Western Bulldogs days away from the brink and financial ruin

[BulldogBelle]

Hmmmm, what would we do without Cam Rose.....

Western Bulldogs days away from the brink and financial ruin (http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,24073094-19742,00.html)
The Herald Sun
Mark Stevens | July 24, 2008

THE State Government has saved the Western Bulldogs from imminent financial disaster. Bulldogs chief executive Campbell Rose last night revealed a town planning wrangle had threatened to halt the Whitten Oval re-development and bring down the club.

"We were days from the brink and moments from financial ruin," Rose told the Herald Sun.

If the government had not stepped in yesterday to over-rule the City of Maribyrong, the Dogs were facing the grim prospect of being burdened with a half-finished administration building and a $6 million bill.

Rose confirmed the Dogs had only until the end of the month to sort out the dispute before the builders could no continue because of lack of approvals.

As the Dogs racked up wins on-field in recent months, the club was privately fighting a losing battle with the local council, which refused to approve plans for Victoria University to run courses in the re-developed John Gent Stand.

"The screws were tightening as things were going so well on the field," Rose said.

"There would have been a $6 million gap. We couldn't access the money because of contracts in place and we needed that permit."

Rose, on behalf of president David Smorgon, turned to the government as a last resort to save the club.

"The day-to-day business of the Bulldogs is stronger than ever, however this one town planning issue threatened the whole survival of the club," Rose said.

"It needed to be resolved by ther end of the month otherwise we would've been taken to the brink.

"I'm a very relieved chief executive.

"We greatly appreciate the state government's intervention and support.<

"They enacted a special part of the planning act.

"If they didn't intervene, we would have had to get the builder off the site and pay liquidated damages to the builder.

"We signed a contract with the builder. The builder was not going to keep waiting for his money."

The Dogs have the $6 million in funding to complete the administration building, but it was tied up contracturally becuase the club could not gain town planning approval.

The City of Maribyrnong thought the Whitten Oval was unsuitable for Victoria University courses for reasons including a perceived lack of space for up to 150 students.

Now the approval has been gained, the funding can be unlocked and the redevelopment finished.

The delay means there will be a financial impact on the club in slightly increased cost.

"It is another problem I have to fix," Rose said.

The planning schedule is now being revised, but the club is hopeful it will be finished before March next year.

But the ramifications would have been far greater had the problem not be solved.

"We have had builders on site, but they have not been able to walk past a particular point because of a lack of a planning permit," Rose said.

Rose said he had been trying to fix the problem for months.

When the Dogs took on Geelong on Saturday, he was at his desk trying to sort out the mess.</p>

"This was so serious," Rose said.

Relations between the Dogs and the council have been strained for about 18 months.

The council has pledged $1 million towards the $26 million revelopment. It is the only body yet to commit funds, which will be dedicated towards landscaping and site beautification.

"We need to maintain relationships and look at ways of improving relations," Rose said.

"We're not angry or annoyed with the council. It's just unfortunate.

"Everything was fantastic at the club bar this one piece of the jigsaw.

"I want to make it clear that despite this scare, we are travelling very well day to day with membership, jumper sales ... everything."

Apart from Victoria Univeristy "in the workplace, learning courses", the John Gent re-development will include community meeting rooms, club adminstration and the club's hall of fame and "museum to the west", recognising heritage of site.

[LostDoggy]

Yet another problem that the Maribyrong council has caused us over the last few months. This is getting ridiculous. It would almost seem that they are trying as hard as they can to make sure this club is out of existence. I can half understand why they did not want the Bulldog Hilton, but why the hell would they not allow us to do this with Victoria university. There was very litle wrong with The Bulldog Hilton and there is absolutley nothing wrong with the Victoria University agreement.:mad:

[BulldogBelle]

Yet another problem that the Maribyrong council has caused us over the last few months.

Yes, the relationship seems to have soured a little between the Dogs and the Maribyrnong Council of late. Article mentions that the club and council have had a strained relationship for the last year and a half.

[GetDimmaBack]

I might be a tad cynical, but this seems to be the way of local councils...although we don't really know all the details yet.

