BYO Blog Post thread - What are your thoughts on the Nix situation?

Closed for new posts
YF Spend Up
310
·
300
·
over 12 years

Hey team.

Quite a few people have expressed interest in writing their own blog post about the current situation, so we thought it would be a good idea to host them all in one place so we can compile what the Phoenix means to the fan base and how terrible this situation.

If you want to write a blog about the situation, please feel free to write it and post it in here. We'd love to hear your thoughts and give you a platform to broadcast them.

Please try to keep this thread to just the blog posts to make it easier for those coming here to read.

Blog away!

Jag
Not Elite enough
730
·
8K
·
almost 17 years

Bear with me. This might end up a pointless, self-indulgent, rambling mess of unconnected thoughts, so forgive me.

I’m a gnarly old Scot. We don’t do emotion. The only things we get excited about are drinking and football! I can honestly say that I love football; I’ve been involved in the game for nearly 50 years now, as a player, a coach, an administrator, a referee and nowadays as a referee assessor. It’s been a huge part of my life and still is.

When I moved to Wellington from the UK in 1999, I never dreamt I’d end up supporting a professional football team. But I did. We moved to Auckland just as the Phoenix journey began, but I managed to fly down for games regularly in those first couple of years and as often as I could since. The Nix have given me joy and they’ve given me heartbreak. They’ve let me catch up with old friends and make new ones. They’ve caused me terrible hangovers and they’ve given me some amazing experiences. Paul Ifill’s goal in the play-off game against the Jets was as supreme a moment as I’ve ever experienced at a football ground anywhere, the journey from the ROF to Four KIngs on the ‘Fever bus’ after a last game of the season against Adelaide, with “Yellow Army” belted out at full volume for almost the entire journey. Great memories. That’s what football does. It stirs emotions, it creates memories.

The club I’ve supported all my life, Partick Thistle, almost died in 1998. Fans raised money to bail us out of the massive debt we were in and kept us alive. Supporters of other clubs held collections at their own games and donated the money raised to keep us alive. That’s what football is about, behind all the rivalry and banter. The majority of football supporters are the same. They share a love for the game and they are passionate about their clubs. No real football supporter takes any pleasure in the potential demise of another club.

Despite the fact that the game is now run by men in suits, for me it’s not about money, it’s about people. It’s about community. It’s about the look on my son’s face when I took him to his first Phoenix game. That’s what the FFA are destroying. They’re not just killing a football club, they’re not just causing job losses and filling their pockets. They’re killing dreams and they’re ripping the heart from the chest of every person who has become a part of the Wellington Phoenix community. Football is about emotion, and this decision has stirred that emotion in football supporters, not only of the Wellington Phoenix, but all over New Zealand and Australia. This decision is not only soul destroying, but also baffling to me on many levels

The men in suits at the FFA won’t read this, I doubt they’d care even if they did read it, but I’ll remember Monday, October 26th 2015 for a very long time. Probably for ever. I’ll remember that, at around 6.50pm that night, I told my football mad 7 year old son, Euan, that the Phoenix probably wouldn’t exist after the current season ended. I’ll remember how he looked at me with his eyes filled with his tears as he asked me why. I’ll remember that I had to tell him that some people didn’t want the Nix in the A League any more, and I’ll remember how I was holding back my own tears as I had to try and explain a decision which I don’t understand myself. Ultimately, that will be the legacy of the FFA, as far as I’m concerned. They made my son cry and, no matter what happens now or in the future, I will never forget or forgive that.

and 18 others
Trialist
110
·
150
·
over 10 years

1000% this.  Put much more eloquently than I ever could.

Appiah without the pace
6.4K
·
19K
·
over 16 years

Fudge that's emotional

Jag
Not Elite enough
730
·
8K
·
almost 17 years

2ndBest wrote:

Fudge that's emotional

Sorry, mate :-(

Lawyerish
1.7K
·
4.8K
·
about 13 years

That should be sent to Gallop even if he won't read it. In fact it should be sent to everyone who has a say or influence in this (sponsors, NZ football etc)

Marquee
3.3K
·
5.1K
·
almost 13 years

I write this after having a few bourbons so excuse me if it makes little sense.

On Monday I saw the notification on my phone that Yellow Fever had posted on twitter and wondered what they were talking about, it was then that I found out the FFA wasn’t giving us a 10 year licence.

