CAIRNS Taipans' players are confident in the club's position this season despite a leaked Cairns Regional Council report painting a bleak picture of the financial future.
President Denis Donaghy spoke to the players at training on Sunday, outlining the Taipans’ position and explaining the club’s requirements to throw open its books to the council following its decision to extend the $1 million guarantee to Basketball Australia to allow the club to take part in the NBL.
Pictures: Cairns Taipans 2009-10
"Denis came in and had a chat to us and he explained it all fully to us and all the guys are fairly cool with it," player Gary Boodnikoff said.
"I’m not too worried about it.
"I think from what I’ve been told that the council need to know what’s going on with the team and it has to be fully disclosed to them so they’ve got their information.
"What’s happening is that on the books it doesn’t look very good but we’ve got a lot of money coming in, in other areas.
"There’s a lot of sponsorship money that hasn’t come in, you can’t put that in your books if it hasn’t come in.
"There is money but it probably didn’t need to be leaked at this stage. In three or four months’ time, if they haven’t got any money, fair enough. But you don’t need to go all doom and gloom halfway through the season knowing that there is money around that they haven’t used yet.
"I don’t know who it was in the council that did that, but they probably should have thought twice about what they were doing."
Boodnikoff is among several Taipans players who took a 45 per cent pay cut last season after the club was placed in voluntary administration.
He was re-signed by the "new Taipans" – the community-run entity that raised more than $700,000 through foundation memberships to allow the club to book a place in this season’s NBL – along with four of his teammates, with five new faces joining for the 2009-10 season.
Boodnikoff said all the players understood the Taipans were a lean organisation that functions on public funds.
"That’s the way we run these days. We don’t have a million-dollar backer behind us just throwing money at us like we did with (former Taipans owner) John O’Brien," he said.
"We’ve got to live like that and we live on the money that comes in through ticket sales and that’s why we need more people at games because that’s how we survive.
"We’re not out to make money. I don’t know if people realise that, we’re not a team that’s out to make a profit, we’re happy not to make a profit but keep the team alive for the town."
