Do you mean 500,000 there blue magic? If you got 4 games away, let's say you look at 1 game, 20pax travel 1500 return to some of these destinations plus accom food etc. 50k seems very light.
I would have thought perhaps 50k per home and away leg so maybe 200k?
I think rightly so, people expect ACFC to win it as they have always done so but that does not mean they are the only team that can do so. The pure and simple reason as to why they win it is because they have more money, which means they can afford to PAY/BUY for a better squad to win it (and I'm not rehashing that shamateurism argument - it's a fact and it fucks me off that people just refuse to admit it) It's a similar scenario to any other league where the team that always wins, gets the larger share and thus buys better players and stays on top. Let's not dress it up to anything otherwise. Yes they are a very well run, well supported and well organised club (with good facilities) and I would say easily the best in the league (based on little other than opinion) but onfield talent is where it is at and that all comes back to the doh-rey-me.
I know you mentioned before that WU borked it when they had their shot but are we solely reliant on ACFC to win this? Yes the experience is there of doing so, but group sourced shared funding to even the playing field for ASBP, why would that limit others winning it if they got there? We have two spots in the O League and my stance is I don't care who wins it as long as it's an NZ team. So if it was Southern and HBU that came 1 and 2 for an ASBP season because of group sourced shared funding, how would that stop them from winning it if they can assemble the on field talent?
The real reason why ACFC would be against it is not because 'others could not do it from a group sourced shared funding model'. It's because it would endanger their status as being the best in the land because take away that mountain of cash, you lose the on field talent and if so, that's fine and I'm cool with that - just say so. That's the more truthful and realistic reason and once we start having a conversation based around realisms and absolutes rather than charades, then we can get on with it. On one hand blue magic you do say that and that's cool but then you can't say that a team could not win the O League from a group sourced shared funding model. They could, we just do not know that.
A different example - Celtic would not share their cash out with other teams to create a more even SPL because they thought no other team could do it what they do in Europe (which is actually fuck all) They don't share the cash out because their club wants to stay on top of the heap.
Let's have a bit of honesty around some of these conversations. We will have a better conversation and less frustration if we do so.
I'm not denying that ACFC want to protect their funding sources, who wouldn't? What I'm saying JV is that evenly distributing the trust funding raised across the board to all franchises would mean a big cut for ACFC and as you point out, a reduction in their resources to attract players.
There is Fifa funding for the participants in the O League but one reason ACFC has won it the last three times is they have poured extra funding into their campaigns by taking bigger squads etc. If the likes of CU or HBU or TW ended up as the NZ O League representative could they raise another $50,000 to $100,000 to mount a half decent campaign? That is the big question.
One problem with spreading the trust money about is the legality of say an Auckland-based trust being used to partially fund a CHCH or Dunedin franchise. Aren't trusts supposed to invest in local sports? There are plenty of winter club sides who do well from their local trust funding. The same argument would hold. ACFC isn't the only side being well supported by trust funding, but it's not an even playing field and we all know that. I don't know what the answer is other than NZF raising some decent investment in its own national league. I don't think the answer is to drag ACFC down in order to lift some of the struggling ASBP franchises up.
Personally I think most of the current ASBP franchises would struggle to be competitive in the O League. Canterbury is one side who could step up, and perhaps TW. Perhaps if the rumoured implosion of WU is true then we are going to find out in the next O League campaign. I'd love to see CU or even HBU engage ACFC as our second O League team.