At first I was shocked but that quickly turned to anger, I couldn’t believe, didn’t want to believe that there was a possibility that the Nix wouldn’t be around.

Like Tam, I have grown up with football. Playing since I was 5, been coaching since 1999 and now refereeing. I have loved the Nix since the first day, sure I am not a founding member as I only brought tickets as I could afford them the first few years, but I followed them.

Over the last two years I got more and more involved, one thing I found with Yellow Fever is that it is very welcoming, I felt like part of something special. Last year when Fever Dreams took off, it was such a feeling I can’t explain. We have something so amazing in a club, sponsors and ourselves that gave these families from Ronald McDonald House some time away from hospitals and doctors.

As for the Nix, while sometimes it has been tough to support them and we all would have liked to see them win this competition, they are a special organisation and I still can’t believe that you can just go and talk to them and they are happy to interact with their fans. Those long off seasons are hard, but that first game back each year is something special and the season seems to fly past so quickly.

Now, I’m left wondering what to do with my summers if it all goes. Sure I’ll still get football over the winter and will still be down at the park watching local games but we have something special in the Phoenix and in Yellow Fever. I brought my girl her first membership this year and now it has the chance of being her last, which brings me to tears that she may never actually get to see them play and remember it apart from photos I will take when I take her this year.

I posted on twitter I didn’t know what would happen with the charity work and to be honest I still don’t. Don’t get me wrong, there is no way I’m not continuing this year with Ronald McDonald House and getting families to every one of our home games but I had/have been working on bigger plans. I didn’t really want to post on the forums what I’m working on and a few people do know, but it could be awesome to have more that we do for others. Now I’m not sure if it’s worth it, we will see.

Lastly, with WelNix, right from when I found out I was in two minds. Half of me was saying they should say “stuff it” and just hand back the licence now. Why give them any more money? But the other half and the half that wants more of this and must be a glutton for punishment says take the four years. Even if it is only four more years, I would take another day just to get to watch my phoenix play.

and 5 others
Marquee
1.5K
·
6.4K
·
about 14 years

Jag wrote:

The men in suits at the FFA won’t read this, I doubt they’d care even if they did read it, but I’ll remember Monday, October 26th 2015 for a very long time. Probably for ever. I’ll remember that, at around 6.50pm that night, I told my football mad 7 year old son, Euan, that the Phoenix probably wouldn’t exist after the current season ended. I’ll remember how he looked at me with his eyes filled with his tears as he asked me why. I’ll remember that I had to tell him that some people didn’t want the Nix in the A League any more, and I’ll remember how I was holding back my own tears as I had to try and explain a decision which I don’t understand myself. Ultimately, that will be the legacy of the FFA, as far as I’m concerned. They made my son cry and, no matter what happens now or in the future, I will never forget or forgive that.

Oh man! This encapsulates the pain of our collective experience so well Tam. Thanks so much for sharing this.

Phoenix Academy
46
·
220
·
about 10 years

Growing up with the Nix

I barely even remember a world without the Wellington Phoenix in it.

Growing up as a kid in Nelson in the 2000’s, a big part of my life was football. But back then it was simply about playing the game. Kicking a ball around with mates, making mortal enemies out of kids on the opposition I’d never even spoken to, and considering games against class mates to be amongst the biggest derbies around.

I knew that football was massive around the world. At trainings everyone would have different clubs shirts on, Man Utd, Liverpool, you know what its like. I thought I knew what this meant. When I was probably 7-8, I remember my parents buying me an Arsenal shirt - my first ever football shirt. I hardly ever took that shirt off, but do I support Arsenal now? No. Anyway that’s not hugely relevant. I guess what is relevant is the limited exposure to the world game I had at the time. 

Fast forward to sometime in 2008, when my parents subscribed to Sky Sports. Suddenly football as I knew it took on a whole new meaning.

Enter Wellington Phoenix.

I got hooked pretty quickly into watching Phoenix games. Here was a team I could relate to, a team in a city only a half hour flight away. The rest is as they say, history. The introduction of Paul Ifill, the World Cup Qualifier in 09 (my first trip to Wellington and the ROF), and of course the 09/10 finals run, had totally captured me. For the next 6 or so seasons I hardly missed a game on TV, and got to see a handful of home games when I managed convince Dad we should ‘go up for a game’. The Phoenix had taught me passion, and given me heroes.

