How healthy is your club?

How healthy is your club?

(Insert drop trousers and cough joke here..)

your probably paying 200 bucks like most clubs to finace the first team, i know thats what your 200 bucks gets you at tawa for which some people would see as fair some others would say not. bobboltontawa22008-07-18 13:24:38

I think one of the big issues in NZ footy is there are to many clubs.

For example, I've only just moved to Welly from Christchurch, but within about 5 kms you have on average 4-5 footy clubs, all with a split in players, resources and manpower. Surely it would sense to start merging these clubs. That way you have a bigger player base, more resources and probably most importantly more volunteers to help out at the club.

If you want to look locally, lets look at Lower Hutt (where I live and know a tiny bit about the clubs). You have Stop Out, Lower Hutt, Petone, Naenae, Stokes Valley. If even two clubs merged together the player base, ability to have stranger teams, and more people at a club. Surely it would only be for the best.

In Christchurch this year two clubs merged (Rangers and New Brighton) to become the Coastal Spirit, slightly naff name aside. The player base and professionalism that is now at the club is staggering. IMHO clubs needs to look at mergers to create a few Super Clubs, so that the best of the best are playing each other. Whether they are the best at Central League level, or Capital 4.

Just my $0.02

no clubs have money. Or at least as much as they want. $200 seems a fair figure to play the sport you love for a season. Heck a game of 15min indoor costs $10.

As feverish says, many dont get involved or support their clubs, and its not just a football problem. Get in behind your clubs fund raising efforts, support the club bar , help out with the kids. You are a stakeholder in your club so get in behind them.

I don't think while I'm on this earth you will see any mergeres between LH, SO and Petone, for this season they all play in the highest grade available so why merge. LH have plenty of cash, Petone have what all good clubs have Loyality and Support plus a very hard working comittee not 1 person making all the decisions, SO seem to able to find funds when required. Both Petone and SO bars are well supported.

Im a bit confused about the real question here.

I know playing at Marist there certainly isn't a lot of money to splash around, but equally no one playing at Marist would ever consider merging with another club, and I don't think we are about go belly-up.

Sports clubs, at least footy ones, really aren't a big money making venture (no IPL franchises here). They do what they need to survive season to season, a reasonable clubroom to keep a good club spirit, and hopefully have people enjoying their football.

Can you imagine Wellington Olympic United, or Island Bay Northern Utd. (IBNU)

Yeah I can't see the point in joining clubs together either when the number of people playing football in Wellington is only increasing.
What needs to happen is more players need to get back to the club rooms after the games the clubs could possibly offer basic meals and the money could be returned by amount players would spend on drinks etc.

But that's my point, if you join clubs togehter, a higher % of people return to a single club and that money is pooled togehter

Lets say IBNU happens - 25% of IB players always go to club and 25% of BNU players always go back to clubroom. If there is a merger then that 1/4 of the club, puts money towards one coffer, instead of two.

Does that not make sense to people, a single club with a bigger playerbase, means the money isn't so spread.

I think another problem is, clubs are SO anti mergers, as if it will destroy their history

what school of maths did you graduate from?

good call. I don't think many of the players from Naenae or Stokes Valley be that keen to merg with Lower Hutt nor varsity and north wellington with karori.

Olympic and Welly U combined. Yeehah wot joy. Their debt and our depth. Wot a combo. I think I'll pass. IB maybe down the track. For the record Welly U like most clubs are solvent and this year will make money. Plus we are good guys. ps meals are available come to Newtown tomorrow to sample.

Wgtn United- its already an amalgam:
 Hungaria, Wgtn City, Diamonds-
of course you know the history Righstr-
History is valid but change is the only constant, to quote heraclitus- (left back for Santos in 1970)- Salmon072008-07-18 20:54:24

didnt brooklyn and northern united merge to make BNU?

nah, your thnking of Brooklyn Northend United!

badoom tsh!!

I think clubs need to work out their purpose.  Are they there to provide a place to play football, or to have a succesful first team or to develop juniors?  I think their are some divisions in how clubs are run, maybe also where the money goes.  This goes back to something I have been banging on about for a long time, why does anyone get paid to play below the NZFC?  That money should be being used to improve grounds, trainign facilities and coaching.  Instead average players are getting paid to play a game they would do anyway, and as bobbotawwhatever says, the rest of the club funds that, and it is ridiculous.

And I think that if clubs spent some money on training facilities they would attract a lot more players, at the end of the day the money doesn't really matter for a lot of people, they just spend it at the club bar anyway.  For example, if you turned up to training and had a clean kit to wear and could change in a decent changing room, have a shower afterwards, had a good session with a decent coach on a decent surface wouldn't that be a lot better than the $50 you get for a win?

for a student ,50 bucks helps a bit!
however, some weeks we don't even get on the grounds.road runs are good for fitness(bad for knees), but do little for working on what went wrong on saturday. Training facilities help to make the sport more enjoyable. trudging through the mud, in low to no light doesnt work for everyone.
i cant see how amalgamations will help, it will just mean the one club has more people to look after, which could lead to a lose of numbers/ more people to give money to the clubs or volunteer.
facilities do help, can clubs work together to fund artificial turfs to train on or is that too far-fetched?

