The Cairns Taipans are battling for survival as they try to negotiate a new lease with the Cairns Convention Centre.

Taipans chief executive Denis Keeffe has written an open letter to the community to state the club’s position in the lease negotiations:

I am writing to ensure that there are no mixed messages in the community in relation to the Cairns Taipans and to ensure everyone is fully aware of our current situation.

The lease at the Cairns Convention Centre was inherited by our owners John O’Brien and Lui Garozzo when they took over the Taipans and also by me when I came on board as the club's CEO.

The contract expires at the end of this season and as such we are currently in the process of discussions about renewing our lease at the Cairns Convention Centre.

The agreement in its current form is unworkable and so completely one sided and is unlike any I have seen in my 20 years involved in sports administration.

Unless the current lease is changed and concessions are given to the Taipans which fall in line with NORMAL anchor tenant lease agreements then the Taipans will be in a position of losing money each season no matter how many fans attend home games.

I would like to point out that for the past 10 years the Taipans have NOT RECEIVED A SINGLE CENT from any beverage or food sold at our home games of which in excess of 70,000 people attend each year.

ALL income received is retained by the management company running the facility on behalf of the State Government. We also do not have any say in what product is sold at our home games and as such cannot leverage sponsorship opportunities to increase our sponsorship base and income.

All product negotiations are undertaken by the Convention Centre of which we have no involvement or say in. We also have no control on quality or pricing in our corporate or public food outlets which to us simply makes no sense.

The club survives because of the benevolence of our owners and their passion and commitment to ensuring that Cairns has a national sporting club representing the region.

They will never make money on the Taipans and if we can get to a situation where the clubs pays for itself each year then we will have a long future and we will be able to pump money back into the development of junior basketball in the region which we are unable to do at this time.

All we are asking for is the opportunity to have some control over our own destiny, which unfortunately we do not have at the moment.

The number one aspect of survival is a workable and beneficial lease agreement at the Cairns Convention Centre which at the end of the day is a State Government owned facility built with your taxpaying dollars.

Normal lease agreements contain benefits to the anchor tenant such as a percentage of F&B sales back to the anchor tenant and/or the right to nominate certain product lines to be sold at home games.

It also should include a partnership in setting pricing, negotiating landing price of product, ability to nominate and control security firms at home games and quality control of product served to patrons and corporate clients – none of which we have in our current agreement. In the end of the day fans come to the Cairns Convention Centre to watch Taipans games not because it is the Convention Centre.

There is a lot of passionate staff involved in the club who gives more than their fair share of time, blood, sweat and tears and truly believe in the Taipans.

It is not merely about winning or losing. I believe we will never in my lifetime have an NRL or AFL club based in Cairns – the market is just to small, however basketball is ready made for the region. Having a national team drives passion, ignites community spirit, shares wealth in the town and gives Cairns an identity that is marketed to the rest of Australia.

We are fully committed to continually having the Cairns Taipans represent Cairns in any future NBL competition for the benefit of Cairns, but it is high time that the community knows and understands the conditions we are operating under.

All we are asking for is a fair go and unless things change with our lease agreement at the Cairns Convention Centre and local and State government step in to correct the current situation then we will never be in a position to control our own destiny and have our long term future secured."

Denis Keeffe

CEO

Cairns Taipans

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