Mens Futsal in Wellington

Hi all,

I've played futsal through Capital Futsal over the last 4/5 years. I love the game, but as it's evolved into the new ASB centre costs have scored, the leagues have suffered, and the quality seems to be going down.

For those of you on here that play/used to play, what are your thoughts/experiences? Have you been put off by the costs?

From talking to various people at CF it seems the ASB centre is the problem, i.e. that the overheads are too high, would moving to a smaller location like the old Chinese hall in Thorndon be acceptable?

Don't Women play Futsal - may be they play Fotsul.

The suggestion is like clubs asking not play on the artificial pitches to reduce their fees. Oh that's right some did. 

Would moving be suitable? 

Short answer - No, apart from costs the ASB centre is better set up for futsal and attracting teams purely through better facilities.

What are the expenses by the way? Comparing how much it is to enter a team in the leagues now that it's at ASB as opposed to the Chinese centre?

Yep I had the same problem, getting a team together of guys willing to pay the cost was too hard. The other problem is that theres no system for individual players joining a team, had myself and a mate really keen to play but the only way to enter is with a full team.

But with that said, the ASB centre is so much better than where they used to play.

Shrinkage will not be due to ASB costs alone, all leisure activities and toys are going that way very quickly in this economic climate. :(

Wouldn't it be better if clubs handled teams? So instead of Brumby's Buddies playing Stefan's Stiffs you'd have Karori vs North Welly?

assuming you play on the Monday nights Prem League if that is the costs?

Social mens league on Tuesdays is a lot cheaper.  Smaller court, only 1 ref etc.

We played with a squad of 7 (guaranteed you had 1 away every week so it always worked out we had 6 playing each week, so no impact on game time.)  Cost us $80ish each for 9 games.  That's less than $10 a week which seems good value to me.

Plus the facilities are great and you don't roll your ankles as much as you did when playing on other surfaces for indoor.

Also Twilight Summer Football is $400 for 12 weeks, so for a 6 person team it's $5.55 per person per game.

except you have to play on Te Whaea (which is the worst of the artificials), generally the refs are not qualified and you lose about a third of your game fetching the ball from the car park :)

Qualified doesn't mean good.

If a 'Premier League' is what you are after then shouldn't it be held in the best facility? Chinese hall doesn't even come close to what ASB is. 

Also, there is much more to a competition than the facility it is held in. Yes, cost is an important factor and can turn some people away but if i was receiving top quality service overall (not just the facility) then i wouldn't mind paying a lil extra. I think it would be worth taking a step back and looking at the league as a whole and new ways to develop it. Maybe you could discuss this at your next advisory meeting, when is that again?

They've stopped. Outside of the advisory group we're discussing how we can present this to CF to get things changed, because the growth in mens has stopped. Juniors is pumping from what I can see.

"Juniors is pumping from what I can see". - hardly!

There are only 18 jumior teams playing starting in Term 4 ( U11 - 5 teams, U13 Pool 1 - 6 teams, U13 Pool 2 - 7 teams ) This is some what surprising when you consider that the football season is over and now is the futslal season.

The numbers are not too impressive either for the Men's with only 3 leagues, all having 8 teams in each. No mention of any Women's leagues.

What ever happened to the Advisory group?

I see Matt Fejos resigned from CF last week. Wonder what that will mean for the game in Welly...?

I Played last season, what I found a bit odd is the Wellington Futsal team trains at the same time as the prem league... split those boys up amongst the league and it will increase numbers along with the skill level. I also agree the cost is too high. we had 8 people some weeks to split the costs up but who wants to sit on the bench?!

At Futsal refs meeting a couple of weeks ago, a few things we discussed, cost, equipment and direction of the league.

Firstly cost, the reason the it's comparatively expensive to other venues is due to the hire cost that ASB charges CF to run the league. IIRC I believe that this term, after a year of solid bookings for Futsal, ASB have reduced the booking costs, that saving should be passed on to the teams.

Equipment, new bibs and balls have been purchased for Futsal at ASB. There will now be a hub manager to ensure equipment and team sheets are made available in a timely fashion.
Refs are being directed to ensure they arrive in a timely fashion with appropriate equipment and uniform.
CF are working on developing a Futsal Refs assessors course to encourage and assist the development of Futsal referees.

Direction, CF are targeting that Men's Prem Futsal will primarily be from Club Futsal teams, Tuesday night social league will be the mates kick around teams.
There will also be a Futsal league starting up at Memorial in Petone and CF also want to start a women's league.

When does the league start up at Petone and is it "open" to everyone to play?