Well written and fair, keen to see what Mr Dome says. If he was involved Id expect he'll come back with "we were one voice against the rest" or it will be "we werent consulted"
As you are entitled to do. Each fan will make their own call around how they want to be treated or what they think theya re entitled to be provided with. For me, and I'm sure some others, I feel that expecting more from the club is fair, but threatening to leave is only really hurting you. If you are a fanatic for the club, love the game etc then why would you punish yourself and not attend the home games - and then break the law by finding an illegal stram of the game? Could the club do better? - sure, but then you have to counter that with they reduced staff during COVID to save money and stay afloat, they are now trying to build that staff back up in an asustainable manner when unemployment is at an all time low. The skilled people they need may not be around anymore. Dome is very vocal and verbose on the socials, if you follow him and the club most if not all of the information is there. This decision by the APL board impacts the Nix positiviely in that we get $1m for 3 years in the pocket. If we reach the finals series during this time and we've earned top spot then suire it negatively impacts us the fans as we dont get a home final - be realistic here - is that likely to occur???
I understand why the Melbourne fans are unhappy, they have 3 clubs that have won the league are always involved in the finals series. Them walking out in protest makes sense. The rest not so much.
Those numbers sound very pie in the sky and I'm curious as to why you think the Nix are getting 25% of the total amount straight into our bank account?
There's only so much I can give. The only way I can show dissatisfaction is with my feet and my wallet, they won't listen otherwise.
You obviously don't understand how big this is for football, they're ripping out on of the core motivators for success and to say it doesn't affect us cos we're shark is disrespectful to the rest of the fans in the A-League, who we should be showing solidarity with. The "it doesn't affect me so why should I care" mentality is repulsive.
The reality is that walkouts are happening over this, and rightly so. This is a big deal for the future of the A-League and Danny Townsend needs to be told exactly where to shove it. Who knows what they'll sell out from under you next?
"The following is a club statement in response to the Australian Professional Leagues' announcement that the A-Leagues grand finals will be played in Sydney for the next three years:
Ever since the Wellington Phoenix was founded in 2007, we, like all of you, have dreamed of hosting a grand final in Wellington. For the next three years it will not be possible.
We as a club understand the commercial benefits for the Australian Professional Leagues (APL) for signing this deal with Destination NSW, even if this is contradictory to the interests of our fans.
To be clear, the agreement was reached by the APL board, which includes representatives from A-League clubs. The Wellington Phoenix were not involved in the decision making.
We have always tried to represent our fans as best as we can. Without you there is no match day, no passion and ultimately no club.
Our preference is that both the men’s and women’s A-League grand finals are played in the city of the highest ranked qualifier, as has been the case up until now.
However, the Wellington Phoenix understands the financial pressures of professional sport and the A-League. In the short term this funding model works for the league.
Under this model we will do our very best to make sure our fans who want to attend a grand final are given every opportunity to."
Yikes. TL;DR - not consulted, not involved, understands the financial pressures of the league and says the model works, will do what they can for fans.
Sorry I misread the $12m as a per year figure not over 3 years.
At the end of the day the APL has made a decision - although it looks like the clubs havent yet agreed to it. I dont know what the ratification process involves.
Either way the APL obviously believes that the money in their pockets now is better than any potential revebue they may make. Bird in the hand and all that.
Obviously the stadium/whoever has paid for the right to hold the event feel they can make more money of ticket sales to non-fans than they've paid so their return on investment is expected to be positive.
Sorry I misread the $12m as a per year figure not over 3 years.
At the end of the day the APL has made a decision - although it looks like the clubs havent yet agreed to it. I dont know what the ratification process involves.
Either way the APL obviously believes that the money in their pockets now is better than any potential revebue they may make. Bird in the hand and all that.
Obviously the stadium/whoever has paid for the right to hold the event feel they can make more money of ticket sales to non-fans than they've paid so their return on investment is expected to be positive.
Absolutely.