[hujsh]

I hate this council.

Burn it down?

[Prince Imperial]

The Council seem to think they know better about providing tertiary education services than what Victoria University does. Complete wallies :mad: Sport scientist students having the opportunity to be taught alongside sportsmen in the most professional and largest sporting competition in Australia; this is what the Council has been opposing.

A big thank you to John Brumby and the state government. As for the Council they've unnecessarily added to our costs and wasted much of Cam and the administration's time and resources. Money, time and resources that could have been employed elsewhere to make our club stronger.

If you live in the City of Maribyrnong make your feelings known to your councillor and that they can't take your vote for granted. They should provide the $1m in funding for landscaping and agree to a new long term lease (the current one runs just to 2021) that reflects the $25m worth of improvements for the ground and the area that the club has raised (a lot of which is from our own supporters).

[GVGjr]

News like this just reminds us all that we are far from a secure club no matter what activities Rose and Smorgo conjure up. We are very fortunate that the Government stepped in.

[Topdog]

What the hell is up with this council? What makes them think that they will struggle to fit in 150 students? There is plenty of room out there.

[LostDoggy]

If memory serves me correctly didn't we used to stage AFL games at WO where we used to have 25k plus attending the game??? Correct me If I am wrong here.

[bornadog]

News like this just reminds us all that we are far from a secure club no matter what activities Rose and Smorgo conjure up. We are very fortunate that the Government stepped in.

That is very true. In this case, because the council wouldn't approve the planning permit, and without the government funding, we would have a half finished building and owing builders millions of dollars. Thank god one of our club directors works for the Premiers Department.

The council still needs to throw in the $1million plus they pledged for the project, and were supposed to have paid up half by now.

[strebla]

What is going on i remember during the fightback the city of footscray were one of our biggest supporters .Without the central hub of our footy club cultures will never evolve in the west .

[ledge]

Maybe the council hasnt got the 1 mil they are supposed to be giving us and are trying to find excuses not to part with it.
Probably different councillors now and we all know how politics works, promise everything to get voted in even if we cant deliver it, because our term will be run and we will be gone by then so it doesnt matter, let the next lot of councillors deal with it.

Or is it keep the mil and line our own pockets with it through pay rises?
Or look after other departments that only effect us directly?

Makes you wonder if the Brimbank councillors have moved to this one.

[LostDoggy]

Strebla, local councils now are VERY different to the way they were in the late eighties/early nineties. They are basically a bereaucracy gone mad these days. I'm serious -- I work directly with local councils (and have worked within them) on development permits, both as an internal consultant and on behalf of external applicants, and there are literally REAMS of paper/policies that no one individual was either responsible for drawing up or currently enforcing/implementing. Therefore, the changes in administration that someone mentioned above is not only a periodic change, the high turnover in staffing means that problems literally disappear into thin air and can EASILY pass through the hands of ten-fifteen individuals of which not one of them has the authority, expertise, background or experience to make a decision.

In a large case like the above, the problem is exacerbated because the complications multiply exponentially -- you essentially have under-skilled individuals having to make desicions on projects they don't really grasp using policies they didn't write and hardly understand, and without the authority to do so and without a clear understanding of who does, and it's a truism in local public service that the less skilled you are, the higher in ranks of management you rise. That's why more and more these days larger projects have to go over local council's heads (and thus the local residents) because they put projects in untenable positions like this one -- it is ridiculous that a project that has the backing of:

a. The Federal Government
b. The State Government
c. The local populace
d. ALL local public institutions (university etc)

is held up by essentially two or three bereaucrats, nearly putting an entire institution (the Dogs) out of business, and crippling the entire faculty of another (Vic Uni)!

The humble local council is meant to be a BASIC check and balance to other processes, but because of their own inefficiencies and delusions of grandeur they have somehow managed to turn themselves into the key to the running of the entire urban environment, and MILLIONS upon MILLIONS of dollars in our economy, in both lost time, wasted labour hours and actual dollars spent, not to mention emotional distress, are broken upon the altar of the Almighty Local Council. Heavens above. This really makes my blood boil.

