Friday, 17 May 2013 9:52 AM
Last Friday night saw South Melbourne FC hold its annual fundraising event, 2013 Player Auction Night at Beachcomber at the St Kilda Baths, which provided guests with picturesque views over Port Philip Bay with close to 200 guests in attendance. The event proved to be extremely successful with the frenzied bidding raising a significant sum of money. In fact, the player auction event was one of the most successful since the Club’s return to the Victorian Premier League.
There were a number of dignitaries and past players in attendance including Hall of Fame members such as Takis Mantarakis, Douggie Brown, Ulysses Kokkinos, and Michael Mandalis.
Club President Leo Athanasakis welcomed the guests and thanked the Principal Partners for their continued support, and invited everyone to get behind and support the Club. In addition, Mr Athanasakis also highlighted some of the Club’s great achievements over the past 12 months, and touched on the Club’s recent bid for the A League licence of the Melbourne Heart.
The MC for the evening was SBS journalist David Basheer. David spoke with both Head Coach Peter Tsolakis and Senior Technical Director Mehmet Durakovic and covered their playing careers with the Club and current challenges in their roles.
The main purpose of the event was a fundraising theme. The auctioneer for the evening, George Metax from Barry Plant Preston took over and sought to secure the highest bid for each player.
South Melbourne would particularly like to thank Steve and Jim Paraskevas, and Neil Stacey from Beachcomber for their tremendous support and warm hospitality in assisting the Club to hold this successful event. Furthermore, the Club would like to thank its corporate partners who contributed to the fundraising activities on the night, and all guests who were in attendance.
Click here to view a selection of photos of the event.
The following corporate partners which were successful in the auction are listed below:
Peter Gavalas – Holmesglen TAFE
Seb Mattei – Office Fix
Tom Matthews – Veale Partners
Rhodri Payne – Holmesglen TAFE
Matko Budimir – AIS Insurance
Phil Petreski – Blue Thunder Security
Dimitri Tsiaris – Holmesglen TAFE
Joe Keenan – GPZ Legal
Tyson Holmes – Star21
Dimitri Hatzimouratis – Moray Agnew
Trent Rixon – Mirabella Lighting
Rhys Meredith – Tom Kalas
Brad Norton – Office Fix
Luke Byles – K&A Accountants
Fernando De Moraes – Holmesglen TAFE
Marinos Gasparis – Star21
Andy Vlahos – Global Gypsum
Alan Kearney – Global Gypsum
Carl Recchia – Dandanis & Associates
Shaun Kelly – MW Group
Renco Van Eeken – George Leondis
Andrew Cartanos – Commercial & General
James Karvelis – Commercial & General
Baggio Yousif – Blue Thunder Security
Anthony Giannopoulos – Office Fix
Peter Tsolakis and Robert Graboski – Holmesglen TAFE
Mehmet Durakovic – Mirabella Lighting