You're a Bunch of Factors

It's very sad to see the Brahma Lodge Sports Centre has left NPL due to another venue thinking they had lost their regular player to them for being open on the same night.

I like many others went to their opening night on the Wednesday because I had a good chance of hitting the top five over the remaining 4 weeks of the season.

Whereas at my regular venues, Parafield Flying Club (Monday), Parafield Gardens Community Club (Wednesday) and Para Hills Community Club (Thursday) I was only in with a very slight chance at the Flying Club.

What a shame someone from NPL or the Gardens didn't take the time to do a head check to see if their findings were correct or not.

If they had they would have found that as little as 3 regulars from the Gardens were there on the final night including myself. There were around four or five there the week before and around the same on the two previous nights.

I'm talking about regular players not drifters. At best there may have been an additional 3 or 4 who occasionally play at the Gardens.

There were 46 on the first night, 65 on the second, 58 on the third and 56 on the fourth. Most of the players were from Para hills, Pooraka and some from the other NPL venues that recently closed in the area.

I may be out of my depth here but I just can't see the value in losing another venue such as this because someone didn't do their home work.

Tim Harry would recognised 95% of his regulars that go to the Gardens and could have easily pulled the Brahma's registration pages on the NPL site for each night and counted the numbers.

I could be wrong as I only recognised the Guys & Gals that I knew as regulars from the Gardens so he would have had a better idea and could have saved this venue.

There were a lot of unhappy punters who would have liked to have continued playing at the Brahma because of various reasons. Some due to the closeness to their home, others for the hospitality and effort that Joe & Tony put into making it a great venue.

Maybe the Gardens need to look elsewhere for their drop off in numbers. I haven't been there for 4 weeks so who knows what has happened to their following and why they aren't returning????

Is it their drink prices, stamping of the flight cards, food costs or quality or is it that people just move on after being a regular looking for a change and a chance to play different venues?????

I personally had intended returning to the Gardens as I enjoy playing there. The kitchen can't cook a steak how I like it even served on a white plate, so maybe I'll try something else.

Well that's it for me. I was asked by a number of punters on Monday if it was true and Dakota confirmed it was. I was asked if I was going to say something but as a decision had already been made what was I going to achieve, I'm only a punter.

Having said that, I decided that someone needed to say something on Brahma's behalf and now I have, so for what it's worth that's it from me.

Cheers Bob B

Bob, did you actually hear from someone official that Brahma closed down because (I hope I'm reading this right) Parafield Gardens were losing too many regulars?

I just don't see that happening. Why would NPL want to lose a venue for a stupid reason like that? In the end, the players are still playing NPL poker.

I'm sure there's another reason - the venue wasn't happy, or NPL didn't like the numbers they were getting, poor stamping policy, whatever - there has to be SOMETHING more important than Parafield losing "a few regulars."

Unfortunately AK I wish it was for some other reasons. However, I was told in the second week that the Gardens were blaming the Brahma for their drop in players. I was also led to believe they may consider pulling out if the Brahma didn't change to Tuesday.

Joe and Tony weren't happy about it as they were doing everything they could to encourage punters to come to their venue. I spoke to Ash and he confirmed they may have to change to the Tuesday night for reasons I have already posted.

Tony was adament that he wanted to keep the Wednesday night after asking various players if they would come on a Tuesday night. Unfortunately most of the players play at Pooraka Football Club but were prepared to continue supporting the Brahma on a Wednesday night.

Unfortunately they weren't prepared to try a Tuesday night. I would have gone there to support them and maybe some other would have too as I don't play anywhere on a Tuesday.

I have been playing at the Gardens since the second or third week of NPL's first season. Over that period I have been a major supporter of the Gardens and will continue to do so as Tim runs a pretty good fun filled tourney.

The Gardens had been running around the mid 80's mark each week until they offered Cash prizes for season 2. They then grew to around the 90's and cracked the 100 plus on the 3rd or 4th week.

From there it sat around the 100 and got as high as 118 runners but dropped off in the last four weeks to 91 on the 7th May, 74 on the 14th, 83 on the 21st and 80 on the 30th.

In hindsight the Gardens have been with NPL form the beginning on a Wednesday night and started a Sunday afternoon tourney last season. Both days appear to attract the same followers but the Wednesday night gets around twice the numbers.

So, I guess if I/we were in their position (the Gardens) we would also use the "it's them or us" to our advantage. So I'll be at the Gardens tonite as I had intended and I'll see you at the Kingy tomorrow night AK, regards Bob B.

P.S. I just noticed they (Brahma) have been removed from the Tuesday venues so I guess we have lost them to the opposition.

Bob B wrote:Unfortunately AK I wish it was for some other reasons. However, I was told in the second week that the Gardens were blaming the Brahma for their drop in players. I was also led to believe they may consider pulling out if the Brahma didn't change to Tuesday.

Well that's sucking ftupid.

"We were here first, go away!"

Bob B wrote:So, I guess if I/we were in their position (the Gardens) we would also use the "it's them or us" to our advantage. So I'll be at the Gardens tonite as I had intended and I'll see you at the Kingy tomorrow night AK, regards Bob B.

P.S. I just noticed they (Brahma) have been removed from the Tuesday venues so I guess we have lost them to the opposition.

That's not the right way to go about it, though. "Get rid of Brahma or we're leaving!" what is this, high school? Competition is everywhere. Why, in a few weeks a service station will be opening JUST across the road from another. Both are expected to be dropping prices to compete, but do you think if one starts to get less revenue, they'll threaten to close up shop? No, and if they did, nobody would care, they'd continue to go to the other servo.

Just seems a bit childish to me.

Hey don't get me wrong mate. I was and still am one of the staunchest supporters of the Gardens. I even tried to put them up for an end of season final only to be told it will never happen.

So check this out AK the Gardens are putting up the cash, the chip sets and the booze so you can't say they aren't trying to be #1 venue.

CLICK HERE viewtopic.php?f=31&t=1410

They might even got you Gawler Barossa boys there LOL

PG is a great venue. They just need to check out their stamping policy.

BL was just closer for me, and more likely to get me there on a spur of the moment game.

Does anyone else have trouble with the main npl site? I can't access it at all.

As far as I can see there is a lot of rumour in here. We are guessing to at why BLSC isnt doing NPL.

It could be for a lot of other reasons too.

Bacon wrote:Does anyone else have trouble with the main npl site? I can't access it at all.

Working for me mate.

Bob B wrote:So check this out AK the Gardens are putting up the cash, the chip sets and the booze so you can't say they aren't trying to be #1 venue.

CLICK HERE viewtopic.php?f=31&t=1410

Oh no question they're doing a great job Bob, I keep hearing good things about the Gardens, and honestly, those prizes are the best I've ever heard about - I mean chip sets, wow.

It just (one of my favourite phrases ) doesn't seem right for Parafield to bitch and moan like that.

Of course, that's...

Des Beaty wrote:As far as I can see there is a lot of rumour in here. We are guessing to at why BLSC isnt doing NPL.

It could be for a lot of other reasons too.

...if they even are. Like Des said, there's a lot of accusations going on here - and nobody is 100% sure on why Bharma closed. Unless it was because of Bob's reasons, which means in that case I've lost a lot of respect for their (Gardens) venue manager.

Read your post Bob, seems like the pgcc are childish & now they they want to buy us off with money, chip sets etc etc.
Well to put it bluntly, they can Kiss my A**