Roar Supporters Federation
President’s Update Fan Update 1st June 2024
We are pleased to report on our most recent meeting with Zac Anderson, COO of the Brisbane Roar.
APL Situation
Zac confirmed that the situation with the APL is dire, and it has advised there will be a huge reduction in funds given to the Clubs. We understand that reports and commentary made by Adam Peacock and Robbie Slater are substantially well founded.
It seems that the Paramount deal originally sold to the managements of the A League clubs has not met the original expectations. The deal itself set overly optimistic KPIs regarding Paramount viewers, and subscriptions which was made worse by the final quality of the product delivered by Paramount, particularly the broadcast glitches encountered by Fans.
Additionally, unlike the previous deal with Fox, the APL had to undertake and pay for the production company to produce game day broadcasts. The APL’s failure in the production has proved almost catastrophic in terms of returns to the A League Clubs given the huge costs in setting up the production side of the enterprise.
We were shown graphs and projections which demonstrated how there has now been an 80% cut in funding from the APL up to date. Next Season’s distribution, whilst not yet finalised is looking like a huge hit to the Roar’s Budget, prepared by Zac and Kaz and which had previously been approved and supported by Roar’s Owners the Bakries.
Kaz and Zac are of the view that the APL should not be totally dependent upon broadcast fees as it currently is particularly in the context of an unsatisfactory deal with Paramount which is providing a hugely diminishing return to the A League Clubs.
As Paramount has an option to bind the APL for a further 2 seasons, the situation is a very concerning one for the Clubs and some creative solution is needed.
Roar Situation
None of the A League Clubs run at a profit, but the amount of the loss in millions varies greatly between the Clubs. We were again shown figures which show that the Roar has cut its loss by well over half since last season under the management of Kaz and Zac. We cannot give figures as these are commercial in confidence for the Club.
We were encouraged to see that the Roar loss is one tenth of MacArthur’s and less than half of Victory’s. We are on a par with the Mariners. We are not aware of the losses of other Clubs. The Roar paid its players more that Mariners last season but considerably less than that paid by the larger Clubs such as Victory, Sydney and Melbourne City.
The Mariners’ success of course demonstrates that player payments don’t always determine success, but it does help in recruitment of excellent players. Zac noted that Mariners have built their team on a successful academy with around half their current squad coming through the academy ranks. They have also had success in selling players, the funds from which has been returned to running the academy. We were encouraged to see that this seems to be the direction the Roar is taking.
As noted before, the cut in APL Distribution has put a huge hole in the Roar’s Budget and the situation was looking grim. It is with great relief that we have been advised by Zac that the Roar’s Owners have committed to injected further millions of dollars into the club to cover this hole on top of the millions that they already put in on an annual basis. This demonstrates a real commitment for our Club.
Zac gave us a run down on the income streams for the club. Membership numbers improved for the Season. Sponsorship has increased; however, this also needs to grow more. There is very little made through the avenue of Merchandise, but the club is reviewing this and hopefully we will see better Fan merchandise, on which the club hopes to actually make some money, while providing the Fans with some quality Club memorabilia. Currently the APL takes a large chunk of monies earned from Club Merchandise through licensing the Club’s own logo. This came as a big surprise to us as it reflected the previous situation when FA was in control.
We were advised that the New Balance agreement finishes after the coming season and there will be changes to the merchandise.
Cost of Memberships
We took up with Zac, the reasons why Membership has increased, and we noted from him the following:
- General cost increases in everything over the past year, related to CPI increases.
- Suncorp has increased its cost of use of the Stadium
- Cost increases in providing Security as demanded by Suncorp. This includes cost of Police at the Stadium and the closure of Caxton Street.
- Transport levies for everyone who attends a game whether Public Transport is used by them or not.
- Increase in fees by Ticketek
- Roar Women are being paid more (deservedly) and are now on multi-year contracts.
- Huge cut in APL Distribution
Currently it requires a crowd in excess of 6,000 for the Club to break even for games at the Suncorp venue.
Recruitment
The approximately 80% cut in APL distribution has affected recruitment of players who were in the sights of the Club for next season, particularly in the Striker role. Despite this it is encouraging to see that player recruitment is well underway with new defenders being announced already. Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of the KazZac team, the Club was unable to retain Kai Trewin as he had strong personal reasons for leaving to go south.
There will continue to be a building process on the back of the Roar Academy, which is currently producing some good prospects. The search is continuing for goal scoring forwards. The RSF has noted the careful attention being given to the Academy Teams by Ruben, Zac and Kaz and we have seen the exciting Football being played by our teams particularly the Under 23 Team.
Hervey Bay Training Week
Indications are that this event may be in doubt, although there is planning for something similar on the Sunshine Coast in the pre-season.
Stadiums and Game Venues
With the Olympic stadium issues coming to the fore, we discussed the possibility of Roar being moved out of Suncorp when the Government starts to do renovations to the stadium. Zac said the Club is looking at ways to sort this issue out, and he and Kaz are working with stakeholders for this to happen. The RSF hopes to be able to bring news of this in time to come. The Club may well play some games at Perry Park in the upcoming season, but this will not be confirmed until the draw has been sent to the Club for their consideration.
Perry Park Upgrade: This has been a topical subject in recent times, with the group Fair Funding for Football and the RSF looking at ways for Football to have a boutique stadium that would be used by all levels of the code. Grassroots teams, and perhaps a National Second Division Team (if initiated) may perhaps also share the facilities. We noted that the Club is taking a deep interest in the way the Perry Park ground might be used in the best interests of Football in Qld.
Game Promotion and Match Day Experience
We continue to put forward some ideas to improve game promotion and match day experience and we will be meeting further with the Club on these issues. The RSF is always open to suggestions from Fans and Supporters on improvements and will take these up with the Club.
Caxton Street Closure and March
The RSF continues to promote the closing off of Caxton street so the March can happen and we discussed this for next season. Despite the RSF President and V President being advised that to close off Caxton Street would be around $400 the club was told it would be a lot more, which possibly would make it unaffordable. However, due to representations by the RSF and the Club, it looks like the QPS and the Club will come to a workable and affordable agreement, so we should see the Den Marches happening regularly in season 24/25.
Further Club Engagement
The RSF has already locked in a meeting with Club Management and staff for early July to discuss planning for the forthcoming season, particularly to improve promotion and match day experience for Fans. We will also be discussing a more organised effort and support by the Club for larger numbers of Fans to travel to Away Games, in particular the Unite Round.
There are other ideas for a pre-season African Nations Game, and a Roar Legends game which we will be taking up as well.
Finally
We have appreciated the willingness of Kaz and Zac to engage with the RSF to hear feedback from Fans and Supporters and to respond to our questions and concerns. The RSF notes with a great deal of relief the way that the Club’s Owners have stuck with the Club during very difficult times for the APL and the A League and have continued to pour in millions of dollars each season and to put in further millions to plug the hole caused by the APL issues.
#RoarAsOne
Neil Ballment John Lang
President Roar Supporters Federation Vice-President Roar Supporters Federation