So many friends don’t understand why I have been supporting them all these years (and still don’t). I think it was those first couple of years that did it for me. Once a club is ‘your team’ in this way, it doesn’t leave you, no matter what position on the table.

Earlier this year I moved to Wellington to start University. This has been a move I’ve been looking forward to for years. Being able to watch the boys and stand amongst the Fever more than once a season, and experience that game day rush of adrenaline, game after game. To read that this club could soon cease to exist is so hard to take, because for me, it has been a huge part of my childhood. Since I’ve been old enough to somewhat understand the general football set up, both in NZ and around the world, the Phoenix has always been a part of it. I’ve been waiting for years to finally be a regular visitor to games. If I’m honest I feel robbed, but this isn’t about me.

In no way do I even try to comprehend how massive this is for those directly involved with the club, fans who have been there since the start, and you Fever faithful who have put so much time and effort into what makes the Yellow Fever brilliant.

It just kills me to think that in the future, young footballers in this country might not have the chance to view this level of football on their own doorstep as I have, and really experience what its like to support a club and attend games, and so on. The pathways are so clear for young players now, and it would be a disaster for a massive part of that to disappear. In the same sense, I also feel really privileged that I have grown up in an era where professional football has existed in NZ.

Anyway that’s enough from me, this is long enough already. Whether I have even summed it all up for me in this, I don’t know. Most likely not. All I know is I’ll be there supporting this club, whether it be until the end of this season, 2019 or onwards. 

and 6 others
Starting XI
440
·
3.5K
·
over 14 years

I never played football as a kid, instead it was always rugby for me growing up. My father represented New Zealand Secondary Schools and it was always instilled on me that rugby was the man’s game.

I was born in Wellington but moved to Sydney when I was 5. Throughout school I represented both Sydney and NSW for rugby, I had never any interest in football, in fact I had absolutely no idea about that sport at all.

It was the 2008/09 season when I seriously started noticing football, I noticed the phoenix were playing some decent stuff in the A-league, that in Shane Smeltz they had a seriously decent goal scorer and they played football with a kiwi spirit that I idolised.

I had gotten but a glimpse of the beauty that was football. It slowly became an obsession, I watched the phoenix every week, but I wanted more. I then dabbled into the yellow fever forums. Yellow Fever has been my computers home page since early 2009. The hours I have spent trolling through the forums, refreshing pages for Kiwi Overseas news, laughing at Auckland Phoenix and the like is absolutely insane. Finally I convinced my father to take me to Wellington for home games. Now its become an annual tradition to travel to Wellington to watch the mighty phoenix play. (and yes he is now a Phoenix support)

It was in early 2011 that I actually started playing football. And my god my life has changed dramatically since then. I can remember my first goal, I remember the banter, I remember the wins and the losses. There is no sport like football, and I would have had no idea about it without the phoenix.

The news of early this week has left be broken and down. I never truly knew what it was to have your heart broken, and it absolutely gutting. Normally I have two recordings in my phone that pick me up whenever I am down. The first is Jason Pine calling that historic night in November against Bahrain to send New Zealand to the world cup, the second again is Jason Pine calling the penalty shootout against Perth. Both moments still give me the chills, and remind me of how awesome life can be. 

Without the phoenix these moments will be lost. I fear for the future generations, the future Wellingtonians (and New Zealanders) who will never know the awesomeness that is the Wellington Phoenix. I don’t want it to end!

If come April/June the phoenix are no more I want it to be known how grateful I am to the entire Phoenix community, particularly that of the Fever for finding me in rugby wilderness. #IbleedBlackandYellow #SaveTheNix

and 6 others
Tegal
·
Head Sleuth
3K
·
19K
·
almost 17 years

This is a bit weird. But trying to compare the situation to a relationship seems kind of appropriate. 

and 1 other
Marquee
2.1K
·
6.4K
·
over 14 years

The old saying goes a picture is worth a thousand words

This is my 12 year old son Tommy. He lives with his mum further up the Island meaning I do not get to see him nearly as often as I would like. Tommy is a keen footballer although the reality is he will never reach any great heights as a player, but he is bonkers about the Nix, almost as bonkers as his old man. It is one of the great pleasures as a father to watch your kids play sport and also to watch sport  with them.  

