 
A CEO is usually just there to carry out the instructions of the owners.  Not quite sure in our case.
 
tookey link said:
A CEO is usually just there to carry out the instructions of the owners.  Not quite sure in our case.
That is what I was trying to say. Thanks for being so concise  :)
 

Latest posts

Team P W L PD Pts
3 3 0 48 6
3 2 1 45 4
3 2 1 28 4
3 2 1 22 4
3 2 1 15 4
3 2 1 14 4
2 1 1 13 4
3 2 1 10 4
2 1 1 6 4
3 2 1 -3 4
3 1 2 0 2
3 1 2 -5 2
3 1 2 -15 2
3 1 2 -22 2
3 1 2 -36 2
2 0 2 -56 2
3 0 3 -64 0
Back
Top Bottom