Central Coast Mariners - Under New Ownership

Mariners CEO joins the fans forum and has opened up discussions with fans…

http://www.ccmfans.net/community/threads/ccm-fans-...

Also from The Age

Central Coast Mariners make first steps towards the A-league's first membership base

http://www.theage.com.au/sport/soccer/central-coas...

Reddy stood down indefinitely by CCM

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/central-coast-mariners-goalkeeper-liam-reddy-stood-down-indefinitely-20151021-gkf0i7.html

On the sauce?

Critical of the coach.

PFA have put out a statement http://pfa.net.au/?p=5114

What the fudge is going on over there?

These are the Sydney teams the FFA want more of?

http://www.sportal.com.au/football/a-league/secret-agent-intimate-details-about-liam-reddy-turmoil-causes-central-coast-mariners-divide-a-league/1cdu906564oq11sl2fvp7ai75m

http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/article/2015/11/16/mariners-mole-faces-sack-club-probes-leaks

Shouldn't be too hard to find the sauce in Gosford.

Ba-doom tish.

Sounds like they're going to get to the bottle of it.

I'll let myself out.

Going to be very interesting to follow. 

WE JUST SIGNED

Luis Garcia

http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/article/2016/01/16/mariners-snare-liverpool-legend-luis-garcia

What's the fanbase think of that? Seems odd and about as far away from money ball as you can get but then his experience would be good with the young squad.

In the main pleased ... no idea if he is passed it ...

Charlesworth gave an interview for over an hour with our podcast group who had sort questions from members ... I think for the first time I can see logic in the chaos and what he wants the coach to do over this season and next... 

Been a while but Charlesworth told us some home truths the ones that stood out for me was FFA would prefer a team in Southern Sydney to the Coast but would nor let us move ... they would create the club akin to the way they set up the Drive Bys... and that the COE was our insurance as no us an no COE for Football... 

If interested 

Go to the the following link and scroll down to the RD 13 link

Mike starts his interview around the 27 minute mark....

https://www.ccmfans.net/community/threads/yellowar...

IMO a funny post on our site...

Hey Tony

Change of game plan.

What ever Luis wants we do

Guessing the cash you got from selling Caceres is paying for the guest stint? Would have thought Samaras would have been a better investment on the park but Garcia will probably provide more off the field.

I was reading that he has A and B coaching license. So it seems as though it's more for the off field thing. Considering he hasn't played for a year and was let go by his last team in India because of injury concerns. Might see patches from him on the field, but his experience would be invaluable off it.

Hope it means that CCM have a better year next season.

A new metric for the Mariners?

NEW METRIC

very proud today...

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/central...

Mariners score huge goal with official opening of $100m Centre of Excellence today

March 4, 2016 9:00am

New artist's impression of the Central Coast Mariners Centre of Excellence at Tuggerah.

Central Coast Mariners will score a huge goal today when their $100 million Centre of Excellence at Tuggerah is officially opened by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

Mariners chief executive officer Shaun Mielekamp said the club would also ­reveal a masterplan for the site which they intend to be the business and sporting hub of the Central Coast.

Construction is well underway at the Mariners Centre of Excellence at Tuggerah.

“We’re very excited about the project and about $35 million is being spent on the current development,’’ Mr Mielekamp said.

“Stages two and three represent about $50 million and, when finished, it will cost $100 million to build the Centre of Excellence.

“It is great to see cranes in the sky, which is a real symbol of progress.

“We have a lot of confidence in the community and we are very proud to be able to develop this centre for the whole community.”

Located on the corner of Bryant Drive and Wyong Rd, the centre currently has a Soccer5s facility, YMCA Swim School, Mariners coaching and players’ quarters with a gym and office space, and 10 all-weather synthetic pitches used by community sporting clubs.

Gosford-based company North Construction is deep into stage two of the five stage development of the Centre of Excellence which is also the club’s training headquarters.

Stage two comprises a six-storey office block with two levels of medical suites and four storeys of leased office space, including the Mariners’ headquarters.

