2013/14 Fixtures

Yea was surprised to hear his comment that 5 on saturdays is the most ever, without mentioning that only 3 are in Wellington

When they said that phoenix fans wanted more saturday games, were those phoenix fans from Chch/Auck/Napier? 

The way things work these days I would expect the process to be;

1: FOX dictate draw

2: FFA develop marketing strategy to sell draw to clubs in positive manner

3: Clubs bend over

you said earlier "Privately I'm sure he (Dome) has gone to FFA/Fox and told them the Phoenix's issues", and from the list it appears that he has had plenty of opportunity to.  I want to know if he actually has, and how strongly he has.

You also mentioned it is not worth the club publicly criticising the FFA about the draw, but I am not so sure.  Sure, it is negative press, which the club don't need, but it is also an opportunity for the club to show that they really care about the fans.  This silence, along with the 3 games outside of Wellington, shows me the club really don't give a fuck.

I am sure that the Lions would never do that.

I understand the intial draw was ok. Revised was better. But then fox starting scrubbing out certain kick off times in Wellington.

then the club should release a statement saying how disappointed they are with Fox (and also the FFA) as the initial draw was satisfactory and then we got bum-fucked.  We cannot just lie there getting our tummies tickled when things like this happen.

regardless of the process this going to royally screw the nix in terms of crowd size,

I think that the situation with the dom post was handled (and still seems to be handled) really badly.  I think this is a chance for the club to show that they are prepared to stand up for the fans, no matter how ultimately futile it is.  They would not need to go to war with anyone, just realise a statement stating how disappointed they are with how the fixture list has turned out (especially when we were working towards something a lot more satisfactory with the FFA) and how difficult it will be to grow the Wellington fanbase due to the number of families that will not be able to attend a large percentage of games.

In a time when a number of the fans feel let down by the 3 games outside of Wellington, it would also give them a chance to ty to explain that decision (some blah about growing the nation-wide fan base).

Having said all of that, having some 6 year old kids staying up to 10 o'clock on a Sunday night once a month will not kill them, especially when I am sure a lot of those games will be played during school holidays.

In some ways I think the draw release was bad timing. A negative statement would take the gloss off the hiring of a previous successful coach.

I actually think that if handled correctly, the statement could continue to positive news about Merrick.  Have Big Ern come out with the statement - "we are disappointed with the timings of a number of the home fixtures* as our goal is to play winning, entertaining football that will draw the crowds in.  These times will make it difficult for the families to attend and the children are a big focus to us as we are not just focusing on growing this generation of Wellington Phoenix fans, but also the next and the one after that.  We will now focus on planning for pre-season and ensuring that come the start of next season we will be one of the clubs that Fox wants to show in the games that generate the largest audience".

I am sure that there are lots of holes that can be picked in that statement, but it was done very quickly and I'm not very smart.  Surely the club must have looked hard about the combination of games outside of Wellington and the poor timings of the other home games and thought that they need to try and do something.

* ignore the other "home" fixtures for now

 Perhaps something along the lines of ...

We enjoy being the FFAs whipping boy ...

We'd love to be Australians ....

Home Games ? We dont need your steenking home games....

No , 3am on a wednesday  seems fine to us ...

If Foxtels happy , were ecstactic...

2 months between home games ...you couldnt posssibly make it 3 ?

He ,the joys of being the absolute bottom rung of the O league eh...?

The club gets about as much money from fans attending games as it gets from Fox (roughly).

The problem with the 7pm Sunday games is it is near impossible for people outside of Wellington to get home via public transport after the game. A lot of people just won't bother going. Expecting record low crowds to some of these games as a result. 

And yeah, the fever really should be sticking it to the club if we do end up having 3 home games away. 

Fox money is gross too. It's all just revenue.

Fox power actually comes from the fact they are a single entity, with an over-arching agreement with FFA, whereas fans are not. 

On the other hand, no fans- no club - no league - no fox money. 

The A league surely has to strike a balance, and stand up for fans to some extent. Instead of just bending over to fox like whores for their money.

What we need is an A-League fans union, so that all fans across the A-League can then go on strike in support of us. That would make the suits sit up and take notice.

I think I just wrote the next Tui billboard.

This situation does make me wanna go all RBB though. Trouble is I'm not quite sure exactly what I'm upset about and exactly who I'm upset with. Is this all ultimately Hatamoto's fault?

I am a bit peeved that the Napier game is so early on in the season.  Splash Planet will be way too cold in October. Feb is much better.

Edited for size.

"For us in nz, it is the 'cost' of playing in the A league"

Sounds like we are getting treated like 2nd class citizens, because we are a NZ side. While this isn't very surprising, it does piss me off a bit. 

"Phoenix general manager David Dome did not return calls yesterday but New Zealand Football high performance manager Fred de Jong said they would approach the FFA and seek dispensation on the Wellington club’s behalf"

answer your phone

Baseball? This Sunday - Braves vs Mets 8pm

NFL? Sunday Night Football is 8:30pm (ET) => Not always on East Coast, but is Sunday late start

That's just off the top of my head.

baseball teams play 150 games a season - there is always going to have to be weird times for them.  Using them as an example would advocate us having games at 2pm on a Tuesday.

I think that some spanish and italian football is on around that time on a Sunday night

All JD asked was Outdoor games starting at 7pm or later on a Sunday.

I don't like Sunday 7pm games myself either, but it is TV that leads to this silliness nothing else.

I see the NRL is introducing Sun 6:30pm games as well (See Rd 13 Storm vs Knights)

For tv purposes it is 5pm (aus)

Sunday 7pm is quite a good time to be watching a game on tv. I'm sure many people will prefer that option rather than attending.

Also you don't have to worry about the kids potentially losing interest because they can find something else to do.

But yes in this case, all the more reason to stay at home - maybe even for some more usually keen fans.

Come to stadium to experience game.

Whats wrong with Sunday games at 7pm on Dec 22nd and 12th Jan?

For those that keep moaning about the time not being suitable for kids I'm asking "why the hell not". They dont have school the next day!!

For those saying a seven week break between home games isnt good enough, arent you jumping the gun a little? Theres 2 games in there that have "TBC" as the venue. One of these (or both) could still be held in Wellington, nothing has been confirmed yet and theres just alot of speculation as to where these games are going to be played.

Seems like alot of whinning over nothing.