General New-look Warriors club trying to rebuild relationships

[PB_old]

On face value the management are still making the right moves. Long may it continue.

New-look Warriors club trying to rebuild relationships

18.03.06
By Peter Jessup

The new-look Warriors do appear to be walking the walk as well as talking the talk as they attempt to rebuild partnerships with key players in league.

The club has established a routine of regular board meetings, and New Zealand Rugby League chairman Selwyn Pearson has been to all four since the new management took over, after years of non-contact.

The club has also been meeting the Auckland Rugby League and is seeking ways for its development side to play regularly, as it has done in recent weeks for the first time since the reserve grade was scrapped in 1997. Players have been attending junior registration at clubs.

The management has held individual meetings with each player and settled new contracts with all add-ons openly recorded, something that was not the case previously and in an area where the salary cap was breached. In future, they will hold talks with players and their agents at the same time, to ensure an open process. There is still some concern at the NRL about the actions of player managers and the issue has not been laid to rest.

The cap hangover to 2007 will be about $200,000 due to payments agreed for this year having been deferred. The NRL's planned increase in the cap may alleviate that.

Former CEO Mick Watson, who was in charge when the breach deals were done, has not been on the Cullen Sports or Cullen Investments payroll for around three months and is no longer associated with the companies in any way.

The club's season-ticket sales fell again over the off-season to 4000. A total of 10,035 were at the first match at Ericsson Stadium. Break-even is budgeted around 13,000.

 

[warriors4life_old]

It's nice to see some organisation within the setup of the club.

 

[AmeriKiwi_old]

I agree. The more squared away management does things, the more squared away the whole organization becomes, including playing as a team. It`s all good.

 

[PHANTOM MENACE_old]

Unless we start winning the budget is gonna blow out

 

[AmeriKiwi_old]

Well, then it`s time to win!!

 

[ozbash_old]

Unless we start winning the budget is gonna blow out

the whole situation is like a dog chasing its tail.

the warriors need to win games. doesnt matter what rhetoric comes out of beasley ave, they have to win games.

to win games they need fans, fans buy the merchandise, watch the skytv, go to the game, use the sponsors product.

the more we do these things, the better off the club is.

Why then, doesnt the club look after the fans ? the 'one tribe' bizo was a vodaphone initiative and as expected, the response was huge.
'one tribe' wont bring new fans through the gate, the warriors have to do that.

Why do season tix holders get treated so badly, i know of one member of this board who hasnt received her tix yet and she paid in sept 05 !!

why do the aussie season tix holders get a vastly superior deal from their clubs ?

do the warriors allow season tix holders acess to the away games for the $8 charged by aussie clubs ? who is going to hamilton tonight for $8 ?

why do we have some tin pot pre fabricated building, aka the butchers lounge, which would be scratching to hold 80 people and not a fully functional,take the mrs and kids to diner, have a go on the pokies,watch the other round games on the screen while having a beer, leagues club ??

and i,m not knocking leitchy here, he does a fantastic job, a job the club should be doing.

we are in our 11th year and are still the only nrl club without a leagues club....

why ?

then we,ll all sit down and listen to the touchy feely bullshit thjey are trying to feed us.

its a matter of priorities as far as i,m concerned. we,ve heard all the other stuff before.

 

[PB_old]

Unless we start winning the budget is gonna blow out

the whole situation is like a dog chasing its tail.

the warriors need to win games. doesnt matter what rhetoric comes out of beasley ave, they have to win games.

to win games they need fans, fans buy the merchandise, watch the skytv, go to the game, use the sponsors product.

the more we do these things, the better off the club is.

Why then, doesnt the club look after the fans ? the 'one tribe' bizo was a vodaphone initiative and as expected, the response was huge.
'one tribe' wont bring new fans through the gate, the warriors have to do that.

Why do season tix holders get treated so badly, i know of one member of this board who hasnt received her tix yet and she paid in sept 05 !!

why do the aussie season tix holders get a vastly superior deal from their clubs ?

do the warriors allow season tix holders acess to the away games for the $8 charged by aussie clubs ? who is going to hamilton tonight for $8 ?

why do we have some tin pot pre fabricated building, aka the butchers lounge, which would be scratching to hold 80 people and not a fully functional,take the mrs and kids to diner, have a go on the pokies,watch the other round games on the screen while having a beer, leagues club ??

and i,m not knocking leitchy here, he does a fantastic job, a job the club should be doing.

we are in our 11th year and are still the only nrl club without a leagues club....

why ?

then we,ll all sit down and listen to the touchy feely bullshit thjey are trying to feed us.

its a matter of priorities as far as i,m concerned. we,ve heard all the other stuff before.

Understand what you are saying but in years gone most people were saying that the Warriors lost touch with the community, especially away from Auckland and so regardless of it being rhetoric or touchy feely bullshit, it does actually matter and does need to continue.

A Leagues club could be a good thing but many organisations in league have those systems in place and quite frankly suck. The ones that do well have a lot more than just pokies and beer as well as an historical patronage. The ones that don't work become like Souths and become a millstone around the clubs neck and that is in Aussie where the scope to receive monies in and entrenched code is far greater. The NZRL and league in general relies heavily in gambling and drink, as we all know, and that is a dumb thing to peg your hopes on in the current and future political environment. It also reinforces a league stereotype and that won't promote growth.

One Tribe has been implemented by Vodafone but it would have been part of the negotiated terms of trade between them and the Warriors. You can't say it's none of the Warriors doing. Vodafone have the ability to generate more heat on this as more people use mobile than watch league, so it's a cost effective medium. Sponsors don't get sign-off carte blanche just because the stump up, there will have been dialogue regarding all of this and the Vodafone financial year is coming up so this would have been factored into their existing promotional spend.

As for budget, well, I'd imagine given the amount of negative media and opinion they have had in the fishbowl that is New Zealand and are aware that some money has to be burned to make up the quite substantial ground that has been lost.

The need to win and lax season ticket holder treatment is something else. I can't refute the cast iron logic that winning is the main keyas that is something sports teams everywhere have to do to survive and grow. The Warriors more than most.