NEWS Brisbane CEO Paul White to extend contract with the Broncos

[broncos4life]

• 2004: 28,667
• 2005: 30,331
• 2006: 31,208
• 2007: 32,868
• 2008: 33,426
• 2009: 34,587
• 2010: 35,032
• 2011: 33,209
• 2012: 33,337
• 2013: 30,480
• 2014: 34,235
• 2015: 36,096
• 2016: 34,476
• 2017: 31,929
• 2018: 31,394
• 2019: 29,516

Fairly steady decline the past few years. 2015 was high because premiership run and extra finals games made for larger average crowd. Basically, it was on it's way up before he got there, and for the most part has trended down since he got there.

Fucking hell! That is a lot of crows!

 

[Foordy]

• 2004: 28,667
• 2005: 30,331
• 2006: 31,208
• 2007: 32,868
• 2008: 33,426
• 2009: 34,587
• 2010: 35,032
• 2011: 33,209
• 2012: 33,337
• 2013: 30,480
• 2014: 34,235
• 2015: 36,096
• 2016: 34,476
• 2017: 31,929
• 2018: 31,394
• 2019: 29,516

Fairly steady decline the past few years. 2015 was high because premiership run and extra finals games made for larger average crowd. Basically, it was on it's way up before he got there, and for the most part has trended down since he got there.

also funnily enough coinciding with the introduction of Monday night then Thursday night footy (which we got plenty of in 2019). which has hurt crowds all over the game.

we also didn't get a home sunday arvo match for 2-3 years also hurting crowd figures

 

[BroncsNBundy]

I would expect that the team's on field performances will have contributed to the decline as well. A few less bandwagoners when not in the best form

 

[Sproj]

Those stats have to be wrong, there’s no way 15k turn up to games regularly.

 

[BroncsFan]

Thought it might be interesting to take a look at some of the events that occurred in association with those crowd numbers including staging of TV rights deals (introduction of 2x Friday games, Thursday games, end of Monday games, etc.)... from what I can piece together anyway:

• 2004: 28,667
• 2005: 30,331
• 2006: 31,208 - Premiership year
• 2007: 32,868 - Post premiership... start of two Friday night games aka every home game basically Friday night
• 2008: 33,426 - Successful season and should've been a premiership.
• 2009: 34,587 - first year post Bennett
• 2010: 35,032 - first year missed finals
• 2011: 33,209 - Lockyer retirement year
• 2012: 33,337
• 2013: 30,480 - start of new TV deal (ch 9 with 2x Friday games and Sunday game... only 3 Thursday games league wide throughout the year) - poor year on the field
• 2014: 34,235
• 2015: 36,096 - GF year
• 2016: 34,476 - last year of Monday footy... start of Thursday footy - post GF year and high expectations (bris considered favourites)
• 2017: 31,929 - start of early Friday game... ch 9 with Thurs & Fri
• 2018: 31,394
• 2019: 29,516

There was a significant drop in the 2nd year of Thursday footy, I suspect we started getting hit hard with Thursday from this point on.... the first year ch 9 probably used Thursday for Sydney derby's knowing Broncos rate well on Fridays. For the last few years I have noticed how many Thursday games we get being a ticket member... haven't looked into it though.

I think the introduction of Thursday games is an important factor when you consider each game as 8.33% of your home games for the year, let's say you get 3x Thursday home games, that represents 25% of your home games for the year. I think that is significant if the crowd for each of them is potentially 10k short of what you anticipate.

 

[broncsgoat]

Thought it might be interesting to take a look at some of the events that occurred in association with those crowd numbers including staging of TV rights deals (introduction of 2x Friday games, Thursday games, end of Monday games, etc.)... from what I can piece together anyway:

• 2004: 28,667
• 2005: 30,331
• 2006: 31,208 - Premiership year
• 2007: 32,868 - Post premiership... start of two Friday night games aka every home game basically Friday night
• 2008: 33,426 - Successful season and should've been a premiership.
• 2009: 34,587 - first year post Bennett
• 2010: 35,032 - first year missed finals
• 2011: 33,209 - Lockyer retirement year
• 2012: 33,337
• 2013: 30,480 - start of new TV deal (ch 9 with 2x Friday games and Sunday game... only 3 Thursday games league wide throughout the year) - poor year on the field
• 2014: 34,235
• 2015: 36,096 - GF year
• 2016: 34,476 - last year of Monday footy... start of Thursday footy - post GF year and high expectations (bris considered favourites)
• 2017: 31,929 - start of early Friday game... ch 9 with Thurs & Fri
• 2018: 31,394
• 2019: 29,516

There was a significant drop in the 2nd year of Thursday footy, I suspect we started getting hit hard with Thursday from this point on.... the first year ch 9 probably used Thursday for Sydney derby's knowing Broncos rate well on Fridays. For the last few years I have noticed how many Thursday games we get being a ticket member... haven't looked into it though.