Le tissier I think that is also a good idea.  Don't need to merge clubs, because I think there a re loads of different identities in football clubs that don't need to go anywhere, but some compromises in terms of training is required.  That for me would make the whole thing a lot more enjoyable.

Merger? Good idea if the reasons and the intentions are in synch between the 2 clubs. The lastnomad has championed Coastal Spirit in ChCh as an example of what can be achieved in this situation. As a meger between New Brighton and Rangers Coastal Spirit has got off to a very good start despite several hiccups along the way (like losing our Premier League spot for this season on appeal to Burnside). Both clubs were previously struggling at the top level i.e. mens first team but both had reasonibly strong (albeit small) junior sections. New Brighton has possibly the strongest womens side in the South Island while Rangers were weak in this area. New Brighton had no youth structure while Rangers was there but weak. Both clubs were financially solvent and doing ok in this area. New Brighton had a very strong social Sunday League setup. New Brighton had very good training facilities (including full sized gymnasium) while Rangers owned its own ground (Eric Adam Park) and employed a full time football development manager. The synergies and desire for a merger were good. Same old people on both clubs committees were doing all the work and no new blood coming on board to do the work. Disinterest and apathy in general from members.

We run the best football website in NZ.

Well done Coastal Spirit. Great website, but a challenging statement given the one we have both just posted on.

Brilliant organisation down there by the looks of it. Hope your new club progresses as well as you hope for. Try and achieve it with home grown players. Far more rewarding.

Ours is a true club website as opposed to Yellow Fever which is a fans website (small but significant difference I know). As far as trying to achieve success with home grown players we're not to hung up on that as it is such a hard thing to achieve (impossible?). How many top sides around the world accomplish this? Not many I suspect. What we will be able to offer our young players is the possibility of playing football at the highest level with the best training and facilities. And the opportunity to play in the Umbro Under 19 tournament we are hosting at Labour weekend, along the same lines as the Napier tournament.

I dont remember this being an "I am Coastal Spirit and I am great" thread..

Ronaldoknow2008-07-20 12:13:37

great to see that kind of passion for your club Rknow. I will keep an eye out for Coastal Spirit in coming years.

I think a few above have been a bit tough on Rknow. Embrace the passion and the enthusiasm, rather than knock it i reckon lads.

as for mergers, it will make sense sometimes, but not on others. where clubs come together and decide there are mutual benefits to a merger (as per Coastal Spirit) then fine, but as soon as you start trying to push clubs together from above, you'll have a big mess.

Marius Lacatus2008-07-20 13:36:35

So how has it worked out in the intervening 21 years (don't expect any reply soon - am posting at half time in the game)?

We are in the fortunate position of being able to sell a major assett (Rangers former clubrooms) to help bankroll the club (our Clubrooms are now based at Linfield Sports). Our other point of difference is we have joined Linwood Rugby Club under the umbrella of Linfield Sports (as well as Avon Hockey, Richmond Keas softball, Linwood Netball etc) which has given us the ability to employ a full time Football Development Manager. Linfield do all our financial admin (as well as applying for trust funding on our behalf) and oversee our fundraising efforts which alows the board to concentrate on developing the football club as such. But the biggest benefit of the merger (we have a combined membership of around 600 - 700) is being able to employ the football development manager. Having someone with ability dedicated to providing coaching courses, seminars and the management of our in house junior leagues has been fantastic. His biggest challenge is in the development of the coaches within our club and this is where the true benefit of the merger will be seen in years to come. None of this could have been achieved by either club in the past given the limited resources of the dedicated few running both clubs. The challenge for the board now is to fund and equip a top mens and womens team, while keeping subs at a reasonable level for the general membership. This is a task that we now look forward to with enthusiasm rather than dread. If your club can say that, then take pride in who you are, stay as you are and soldier on. If not, maybe you just need to take a look over the fence, have a chat with your neighbour and think about what is possible.

Coastal who?

Wow, really helpful and constructive

I like the idea of sharing resources between codes, especially gyms etc where the rugby clubs are often light years ahead of football.  I think that idea has real merit actually where there is the possibility.

Our mens first team have had a couple of training sessions with the Linwood First XV as well which has been quite interesting. Our guys killed them aerobically but fell way behind in the power and strength drills. The final of our South Island under 19 tournament is going to be (hopefully) played on their main rugby pitch right in front of the clubrooms at Labour weekend. many rugby clubs around the country are struggling more so than footy clubs. Just another option.