The remaining stages, subject to development ­approval, include an 80-room hotel and conference centre, a Mariners Pub, a 1200-seat grandstand over the main pitch, lighting for all playing fields, extra car parking and a gym and fitness centre.

Mr Mielekamp said the ­vision is that one day the venue would become the home of Australia’s men’s and women’s national football teams.

“We hope it will be home to the Socceroos,” Mr Mielekamp said.

“It would be a real coup getting the Socceroos to Tuggerah and we want to attract local, national and international teams, such as the All Blacks, to train here.”

Peter Storrie.

Mariners executive vice chairman Peter Storrie, who is former chief executive officer at English clubs West Ham and Portsmouth, said the centre was the brainchild of Mariners owner and chairman Mike Charlesworth, who has invested $20 million into the project.

“It is exactly what Mike wants at the site and he is delighted,’’ Mr Storrie said.

“This will be fantastic and we will have something here that no other A-League club will have.

“It’s exciting times.”

Luis Garcia.

SPANISH STAR NETS TRIPLE THE INTEREST

Earlier this year, the Mariners took on Spanish superstar and marquee signing Luis Garcia and club CEO Shaun Mielekamp said it was already paying dividends­.

“Since the arrival of Luis Garcia, our community ­appearances on the Central Coast have tripled,’’ he said.

“Everyone wants to meet him and we expect our ­appearances will increase again this month with our two schools programs kicking off.’’

The school programs ­include Munch and Move, a joint initiative between the Mariners and Central Coast Health, to help children ­improve nutrition.

“Then Roy O’Donovan, our marquee striker, will be mentoring young kids,’’ Mr Mielekamp said.

“When our academy kicks off, we will have about 250 kids from around the Central Coast training at the Centre of Excellence.’’

Mariners owner Mike Charlesworth said he was excited to watch the Centre of Excellence grow on land he bought as a symbol of his long-term commitment to the Central Coast.

“The Centre of Excellence is on its way to becoming one of Australia’s finest sporting centres,” he said.

When I was in Gosford over New Years I was chatting with a few locals. The COE is really a big deal for them. According to the few I talked with, the rate payers are substantially subsidising the Stadium and they need greater occupancy and use of the facilities. I hope it works out well for Gosford. 

Scary thought - a whole bunch of future head butting nut jobs ;-)

Also, let's face it - Welnix have a similar strategy for creating a Wellington based COE to stop the drain to Auckland. So it would be nice to see how the CCM experience work out positively so we can use it as a model.

SM: “It is with tremendous pride that I can announce that CCM will post a profit in our @ALeague 2015/16 season.” pic.twitter.com/UljybyUxFx

— #CCMFC (@CCMariners) March 4, 2016

Guessing that is on the back of Matt Ryan's transfer to Valencia as they had a sell on clause.

dont think welnix want to build a hotel.

No, quite right. I was more meaning the sporting COE side of things. 

what was sainsbury's transfer to china

Looks like that was 1m Euro & Ryan was 7m Euro. If they had 10% sell on clauses, that is well over a mil Aussie brought into the club in one off fees.

Throw in Caceres to City, he had a decent minimum release fee

https://www.news.com.au/sport/football/mariners-onfield-woes-not-representative-of-strong-growth-off-the-pitch/news-story/07d9d8a373244d4de43dfef7af622330

Mariners’ on-field woes not representative of strong growth off the pitch

IT might seem extraordinary that the team finishing bottom of the A-League is one of the few to turn even a modest profit.

But Central Coast Mariners CEO Shaun Mielekamp is adamant that the pain the club is going through on the pitch is part of a restructure that can make it sustainable for years to come.

If many people’s reaction to that might be incredulity, the level of detail in Mielekamp’s blueprint is convincing. It takes in incremental increases in crowds and memberships, population forecasts for Gosford, regular marquees and the hugely impressive centre of excellence complex at Tuggerah officially opened last week by Malcolm Turnbull.

