This is a little note re: CEO drop-in at the Roar Store yesterday.
Note: this will not be as intricate at Jolls post (I'm not as good as he is!).
While there were about 50 people in attendance at the first CEO forum, a whopping SIX members (including me) showed up for yesterday's meeting at the Roar Store on Loftus Street. We were initially met by a young man wearing typical business casual attire who said he was responsible for over-seeing membership. His name escapes me at the moment, so let's just call him "Tim" for the sake of convenience.
Tim took a quick roll call and shook our hands. A few minutes later Shaun Mielekamp (SM), came down and also shook our hands. SM advised that it was a good day to be there because the playing group were off, so we had a bit more freedom to roam the Centre of Excellence (COE). There a was a brief, humorous moment where SM needed Tim to use his swipe card to let us into the facilities because he'd forgotten his!
The COE is a bit like the TARDIS from Doctor Who. From the outside at Loftus Street, it doesn't seem that large. But when you step inside - massive! We took a quick look at the various rooms, swimming pool, gym facilities etc. There are two sets of stairs outside the gym, which have the team motto on the first set of stairs and the organisation motto on the second set of stairs. I can't remember them all, but SM emphasised the importance of communication and teamwork.
We went up to the administration area where there is a decent sized sit-down café. SM said the café positioning allowed people different areas of the club - admin, coaching staff etc - to intermingle. NRLW coach Craig Sandercock briefly stopped by. He shook our hands and said he hoped to see us at the NRLW games that year. Seemed like a nice person.
In the administration area, SM's office is labelled "Football Manager", while the office labelled "Chief Executive Officer" is still vacant. SM told us that HBG have given him a minimum of 1-year in the interim-CEO role.
We adjourned to the boardroom. I resisted making a joke about the cleaners having done an excellent job in mopping up the blood. The chairs in the boardroom all have a "shadow" version of the Tiger logo embossed into them. Tim has his keyboard at the helm, presumably to take notes of anything mentioned in the meeting.
SM provides a 5-minute overview of his previous positions. He mentioned working under Richo at South Sydney. He said he joined the Wests Tigers at the behest of Richo, who saw him as a potential successor.
One of the attendees asked about communication at the club and the websites being "clunky". SM said the NRL controls the websites, not the clubs. He said he considered email communication with members to be the "baseline" of how the organisation should communicate information to members.
Another attendee spoke at length about the club being a "whipping post" for the media and how leaks have damaged the club. SM says he understood the frustration. He said he had been quoted at the previous meeting as saying that fixing the Wests Tigers problems would be "child's play". SM strongly denied ever saying that.
I mentioned Braith Anastas' comments from years ago about lack of strapping and not having enough Gatorade for all the players at the club. I asked if the currently facilities were up there with the best in the NRL. SM said previous Wests Tigers training facilities weren't very good, but now they have one of the best in the NRL (though he conceded the Parramatta Eels probably had the best training facilities of the NRL Clubs). He said some CEO's talk about "profitability", but profitability doesn't mean anything if players feel like they aren't being given everything they need to perform at their best. This "lack of strapping" problem became a bit of a running joke during the meeting, which was funny. 🙂
SM was asked about recruitment and dealing with player managers. Some of the attendees spoke very negatively about Isaac Moses. SM said agents initially deal with Shannon Gallant. The recruitment team consists of Gallant, SM and Benji. SM didn't knock Moses. He said there was a side to negotiations that fans don't see. He said if players aren't happy about something (strapping!) they will typically go to their managers. Ultimately managers are trying to get the best deal they can for their clients. He praised Adam Doueihi for his smarts and not needing a manager. He said some players do need managers though, as they may have difficulty talking to the club.
There is no news yet about Jahream Bula, but SM seemed confident there would be progress there.
I asked him about his appearance on Claws Out and the Wests Tigers forum. I asked whether the club monitors the website. This led to a funny moment where he mentioned how many Wests Tigers podcasts there were, and how he has to be careful that he doesn't anger the other podcasts by appearing on one. Mentioned that he heard the Wests Tigers podcasts were all coming together, which was exciting.
Regarding the forums, SM says he is being restrained from interacting with us but would love to one day. Says the forum represents "pure" feedback. He even mentioned Jolls by name (without any prompting from me!)
I raised the "Ask the Boss" segments and whether they would continue. SM wasn't a fan of those, says Pascoe "dropped the ball" with Ask the Boss, because the questions were too filtered/doctored. While he didn't rule it out, his lack of enthusiasm for the Ask the Boss segment was clear. SM said Pascoe took his old job at Penrith Panthers. SM says he occasionally ponders if he would have come to Wests Tigers earlier if he had stayed in the Panthers role.
