Yes.

Agreed.

I disagree

Matt knows the importance of publicity for any business, no doubt he's already been introduced to the ball-breaking hand-shaking fix-a-grin routine of "networking" and "breakfast clubs", bull gatherings of (mainly) solicitors and accountants touting for business in a self important manner, I hated them - Matt seems to know that you blow your own trumpet whenever you can because no-one out there is going to blow it for you.

Agreed.
He seems to be refuting your "big, daft lads" theory.
Good on him for preparing properly for life after sport.
First his degree, then his coaching qualifications & now this.
Seems to have his head screwed on.

Only one problem with all this.If he really wanted to say thank you to the fans why doesnt he gut the price of the tickets so he doesnt make anything on this particular event and refund people who have bought a ticket previously some money back.He will have made some decent money out of the testimonial so he could say" i'll sell them all at £20 and take the risk that it breaks even or makes a slight loss and put in the rest myself".With raffles and an auction on the night im sure if he gutted the prices he'd still break even

I'm somewhere in middle.

Whilst I totally the need to promote his business, I do thing trying to crowbar it in to a thank you letter is inappropriate.

"Thank you" leads to "Many years playing for Leeds" leads to "Testimonial year" leads to "Funds from testimonial helping business" leads to "Whilst we're on Business... Please use me!"

Cleverly done, but still transparent none the less. It does make it hard to take the rest of the letter with the thought in which I'm sure it was intended. Kind of reminds me of one of those shameless advertorial's you get in business magazines.

Like several other players in previous testimonial years the Matt Diskin one has included lots of events, some of which haven't cost anything (pub games nights etc) so its not just a case of trying to screw as much money as possible out of everyone.

That said there is a place for the "sportsmans dinner" function where, lets be honest, the attendees are screwed for every last penny and attend in the full knowledge that its going to happen, if you've ever been to one you'll know that with the aid of alcohol some of the attendees are often persuaded to part with ridiculous amounts of money for souvineers and this sort of event is absolutely set up and targeted at the sort of person who enjoys that sort of fleecing.

Put it simply, if you dropped the price of the tickets you'd attract the sort of person who would eat their chicken dinner, listen to Malcolm Lord and then sit on their hands and mutter "I'm not paying five hundred quid for a bloody rugby shirt", in other words, normal people.

The game time thing still puzzles me. He must've discussed with Potter the amount of game time he's expecting.

When fit, he played pretty much 40 minutes per match for us. Can't possibly see how much more than this he's likely to get?! L'Estrange & Godwin already only play 40 mins each. Even if they've moved one to half back or something, surely he's still going to be sharing the hooking role with one or the other?!

Anyway, this has all been discussed before. Ignore me.

Yes but my point is he is holding an event for his testimonial year to celebrate his career at Leeds when he is now officially a Bradford player.So if he wants to thank people he could and not make a penny for it

Well he just has thanked you in his letter.

Now he's making some money from a testimonial event, as is his right.

£35 isn't a lot of money for one of these events, I'm shocked to see that Malcolm Lord isn't doing it though, who's going to tell the chicken joke now - and will they change the menu ?

Theres a bumper banana and toffee harvest this year, it'll all end in tears if they serve apple pie.

I appreciate the need for him to publicise his business interests just disagree with his choice to incorporate it in to an open 'thank you' letter to the fans for all their support. (Presumably he'll now be offering a healthy discount to season ticket holders or perhaps anyone who wears a Leeds shirt when signing up, although that remained somewhat unclear from the message.) Diskin can write what he likes but that doesn't mean the official website of the club need to include it. Presumably the terms for this business advertisement will have been negotiated before publication.

I wish I could get as upset by such things

Why is there no "shrugs shoulders" emoticon ?

Meh.

Usually suffices in this situation.

Meh

What's the issue? the only people who would be interested in his business are those looking for a property already so any potential discounts he's offering are of benefit to the Rhinos fans