Five key issues AFL club Gold Coast Suns are dealing with amid COVID-19
Gold Coast Suns CEO Mark Evans has opened up on all the key issues facing the AFL club amid the COVID-19 crisis. Here is what you need to know:
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GOLD Coast Suns CEO Mark Evans has opened up on all the key issues facing the AFL club amid the COVID-19 crisis.
Here is what you need to know:
PLAYER MOVEMENTS AND TRAINING:
“When we heard on Sunday night the season was coming to a halt we knew we had to talk to our people quickly.
“The first group was the players. Why that became important was because some of those players we knew would probably want to return to the states where their families live and with borders closing quickly we had to make decisions around that.
“Around 25 per cent of our players would have gone back to their home state with their families on Monday and 75 per cent decided to stay on the Coast and do whatever training they can and stay connected in whatever way they could.
“The players have all been given programs to try and maintain the level of strength and conditioning they have now and at the moment it’s contemplating a restart in early June or by the end of May.
“To do that they can’t go in annual leave mode and do nothing, they have to keep training. “For health reasons they have to keep training by themselves or with house mates, not a collective at the club.
“Players were here on Monday taking exercise bikes and weights out of the gym. They are on loan and they have got them set up at houses, some live together and some are a street away.”
CURRENT POSITION AND PERCENTAGE OF STAFF STOOD DOWN:
“Like a lot to business you trade on loyalty and you try o build great connection and engagement with people.
“Sports businesses and teams seem to be able to do that better than just the normal office environment.
“We talk about ourselves as a family and it’s got some truth to it.
“To consider the impacts on all of those individuals, we have told them as of next week will need to stand down quite a large portion of the workforce and will be retaining just a skeleton staff for this shutdown part of the season.
“It’s hard to deliver but I have to give them some hope about what happens in the future.
“We hope this period of disruption is as short as possible and we hope we get to stand up quickly and we get things back to returning to normal speed as soon as we can.
“The toughest thing is when you look at someone in the eye when they ask you the question, they want you to tell them the world is going to be OK or tell you for how long it will take and we don’t have those answers.
SUNS WHO WERE SET FOR BREAKOUT YEAR AND THE BIGGEST PEST
“We have around 100 staff within football and administration and another 10 who run the stadium.
“Connected to that we must have another 50 or 60 people connected to the program, whether they are masseurs or other health care workers.
“In the stadium we would have another 200 staff who work casually on match day then you have the caterers and security firms and people involved in parking and transport. It’s having a big impact on the Gold Coast Suns and the community.”
HOW DO THE SUNS SURVIVE:
“What is the end point of all this? At the Gold Coast Suns we say how do we help the industry get through what it has to but then come back to a position where it thrives and that our attention gets back to building towards a premiership.
“When the Suns started there were about 100,00 participants in Queensland. Now there are 280,000 across the state.
“It’s been an amazing investment financially and in time by the AFL. I have been impressed by the level of leadership in the AFL and across clubs.
“Every day the CEO’s of the clubs connect on a phone conference. The collegiality and support for protecting the industry to get through this and then to restart has been amazing. “The best thing we can do for the industry is to make sure the pain is as short as it has to be.”
IMPACT ON FANS AND MEMBERSHIPS:
“The support (from members) has been amazing to this point in time. The difficulty at the moment is not knowing what period of the season we get away and in what time frame.
“We will respect what our members are going through and come up with a series of options that they can choose from. At the moment we need a little more clarity on the season restart and how many games we get through.
“There might even be ways that memberships can be turned into a donation and they can get tax deductions out of it. We will get some options and take that to the members when we can.”
THE PLAYER’S PAY DEBATE. IS THE CRITICISM OF THEM FAIR?
“These are the same guys a month or two ago played in a bushfire relief game and raised $8 million. They are very community minded. I’m not sure over the last month or so we have all understood exactly the situation the industry would be in.
“We have a better understanding of that now.
“What we will have is shared responsibility to do the best thing we can for the industry.
“The best thing every single person can do connected to this industry is to make sure we can come out of this the other side with a strong heartbeat and get back up to speed. I know our players will do their bit with that. I know our staff will too and from my point of view I will do whatever I have to do to make sure the industry is in the best position to do that.”
HALTING NEGOTIATIONS ON STUART DEW’S NEW DEAL:
“Right now we have some important things pressing right at us and that is all-consuming.
“In the background there are plans about what we need to do when we start up.
“What does it look like in the first phase? What does it look like when we come back to match play?
“With Stuey Dew, the reason we selected him is the reason we would love to extend him and I’m sure it’s only a matter of time.”
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