So I'm going to do what I can to try and prove it to be a poor financial decision, and this statement from the club hasn't stopped that. I'll give it a few days to see how the protests shake out, but based on the clubs response I have very little interest in supporting the club and league right now.
I understand there are commercial realities, but there's only so many shark sandwiches you can feed us under that premise before we stop eating.
The league is in *big* trouble if this $12m is going to have a tangible effect and there's only so much soul you can sell. If it's really this unsustainable they need to be closing marquee funds and rethinking much more than where the grand final is.
I refuse to believe it's necessary, if it was necessary, APL would've approached NSW, not the other way around. The APL never thought about selling it until someone made an offer so how necessary can it be? It's just selling us out.
"The following is a club statement in response to the Australian Professional Leagues' announcement that the A-Leagues grand finals will be played in Sydney for the next three years:
Ever since the Wellington Phoenix was founded in 2007, we, like all of you, have dreamed of hosting a grand final in Wellington. For the next three years it will not be possible.
We as a club understand the commercial benefits for the Australian Professional Leagues (APL) for signing this deal with Destination NSW, even if this is contradictory to the interests of our fans.
To be clear, the agreement was reached by the APL board, which includes representatives from A-League clubs. The Wellington Phoenix were not involved in the decision making.
We have always tried to represent our fans as best as we can. Without you there is no match day, no passion and ultimately no club.
Our preference is that both the men’s and women’s A-League grand finals are played in the city of the highest ranked qualifier, as has been the case up until now.
However, the Wellington Phoenix understands the financial pressures of professional sport and the A-League. In the short term this funding model works for the league.
Under this model we will do our very best to make sure our fans who want to attend a grand final are given every opportunity to."
Yikes. TL;DR - not consulted, not involved, understands the financial pressures of the league and says the model works, will do what they can for fans.
So, in short the nix didnt have a say in this. So why would we punish them on the first double header weekend - it only hurts the team and club and you know the APL isnt going to care
Sorry I misread the $12m as a per year figure not over 3 years.
At the end of the day the APL has made a decision - although it looks like the clubs havent yet agreed to it. I dont know what the ratification process involves.
Either way the APL obviously believes that the money in their pockets now is better than any potential revebue they may make. Bird in the hand and all that.
Obviously the stadium/whoever has paid for the right to hold the event feel they can make more money of ticket sales to non-fans than they've paid so their return on investment is expected to be positive.
Absolutely.
So I'm going to do what I can to try and prove it to be a poor financial decision, and this statement from the club hasn't stopped that. I'll give it a few days to see how the protests shake out, but based on the clubs response I have very little interest in supporting the club and league right now.
I understand there are commercial realities, but there's only so many shark sandwiches you can feed us under that premise before we stop eating.
The league is in *big* trouble if this $12m is going to have a tangible effect and there's only so much soul you can sell. If it's really this unsustainable they need to be closing marquee funds and rethinking much more than where the grand final is.
I refuse to believe it's necessary, if it was necessary, APL would've approached NSW, not the other way around. The APL never thought about selling it until someone made an offer so how necessary can it be? It's just selling us out.
cool, then walk out of the game and miss the entertainment. if you think it will help make a pount then I aint stopping you. It wont change anything that's already been decided. I would wait until at elast friday when the clubs have met with the APL and see what comes out of that
Sorry I misread the $12m as a per year figure not over 3 years.
At the end of the day the APL has made a decision - although it looks like the clubs havent yet agreed to it. I dont know what the ratification process involves.
Either way the APL obviously believes that the money in their pockets now is better than any potential revebue they may make. Bird in the hand and all that.
Obviously the stadium/whoever has paid for the right to hold the event feel they can make more money of ticket sales to non-fans than they've paid so their return on investment is expected to be positive.
Absolutely.
So I'm going to do what I can to try and prove it to be a poor financial decision, and this statement from the club hasn't stopped that. I'll give it a few days to see how the protests shake out, but based on the clubs response I have very little interest in supporting the club and league right now.
I understand there are commercial realities, but there's only so many shark sandwiches you can feed us under that premise before we stop eating.