Throughout the summer months, it was has always been one of our great father and son times, to catch the train into town, eat overpriced soggy chips and drink horrendously expensive Coke together.

Tom knows all the chants, even the ones about the referee being a corporate banker. He has Depeche Mode on a playlist on his phone. On pride of place on his chest of  drawers are three photo's taken on a horrible wind swept day at Hutt Park with Ricki, Siggy and Brownie who bothered to stop and chat with a 7 year old boy when the would have much preferred to be in a hot shower. He treasures a shirt that Iff's signed for him.

So aside from the football, this is the sort of story that will be told by many many others that will be lost should the Phoenix cease to exist.

and 7 others
Legend
1.8K
·
22K
·
over 15 years

Special credit for the use of 'bonkers' too.

Marquee
1.5K
·
6.4K
·
about 14 years
I'm struggling to hold it together at the moment. Really struggling. The Phoenix are the anchor in my life. I had the worst year of my life last year - I broke up with the woman I thought I was going to have a family with. I had a breakdown and had to quit my job. My Grandmother died. I got hit by a taxi and broke my collar bone, which failed to heal, meaning I couldn't sail (the other passion in my life). My cat, Vader, who was 17 and had been my best mate for it seemed like forever was terminally ill. Throughout all of that The Nix, and the friends I have made through supporting them, were the one thing that gave me joy, and made it worth getting up in the mornings. The job that the WelNix, Domey and Ernie have done in the last three years is simply amazing. One of the things that used to frustrate me about The Nix is that they were only a club in name... The reality was that they were a one team franchise. I felt I was a season ticket holder to that franchise, but the label 'member' made me laugh. Member of what exactly I used to think. Today I am proud to be a member of the club. The first team is now just the pinnacle - behind them the WeeNix, and the Academy, Wellington Unites, the scholarships, the coaching clinics, the school and community engagement... all of that combined with the great body of shambles-centric fna passion that is the Yellow Fever - and especially FeverDreams - and now for me, the team that put together #PhoenixCity - I am so proud to be a part of all of this. And the plans for the future! A W League team! The WeeNix on television this season in the ASB Premiership - visits to Kiwitea Street with the Weenix to win again (hopefully)... a ferry ride and a drive down to Christchurch and Dunedin? Wellington United playing in the Central League - I am (or is it now going to be was?) looking forward to road trips to Napier to visit Coops, Sarah and the twins, the excitement of the TWvWeeNix derby games... And with the ALeague team we are building, and the football they play. I was planning on travelling with Ballane next season to every away game and trying to see the Nix in all 27 rounds. And now this. I've felt like this before. When the Kingz folded I felt like this. A few people have asked me why I was never passionate about the Knights. It was not because of how dire they were... it was specifically because just when I was feeling like we are now, the Knights sent me a letter saying they assumed I'd like to be a season ticket holder and that there was a form enclosed they had prefilled out for me to purchase a membership. Imagine how you would feel if you received a letter like that from a new Kiwi ALeague team right now. As some others have said, if the club was a basket case it would be understandable and easier (although sill not easy) to take. But with all the fantastic stuff the club is doing, and the football they are playing on the pitch – arguably only Melbourne Victory would be more attractive to watch… With all that, and with the Roar, Mariners and Jets (and even Glory) in varying degrees of chaos and mayhem I genuinely thought the FFA would have to be crazy not to extend our licence. I thought, surely, now more than ever it’s a no-brainer for them? Apparently I was wrong. I am stunned, and furious. I have cried so much the last couple of days. After we finished recording #PhoenixCity at Four Kings on Monday, Vinniesta had left and Frosty and Cam went home. Patrick and I didn’t feel like being alone, so we stayed. We were both following the unfolding story on Twitter and after 15 minutes or so I had tears rolling down my cheeks. I looked over at Patrick and he did too. The support for the Nix, and the Fever, that has poured out from fans and players and coaches and owners around the league has been really heart-warming. As Dale said it’s something to smile about and be proud of amongst the devastation - if it is the end it’s nice that we can walk away knowing we were a part of something really cool. But I don’t fudgeing want it to be the end. I want go back to Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Gosford, Newcastle and Brisbane to cheer the team on and to reunite with the good friends I’ve made from the clubs there. I want to be there when the league expands and go and meet the fans at the new clubs too. But today, a number of things have combined to make me think it’s not going to happen. And I don’t know what to do. I’m scared, and angry, and numb, and frustrated, and bewildered, all at the same time and alternating between each of those states. I feel like a rudderless ship in a storm. Come On You Nix. Keep on keeping on. Please.
and 12 others
Jag
Not Elite enough
730
·
8K
·
almost 17 years

Shame I couldn't "This" twice. Top work, mate. 

