the Sparc that ignites NZF

Agree with this too. That youth team is vital to developing young players to pro level and NZF need to pull finger and fund it. I wouldn't write off NZFC though for late comers to pro level, it is a stepping stone to the US and from there anything can happen (Nelsen, Elliot).

Thanks for your reply Rightstr

no worries. a bit of a ramble but I think I got what I meant to say across. My final point would be that the money that goes into TW from sponsorship and trusts would most likely not be available to clubs if TW wasn't around, so it's not realistic to say the money spent by them would be better spent by clubs. The pie would just get smaller.

we have plenty of problems in the football system.

We don't have a kiwi vision of playing the game the way we can recognise and related to and then see that in our players overseas. We need to adapt a system like the KNVB's dutch vision that is adapted into our footbal culture and I not talking about just Coerver which is more nsync and pretty looking training but not totally agreeable with other dutch coaches.

What we need are real businessmen, and they have to have a real good visionary of the future of football in NZ, you know the big picture and then able to sell that vision. That is how the japanese sell the J-league when it first start and how Australia did the A-league as well. We are obviously at a different budget and price range , but we bascially need to sell a financial sustainable national league. It needs a market package that ties in with the TV broadcasting money. we need to sell it in a presentable TV ploy. We need NZF to invest in people who can research in a productive marketing package to present to the public and to the investors. The best people who know the game and I do fancy people who have experience in that field overseas and see how certain successful ideas is applied into the NZ culture and psych.

There has a big sell that works in getting sponsors on broad and create a win-win product.

When it comes down to it, in the NZ environment, there is more likelihood that the franchise would have the financial potential that the small winters club that we have could not achieve. The history directs that we are not very club traditionalist in our sports but are very province-orientated and this is part of our NZ sport psych. The EPL clubs have the population support because of the long traditional regional linesand some are divided on long family and regional culture lines. Something that we have not much of because we have a small population of 4 million spread in a larger region and not 50 million, which is easily 12.5 times our population, in small regions. If we are able to multiple that number into the crowd attendance in NZFC we would not be discussing the financial and football problems we have now. A crowd of 800 would be 10,000 and leads to a profit return to the NZFC teams.

However we don't have that, so we must increase it's popularity. The crowds are there. We have plenty of people in NZ who have played football in their junior and youth days and so they may not be successful footballers at the senior stage but they should be able to become fans of the football game at least. This is untapped! I have change some people to the game by igniting their former passion of football. People still appreciate football and still send their children into the game so they are fans of the game but not of the elite football because it is hidden to the public.

People are not going to watch NZFC on TV because it is not there. And noone is going to watch it on Sky TV because it cost an arm and a leg. There is 78% who don't watch Sky TV. No free to air TV, no exposure to 78% of the population, noone knows what is going on or who the players are, noone follows NZFC and therefore noone goes to the home games, therefore little monetary return for the clubs and their sponsors. Does the ordinary joe heard of Danny Hay? No, but he at least he has heard of Danny Lee, because he gets more news in the paper.

Clubs are not the future of NZ football, the franchise are.

AllWhitebelievr that's the most intelligent and well thought out post on this topic I've seen.