Yeah, Taylor left because of uncertainty about the league as a whole, not just the nix, and at that point things were dicey - the academy was closed and the team needed a government bailout. But since then the academy has grown, with Greenacre focusing just on the reserve team and other people like Falon being brought on board to look after other teams, and the women's team was created.
Dome has made it clear that the team is struggling, mainly when they were looking for a front of shirt sponsor for the women's team, but a lack of ticket sales and season memberships being down won't be helping either. However, there has also been no indication that that means they can't be competitive when they get the opportunity to recruit.
Recruitment was bad, but the Nix management and Talay have all said that was because of MIQ problems (they couldn't get non NZers through MIQ and as a NZ outfit they also couldn't get people through Australias border), not because of any other issues. Even players which we had on the books, like Piscipo and Pennington, had to wait for the team to arrive in Australia and couldn't come here for pre-season.
Also, remember, that just a few months ago we were aiming to have a team with Hemed, Hooper, Taylor, and a new South American midfielder that we thought was better than Davilla, and we also put apparently a pretty huge offer in front of Davilla for him to stay, but we just couldn't compete with the Bulls who are financed outside of the TV deal and run with a larger salary cap.
Dome has made it clear that the team is struggling, mainly when they were looking for a front of shirt sponsor for the women's team, but a lack of ticket sales and season memberships being down won't be helping either. However, there has also been no indication that that means they can't be competitive when they get the opportunity to recruit.
Recruitment was bad, but the Nix management and Talay have all said that was because of MIQ problems (they couldn't get non NZers through MIQ and as a NZ outfit they also couldn't get people through Australias border), not because of any other issues. Even players which we had on the books, like Piscipo and Pennington, had to wait for the team to arrive in Australia and couldn't come here for pre-season.
Also, remember, that just a few months ago we were aiming to have a team with Hemed, Hooper, Taylor, and a new South American midfielder that we thought was better than Davilla, and we also put apparently a pretty huge offer in front of Davilla for him to stay, but we just couldn't compete with the Bulls who are financed outside of the TV deal and run with a larger salary cap.