PROVIDING clarity over St Kilda Football Club’s home base will be one of the top priorities for CEO Matt Finnis as he enters his first full calendar year at the Saints.

When he started in the top job in April last year, Finnis commissioned a research project within the first few months that revealed St Kilda followers felt the club had drifted away, both physically and metaphorically.

He told a Melbourne radio station earlier this week that providing clarity around St Kilda’s home to address supporters’ concerns over the accessibility of the club was a priority.

“I can understand there’s been a fair bit of speculation (about the club’s location),” Finnis told SEN’s The Run Home.

“I guess people feel that maybe there’s a bit of confusion or lack of clarity when you start speculating about other options.  I did a lot of research when I first joined the club and I think people are looking for more clarity around what home is for the club and that’s what’s high on my agenda for the first part of 2015.”

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Finnis scotched recent media reports speculating that the Saints had their eye on a move to Elsternwick Park, but indicated discussions regarding a potential presence back at the club’s original home, the Junction Oval, were ongoing.  

“I heard that one over the Christmas period while I was away and I have to tell you there’s been no conversations at all in regards to Elsternwick Park, it’s not something which is on our agenda at all,” he said.

A possible move to Junction Oval emerged last year after St Kilda joined the AFL in their proposal to return the club to its original home.

The AFL is continuing discussions with the Victorian Government and the club is continuing to meet with local community groups to discuss the significant benefits of the move.

Discussions around the scope of extending our training and administration facilities to better engage the communities which support us are paramount to opening up the club to its supporters, according to Finnis.

Being more open and accessible with the St Kilda supporters is high on the agenda with the CEO pointing to a clear strategy to better engage with fans and bring them closer to the club.

Part of the plan has included establishing Twitter accounts for the CEO and senior coach so they can bring the club ‘to the people’.

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“Richo and I are digital dinosaurs a little bit, but we thought ‘if we’re asking the players and the coaches to be open, we need to lead from the front on that’, so I’m serious about that,” Finnis said.

“We’ve got a pretty good story we’re building down here and we have got to share it, we have got to be open.  If our members are supportive, they want to get involved and get some of those behind-the-scenes kind of insights, we’re only happy to provide them.

“That sends the right message I think, that we have got to be out there and be open and share this journey with all of our supporters.”

Momentum has been building at the club over recent months with the re-signing of 19 young guns, a contract extension for Nick Riewoldt, signing 25,000 members before Christmas and the announcement of new Principal Partner Dare Iced Coffee.

“It’s so important in terms of the momentum that we’re building that you get a big company like Lion Dairy and a brand like Dare Iced Coffee, it shows confidence in the direction that we’re heading and they’re going to back us and they want to grow with us as well,” Finnis said.

“We’ve certainly still got a few more irons in the fire in terms of growing our club, and I expect that we will be making more announcements in the future.

“We’ve got a big couple of months over February and March where we will take our Club to the streets, get out and engage with our people and we hope that will get us a good result.”