ASB Premiership Professional?

Hey all,

I was wondering if someone could shed some light on this for me.  I've read that the ASB is an amateur league as the Phoenix are the only pro New Zealand team.  But it seems like it may be semi-pro, wiki lists it on one page as amateur yet on another they list it as semi-pro/pro?

Pardon the ignorance as this is probably a question that is obvious to some, but from an outsider it seems difficult to find a lot of info on.  Does their season run the same/similar length as the A-League?   How are attendances?  Are the games televised locally?

Just wondering, any info would be appreciated...thanks.

Dont be ashamed about  yer ignorance ; its the main identifying factor in NZFs  employment scheme.... As for yr other questions

Season is 2 rounds and then playoffs [ top 4]

Attendances are steadily dropping

TV coverage , actually  media cover generally , is total shite ...

And Auckland is basically a professional team in an amateur league. Hence semi-pro league I suppose. 

welcome mr the canadian

technically it's amateur

some teams pay players $50 a game, some up to $300.  auckland city have a few full timers.  generally, players make better money in the winter leagues playing for local club teams.

nearly all coaches are part time

i'm guessing that crowds would generally be 200-300?  may be wrong there.  auckland get just less than 1,000 and on the odd occasion we see crowds in excess of that

last season they televised 3 games.  these games were all curtain raisers for the wellington phoenix.  it sounds like we'll see about the same amount of games on tele again this season.

Thanks, Cheers for the info.

".... current football competitions such as the national league (all) need to be reassessed to reflect a more professional style of play, he said." - Gareth Morgan 23/11/2013.

Hear! Hear!

Time IMO NZF accepted the modern world and actually encouraged ASB/Nthn League/Central Lge clubs/franchises whatever to go in whichever way they choose - amateur, semi-pro or fully pro. If non-League clubs in the UK and Oz can successfully mix it up amongst themselves, why not here? Forget Trust money - wouldn't local semi-pro outfits in Napier/Nelson/Hamilton etc. encourage local business sponsorship? Local support? If Keinzley wants to create a pro outfit in his own image in Masterton, why shouldn't he be allowed to succeed or fail? An ASB with promo/relegation to the 3 existing leagues and O-League qualification as the prize - that's what I'd like to see instead of this existing ASB, a league which seems to be going precisely nowhere.

Yup but you are all missing a key point.

Why did FIFA, OFC whoever allow the Phoenix to play in the HAL? Because there was no professional league in NZ.

Pro league in NZ = bye bye Phoenix. AFC would move to shut it down quicker than Auckland Council spin weasels shut down Len Brown sex saga(s)

There won't be a pro league in NZ because there is no public interest or demand in domestic NZ football (in terms of global standards).

Why would ACFC want to get rid of the Nix? At the end of the day the Nix is one of our best pathways for NZ footballers to make a career for themselves. I highly doubt any NZ franchise would want to get rid of this.

Not ACFC. JV is talking about the Asian Football Federation.

Oh well, looks like we're stuck with an "amateur" domestic league til kingdom come, same as it's ever been. Which means apart from the one professional club, staying in Oceania is our rightful place, right? No wonder NZ Rugby and their media lackeys are so smug. 

We cant even afford a professional rugby competition here so not sure how a domestic football league could work? As much as we all love the game, we have to be realistic about the status of it in NZ.

It's never been tried. And if you don't try, you'll never know.

See my post in the 'Wishes for the new ASB Prem season' thread for my thoughts on whether we'll ever have a pro league here Jerzy. The sad fact is that there is just nowhere near the interest to do it without pokie funding (which just can't happen). Every franchise would probably need a minimum of $1m to pay salaries alone. If the entire league currently only generates around $0.6m of 'real' revenue how on earth are we going to make the jump from that to $8m without 8 crazy millionaires?

I'm all for trying something new, but the money and interest just ain't there.

Good man. Scottish lower level football allows players a certain amount of dignity, ie. income, I believe. Even when they're playing in front of ASB -type gates.

And when I was over there recently too, watching non-League players plying their TRADE in the Conference South, Isthmian Prem, etc.I thought pretty much the same thing. ACFC would roll most Conference teams aspiring to the Football League - and all of the Conference Prem clubs field FULLTIME PROS. So do many UK clubs below that level. Just read the UK non-league press. How do they do it? Not just by selling players to richer clubs. Mostly by engaging with local businesses and raising cash through advertising and sponsorship. And yes, by having 'benefactors', which we have here, mostly backing Northern and Central League clubs btw, not ASB "franchises".

Maybe yopu should get real. 33,000 pounds = 66,000 NZ dollars. You think NZ clubs aren't in that league?

^ Joke.

Anyway, I'm not talking about NZF funding, I'm talking about independent clubs being allowed to access funds from whatever sources their directors choose - and having O League qualification and the $600,000 World Club qualification prize as the carrot.

Apart from the last point you're just making assumptions.

Another assumption. And as its stands now, they're not allowed to. Ask Keinzley.

Why should Gareth be the only mad rich person allowed his personal toy anyway?

^ Think small, stay small. Same as it ever was.
 

so your answer to fixing all that is wrong with ASB Premiership and inherently NZ Football is to pay players at ASB Premiership level?

That's all I have managed to really glean from your arguement so far - that and you want a professional league but really havn't offered any way any of the teams apart from ACFC are actually going to be able to do it.....

a 1 team professional league - isn't that what we have now anyway?

So you're against evenly distributing pokie money to create a more competitive league, because you think it would lower the standard of the league. 

But you do want to get rid of pokie funding altogether by making the league go pro, which would lower the standard of the league. Guess in this instance (unlike the redistributing funds idea) ACFC would still come out on top, so you're all for lowering the standard of the league in this instance.