The league is in *big* trouble if this $12m is going to have a tangible effect and there's only so much soul you can sell. If it's really this unsustainable they need to be closing marquee funds and rethinking much more than where the grand final is.
I refuse to believe it's necessary, if it was necessary, APL would've approached NSW, not the other way around. The APL never thought about selling it until someone made an offer so how necessary can it be? It's just selling us out.
cool, then walk out of the game and miss the entertainment. if you think it will help make a pount then I aint stopping you. It wont change anything that's already been decided. I would wait until at elast friday when the clubs have met with the APL and see what comes out of that
theprof
WhoStoleMySock
Nix Members Email:
"The following is a club statement in response to the Australian Professional Leagues' announcement that the A-Leagues grand finals will be played in Sydney for the next three years:
Ever since the Wellington Phoenix was founded in 2007, we, like all of you, have dreamed of hosting a grand final in Wellington. For the next three years it will not be possible.
We as a club understand the commercial benefits for the Australian Professional Leagues (APL) for signing this deal with Destination NSW, even if this is contradictory to the interests of our fans.
To be clear, the agreement was reached by the APL board, which includes representatives from A-League clubs. The Wellington Phoenix were not involved in the decision making.
We have always tried to represent our fans as best as we can. Without you there is no match day, no passion and ultimately no club.
Our preference is that both the men’s and women’s A-League grand finals are played in the city of the highest ranked qualifier, as has been the case up until now.
However, the Wellington Phoenix understands the financial pressures of professional sport and the A-League. In the short term this funding model works for the league.
Under this model we will do our very best to make sure our fans who want to attend a grand final are given every opportunity to."
Yikes. TL;DR - not consulted, not involved, understands the financial pressures of the league and says the model works, will do what they can for fans.
So, in short the nix didnt have a say in this. So why would we punish them on the first double header weekend - it only hurts the team and club and you know the APL isnt going to care
What about unity with the other fan groups that are walking out? They supported us with the save the Nix campaign shouldn't we return the favour?
It may well be that the APL do care enough to do somthing. And a walkout doesn't hurt the club, they still get their money.
Sorry I misread the $12m as a per year figure not over 3 years.
At the end of the day the APL has made a decision - although it looks like the clubs havent yet agreed to it. I dont know what the ratification process involves.
Either way the APL obviously believes that the money in their pockets now is better than any potential revebue they may make. Bird in the hand and all that.
Obviously the stadium/whoever has paid for the right to hold the event feel they can make more money of ticket sales to non-fans than they've paid so their return on investment is expected to be positive.
Absolutely.
So I'm going to do what I can to try and prove it to be a poor financial decision, and this statement from the club hasn't stopped that. I'll give it a few days to see how the protests shake out, but based on the clubs response I have very little interest in supporting the club and league right now.
I understand there are commercial realities, but there's only so many shark sandwiches you can feed us under that premise before we stop eating.
The league is in *big* trouble if this $12m is going to have a tangible effect and there's only so much soul you can sell. If it's really this unsustainable they need to be closing marquee funds and rethinking much more than where the grand final is.
I refuse to believe it's necessary, if it was necessary, APL would've approached NSW, not the other way around. The APL never thought about selling it until someone made an offer so how necessary can it be? It's just selling us out.
cool, then walk out of the game and miss the entertainment. if you think it will help make a pount then I aint stopping you. It wont change anything that's already been decided. I would wait until at elast friday when the clubs have met with the APL and see what comes out of that
theprof
WhoStoleMySock
Nix Members Email:
"The following is a club statement in response to the Australian Professional Leagues' announcement that the A-Leagues grand finals will be played in Sydney for the next three years:
Ever since the Wellington Phoenix was founded in 2007, we, like all of you, have dreamed of hosting a grand final in Wellington. For the next three years it will not be possible.
We as a club understand the commercial benefits for the Australian Professional Leagues (APL) for signing this deal with Destination NSW, even if this is contradictory to the interests of our fans.
