Club Metro Board chairman Rod Hart with new manager Stacey Cromarty. Photo / Bevan Conley
Club Metro Board chairman Rod Hart with new manager Stacey Cromarty. Photo / Bevan Conley
Club Metro gone to its members for help to tackle its massive debt.
For the past 15 years the club has been paying around $1000 a week in interest on a $680,000 loan the CosmopolitanClub took out to carry out alterations.
There is still more than $600,000 left to pay off.
The Wanganui Cosmopolitan Club and the Wanganui RSA amalgamated to form Club Metro in late 2018, and it was hoped the sale of the RSA building on St Hill St would take care of the loan.
Club Metro Board Chairman Rod Hart said that "didn't pan out like that at all".
"What I can get from the history of it is that by the time the combined debts of the clubs were brought together there was significantly less than $600,000 left.
"I've even had a few bills pop out at me two or three years later," Hart said.
"There was a $53,000 GST bill for instance. That surprised the heck out of me."
"A fair bit of money comes into the place through gaming but the games themselves are quite old."
Club Metro is currently paying around $1000 a week in interest on the Cosmopolitan Club's 15-year-old loan. Photo / Bevan Conley
The proposal involves members paying $100 for a six-year membership (pay for five, get the sixth free), making a $100 donation, or both.
Through this Club Metro hopes to raise between $80,000 and $100,000 from its 1008 members.
"There's been a good uptake so far," Hart said.
"If we can get that money up front and turn it into gaming machines, we can turn that into income," Hart said.
"We see this as the route to take to put ourselves in a position to start taking chunks out of that loan."
Hart said the issue of funding and promoting gambling had been addressed before the proposal was put forward, and Club Metro already had procedures in place to deter problem gambling.
"What people fail to recognise is most of the small sports teams, Scouts, all sorts of things, are actually funded out of that money.
"It's a huge debate, and to be honest, at board level we were a little bit torn because we are essentially asking people to invest in gambling.
"At the end of the day it's a part of what the club does. It's the reason a lot of people come in, and they get enjoyment from it."
Hart said he was confident the proposal would be embraced by the club's members.
"How do you eat an elephant? You start with the first bite.
"Basically, if the club members want to get behind it then the club will do well.