Published: 1 June 2020
Last updated: 4 March 2024
THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALIAN RULES football is littered with high-flying business leaders who, with just the faintest sniff of liniment in the air, abandoned all rational thought and made decisions ruled by their heart and not their head.
The Essendon supplements scandal started with a board full of corporate heavyweights installing club playing legend James Hird as senior coach in 2011, despite him only having coached one team, that of his nine-year-old son.
Andrew Bassat is determined not to fall into the trap. A second generation member of a prominent Melbourne Jewish family (his mother Nina has held many leadership positions in the community), Bassat is the co-founder and managing director of recruitment website SEEK and in his second year as president of the St Kilda Football Club, which runs a marginal second behind Carlton in the hearts and minds of the football-mad Melbourne Jewish community.
Like so many Melbourne Jews, Bassat’s passion for the Saints was handed down in his family. It was the neighbourhood club for the Jews of St Kilda, Caulfield and surrounding suburbs. He was six months old when the club won its only premiership, in 1966, which famously (at least for Jewish fans) was played on Yom Kippur.
He is active in the Jewish community and has discovered in the past 18 months that people are more interested in earbashing him about the Saints than inquiring about the workings of SEEK. He shares their pain but is excited to have a leading role as the club seeks to end years of disappointment and heartbreak.
There was optimism coming into the season, we’d attracted five quality players from other clubs and were on track for a record 50,000 membership and record sponsorship.
“You don’t make decisions three minutes after a bad loss or a big win,” he told The Jewish Independent, in an exclusive interview this week as he contemplated the return of football in mid-June after a three-month suspension of the 2020 season because of COVID-19.
Bassat has much on his plate. SEEK’s revenue has dropped by 70 per cent because of the dip in online recruitment caused by coronavirus. Meanwhile, the Saints, in addition to not playing games, have been forced to sideline 80 per cent of their full-time staff.
It is hardly the ideal launching pad for a critical season for the Saints, who are saddled with a $12 million debt and were hoping 2020 would be marked by on-field success, which would lead to more crowds and more sponsorship and the opportunity to chip away at the debt.
“The timing was terrible and it’s going to be a setback for sure,” he said. “There was optimism coming into the season, we’d attracted five quality players from other clubs and were on track for a record 50,000 membership and record sponsorship.
“So Covid has hit at the worst possible time for our club. [We] had a lot of momentum, but now we’ll end the year with significantly more debt than we would have otherwise, so we’ve taken a few steps back.”
St Kilda’s future in the AFL appears secure for now, as much as anything because the League’s multi-billion dollar TV deal requires 18 teams and nine games per round. But the Saints have nevertheless painted a stark message for their supporters, launching a fund-raising campaign which specifically warns that the club’s long-term future is in peril.
Covid has hit at the worst possible time. The club had a lot of momentum, but now we’ll end the year with significantly more debt than we would have otherwise, so we’ve taken a few steps back.
“The words are quite deliberately chosen. Our job is to make sure ... that if not all clubs have a chance (to win the premiership) that we’re one that can.”
SEEK is regularly rated among the best employers in the country. When Bassat and his younger brother Paul started the business in 1997, they understood that to compete with the classified advertising heavyweights, such as News Limited and Fairfax, they needed the best people.
He has taken that philosophy to the Saints, where he sees his role as supporting the management team and establishing the right culture and direction.
“If you get those right in any organisation success usually follows. If you don’t, success is hard but when I got there the building blocks were in place and we’ve been sharpening that up and looking towards becoming successful,” he said.
And it will be a football-led recovery. When the Saints were perennial finalists and even grand finalists between 2004 and 2011, they attracted huge crowds and the dollars started flowing.
But the club failed to capitalise on that success and ill-conceived decisions - such as leaving its home at Moorabbin for a few years to set up at Seaford, on the southern fringe of Melbourne, and no longer playing selected games in Tasmania - had a major impact on the bottom line. It was also hamstrung by a terrible commercial deal at Marvel Stadium, where the Saints now plays all their home games.
“The job for everyone at the club is to take the next step and … get St Kilda’s second flag,” he said. “And then we’ll worry about the third, fourth.