I think the introduction of Thursday games is an important factor when you consider each game as 8.33% of your home games for the year, let's say you get 3x Thursday home games, that represents 25% of your home games for the year. I think that is significant if the crowd for each of them is potentially 10k short of what you anticipate.

pretty sure we had 4 Thursday’s this year

 

[BroncsFan]

pretty sure we had 4 Thursday’s this year

Close... looks like 3 Thursday games this year.

I get 4x Thursdays in 2016, 2017 & 2018... so I guess we've been copping Thursdays since they came into the TV rights deal.

Can't wait to be fucking rid if them to be honest... don't mind watching Thursday games at home, but **** me going to a Thursday game is horrendous given the kick off time of 7:50!!

Was the Thursday kick off always 7:50 or were they 7:00/7:30 in the early days??

 

[ivanhungryjak]

 

[Morepudding]

The statistic that means something, is that the broncos attendance dropped considerably more than the league average, infact, the broncos loss accounted for about half of the league average loss.

The Broncos really need to improve their game day experience. They don't show any good replays on the big screen, always just use it to peddle some advertisement or other bullshit, no good interviews or anything with players or coaches before the game, fairly average half time 'entertainment' (if you can even call it that). There is very little benefit to forking out the money to go to a game these days. The coverage, especially if you have Foxtel, is just amazing. Good pregame analysis, good interviews, more comedic humour often as well, just a far better experience than what you get at the game. Hell, the game day experience would be improved if they simply had Fox Sports on the big screen before the game and turned the sound up.

What they currently do simply sucks. For AFL, they get really good crowds because the experience at the game is better than on TV. Part of the issue for the NRL is just how good the TV coverage is, how effective the close ups etc are. For AFL, a whole field perspective is often better and being at the game is far more exciting than watching on TV, for NRL, you get a better view at home, you get better replays, you get better commentary etc and just overall, a better experience. It is only the 'nail biters' that are considerably better live, because the atmosphere lifts. But for the most part, it's pretty uneventful at the stadium, particularly as most 'fans' are just bandwagoners looking for something to do on a Thursday/Friday night, and don't seem to really care / aren't passionate and vocal.

 

[Kooly87]

Have you looked at their stock price?

Yep, its 45 cents a share currently, up from around 25 cents a share when he got here. Down from a peak of 55 cents a share, but still, you can hardly use the share price during his tenure as a criticism of White.

This is on top of record sponsorship deals and consistent growth in revenue over his time here. You can level plenty of criticisms at Paul White, but our financial results under his leadership are not one of them.

 

[Morepudding]

Yep, its 45 cents a share currently, up from around 25 cents a share when he got here. Down from a peak of 55 cents a share, but still, you can hardly use the share price during his tenure as a criticism of White.

This is on top of record sponsorship deals and consistent growth in revenue over his time here. You can level plenty of criticisms at Paul White, but our financial results under his leadership are not one of them.

The majority of that increase has come from the increased grant from the NRL. Just saying...

 

[Kooly87]

The majority of that increase has come from the increased grant from the NRL. Just saying...

2019 Chairman's Address:

"Our financial results show that the Group recorded gross revenue for the 2018 financial year of $51.8 million which is a 11% increase on 2017. Revenue was boosted by the increased Club Grant, growth in sponsorship sales and increased funding for the expanded community programs, being largely cost recovery revenue. Membership revenue and gate takings had modest increases with the average home game attendance down 2% on prior year"

Your point about crowd figures also loses some of its impact once you realise we actually grew our membership and gate revenue despite a 2% fall in attendances overall.

 

[Morepudding]

All i know is he's been CEO for the least successful period in Broncos History from a performance measure. Not financial.

 

[Kooly87]

All i know is he's been CEO for the least successful period in Broncos History from a performance measure. Not financial.

Then I humbly suggest to you that you might misunderstand the role of a CEO in a business like this.

 

[Sproj]

2019 Chairman's Address:

"Our financial results show that the Group recorded gross revenue for the 2018 financial year of $51.8 million which is a 11% increase on 2017. Revenue was boosted by the increased Club Grant, growth in sponsorship sales and increased funding for the expanded community programs, being largely cost recovery revenue. Membership revenue and gate takings had modest increases with the average home game attendance down 2% on prior year"

Your point about crowd figures also loses some of its impact once you realise we actually grew our membership and gate revenue despite a 2% fall in attendances overall.

Increased revenue but fall in attendance sounds like increased ticket prices. That would have an effect on who can attend.