Some of the attendees expressed concern about HBG having greater representation on the board. They asked about the hidden agenda of HBG to bring back the Wests Magpies. SM said if HBG were going to pour money into the Wests Tigers, then it's up to him to make sure the money is going into the right areas (i.e. pathways). He said PVL was clear about the club remaining Wests Tigers. He mentioned one of the HBG representatives on the Wests Tigers board having previously worked for the Balmain Tigers, so not all of HBG are coming from the Magpies side of things. He pointed to Leo Epifania; says while he has sometimes said 'wrong' things to the media, he is a Wests Tigers fan. He says no one will want to see the Wests Magpies brought back if the Wests Tigers can start winning. He also said he wouldn't disparage HBG, since they were the ones who hired him.
Someone raised why we play Parramatta at Commbank. Why not ANZ Stadium? Commbank offers better commercial return than ANZ. He went through the numbers mentioned at the previous meeting where he said a sold-out L.Oval or Campbelltown nets $350K vs $900K at Commbank.
The members raised the issue of the KOE team being called Wests Magpies. SM said a lot of HBG grew up with the Magpies and it was a "hot-button" issue. Some of the attendees said it wasn't fair to have a Western Suburbs Magpies team in the KOE, but not a Balmain Tigers team. (Personal perspective - I don't care what our KOE side is called. The Sydney Roosters used the North Sydney Bears as their KOE side for years and it didn't affect them).
As we reached the end of the session, I was able to raise my two pet-peeves. One about the un-necessary music being played at the home grounds during the game (Playing Welcome to the Jungle when the players run out and at half-time is okay. But no need to ruin the ambience by belting out tunes every 5 minutes during the game).
My second pet-peeve was how our jersey appears to be "blood orange" during some telecasts and how it should be a lighter, more "fun" shade of orange. SM seemed bemused by this. He talked about his time at Panthers and how he introduced the teal version of the Panthers jersey. He said this led to complaints from fans there because on TV the jersey looked sky-blue instead of teal. (Shaun, I know you're reading this - please pick up the phone to CCC and ask them to use a lighter shade of orange. It would look so much better on TV.)
I was the only member present who was under-65. The others seemed to be mostly old Tigers fans. SM listened to what they had to say with patience and answered the questions as best he could. I can understand them cutting the run-time down from 2 hours to 1 hour.
We left the boardroom. SM quickly shook our hands and thanked us for coming.
Note: this will not be as intricate at Jolls post (I'm not as good as he is!).
While there were about 50 people in attendance at the first CEO forum, a whopping SIX members (including me) showed up for yesterday's meeting at the Roar Store on Loftus Street. We were initially met by a young man wearing typical business casual attire who said he was responsible for over-seeing membership. His name escapes me at the moment, so let's just call him "Tim" for the sake of convenience.
Tim took a quick roll call and shook our hands. A few minutes later Shaun Mielekamp (SM), came down and also shook our hands. SM advised that it was a good day to be there because the playing group were off, so we had a bit more freedom to roam the Centre of Excellence (COE). There a was a brief, humorous moment where SM needed Tim to use his swipe card to let us into the facilities because he'd forgotten his!
The COE is a bit like the TARDIS from Doctor Who. From the outside at Loftus Street, it doesn't seem that large. But when you step inside - massive! We took a quick look at the various rooms, swimming pool, gym facilities etc. There are two sets of stairs outside the gym, which have the team motto on the first set of stairs and the organisation motto on the second set of stairs. I can't remember them all, but SM emphasised the importance of communication and teamwork.
We went up to the administration area where there is a decent sized sit-down café. SM said the café positioning allowed people different areas of the club - admin, coaching staff etc - to intermingle. NRLW coach Craig Sandercock briefly stopped by. He shook our hands and said he hoped to see us at the NRLW games that year. Seemed like a nice person.
In the administration area, SM's office is labelled "Football Manager", while the office labelled "Chief Executive Officer" is still vacant. SM told us that HBG have given him a minimum of 1-year in the interim-CEO role.
We adjourned to the boardroom. I resisted making a joke about the cleaners having done an excellent job in mopping up the blood. The chairs in the boardroom all have a "shadow" version of the Tiger logo embossed into them. Tim has his keyboard at the helm, presumably to take notes of anything mentioned in the meeting.
SM provides a 5-minute overview of his previous positions. He mentioned working under Richo at South Sydney. He said he joined the Wests Tigers at the behest of Richo, who saw him as a potential successor.
One of the attendees asked about communication at the club and the websites being "clunky". SM said the NRL controls the websites, not the clubs. He said he considered email communication with members to be the "baseline" of how the organisation should communicate information to members.
