Arise Sir Terry

Arise Sir Terry

Great MICHAEL COCKERILL article... Guys when you are the lead sports article in a Sydney paper .. you know you have come a long way but this is about your fourth lead article over the last few weeks...

Great read hope you enjoy...

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/a-league/sir-terry-changes-the-face-of-new-zealands-rugbymad-capital-20100309-pvtu.html

'Sir' Terry changes the face of New Zealand's rugby-mad capital

MICHAEL COCKERILL

March 10, 2010

Someone wrote in to The Dominion Post yesterday saying Terry Serepisos deserves a knighthood. He's a football saint, that's for sure. The man who decided three years ago to save professional football in New Zealand is the talk of his home town. Wellington Phoenix are bigger than the Hurricanes right now and that's saying something.

Serepisos is the man who made it happen and it's cost him more than $10 million. For that he is lauded, promoted - he's New Zealand's Donald Trump, having just finished hosting the local version of The Apprentice - and respected. He can't walk out the door without being recognised and patted on the back. He deserves it, as do most of the club owners. The A-League, as recent events in Townsville have underlined, is still not paying its way.

If owning a football club is only about an ego trip, then Serepisos should be walking on air. But the property developer has never been one to pump up his own tyres. His appearance on the pitch at full-time last weekend was only the second time in three years Phoenix fans have seen him out in the middle. He went down the tunnel not to seek praise, but to give it. ''The fans have been unbelievable and because it was our last home game of the season, I wanted to thank them for their support,'' he says. ''To get 32,000 people was beyond my wildest dreams. We even had 3000 people who couldn't get tickets watching the big screen down at the waterfront. It's incredible to think how much it's all changed.'' Hasn't it what. When the Phoenix rose from the ashes of the unlamented New Zealand Knights, a club based in Auckland, few took them seriously. Certainly not the Hurricanes, the undisputed masters in town.

''To be honest, when we first started and we asked the Hurricanes if we could do some joint promotions, they didn't want to know,'' Serepisos says. ''We did something with them three weeks ago and of the 2000 people there, maybe 1500 were wearing Phoenix shirts. I look at my son's school. When we started, they had 11 football teams. Now they've got 26. Kids who've always played rugby are now switching over. We're definitely changing the landscape, and I suppose I'm pretty proud of that.''

Them's fighting words from anyone else but Serepisos. He's so open, so polite, that the rugby crowd don't take offence. Nobody wants to run anybody out of town. And right now, it's a Phoenix town.

At the bottom end, local registrations are up 20 per cent and there's no longer enough parks to cater for the demand. At the top end, two successive home finals, two bumper crowds and two epic confrontations decided after extra time have whetted the appetite even more.

There's a tsunami of goodwill and it's not over yet. Phoenix chief executive Tony Pignata has been frantically lobbying Qantas to re-route bigger planes to the NZ capital so more fans can fly to Sydney for Saturday night's preliminary against the Sky Blues. Last weekend's game against Newcastle Jets drew the biggest television audience for the Phoenix on this side of the Tasman. This weekend's match in Sydney will certainly set a new benchmark for ratings back home. The fans can't get enough and neither can Football Federation Australia. Serepisos reckons he's earned the FFA $1.4 million in gate takings in the past two games. Under the finals formula, he does not get a cent. All this despite the club having no guarantee of survival beyond next season. Imagine how much better it could be with the certainty of a new 10-year licence. Serepisos does, all the time. It's probably the only thing that keeps him awake at night. In the meantime, he's hoping the black cloud can still produce a silver lining.

''Nobody wants to lose money, including me,'' he says. ''Hopefully, with all the goodwill that's around, this is the last season we'll finish in the red. A lot of major sponsors have come forward, there's a few people talking about coming on board as investors and we're aiming for 5000 members. The local council are also getting behind us even more because they've done a study which shows we pump about $15 million a season into the local economy. There's a lot of positivity around and what I have to do is leverage that. Hopefully we can break even for the first time.''Midfielder2010-03-10 02:23:24

I think I might cry 

wow!

Well deserved   

Forget the knighthood---- He should be cannonised!!!  Saint Terry has a ring to it!

To be cannonised it is my understanding that they have to be dead, so we'll wait a while on that one, shall we?

Great article though, really is.  That last paragraph about sponsors and investors wanting to come on board is really good as well.

/bump

very good piece of writing

Yup,  great story.

Fun fact - Terry's full first name is Eleftherios, which is Greek for "The Liberator".

Attracting new investors is great, but lets not also forget a big warm thankyou to those whom have supported the club from its inception. Interislander, Wellington Beds, Sony, Rembrandt Suits, and the others.  

Now that would sound pretty good chanted like the "Paolo Di Canio" chant

Terry should be awarded the freedom of Wellington, he doesn't need to be associated with some of the scum who have been knighted.

Noticed the club shop have posters up advertising "season memberships - on sale soon"