2019/20 Part II A New Beginning

One  bit of awesome news today - a clean sheet. Waiting for the next bit of great news - an order of a whole lot of a whole lot of new HAL sheets to be played on.

I'm worried, I doubt Nix will have a future without a major sponsor. But if they win the grand final they would look good for sponsors to come aboard next season. To be honest we still don't know if we will have a license next season anyway. Oh well it was good why'll it lasted just a shame i never went to a home final when the Nix's were still around. Just hope something good comes out of these hard times.

Dome said on the radio that part of receiving the money they had to convince the government that they were going to be a going concern for the foreseeable future. 

I've gone down the grant path before (for R&D grants) and the amount of information that needs to be provided and oversight is pretty extreme, I'd expect that the government has gone through the books and have done a lot of due dilagence.

I'm confused. They had to convince the government that they were going to be a going concern for the foreseeable future... AND that they would go out of business and surrender the licence if they didn't get the money?

Yes, covid isn't a BAU sort of event, you can be a viable business and be affected by a global pandemic. One doesn't mean the other isn't true.

I also get the feeling that the amount of number-crunching and due diligence done before money is out the door as part of the government Covid schemes has been pretty minimal (and with good reason, given the circumstances). 

I don't disagree, just saying that the approach has largely been money out the door first, serious checking later.

Probably,there's a difference between a large and wide scheme and a very targeted one though. The fact that only a handful of clubs got money, and there was a quite a lot of disparity between them, and a lot of others are fuming that they missed out shows that there was at least some due diligence.

Basically, Morrison asked Grant for $1m and he said ok sure (but don’t fold)

Sauces say nix leave to Aus this Sunday

I don't really know either way, but it could equally be that the Nix were in much more financial strife than others (and this wouldn't be shocking given the Fox saga), and money was handed over to keep the club afloat. I mean, I'm sure the club gave assurances of long-term viability and the ownership group's commitment to keep the club going, but I seriously doubt that there was a forensic audit of accounts, business plans, and income forecasts (especially in the context of the Fox shemozzle).

Definitely not, they would have submitted some accounts and probably some guaranties. No forensic level stuff. I also wonder if the financial hit was bigger because it was mid season whereas the other teams were out of season and could adjust.

News on Davilla and Hooper?

Basically they had to confirm they are not in Bauer Media category.

Excitement. Pre-re-season?

Mexico has the most open border in Latin America at the moment. 
Trying to encourage international tourists to their beach resorts, even as the death toll increases.

Davila will get to NZ or Australia, easily enough now via USA I’d imagine.

I saw somewhere that Luna from City is also coming from Mexico (where he is at preent) and expected to arrive back in Austalia soon.

Saw on Insta that Hooper has signed with a new management company. I wonder if that means anything...

is it an NZ/Aus management company?

Greetings from Sydney, long time since I've been on the forum. 

Congratulations on the season so far, my team the Wanderers obviously haven't done so well.

Just wondering what the latest is re the Nix heading to Australia, did someone on here say they were leaving Sunday and if so is that still happening with all the uncertainty re the negotiations for the Foxtel deal?

If the season does continue I'd love to see you make the grand final but it looks very iffy at the moment.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/a-league/121804534/wellington-phoenix-hoping-to-leave-for-sydney-within-a-fortnight

Thanks for that, that clarifies quite a bit.  Nix not leaving unless a deal is done and dusted.

Looks like no Fox  deal, rest of season canned to me.

What's really scary is that, even in the rosiest of predictions, we're still looking at approximately 4 weeks until the season resumes! Sooo long! 

David Dome has stated we aren't yet allowed into NSW.  Sigh, more hurdles and FFA cock ups. 

I think that it may well be getting to the point where finishing the season will be more hassle than it's actually worth. To me, ensuring the long-term viability of the competition is much more important, and finding a broadcasting partner that is both willing and able to come on board to ensure that, be it Fox or someone else, is paramount. 

This announcement that's just been made by the FFA looks very much like a (desperate?) attempt to make everything look under control, and I suspect that it's far from it.

Agreed... Can't remember anything being written in the release that mentions a deal/agreement with Fox

There were murmurings over the weekend that a deal with Fox is a long way off. Which would not be surprising if the reports that Fox is offering less than the fifth of the amount from the current deal are true.

There's talk of it being streamed.

Interesting turn today re season restarting but then concerns about Nix getting there asap to train etc...

And how much are they going to pay for the streaming rights?

The FFA are a joke! they don't want Nixs in the finals so are doing there best to make that happen. I guess we just have to do it the hard way as always.

I've long suspected that the global outbreak of coronavirus was just a dastardly plot by FFA to prevent us from hosting and winning the Grand Final.  That would be so typical.

heard Dome being interviewed this morning - he said FFA being very helpful, its the State and Aussie governing bodies that are being slow.

So what are our chances of getting Hoops and Davilla back? I dont know the deal with the Oz boarders atm, or getting out of the UK or Mexico. 

But if we cant have them back, realistically what are our own chances of contiuning our run of good performances? (sorry to bring football into this logistics chat)

I imagine that getting out of the UK is more logistically challenging than Mexico. Aussie have a two-week quarantine like us, and we'd need to get a special dispensation from Aussie authorities to enter the country.

The question I have is if Hooper and Davila do arrive in time, and let's say go straight to Aussie without stopping here, would they be allowed to quarantine with the rest of the team, or would they have to quarantine separately given that they'd be coming from areas of much higher risk?

This was covered off by David Dome yesterday – they will have to quarantine separately. He did say they are exploring whether the pair could at least quarantine together, which might make for an amazing buddy comedy.

Our long awaited R21 fixture vs Sydney first up on the 17th July, sadly that means Devlin is suspended for that game for his yellow card accumulation.