It began when Mielekamp, a Coast local, came to the job from Western Sydney, with a painful realisation.

“What’s become obvious to us is that the on-field success and the style of play we’ve had has not been a successful business formula,” he said. “We’ve had the bunkered-down, siege mentality, but it doesn’t translate into big crowds or big corporate support. We need to find a business model that delivers those.

“The club’s been very focused historically on the next six or 12 months, not the seasons to come beyond that. We want to send the message that we’re battling for premium success, not just survival.

“Why we play football is to grow the community, that’s the core reason. The glory and prestige are all very nice, but it’s all ultimately about growing our community. As that grows it allows us to build the business - something we’ve been particularly poor at over the past few years - and that tips back into football and funds the club. We get a bigger membership base, more commercial leverage etc and that feeds back into football.”

As well as the business success of the centre of excellence, Mielekamp is also tying the club’s future to radical plans for Gosford city centre, with “$700 million of DAs that have been approved, including five skyscrapers”.

The Mariners are the only club with a minority of support in the 16-24 age bracket, he says, but those apartments will be filled with young professionals priced out of Sydney.

Also taken as a given is a substantial increase in the central grant from FFA’s TV deal. “We’ve got every confidence in David Gallop and the team at FFA to do that, to double it, and that’s crucial,” he said. “Every owner in every A-League club brings this up at every meeting. It just has to be delivered, there is no other option.”

Ultimately though, those potential fans and viewers have to be given something worth watching — the jury is out and a long way from a verdict on what this season under Tony Walmsley will translate into.

“The ingredients are there — (assistant coach) John Hutchinson plays a bring role in what he brings in terms of the history of the club, so we don’t lose that,” Mielekamp said.

“The development history of Tony is there, time and again, so I’ve got no reason to doubt our ability to deliver that.

“Yes, we’ve had a throw-caution-to-the-wind approach this season, but it’s more about the long-term development of our players and the type of football we want to play as a brand. An entertaining, risk-taking style, married with success, is a strong business model.

“In three years, we want to see the development of our players bearing in fruit. The new broadcast deal will be in its second year, and the new free to air network will really know how to maximise the league. All the metrics should change with that kind of FTA exposure. That becomes a game-changer for the club.”

 So the new TV deal is signed you say

"Had it not been for the $10 million sale of Australia goalkeeper Ryan from Club Brugge to Valencia seven months back, the Mariners would be been in the red to the tune of around $700,000."

They got 900k for him. 

http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/article/2016/03/17/mariners-pledge-splash-ryan-dividend-new-signings

#CCMFC Owner Mike Charlesworth announces that Harry Redknapp will join the Mariners as a consultant. More to come! #MarinersMedal

— #CCMFC (@CCMariners) April 29, 2016

Flash 'arry will spend their money like he was at Portsmouth.

Will he bring in his relations?

Are they paying him or his dog?

At least he will be able to spell "CCM" 

Redknapp and Storrie working together again at the same club? Is that legal?

Absolutely classic, Harry refers to them as South Coast Mariners and confirms he won't come to Australia

God I love the A-League

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/may/04/harry-redknapp-says-he-will-not-visit-australia-in-new-role-with-south-coast-mariners

We will have fresh kits for the Hyundai @ALeague 2016/17 season! ➞ https://t.co/qq2Lzd5sgd #CCMFC pic.twitter.com/BOwSPgWHmY

— #CCMFC (@CCMariners) June 20, 2016

No more Sideshow Bob kit :(

Just because the kit supplier has changed, it doesn't mean there isn't the possibility of Sideshow Bob returning.

Central Coast Mariners’ Peter Storrie to make a “major announcement” at their admin HQ at 1.30. Start your guesses here… #MajorCCM

— Kevin Airs (@KevinAirs442) August 8, 2016

Mariners players have been told head coach Tony Walmsley has been sacked. No confirmation yet but club making "major announcement" at 1.30pm

— Tom Smithies (@SmithiesTele) August 8, 2016