Another attendee spoke at length about the club being a "whipping post" for the media and how leaks have damaged the club. SM says he understood the frustration. He said he had been quoted at the previous meeting as saying that fixing the Wests Tigers problems would be "child's play". SM strongly denied ever saying that.
I mentioned Braith Anastas' comments from years ago about lack of strapping and not having enough Gatorade for all the players at the club. I asked if the currently facilities were up there with the best in the NRL. SM said previous Wests Tigers training facilities weren't very good, but now they have one of the best in the NRL (though he conceded the Parramatta Eels probably had the best training facilities of the NRL Clubs). He said some CEO's talk about "profitability", but profitability doesn't mean anything if players feel like they aren't being given everything they need to perform at their best. This "lack of strapping" problem became a bit of a running joke during the meeting, which was funny. 🙂
SM was asked about recruitment and dealing with player managers. Some of the attendees spoke very negatively about Isaac Moses. SM said agents initially deal with Shannon Gallant. The recruitment team consists of Gallant, SM and Benji. SM didn't knock Moses. He said there was a side to negotiations that fans don't see. He said if players aren't happy about something (strapping!) they will typically go to their managers. Ultimately managers are trying to get the best deal they can for their clients. He praised Adam Doueihi for his smarts and not needing a manager. He said some players do need managers though, as they may have difficulty talking to the club.
There is no news yet about Jahream Bula, but SM seemed confident there would be progress there.
I asked him about his appearance on Claws Out and the Wests Tigers forum. I asked whether the club monitors the website. This led to a funny moment where he mentioned how many Wests Tigers podcasts there were, and how he has to be careful that he doesn't anger the other podcasts by appearing on one. Mentioned that he heard the Wests Tigers podcasts were all coming together, which was exciting.
Regarding the forums, SM says he is being restrained from interacting with us but would love to one day. Says the forum represents "pure" feedback. He even mentioned Jolls by name (without any prompting from me!)
I raised the "Ask the Boss" segments and whether they would continue. SM wasn't a fan of those, says Pascoe "dropped the ball" with Ask the Boss, because the questions were too filtered/doctored. While he didn't rule it out, his lack of enthusiasm for the Ask the Boss segment was clear. SM said Pascoe took his old job at Penrith Panthers. SM says he occasionally ponders if he would have come to Wests Tigers earlier if he had stayed in the Panthers role.
Some of the attendees expressed concern about HBG having greater representation on the board. They asked about the hidden agenda of HBG to bring back the Wests Magpies. SM said if HBG were going to pour money into the Wests Tigers, then it's up to him to make sure the money is going into the right areas (i.e. pathways). He said PVL was clear about the club remaining Wests Tigers. He mentioned one of the HBG representatives on the Wests Tigers board having previously worked for the Balmain Tigers, so not all of HBG are coming from the Magpies side of things. He pointed to Leo Epifania; says while he has sometimes said 'wrong' things to the media, he is a Wests Tigers fan. He says no one will want to see the Wests Magpies brought back if the Wests Tigers can start winning. He also said he wouldn't disparage HBG, since they were the ones who hired him.
Someone raised why we play Parramatta at Commbank. Why not ANZ Stadium? Commbank offers better commercial return than ANZ. He went through the numbers mentioned at the previous meeting where he said a sold-out L.Oval or Campbelltown nets $350K vs $900K at Commbank.
The members raised the issue of the KOE team being called Wests Magpies. SM said a lot of HBG grew up with the Magpies and it was a "hot-button" issue. Some of the attendees said it wasn't fair to have a Western Suburbs Magpies team in the KOE, but not a Balmain Tigers team. (Personal perspective - I don't care what our KOE side is called. The Sydney Roosters used the North Sydney Bears as their KOE side for years and it didn't affect them).
As we reached the end of the session, I was able to raise my two pet-peeves. One about the un-necessary music being played at the home grounds during the game (Playing Welcome to the Jungle when the players run out and at half-time is okay. But no need to ruin the ambience by belting out tunes every 5 minutes during the game).
My second pet-peeve was how our jersey appears to be "blood orange" during some telecasts and how it should be a lighter, more "fun" shade of orange. SM seemed bemused by this. He talked about his time at Panthers and how he introduced the teal version of the Panthers jersey. He said this led to complaints from fans there because on TV the jersey looked sky-blue instead of teal. (Shaun, I know you're reading this - please pick up the phone to CCC and ask them to use a lighter shade of orange. It would look so much better on TV.)
I was the only member present who was under-65. The others seemed to be mostly old Tigers fans. SM listened to what they had to say with patience and answered the questions as best he could. I can understand them cutting the run-time down from 2 hours to 1 hour.
We left the boardroom. SM quickly shook our hands and thanked us for coming.