To be clear, the agreement was reached by the APL board, which includes representatives from A-League clubs. The Wellington Phoenix were not involved in the decision making.
We have always tried to represent our fans as best as we can. Without you there is no match day, no passion and ultimately no club.
Our preference is that both the men’s and women’s A-League grand finals are played in the city of the highest ranked qualifier, as has been the case up until now.
However, the Wellington Phoenix understands the financial pressures of professional sport and the A-League. In the short term this funding model works for the league.
Under this model we will do our very best to make sure our fans who want to attend a grand final are given every opportunity to."
Yikes. TL;DR - not consulted, not involved, understands the financial pressures of the league and says the model works, will do what they can for fans.
So, in short the nix didnt have a say in this. So why would we punish them on the first double header weekend - it only hurts the team and club and you know the APL isnt going to care
What about unity with the other fan groups that are walking out? They supported us with the save the Nix campaign shouldn't we return the favour?
It may well be that the APL do care enough to do somthing. And a walkout doesn't hurt the club, they still get their money.
financially it may not hurt the club, but its a massive distraction as part/all the fans walk out mid game. So unfair on the players of both teams. Protest is fine, but it needs to be done in the right place, so the people who you want to affect are affected.
Sorry I misread the $12m as a per year figure not over 3 years.
At the end of the day the APL has made a decision - although it looks like the clubs havent yet agreed to it. I dont know what the ratification process involves.
Either way the APL obviously believes that the money in their pockets now is better than any potential revebue they may make. Bird in the hand and all that.
Obviously the stadium/whoever has paid for the right to hold the event feel they can make more money of ticket sales to non-fans than they've paid so their return on investment is expected to be positive.
Absolutely.
So I'm going to do what I can to try and prove it to be a poor financial decision, and this statement from the club hasn't stopped that. I'll give it a few days to see how the protests shake out, but based on the clubs response I have very little interest in supporting the club and league right now.
I understand there are commercial realities, but there's only so many shark sandwiches you can feed us under that premise before we stop eating.
The league is in *big* trouble if this $12m is going to have a tangible effect and there's only so much soul you can sell. If it's really this unsustainable they need to be closing marquee funds and rethinking much more than where the grand final is.
I refuse to believe it's necessary, if it was necessary, APL would've approached NSW, not the other way around. The APL never thought about selling it until someone made an offer so how necessary can it be? It's just selling us out.
cool, then walk out of the game and miss the entertainment. if you think it will help make a pount then I aint stopping you. It wont change anything that's already been decided. I would wait until at elast friday when the clubs have met with the APL and see what comes out of that
theprof
WhoStoleMySock
Nix Members Email:
"The following is a club statement in response to the Australian Professional Leagues' announcement that the A-Leagues grand finals will be played in Sydney for the next three years:
Ever since the Wellington Phoenix was founded in 2007, we, like all of you, have dreamed of hosting a grand final in Wellington. For the next three years it will not be possible.
We as a club understand the commercial benefits for the Australian Professional Leagues (APL) for signing this deal with Destination NSW, even if this is contradictory to the interests of our fans.
To be clear, the agreement was reached by the APL board, which includes representatives from A-League clubs. The Wellington Phoenix were not involved in the decision making.
We have always tried to represent our fans as best as we can. Without you there is no match day, no passion and ultimately no club.
Our preference is that both the men’s and women’s A-League grand finals are played in the city of the highest ranked qualifier, as has been the case up until now.
However, the Wellington Phoenix understands the financial pressures of professional sport and the A-League. In the short term this funding model works for the league.
Under this model we will do our very best to make sure our fans who want to attend a grand final are given every opportunity to."
Yikes. TL;DR - not consulted, not involved, understands the financial pressures of the league and says the model works, will do what they can for fans.
So, in short the nix didnt have a say in this. So why would we punish them on the first double header weekend - it only hurts the team and club and you know the APL isnt going to care
What about unity with the other fan groups that are walking out? They supported us with the save the Nix campaign shouldn't we return the favour?
