The West Perth Football Club has walked away from a $30,000 City of Joondalup sponsorship deal – citing pressures over a permanent name change.
Falcons CEO Joe McCarthy informed members on Thursday evening of the decision to withdraw the sponsorship proposal that was approved at Tuesday’s council meeting subject to conditions added by council members.
“Over the last three months I have been working closely with the City of Joondalup around a sponsorship proposal,” Mr McCarthy said in a club statement. “This proposal did not at any stage involve the issue of a name change to the Joondalup Falcons.
“We are and always will be the West Perth Football Club.
“The sponsorship proposal was approved for $30,000 but with an amendment from a small number of councillors that it be subject to the move to a name change to the Joondalup Falcons.“Based on this amendment we have rejected the sponsorship and withdrawn the entire application.”
The club statement referred to Cr Russ Fishwick who proposed a first amendment that the sponsorship be brought back to the council for final approval with specific details such as the club’s attendance numbers and media exposure. It was passed 11-2 with Mayor Albert Jacob and Cr Adrian Hill voting against.
A second amendment was added for the city to request that the club consider a permanent name change to Joondalup Football Club or Joondalup Falcons Football Club. It passed 12-1 with the mayor voting against.
The final sponsorship proposal with the added conditions was passed 12-1, with Cr Daniel Kingston the sole voter against.
Mr McCarthy said in the statement that the name change discussion “clearly shows that several councillors have a poor understanding of WAFL football and how it operates”.
“Why is the Perth Football Club based in East Victoria Park or the Subiaco club based in Leederville not being forced to look at name changes,” Mr McCarthy said.
“We love our home oval. We are the club of the north with feeder clubs within both the City of Wanneroo and Joondalup. We have great community connections locally however we will never forget where we have come from. “
Mr Jacob said in response to PerthNow that the sponsorship deal was not dependant on the club changing its name and was disappointed by the club’s decision.
“The City of Joondalup can confirm that West Perth Football Club has withdrawn its application for $30,000 in sponsorship, which was approved, subject to conditions, by Joondalup council on Tuesday evening,” he said.
“One of these conditions was that council must endorse the final agreement before it could be implemented.
“The funding did not depend on the club changing its name. The council did want to ask the club to reconsider a name change that would reflect its home of the past 30 years.
“The city is disappointed that West Perth has decided to withdraw its request for sponsorship but respects the club’s decision and wishes the Falcons all the best for the 2024 WAFL and WAFLW season.”
“We will continue our ongoing positive relationship with the club and would welcome any future application for funding.”
Mr McCarthy told PerthNow that the club was disappointed by the council’s added request for the consideration of a permanent name change. He said the club would have “wholeheartedly” accepted the terms without the amendment.
“We’re on public record to say we’re not going to be called Joondalup Falcons ever and it (name change request) was put on there without any thought or consequence of the actions of putting it on there,” he said.
“Once that’s in writing on there, for us, it’s heading down a path we will never head down.”
Mr McCarthy said the tough decision to walk away from the $30,000 was not as difficult as the potential loss of funding from sponsors from a name change.
“That’s the part that councillors don’t understand, one of them made a comment around that we’ll find extra sponsors locally,” he said.
“We’re quite strong with our local sponsorship, they don’t understand that $30,000 in and $150,000 out doesn’t make sense if we were to change our name.
“The City of Joondalup administration staff were fantastic to deal with in the process, we’ve just been let down by a couple of councillors.”
Former West Perth president from Brett Raponi is all too familiar with the ongoing saga between club and city regarding the club name, having served from 2008 to 2016.
In his last year as president, the city ended their three-year sponsorship and said they would not enter further agreements “unless the club has changed its name to better reflect its location and home at Arena Joondalup”.
Mr Raponi said for a name change to be considered, the council would need to enter a long-term agreement “possibly up to five years for West Perth to actually absorb any potential loss”.
“I give credit to Albert Jacob, I think he showed a clear understanding which isn’t just the City of Joondalup and Wanneroo sponsor the football club,” he said.
“Having been in that position $30,000 is a significant amount of money to a football club and not the least to West Perth who are trying to bounce back from a difficult period.
“I’m sure there would have been a lot of conversation around it but as in my time, I’m sure they also considered what the opportunity costs.”
Mr Raponi said he was disappointed by the discussion of councillors at Tuesday’s meeting.
“The majority of the City of Joondalup councillors with the exception of Mayor Albert Jacob have once again missed the point with regards to a sponsorship proposal request from the West Perth Football Club,” he said.
“Mayor Jacob quite rightly acknowledged that the club, while based into Joondalup, has an affiliation with the City of Wanneroo.
“The Falcons run various men’s, women’s, and children’s programs from the wider Joondalup and Wanneroo suburbs. It so to draws most of its players from Joondalup and Wanneroo’s area.
“Sponsorship of a sporting organisation should not be based around the name of the organisation but more on the measured role a club plays within its community.”