Anyone who’s played local sport will know that it’s drilled into you to support the club in any way you can. Whether that’s shopping and using the services of the club’s sponsors or buying food and drinks from the home ground’s canteen.
One story doing the rounds today suggests that the pressure for clubs to remain in a financially stable position is reaching new extremes.
According to a group of teenage footballers at the Gold Coast’s Southport Warriors they were let go by their club because they ‘didn’t drink enough at the bar.’
“He told us we don’t spend enough at the bar so they won’t let us play,” Zac Robson told the Gold Coast bulletin.
The club’s president Gary Hugo categorically denied the specific claim about drinking but did say the reason was because the boys didn’t support the club financially in any capacity.
“They didn’t have to buy a beer at the canteen, they could have bought soft drink or food,” he said.
incredible. a few long-time Southport Warriors juniors told to find a new club because they didn’t spend enough money on food and drink and therefore didn’t “support” the club enough. https://t.co/ZP8nEpnLcK
— Vince Rugari (@VinceRugari) February 15, 2022
“We have a full kitchen at the club where they can get a meal and all our other teams come up and enjoy the facilities. This team just wasn’t interested.
“We are a non-profit organisation. I don’t think we asked too much from them.”
Since the story broke the question has been raised about how obligated individuals and teams should be to spend money at their club given the large registration fees paid each season.
Registration in the Gold Coast-based league costs $475 per season which is about on par for most football codes across Australia.
You can argue that simply by registering and playing each week that you are indeed supporting the club.
However, the Southport President said that the registration doesn’t cover all expenses.
“We charge senior men’s players around $500 in registration but it costs us over $800 to put each player on the park.