It may well be that the APL do care enough to do somthing. And a walkout doesn't hurt the club, they still get their money.
financially it may not hurt the club, but its a massive distraction as part/all the fans walk out mid game. So unfair on the players of both teams. Protest is fine, but it needs to be done in the right place, so the people who you want to affect are affected.
This is exactly that though. The point of a protest is to be disruptive and to show that this is larger than one match. Its supposed to be a distraction, that's the entire point.
How else are we supposed to protest the APL except at games? We only have 1 way to show out displeasure, and I'll be using it.
They say they're doing this for the money, so we have to make it cost them. The walkouts are happening, whether you think it's appropriate or not and I think it would be wrong to support the club, especially now theyve made it clear they won't fight this for us.
Hope the Fever will be walking out this weekend. I'm feeling more disconnected from the club than at any time during the border closures.
Who is on the APL board? I thought Rob Morrison was fairly involved in the APL, at least at some point.
Edit: Can find the Football Australia rep on the board, Ebru Köksal, WSW owner Paul Lederer is chair, and there is rep from Silverlake who bought a minority stake in the APL last year. Can't find other members of the board.
oh I get the concept of being disruptive! I just dont associate it with proper protest - the point of a protest is to get the attention of a group/person in power to get them to reverse some decision they've made. Disrupting others who have no impact on said decision is not effective in my opinion. It just annoys the innocent bystanders who often have no idea about what the agst is about. Like the railway protests recently disrupting motorway traffic. Disrupted a lot of people and effected zero change. Case and point - the APL accounced yesterday, the fanbase has errupted online and vocally voiced their displeasure abnout this - APL are now holding an urgent meeting tomorrow. No games needed to be disrupted, the attention has been gained - if the decision is reversed then fan pwer has won out.
However, that $12m hole is gonna need to be filled somehow.
oh I get the concept of being disruptive! I just dont associate it with proper protest - the point of a protest is to get the attention of a group/person in power to get them to reverse some decision they've made. Disrupting others who have no impact on said decision is not effective in my opinion. Case and point - the APL accounced yesterday, the fanbase has errupted online and vocally voiced their displeasure abnout this - APL are now holding an urgent meeting tomorrow. No games needed to be disrupted, the attention has been gained - if the decision is reversed then fan pwer has won out.
However, that $12m hole is gonna need to be filled somehow.
The emergency meeting will be to discuss how they can better spin this to get around the backlash.
I have to ask why you're so against protesting this? If this isn't a big enough issue for A-League fans to get upset over then what is?
This is about something bigger than the Phoenix and if we're the only supporters that don't get behind this then we can't expect the same courtesy back if we ever need support.
I'm not against protesting this, I think its a daft idea, but I dont agree with punishing our teams on their first double header weekend when the club and the players have done nothing wrong. the walkout disrupts the wrong people, as most protests tend to do.
Walk OUT this week. Walk IN a grant final on home turf in the future.
I’m not sure if a walk out is the best solution, but if all clubs are doing it and they think it will have an impact we should do it as well, I’ll follow like a sheep whatever the YF leadership decides.
Don't think $12M for 3 years is a real figure. There was just some media story that the 3 year deal with NSW Govt was 'reportedly' a 8 figure sum.
But if it was say $1M per club, or $333K per year that is useful additional income for a club attracting home crowds of only 5,000 paying spectators. Maybe the Pod can try get Rob Morrison on for a chat. He's generally pretty candid. Are Welnix against, for or ambivalent to the change? Sounds like they had no vote in the matter.
And whilst yes it's changed setup from previous, it's also the model that other Aussie sports like the AFL, NRL & Netball run with - a grand final at a single locale.
However the world football league most similar to ALM, the MLS certainly doesn't. Highest ranked finalist always hosting.
Reading between the lines of the clubs statment they had no say in the matter but also werent overly happy with the change, as they, like us think the final should be given to the team who finished first. But, the nix generally understood the financial reasoning for taking this option.
Ironic that the club with no fans (though a new shiny stadium I believe will give them some), who couldn't even sell out their Grand Final with City - are the first to openly criticise the decision.