Marquee
1.1K
·
7.6K
·
over 12 years

The passion above shows why fans find away to bankroll (Buy ashes) their bankrupt English football club and bring life back.

Starting XI
480
·
3.5K
·
almost 14 years

Yakcall wrote:

Lastly, with WelNix, right from when I found out I was in two minds. Half of me was saying they should say “stuff it” and just hand back the licence now. Why give them any more money? But the other half and the half that wants more of this and must be a glutton for punishment says take the four years. Even if it is only four more years, I would take another day just to get to watch my phoenix play.

This! Pain delayed...my god I just want to watch my team play...please just let me watch them...even if I know it is ending in 4 years, that's another 44 or so home games in Wellington, another 44 nights of cheering on the boys at the ground, another 44 nights out with my daughter before she becomes a teenager and doesn't want to hang out with her VERY uncool dad. Just let me watch... :)

Starting XI
480
·
3.5K
·
almost 14 years

Reading this thread might've been a mistake...You guys (I mean everyone :P) are all awesome, your experiences make it even tougher for me, now do have tears on my cheeks sitting at my desk...this sucks...it just sucks.

Marquee
3.3K
·
5.1K
·
almost 13 years
Marquee
1.2K
·
8.2K
·
over 16 years

I'm fudgeing heartbroken and fudgeing angry.

I was twelve years old and playing for Wellington United when the Phoenix came along. We were pretty gutted that we had to shift home games from Newtown Park to the Melrose Paddock to accommodate them but, for a football-mad kid, a professional team landing on our doorstep was exhilarating. The first open day, down at Newtown Park, was buzzing. There was Kiwi legend Vaughan Coveny, four mystical Brazilians, and a young Costa Barbarouses (before the K). That a teenage Wellington boy was getting a chance to realise that dream in his hometown was beyond inspirational for me.

I was a ball-boy for the first ever Wellington pre-season cup game against Sydney FC (and the later one against Newcastle – experiencing the nerves of that penalty shoot-out pitch side is a feeling that won’t leave me). I stood between the two benches, shocked at the profanities coming from either side, and enthralled with the ability of the footballers on show. More than anything though, the Yellow Fever blew me away. It was very early days, but I remember looking across at Aisle 21 and thinking I wanted to be a part of that. I was posting on these forums within a few days.

Fast-forward a few years and I had accumulated a raft of incredible, first hand football memories that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise. The big wins, the scraped victories, when we snatched draws. The magic from Daniel, Ifill, Dadi and Burns. When we packed out The RoF, the away trips, getting my family and friends along to games. Honestly, I could recount amazing memories for hours. It’s been a bit shark having less of those since I’ve moved South, right now I’m terrified there won’t be a Phoenix for me when I move back, and want nothing more right now than to join the Fever for a game in Aisle 21.

The Fever. Some of you I count as good friends, a community who have helped me feel part of something awesome when life’s been rubbish. I cannot thank you enough for welcoming me in as a kid and being a big part of who I all these years later. Many of you I only know as a username and avatar, but the connection we have through the club has become really apparent in the last couple of days and it sucks that this is how I’m realising it. It’s these connections that football forges that makes it truly special, and so much more than the commercial tool the wankers at FFA see it as.

So there’s some of the thoughts that are running around my head. One last recurring one is that I don’t know if I want to be part of a league that doesn’t want us back. The comparisons to a break-up ring more true to me than any others, as I have a lot of hope that the club will continue in some form or another. But, despite the league only being 10 years old, it is so much more than the closed room at the FFA making this idiotic decision. What hurts the most is that our fate lies in the hands of a small, senseless, but powerful minority. So much of our lives are governed in this way, and I fudgeing hate it.

and 4 others
Closed for new posts

BYO Blog Post thread - What are your thoughts on the Nix situation?