I do agree the NRL game day experience is pretty sucky. It’s better on tv.

A couple of years back, I was living in Melbourne and went to Slater’s return game. They put on a fantastic pre-game show. Light show, big player profiles projected on to the crowd and even a little bit of fireworks.

They got some local band in as well. I like that, promote local talent, give them a moment playing in front of a big crowd, most bands would even do it for free but give them a small fee.

Run a half time ball kicking comp or something and lower food prices.

It isn’t that hard to make the game day experience even slightly better than providing nothing except Michael Hancock and whoever saying something for one minute on the big screen that you can’t hear or understand anyway.

 

[Morepudding]

Then I humbly suggest to you that you might misunderstand the role of a CEO in a business like this.

I'm saying its flawed. The broncos are fading bad, and getting to the point where I genuinely want another Brisbane Club just so it makes the Broncos wake the **** up and care about their supporters.

 

[Kooly87]

Increased revenue but fall in attendance sounds like increased ticket prices. That would have an effect on who can attend.

I do agree the NRL game day experience is pretty sucky. It’s better on tv.

A couple of years back, I was living in Melbourne and went to Slater’s return game. They put on a fantastic pre-game show. Light show, big player profiles projected on to the crowd and even a little bit of fireworks.

They got some local band in as well. I like that, promote local talent, give them a moment playing in front of a big crowd, most bands would even do it for free but give them a small fee.

Run a half time ball kicking comp or something and lower food prices.

It isn’t that hard to make the game day experience even slightly better than providing nothing except Michael Hancock and whoever saying something for one minute on the big screen that you can’t hear or understand anyway.

Then by all means, write to the club and share your thoughts. I have no doubt they would take feedback on game day experiences very seriously.

Honestly though, this is about Paul White, the CEO of a 50+ million dollar a year business. If you think he's out scouring the local music scene for talent to bring along on game days, then you're really missing the point.

His job is to deliver financial security and growth, which he's delivered in spades. Could aspects of our business be improved? Of course they could. No business could say they couldn't improve. But his job isn't to drive crowd figures or win Premierships or find good music for game day events, it's to put the best people the club can afford in those positions to make that happen, but ultimately, his first and foremost responsibility is to ensure our financial strength overall and so long as he is doing that, he could reasonably be considered to be doing well at his job.
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I'm saying its flawed. The broncos are fading bad, and getting to the point where I genuinely want another Brisbane Club just so it makes the Broncos wake the **** up and care about their supporters.

If you don't feel the club cares about you then I really sincerely encourage you to vote with your feet and your wallet. This is a publicly traded company and the moment they feel a pinch in their bottom line, you can fully expect them to sit up and take notice just like Apple or General Motors would. I'd be furious at Paul White if he didnt. But like I said, it's not his job to win games or make game days more fun, it's his job to drive a financial result and no one could argue he isn't achieving that. The moment he stops doing that, whether its next year, or in 5 years or never at all, then by all means people are entitled to blame the CEO for not doing his job well enough.

 

[Sproj]

Then by all means, write to the club and share your thoughts. I have no doubt they would take feedback on game day experiences very seriously.

Honestly though, this is about Paul White, the CEO of a 50+ million dollar a year business. If you think he's out scouring the local music scene for talent to bring along on game days, then you're really missing the point.

His job is to deliver financial security and growth, which he's delivered in spades. Could aspects of our business be improved? Of course they could. No business could say they couldn't improve. But his job isn't to drive crowd figures or win Premierships or find good music for game day events, it's to put the best people the club can afford in those positions to make that happen, but ultimately, his first and foremost responsibility is to ensure our financial strength overall and so long as he is doing that, he could reasonably be considered to be doing well at his job.
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If you don't feel the club cares about you then I really sincerely encourage you to vote with your feet and your wallet. This is a publicly traded company and the moment they feel a pinch in their bottom line, you can fully expect them to sit up and take notice just like Apple or General Motors would. I'd be furious at Paul White if he didnt. But like I said, it's not his job to win games or make game days more fun, it's his job to drive a financial result and no one could argue he isn't achieving that. The moment he stops doing that, whether its next year, or in 5 years or never at all, then by all means people are entitled to blame the CEO for not doing his job well enough.

Just so you know, I’m not anti-White at all. He is doing a decent job but it doesn’t mean, like you said, things can’t be done better.

He is the boss, while money might be going up, he needs to ensure continued excellence and satisfaction among shareholders. I do believe Brisbane supporters are taken for granted and if I’m a shareholder (which I may or may not be), I want my investment doing as well as if can and yes, game day experience is a big part of that.

No it isn’t White’s job to scour the local music scene, etc but it is his job to put the best people in place in each part of the company.