The point people seem to be missing is that if the club had no say in this wtf not? Wasn’t the whole point that the league would be owned by the clubs, not a sneaky way to get the investment funds in? Even if it is a good idea, the way they’ve gone about it is a PR disaster. Just really dumb, when the headlines should be returning socceroos.
And as various clubs show, money doesn’t buy fan engagement or loyalty. So unless we want to have 7 thousand fans in 40/50 thousand seat stadiums as the norm…
Ironic that the club with no fans (though a new shiny stadium I believe will give them some), who couldn't even sell out their Grand Final with City - are the first to openly criticise the decision.
Should do what they did with the capital and build a stadium in the outback at some equidistant point from Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane (sorry Perth and Welly) and make that the home of ‘Strayan footy.
Here an idea how they could spend the money instead to get tourists into NSW and get more people exited and grow the game. Pick a weekend let 6 men and woman teams play regular season games. Sell bundles ’for the games, organize a Aleagues festival everyone can attend and watch the games in big screen with a DJ, Liveband, foods stalls etc I could imagine doing this, on the day doing some tourist stuff and evening visit the different stadiums joining a Sydney v WSW, Vic v City or the famous distant derby game. Give NSW Tourist Cuo to the highest winning team after the last game. With all the teams attending in one place for a meet and great.. I guess some tourism experts could come with better ideas, this is just me riffing before bed time. What about a YF organized Sydney pub crawl? It isn’t that hard.
Here an idea how they could spend the money instead to get tourists into NSW and get more people exited and grow the game. Pick a weekend let 6 men and woman teams play regular season games. Sell bundles ’for the games, organize a Aleagues festival everyone can attend and watch the games in big screen with a DJ, Liveband, foods stalls etc I could imagine doing this, on the day doing some tourist stuff and evening visit the different stadiums joining a Sydney v WSW, Vic v City or the famous distant derby game. Give NSW Tourist Cuo to the highest winning team after the last game. With all the teams attending in one place for a meet and great.. I guess some tourism experts could come with better ideas, this is just me riffing before bed time. What about a YF organized Sydney pub crawl? It isn’t that hard.
NRL do this in Brisbane for one round (all teams playing at Suncorp).
Wow, you have to be doing a job to make the fans miss the FFA.
Geez, at least talk about it behind closed doors and get someone like Archie Thompson or Matt McKay to front foot it. Launch it with the ‘Road to (insert stadium name here)’. Get fans of all stripes in the ads. Get an airline to sponsor flights to the final for x amount of out of town fans.
It’s only a half step above Clive Palmer closing most of the stadium.
And then for the NSW guys to start taking potshots at Victoria which is home to the clubs which are a) the largest by membership b) the most successful in the recent era c) the current champions, whose fans you want to convince to hop a plane or train and enjoy a GF in your state…
I guess that football was getting too much good news!
the removal of the owners names would suggst that it wasnt a unanimous decision, the origianl had all the names to add weight to the decision, suggesting they all greed. I'd suggest thqat it was a majority decision, maybe 7 for 4 against.
So what happens when in the next three years no Sydney team makes the final? Do they honestly think they get this new super expensive stadium full with traveling fans?
So what happens when in the next three years no Sydney team makes the final? Do they honestly think they get this new super expensive stadium full with traveling fans?
What happens is that the APL haemorrage money and wish they'd listened to us when we told them.
Make no mistake, this is a gamble with the future of the A-League and it'll be disastrous if things turn out how they look like they'll turn out.
the removal of the owners names would suggst that it wasnt a unanimous decision, the origianl had all the names to add weight to the decision, suggesting they all greed. I'd suggest thqat it was a majority decision, maybe 7 for 4 against.
It would be good to have some confirmation of that, obviously couldn't mention any names though for privacy reasons.
you'll never know for sure, but there is one reason why a statement like that is retracted and reposted without names - and that is simply becasue some of those named didnt want to be associated with the statement ie they disagreed with it.
