National League review and future

Also if you read the Canterbury United thread there seems to be tonnes of imports arriving.

Do you think NZ Football has just forgotten to tell anybody except the teams involved that this is happening soon?

Received this via Facebook yesterday

Wanderers SC will not be entering the 2015/16 ASB Premiership. The team was established to assist the NZ Men's U20 players prepare for the 2015 FIFA U20 World Cup and with that now in the past the team will take a break from the upcoming season thus making it's players available to other franchises. Thank you for your support!

Still nothing from NZ Football about any of the leagues (Premiership, Youth & Women's) though

I don't remember seeing anything official but it was one of those well known "facts" that everyone knows before the announcement - bit like the ASBP on sky

Any idea when NZF will release the draw's for the leagues or the press release about the future they have been promising since July?

http://www.skysport.co.nz/article/football/headlin...

Progress...

http://www.nzfootball.co.nz/sky-to-broadcast-asb-premiership/

Bouquet to NZF on this. Live coverage of 32 of the 59 matches is by any ones standards a result.

Over to football fans now to watch it. 

Interesting spread of games.   Auckland City and Waitakere do the best, followed by WaiBop.   Poor old HBU get three away games on TV and that's it.

Will be due to the broadcast crew being based in Auckland I imagine?

Yup, you have to have some level of common sense in that sort of decision. Not cheap to take an OBU around the country. Maybe after it proves to be well supported that will be the next step.

You also have to take into account Auckland is the biggest Market and the most successful teams are from Auckland

On your latter comment Jeff, the most successful team is from Auckland.

Sky do not use one OBU around the country - there are several throughout NZ to cover Rugby (no problems getting these to small centres), Racing and anything else that takes their fancy.   When I was in Christchurch and involved with Rugby League, Sky used a racing unit to cover one of our games.

I am not knocking the decisions made, just making a comment from the point of view of HBU who made the final last year.   The only reservations I have is that the standard of football keeps the viewers interested enough to tune in for each game day.

As you say I think it is important that they get quality games as much as a Geographic spread to start with to build viewing numbers

On the other thread it was said this:

So they might only have the lite broadcast crew in Auckland.

i'm stunned.  this is brilliant.  

The ability for the league to grow just got a whole lot larger.

Also a funding offer: get your shark together and we'll pay your entry fees with Trillian money.

A lite version of the centralised funding that I've been banging on about for ages.

All you mugs that said centralised pokie funding was impossible, please commence eating your hats.

Damn that Wellington Phoenix, causing us to lose that crappy ASBP highlights show we used to have. Damn them.  :-)

Great news, hopefully the live games on SKY will give the league the exposure it needs to grow and be successful. 

We might have to wait until DIA give the nod before we dust off the old trilby :)

NZF hooking up with Trillian isn't the centralised model that was being bandied around (I'm guessing Akld City will still be Trillion funded).

Its just another big hand in Trillians other pocket. Waiting for other Akld clubs to cry foul.

(Edit - if in fact it is Trillian)

Quite possible ACFC (plus NZF) actually encouraged Trillion into coming up with this arrangement.

NZF feeling guilty about the inequality? Or sharkting themselves about the legal ramifications?  Either way Trillian giving 75K to each franchise this season effectively covering the entrance fee.

Correct, but it's a step in that direction.

or it's NZF joining the reliance on pokey funding after previously warning the franchises off it

Totally correct Feverish.   I can remember NZF, when presenting the franchise way of the future, informing us that this would be the way that reliance on pokie funding would lessen and eventually fade away.

Mind you, I can also remember bits about large corporate sponsorship, increased crouds, updated facilities, etc.

Budge up there a little bit Smithy. I'd also like to get a seat on the train to Smugsville.

Definitely a step in the right direction but I'm still interested to know more detail about it. Is the DIA on board? (surely), how will this affect other pokie funding etc. And the most interesting question is whether Trillion will continue to fund ACFC at the same level or is this the money they would have given to ACFC spread evenly across the league?

Good news though.

I always thought that competition entry fees couldn't be funded from gaming money - although maybe that's why they have the development criteria attached to the funding.

It's that too. 

No surprise there. There is no other viable revenue stream for this league, or any other football league in New Zealand.

It's pokies or nothing.

Bad maybe but loads of footie clubs here in the UK are sponsored by Casinos, Bookies etc.  Infact my other club emailed me odds of goal scorers etc for their game tomorrow.

At the end of the day as long as the money is used for facilities, entrance fees, coaching, officials and broadcasting/media and NOT PLAYER PAYMENTS, I'm happy.

Betfair, 32 Red (?) all gambling sites that sponsor EPL sides (I think)

While not the same, there is a parallel

Yeah I was just saying it's not an ideal situation to be funded off someone else's misery. As I said above, there's heaps of unethical money floating round in football - not just the casino sponsorship you mention but club owners who've done dodgy things, other unethical sponsors, and even kit and boot suppliers using sweatshop labour. 

I'm happy the league is getting funding and is being televised, while also a little gutted about where that funding has come from. That's all. It doesn't mean I'm not going to watch it or anything.

Don't want to be negative or rain on the party, as I think increased media/TV coverage is great and essential for the league and sport long term... just a couple of things to consider:

- will full live coverage of some of the fixtures in this comp actually have a negative impact rather than a positive one, based on quality level?  

- will the commentator(s) used for the live games actually know the comp and the players, a la GGW or Piney? or will it be a case of using someone who does little or no research, trots out cliches and in-jokes, and essentially undermines the overall project without intending to do so...

- will the highlights show be in a format that promotes and packages the league well, or will it be low down the list of production priorities as other "bigger" sports require coverage?

Good on SKY for committing to this, and good on NZF for taking some action, and I'm honestly not trying to be/sound negative - just asking the question if this is the absolute best strategy all said and done at this particular stage... last time there was a highlights show, a monumental stoush erupted early on between NZF, and the production company (and indirectly, SKY), resulting in a panicky and expensive 11th hour action to get in a consultant to fix it... would just be sad if this season's coverage turned out to be a one-off rather than a starting point, and perhaps it could've been prudent to concentrate on highlights first and then build up to more later on... then again, I'm sure all those conversations were had and more, and speculation from an outsider like me is probably totally uninformed

Onus now is on football supporters to actually watch and deliver healthy ratings numbers...

As well as clubs working to boost attendance at games, outreach to local schools etc before the end of the school year. Televised games look and sound awful with no supporters or croud noise.

Ladbrokes (big UK betting company) is the sponsor of all 4 leagues of the SPFL.

ATTN Bruce Holloway: Arsenal does in fact have a women's team, as do several other EPL clubs, although strangely not Man U. You don't hear about them because the media are sexist pigs.

Hi Doloras,

You are not Doloras Edge by any chance, are you?

I must admit I was only grabbing at random well-known clubs in my column in trying to make a broader point (that it is hard to be all things to all people).

I imagine the symbiotic relationship between football and media is influenced by all sorts of subjective factors.

Hope this helps.

For everyone else trying to make sense of this, the following link may help...

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/football-soccer/news/art...