Having made some tough decisions over the last year, cutting staff by half the Sturt Football Club is faced with making further tough decisions to stave off having to close the doors.
They came perilously close to closing the doors over summer, according to Adelaide Now quoting CEO Matt Benson.
Check out the Adelaide Now article in full by following the link.
Many may have been expecting this, or worse, and many may believe that worse is yet to come.
What is the answer. Short of a benefactor coming in like happened for my club North Adelaide FC a short while ago, the Sturt boys have still a lot of work to do.
They have, as part of what they have gone through looked long and hard at their situation and have determined they can not support a $2.0m per annum bill, as a number of other SANFL Clubs are. They have declared the simply must work on keeping costs to an income they believe they can sustain, namely $ 1.3m to $ 1.5m. COLD HARD FACTS.
Again I find myself agreeing with Matt Benson’s recent claim. The AFL must take responsibility for ensuring the success of grass roots footy. I suggest the majority of SANFL clubs would be not far behind Sturt quite frankly.
It does start however with all the 9 SANFL clubs recognising they are a feeder league and cutting their cloth accordingly. Clearly this starting at Sturt. If they succeed they will be the model for all other clubs to follow. If they don’t then the other clubs need to learn from their experience.
Two footnotes if I can:1 If you are a Double Blues supporter then you need to get behind them….in a big way. If you don’t they may not be around to entertain you in the future.
2 This in no way should disrupt the process of master planning of Unley Oval. The only thing it should do is highlight the need for the future planning for this sporting and community precinct is for the need for flexibility.
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