My response to the above comments (and tangents that have formed) from Benchwarmers original post about flying players in.
Yes it is great that we have a league that some players want to fly in to play for us, however is that the best use of our time and money? Is our league really that good that people will jump on a plane and play for a club in the South? How many other leagues in the country have players fly in to play? I'm guessing probably none.
Either way, if there is money out there from funding agencies (ie: poor people's gambling addiction) available to fund players Air NZ miles, petrol money, or other added 'bonus', surely there are better things to spend money on as a club?
Prickly Thistle's post about "buying people's time" is a change of words from the usual "we don't do that". Is everyone ok with that now because according to the employer it is making our game better? Can't say years of this technique has made much of a difference to our All Whites appearances.
Sorry Vim, I am expressing a personal opinion on the need to improve our game locally. Around the world and across many sports it is achieved by paying people to put more time into their sport, by becoming more professional I believe our game will also improve. It is not new I have said it before.
It is not the complete answer but it would help. Such a move would have to be responsibly handled and managed. You would not want to be throwing money around to youngsters that then gets gambled away before the season has kicked off, for instance. Heaven forbid, who would be that stupid?
I do not think we would have many current All Whites playing, obviously they are all full time professionals playing in professional leagues but I do think we could start developing a few more and see them play locally for a while in a better competition.
Money spent on keeping quality players in Christchurch during the club season, across the clubs and enabling them to then play for Canty Utd or Pride would surely benefit our competition and playing standards.
I must agree that years of doing what we have been doing locally has not worked well, so do you carry on or try to improve it.
A lot of money has been spent on facilities by some clubs, a good deal on coaching and administration, players should simply be next in line for me.
Disagree Prickly. Other leagues around the world finance it very differently from NZ. We should only be paying players in Chch if we have the sustainable means to do so, ie we can secure prizemoney, sponsorship and charge for public attendance at matches - none of which seem likely in the near future. I don't want to see average players paid from whatever slush fund a club may be running for such purposes, be it junior subs, sausage sizzles, meat raffles or club academies. On a side not, it's only a natter of time before IRD investigate a footballers non declared income too.