26 July - 1 August 2001

The business of sports

Lack of money has put local waterpolo clubs into severe crisis – Dr Lino Vella, president of GoMobile Sirens ASC, talks to Blanche Gatt about the worsening situation, and outlines some of his club’s plans to achieve solvency and profitability within the next few years

For most Maltese sports lovers, summer is synonymous with the game of waterpolo. For many years it was the number two spectator team sport after football. Matches were played in the picturesque club pitches and drew huge crowds to the venues. Each club had its first team, junior teams and most even had a ladies team.
Compare that to the situation today. Only three teams have
managed to put together teams to enter all competitions organised by the Amateur Swimming Association. The association was constrained to scrap the first and second divisions and put all the teams in one division as only four teams had applied to play in the first division. The disparity between the top three clubs and the rest of the teams has led to a situation where some matches are being watched by no more than 20 people.
The reason for this is clear to most observers; in today’s environment a club needs a strong commercial backbone if it is to survive and flourish. But making sports pay is something few local clubs have ever managed to do. Especially in waterpolo. This has myriad implications, but the erosion of the sports’ spectator value is probably the most damaging. And so the vicious circle continues – when a good player becomes available for transfer there is no way that the so-called smaller clubs can compete for his signature so the gap just widens further. The financial situation is such that as things stand there is no way that this gap can ever be bridged.
But it is not only the small clubs that find it hard to survive financially. Dr Lino Vella is better known for his “real” job as director of Veterinary Services in the Ministry for Agriculture. But for the past 32 years he has also been actively involved on the local waterpolo scene as President of reigning champions, Go Mobile Sirens ASC. He has seen his club at the top in the 1960s, go into a steady decline during the 1970s and 1980s and become a consistent challenger for honours over the last 10 years.
“Every year is a struggle to make ends meet. When I first started out, it cost no more than Lm300 a year to run Sirens ASC. Now the figure is close to Lm60,000. The bulk of it goes to paying players and coaches but the peripheral expenses are also substantial. As far as Sirens are concerned we are at a disadvantage with the other big two as we have only 250 members who pay on average Lm6 each per annum. That doesn’t even cover our water bill for the showers. But from talking to my colleagues at other clubs the situation is very much the same.”
The economics of Maltese sports are difficult to get right. Participation in most sports means many hours of practice for which athletes rightly expect compensation.
“Twenty years ago remuneration at our club was unheard of. All played for the love of the game. At the most, players would be invited on an end of season tour of a foreign country for which the club would fork out part of the expenses. Our players did not expect anything else. At the time waterpolo was a four-month commitment. Training started in mid-May and came to an end in mid-September. Whoever had a part-time job would juggle it around his training schedule. Now with round-the-year training this is not possible, so players expect to be compensated for this loss in earnings. This is fair enough but the money is just not coming in,” said Dr Vella.
“Our club has three main income streams – the bar at the club premises, sponsorship and donations and fund-raising activities. Up to a few years ago we also had a good income from poolside advertising but with the proliferation of radio and TV stations, newspapers and a multitude of other publications, advertising has been more difficult to come by. We used to have around 20 companies who placed advertising boards at our clubs 10 years ago. These have dwindled down to three this year.”
In an effort to maximise income from the catering facilities, the Sirens committee decided three years ago to form its own company to run the operation rather than lease out the premises to a catering contractor.
“In this way we hoped to gain in two ways. Firstly all profits come directly to the club and we also have more control over prices and
quality of food and service. The operation is run by an autonomous company fully owned by the club. The experiment has been a qualified success and we have seen a slight increase in our income. But the initial capital outlay means that the company has to pay off loans taken out to refurbish and equip the premises. So we hope to start reaping our proper benefits after the next two or three years.”
“But this should just be the start. We have ambitious plans to turn our club into a multi-disciplinary sports facility with a pool and a specialised gym. Obviously the financing of it all is the major problem. But I have no doubt that if the project is up and running it should be in a position to finance itself and contribute towards the running of the various teams. My idea is for the government to finance the cost of setting up the facilities that would in turn be run by the club.
“Sirens will have its waterpolo, swimming, diving and rowing teams. In return the facilities would then be made available free of charge to government schools of the area with professional coaching provided by the clubs. This will
create a hive of activity around the club attracting paying customers who in turn subsidise the cost of the teams.”
Collaboration with schools in the area is obviously a subject close to Dr Vella’s heart.
“We had a very successful experiment with a private school a few years ago and would love to be able to do something with the government schools of the area. By our area I also mean Mosta, Naxxar, St Paul’s Bay, Mgarr and Mellieha. Unfortunately, the culture does not exist and sports in schools is run totally outside the sphere of the national sports associations. So we end up with a duplication of resources and obviously a duplication of costs. So why not work together rather than in isolation?” asked Dr Vella. “At the end of the day it is a simple matter of supply and demand. If there are more players coming into the game to choose from we could see a general settling down of prices that players demand each year from clubs.”
It is ironic that in a summer when transfer fees in European football went crazy, with tens of millions of liri changing hands for one single player, Maltese sports organisations can only look on in amazement as they struggle to make ends meet.
“What these players earn in one week would keep my club going for a whole year,” said Dr Vella. “Indeed what one of them earns in just one year could change the face of sports in Malta. With three million liri we could easily build eight of the facilities I mentioned. What is really required is a clear vision and an understanding at the very top. Three million liri may sound like a lot of money but is just a drop in government finances. If one were to look at the long-term benefits for society in general if Maltese sports were given a solid financial platform from which to work, the investment can yield dividends that can be measured in human rather than monetary terms,” concluded Dr Vella.