This morning on AM 774 we had people calling up who work at councils complaining about the inefficiencies and the JOKE that most councils have become. Something has to be done. Someone -- State Government, the locals -- has to put them firmly in their small, small place.

[GetDimmaBack]

Strebla, local councils now are VERY different to the way they were in the late eighties/early nineties. They are basically a bereaucracy gone mad these days. I'm serious -- I work directly with local councils (and have worked within them) on development permits, both as an internal consultant and on behalf of external applicants, and there are literally REAMS of paper/policies that no one individual was either responsible for drawing up or currently enforcing/implementing. Therefore, the changes in administration that someone mentioned above is not only a periodic change, the high turnover in staffing means that problems literally disappear into thin air and can EASILY pass through the hands of ten-fifteen individuals of which not one of them has the authority, expertise, background or experience to make a decision.

In a large case like the above, the problem is exacerbated because the complications multiply exponentially -- you essentially have under-skilled individuals having to make desicions on projects they don't really grasp using policies they didn't write and hardly understand, and without the authority to do so and without a clear understanding of who does, and it's a truism in local public service that the less skilled you are, the higher in ranks of management you rise. That's why more and more these days larger projects have to go over local council's heads (and thus the local residents) because they put projects in untenable positions like this one -- it is ridiculous that a project that has the backing of:

a. The Federal Government
b. The State Government
c. The local populace
d. ALL local public institutions (university etc)

is held up by essentially two or three bereaucrats, nearly putting an entire institution (the Dogs) out of business, and crippling the entire faculty of another (Vic Uni)!

The humble local council is meant to be a BASIC check and balance to other processes, but because of their own inefficiencies and delusions of grandeur they have somehow managed to turn themselves into the key to the running of the entire urban environment, and MILLIONS upon MILLIONS of dollars in our economy, in both lost time, wasted labour hours and actual dollars spent, not to mention emotional distress, are broken upon the altar of the Almighty Local Council. Heavens above. This really makes my blood boil.

This morning on AM 774 we had people calling up who work at councils complaining about the inefficiencies and the JOKE that most councils have become. Something has to be done. Someone -- State Government, the locals -- has to put them firmly in their small, small place.

Yep.

[Dancin' Douggy]

This has got to be the biggest load of "rat's toss bag" I've ever heard.
AS IF the Dogs were about to be wiped off the face of the earth, and the AFL would simply cancel our games for the rest of the year, and almost 30,000 members would just say " Gee that's a shame, who do I barrack for now?". For God's sake have some common sense. This is just the Footy Show trying to pump a small story full of steroids. The whole club gone without a trace............ give me a break.

[Sockeye Salmon]

This has got to be the biggest load of "rat's toss bag" I've ever heard.
AS IF the Dogs were about to be wiped off the face of the earth, and the AFL would simply cancel our games for the rest of the year, and almost 30,000 members would just say " Gee that's a shame, who do I barrack for now?". For God's sake have some common sense. This is just the Footy Show trying to pump a small story full of steroids. The whole club gone without a trace............ give me a break.

The AFL would say 'thank Christ they're gone. Let's get Gold Coast in next year and they can have first pick of the players'.

Then they'd shaft North or Melbourne and be back to 16 clubs.

[westdog54]

This has got to be the biggest load of "rat's toss bag" I've ever heard.
AS IF the Dogs were about to be wiped off the face of the earth, and the AFL would simply cancel our games for the rest of the year, and almost 30,000 members would just say " Gee that's a shame, who do I barrack for now?". For God's sake have some common sense. This is just the Footy Show trying to pump a small story full of steroids. The whole club gone without a trace............ give me a break.

Get your head out of the sand Dougy.

We would have been left with a $6million hole in our bottom line, plus an unfinished redevelopment. The club wouldn't have been able to pay the players, administrative staff, the water bill, anything. We would be insolvent, unable to trade. The AFL have been looking for an excuse to take a club out of Melbourne for years. We would have handed them one on a silver platter. The club would have ceased to exist. Full Stop. It happens in the business world. Get used to it.