For those of you who read my blog last night, you will appreciate that I was in a bit of a mood. As I blogged yesterday, I am tired of 'not good enough' being good enough for the Parramatta Eels and as a fan I am ready to demand better. The final straw for me was the parting of ways between our CEO Ken Edwards and the Club as of yesterday. This is Parramatta's 6th CEO in only 4 years.
Edwards had only been in the role for 9 months. In that 9 months he was impressive in terms of ensuring that crucial players like Ryan Morgan, Jarryd Hayne and Mitchell Allgood were re-signed and he oversaw an increase of 11 per cent in junior participation in Parramatta. He was also very approachable and always responded to Twitter enquiries.
A man more suitable for the job you could not have found anywhere. Edwards was at the helm of the Knights when they defeated the Eels in the 2001 Grand Final and was previously the CEO of ANZ Stadium. This not only ensured that he had a sporting background, but also the commerical know how and ability to ensure his success in the role. This experience was something which could not be boasted of men who had previously held the position.
Ken Edwards was a man with a vision - his biggest goal was to build membership of the Eels to 40,000 by 2017. However, it was his next goal which is the reason being used as the one which saw him part ways with the new Eels board. Edwards undoubtedly was keen to move the Parramatta Eels away from their spiritual home, Parrramatta Stadium, to ANZ Stadium.
I have previously blogged here, that suburban grounds are important. Parramatta Stadium is home of the Eels. I love nothing more than watching football at Parramatta Stadium. When the Stadium is at or near capacity, the atmosphere is absolutely electric.
I also hate ANZ Stadium. Parramatta's record is woeful there. We have lost 12 consecutive games at ANZ Stadium. It feels completely soulless to me. Because it is so big, it is extremely difficult to get a good atmosphere, because the Stadium always feels empty. The only time that ANZ Stadium absolutely erupts is when it is at capacity and that usually comes in September when Finals Football is on. The atmosphere at the Grand Final Qualifier between the Bulldogs and the Eels in 2009 was probably one of the best games I have ever been to. It is for games like this that ANZ Stadium is perfect.
I find it extremely difficult to believe that there weren't other factors at play in the Edwards/Parramatta split. Edwards is a smart man - he must have realised that to move all games to ANZ would have been an unpopular move. Further, an upgrade to Parramatta Stadium has just been announced, it seems silly to me that the thought process would be to move all our home games away from our spiritual home.
While his eventual goal was to build membership to 40,000, if this had been ticketed members the move to ANZ Stadium would have been inevitable. The question however becomes whether ticketed memberships would have increased to such a level with a prospective move to ANZ Stadium on the cards. Surely, getting Parramatta back on a winning path should be the number 1 priority, especially since a team losing as many in a row as Parramatta has does not bode well for future memberships.
For the moment, Ken Edwards becomes the latest casualty of an already dismal Parramatta Eels season.
Love,
@LadiesWhoLeague
Seems Mr Edwards tried to get our Eels running before they walked so to speak.
ReplyDeleteIf you want 40k members go out and get them then when you get to the stage that we fill Parra stadium every week then you look at moving not taking crowds of 10k to a 80k seat stadium when you have the wooden spoon in your back pocket.
It's nice to set goals and all but set releastic ones. 40k over the next couple of year after what looks like 2 wooden spoons in a row is not even close to releastic.