Imagine if you will a very naked Roary, the Brisbane Roar mascot, rolling naked on a king-size bed, rubbing pawfuls of money all over his furry body while purring with ecstatic glee much like Demi Moore in Indecent Proposal.
Seriously, close your eyes and do it. I'll wait.
Now, if you just threw up in your mouth a little bit then I apologise, but I assure you there is a point to the vaguely pornographic picture I just painted for you.
You see, following Roar's most recent round of player transfers, Brisbane are now somewhat in the money. Well, at least by A-League standards anyway.
And it's about time too.
For too many years this football club failed to be adequately compensated for identifying and/or developing talent that has gone on to serve other clubs and eventually the Socceroos as all the while the club's bottom line dropped ever lower.
It is undeniable that at a professional club players will always come and go but what raised the ire of many fans was that the likes of David Williams, Dario Vidosic, Sasa Ognenevski and Robbie Kruse all left Brisbane without a single cent finding its way in to the Roar coffers.
Gladly, it seems that with the latest transfers, this is no longer the case. It started with the bulk sale of Tommy Oar, Michael Zullo and Adam Sarota to FC Utrecht in the off season; and it now continues with Luke de Vere and Reinaldo over the past few weeks.
Although the two most recent transfer fees haven't been made public, reports and speculation from a myriad of respected football publications have suggested that Roar would've commanded six-figure payments for each of the players. This would easily bring the total reported figure from transfers over the past 12 months to near $3 million.
That's a pretty decent windfall and of course it's natural for Roar fans to start wondering just how this money will be spent by the club.
Some have suggested a name marquee, or perhaps even two, could be recruited for next season. Others have stated that ensuring we retain the long-term services of Matt McKay or Jean-Carlos Solorzano would be a much more prudent investment.
And those of you that suffered through the opening paragraph are probably suggesting we spend all the money fighting an unavoidable legal battle against PETA after we stitch Roary's shorts to his body thus ensuring he never gets naked ever again.
However at the risk of sounding like a lion-fancier (granted the ship may have sailed on that one long ago) I say no to any of those things.
In my humble opinion I am willing to suggest that the transfer revenue could, at least in part, be used to repay the faith shown by the club's backers in bankrolling this team for the past few seasons.
You see, it wasn't that long ago that the original Roar part-owners Queensland Lions had abandoned their A-League incarnation and Football Federation Australia were circling this club's convulsing carcase like a vulture.
But then four football fans stepped up, shooed the administrators away by increasing their initial investments and began the slow process of nursing our club back to competitive health.
They enacted a series of changes - putting a broom through the back offices and then opportunistically overhauling the technical staff which in turn saw the recruitment of new faces in the playing squad.
In short, without the club owners - Emmanuel Drivas, Emmanuel Kokoris, Claude Baradel and Serge Baradel - Brisbane simply wouldn't have the team that are being so rightly lauded by fans, media and former football greats. In fact, if the worse case scenario had come to pass, then perhaps there would no longer be a team in Brisbane at all.
You see, the Roar owners are not from the same mould as the zillionaire club owners we constantly hear moaned about in the English press. This Roar Four are not operating the club as their personal plaything in defiance of long-standing traditions and generations-deep heritage.
Rather, they are doing their utmost to build from the ground up a winning culture of their own and they are wilfully sharing it with the city of Brisbane and anyone else that wants to support this football club.
So far, their efforts have undoubtedly been beyond the wildest dreams of the players, staff, fans and, dare I say, even themselves.
In light of this, it should be for these four men to reap some return, no matter how paltry in financial terms, upon their significant investments and let them decide the best way it is to be spent.
Popularity with the fan base is laudable in theory but not always in the best interests of the club from a business perspective. For better or for worse the fans, or for that matter opinionated bloggers, do not get to see the books so any pronouncements they make are generally in the absence of all the necessary facts.
As such, if the Roar Four conclude in consultation with management that re-investing in the playing squad by recruiting an ageing European stalwart, South American whiz-kid or returning Socceroo is the best way forward, then so be it.
But if they decide there are less sexy ways to benefit the club, such as supporting grassroots competitions like the Brisbane Premier League or the clubs there in; or assisting the Queensland Rugby Union's plans to upgrade the Ballymore precinct and providing us with a home ground that isn't controlled by the rugby league biased Stadiums Queensland, then so be that too.
Furthermore, if the owners think they should get paid a small dividend each in return for their continually pumping fistfuls of money in to the club, I can't really object to that either.
After all, they are businessmen at heart and everything the club has achieved so far on the pitch can ultimately be traced back to their investment when the club and the fans needed them the most.
It seems to me then that it is only fair that the club give a little something back to them in the good times. Of course, that is under the proviso that the club isn't unduly affected in doing so.
Then again, I wouldn't be at all surprised if the Roar Four do the selfless thing and re-invest the money directly in to the club.
As Emmanuel Drivas said in April last year, "The four of us aren't here for profit. You have to spend some money to make money and we'll be working with management to make the club competitive both in football terms and commercially."
It will be interesting to see how this statement plays out now the club is finally starting to see returns both on and off the pitch.
