Well, well, well

Tomorrow's frontpage of the Bully:

I could say "I told you so" but rather why not another prediction instead?:

The next major sporting flop in North Queensland will be the V8's

And as Rate Payer of West End posted in The Bully's comments at 3:36pm today:

"What happens to the TCC's $1M guarantee then????"

On a Mission from who to do what??

Today's Bulletin report of the further decline of the NQ Fury held no real surprises for me - they lost again and only managed to draw about 6,500 to their match in Melbourne, so what's new!

What did surprise me (only because I take so little interest in the team or the sport and so hadn't previously noted) was that the financially failing Fury are now (apparently) sponsored by religious charity, Mission Australian - in fact, they are The Fury's principal sponsor partner.

Exactly why a charity would sponsor a sports team is well beyond my logic (perhaps they were concerned that Lifeline and the Salvos are beginning to dominate the local market and they therefore needed more exposure??).  However, and more to the point, I wonder how many people donating to Mission Australia are aware that some proportion of their donations are being used to prop-up a failing football team?

I certainly wouldn't donate to any charity who sponsors a professional sports team in an industry that so extensively promotes alcohol and misogyny.

Horse wins the Melbourne Cup

First posted in An Onymous Lefty in 2005 and again today

In exciting news today, a horse won the Melbourne Cup horse race. This horse travelled around the track at Flemington slightly faster than the other horses.

Around the nation, some people won money because they bet on the winning horse. Other people lost money, because they bet on a horse that didn't win.

Sports reporters broke out the special occasion hyperbole, reminding their viewers and listeners that if one of the horses happened to win, it would be the most tremendously exciting and fantastic thing that had ever happened in their lives, and that they would be telling future generations about the glorious win of a specific horse in the 2005 version of an annual race, for all eternity. Because it would be that astonishing.
"Dad, dad," children of the future would say, "what happened in the 2005 Melbourne Cup horse race?"

And fathers would reply, "Children, children, don't you remember what happened? I tell you this exciting story every night!"
And the children would cry, "We know dad, but please tell it again because we love it so."
And fathers would tell the story. It was 3pm on 1st November 2005, and there were about twenty horses lined up at the start of a racetrack in Flemington, Melbourne. They ran around the track. One horse won by taking less time to do this than the other horses. One horse came second, one came third and so on. And there was much rejoicing/weeping, depending on which horse the various people had backed. And this went on for a few days until everyone remembered that for the rest of the year they don't give a shit about horse racing.
It was truly extraordinary.

And this amazing story gets replayed every year!!
 

The Bulletin, The Fury and cheap news

Why is it that the demise of The Fury generates a front page and so many column inches in today’s Bulletin?

You would have thought they would have given prominence to this story about the arrest over the weekend of a 29-year-old man on 137 child sex offence charges – a story that every parent in the city would want to know more about. Instead, the sex offender gets 5 paras at the bottom of page two (four in the online story) while the long, slow and totally predictable death of The Fury gets three pages.

So why would The Bulletin run with a distinctly anti-business line (slamming the Football Federation for making a simple cost-benefit decision – as all businesses must) for a mob that has trouble getting 5,000 people these days to fork-out for a home game?

It certainly can’t be for the economic benefit the Fury brings to the broader community – I reckon that the Greek Fest, a good orchestra or a band like Powderfinger would bring more money into the town than the Fury could even hope to.

Rather, could this be about Murdoch’s investments in the development of soccer as yet another source of cheap content for his TV interests (There’s more soccer in a week on Sky Sports than SBS would run over a year).

The reality is that The Fury was always going to fail – the Townsville market is small and overcrowded with three other teams already in National Competitions. With a cost structure more like that of the Cowboys, The Fury can only draw as many as The Crocodiles who have a far, far lower cost-structure - it simply doesn't add-up and never did!

The Bully’s nonsense is nothing more than a self interested beat-up - and not a very smart one on their part, given the lack of interest in The Fury in the town.

Next they’ll be asking for more corporate welfare (government intervention) to support what is no more than cheap content for the mainstream media! (Don’t laugh – remember that TCC have already sunk your taxes into this diabolically bad business)

What goes around, comes around

Further to this quick post yesterday - it seems that only the Anglo countries voted for Howard and every non-Anglo nation voted against him.  Now, I wonder why that may be?

If you spend your whole political life playing the race card, what do you expect the the peasants to do when they finally get some power?

“Football” and corporate welfare

I’ve noted before (here and here) that, despite the hype, the NQ Fury are nothing more than a marginal business trying to survive in a crowded market.
But their mouthpiece Glenys Schuntner gave their game-plan away in today’s article in The Bully:

''Having Townsville City Council commit its support was a priority because this is where the club is based and where the most obvious economic value is,'' she said.

