I realize that a lot of dog folk have never been to university or past junior school, and that some through no fault of their own some are illiterate, so let me spell out what this part of the GRV plan means, and if you can’t read it get someone to read it out loud for you.
Taking out an equity position in a club means GRV becoming the majority owner of the club’s assets, cash and land.
Some other form of commercial arrangement means sucking a well off club’s blood until it’s dry.
That’s what this GRV plan in the discussion paper is all about.
They want to take over the Meadows and Sandown by forcing the club to pay for changes that they don’t want or need.
GRV’s income went up $10 million dollars last year, which would have been great but for one thing.
It’s expenses went up by $20 million, resulting in it losing the $10 million it gained on the year before.
As a result the financial position of the peak body is about as healthy as a dog that runs head first at top speed into the outside fence, which by the way happens more often on one-turn tracks than it does on two.
Let’s be real here, the situation is that GRV spends $32 million a year on club expenses, infrastructure and maintenance, but it only has $17 million in the bank.
Houston, they have a problem.
And the GRV top brass’s way to fix it is to get the clubs to come on board and pay the price for their failures.
These highly paid executives – there are the full-time equivalent of 7 of them, who get paid a collective total of $2.5 million a year, or an average of about $350 000 each – would have to be kidding wouldn’t they?
Clubs run by hard working volunteers who manage their organization’s money and assets properly are expected to pay for people who earn an average of $7000 a week’s stuff ups?
No bloody way.
I have no objection to GRV putting forward ideas and plans that will create a brighter future for greyhound racing, but I do have a huge beef with being lied to about their motivations like we are here.
If GRV want to take over Sandown and the Meadows and steal their land, then they should just say so, and then we can all have an open and informed discussion and debate about it.
But when they try to conceal their end goals in a cloak of animal welfare concerns, then all you can do is wonder why the hell they are telling all these porkie pies.
It’s a question that Vic greyhound participants should ask of the CEO.
Perhaps they can do it in their feedback on the bullshit discussion paper that’s designed to the hide the ultimate plan.