''Approaching other governments for support will take time and the process it takes to sign them on can take even longer. There is a fourth group of potential backers (like regional councils and the NT Government) that we haven't got to yet, but see as interested parties who we can approach after April 1.''

They are no more than business-welfare bludgers, apparently expecting the governments of Northern Australia (not just sucker Townsville) to dole them out - presumably because local businesses have worked out that sponsoring them would be money down the drain

Maybe this is The Fury's problem

Just because it provides cheap content for Murdoch's Sky network doesn't mean that anyone is actually interested - unlike for example, AFL's Collingwood:  Magpies pass 50,000 membership milestone

Now if The Fury could generate interest like that, Townsville taxpayers wouldn't have to subsidise them (or Robbie Fowler's $1 million per year salary)

PS - The Fury don't seem to publish their membership numbers - funny about that eh?

The economic benefit in TCC paying Robbie Fowler’s wages

The TCC report (apparently purposely leaked to The Bulletin, before today’s Council Meeting to consider how to meet David Crissafulli’s promise to his mates to bail-out The Fury) speaks some truth and some complete nonsense.

It is unquestionably true that, as the report states, ''Over a period when council is seeking to reduce its operating deficit from the current year estimate of $14.7 million to break even this sponsorship commitment makes the end goal that much more difficult to achieve''

But it is arguably nonsense to claim without any supporting evidence, “…that the money would benefit the city and its residents in two major areas including:


•   Promoting or contributing to economic development of its area or part of its area;

•   Promoting or attracting commerce, industry or tourism in its area or to part of its area”

The Fury is a business – pure and simple. What other business in this town does (or should) TCC subsidise to the tune of $1 million – certainly not mine! (and please, don’t suggest The Cruise Ship Terminal)
Exactly how will the economic development of the town benefit from the subsidy? – Surely not from supporting Spotless to further develop their game-day junk-food franchise (at the expense of local community groups)?

As for attracting tourism to the town (the most often cited reason for public subsidies to sports events such as this and the V8’s) – when was the last time you decided to visit Perth as a result of watching a Fremantle Dockers game at Subiaco on the box?

See also this post by John Quiggin on the subject.

We may all have to pay for this nonsense but I suspect that, as a result, Les and his apprentice will pay at the next Council election.

Is this guy Australia’s most successful loser?

I see that Lleyton Hewitt has lost again.
What I can’t work out though is whether he’s any real threat to our perennial bridesmaid but most successful loser – Greg “The Shark” Norman

The real economics of dinosaur racing

At last, someone has put the lie to all of the hype about the supposed economic benefits of public subsidies for mega sporting events like Townsville’s (for now) annual dinosaur racing extravaganza.

Chris Berg from the Institute of Public Affairs (not exactly my favourite think-tank) writing in nationaltimes.com, points out the shameful secret: the economic benefits of holding mega events are almost entirely fictitious.

It’s about time our local and State politicians fessed-up – public subsidies for dinosaur racing is simply about buying our love (and votes) – and with our own tax money.

Change can take a looooong time

Way back in the late 70’s I was lucky enough to have some peripheral involvement with three inspirational men who led the modern-day fight for rights for people with a disability.

All have now sadly passed, but they would be horrified at yesterday’s reports of the treatment of Paralympian, Kadoka Track conqueror and truly inspirational sporting hero (as opposed to today’s footballers), Kurt Fearnley at the hands of junk airline Jetstar. Now comes the report today of Trevor Carroll’s hospitalisation for six days after similar treatment by this mob.

Sadly, change can take a very, very, very long time

Best line of the week

"These are the heroes in our country, not the sports people" Moira Kelly, speaking of the mediacl team at the Royal Melbourne Children's Hospital who sucessfully separated the formerly conjoined twins Krishna and Trishna.

I couldn't agree more - stuff John Coates and his little fiefdom at the AOC!!

Is Cr. Vern flogging a dead fish?

You gotta admire Councillor Vern Vetch for championing the cause of local recreational fishers, but given the demise of the local lobby group Sunfish because of lack of interest, you have to wonder whether he’s flogging a dead fish.

As Chair of TCC’s Environment and Sustainable Development Committee, maybe his re-election changes would improve if he actually focused on environment and sustainability issues like, for example, the 50/50 chance of survival for the Great Barrier Reef if global emissions aren’t cut by at least 25 per cent by 2020

What future for the Townsville V8's

Given the morphing of the Gold Coast Indy into the GG V8's you have to wonder what the future of the racing dinosaurs is in Townsville – can Queensland support two events?

And with today’s report in the Bully that The Cowboy’s numbers are down by 30% and recent reports of the difficulties that The NQ Fury are having in attracting anyone to their games or even keeping their sponsors, you have to wonder whether the town has reached the limits of its capacity to support professional sorting events.

Makes John Quiggin’s questioning of Government investments in such event’s even more pertinent.