David Dome and the Media

I've heard that the marketing budget has been dramatically cut for this season because Football United didn't bring in enough money to the club. There's only so much marketing the club can do, even if they had an unlimited budget.

A good reason to tell people about all the good stuff (and there is so much good stuff) the Phoenix is doing when you get a chance, whether in the press or on telly.

I do wonder how much they spend on Ad agencies. Do they have more than one person in the marketing department these days? They should.

Err ... last time i checked he was 'Kit Manager'. ie. he organises shirts and shark for the team.

Not a bad job mind you, I'd imagine its pretty easy.

The number of people who stopped me in the streets around Britomart after the game to enquire about the game/result (How I got my Hoopy).  Most were on organised work/Stag nights, so the message got through and far outweighed the -When is the game(Including 2 blue Bubble Taxi driver).  Just timing and weather. 

How do you get from Auckland Airport to North Harbour ? Bus? That'd take about three hours through Auckland traffic.

On a positive note, the Nixie chicks were in the Santa Parade yesterday. Ironically I started an 'Oh Wellington...' and they looked confused. Perhaps they need to be taught our most well known chant for such occassions??

My point exactly, just move on!!  It's not lying, just say we'll reassess the situation next year, straight bat etc.

The Phoenix back room are clearly obsessed with crowd numbers. They are feeling the pressure because there are clearly some noises out of Aussie about our future (see Ray Gatt tweet today about the FFA not seeing the commercial value of the Phoenix in the comp). That's fine, but they just don't need to keep talking about it, talk about our great recruitment this off season, our attacking play, pat themselves on the back for a great set of sponsors.  Jesus, anything other than crowds!

What everyone is forgetting here is that the same tired line comes out every year. 

Break 15k or we won't come back. Actually they raised it to 18k this year and then we learnt later it was 13k to break even. 

No one likes that talk and that was the only marketing that I heard of or saw apart from Brockie and a couple of others turning up at my daughters school. Even that didn't have any warning or even made the weekly newsletter. 

If you are going to come here Dome, wanting riches and to pack your suitcase with gold then up your game before hand,

It is my understanding that criwds are down at just about every sports venue across the country, not just Phoenix matches.

Whilst the message of poor crowds may be getting tiresome to some of us (me included!), David Dome should be given at least some praise for not hiding from the situation like other sports CEO's seem to do. 

People need to realise that not all professional sports teams in NZ are lucky enough to be subsidised heavily by the governing body through TV and sponsorship revenue like rugby and to a lesser extent cricket is in NZ. 

I cant imagine the Breakers would survive long if their stadium was less than a quarter full every match.

Whilst the message of poor crowds may be getting tiresome to some of us (me included!), David Dome should be given at least some praise for not hiding from the situation like other sports CEO's seem to do.

So very true.

Wellington Phoenix Royal Yacht Club (FC).

I saw lots and lots of marketing. Buses, posters, newspapers, facebook, websites...all over the place...

Yes the message is getting tiresome for all of us who attend the games, but the fact is that these owners have put their money into the club to try and build it long term. There has to be talk about the crowd sizes because at the moment not enough people are turning up to make the club profitable.  And if people don't turn up then why should the owners bother investing their money?

Frankly DD has every right to talk to the media about whatever he whats.  Surely people don't believe that these owners have a moral obligation to keep on putting money into the club for our benefit.

And sure under Terry's reign everything was nice & positive - that was until he started having cash flow issues and couldn't pay the players on time.

It seems also that Football Federation Australia are becoming a little frustrated with what they perceive as a lack of a clear plan from the Phoenix - or are the FFA being unfair like some think our media have been?

New report here:

https://nz.sports.yahoo.com/football/news/article/...

" Unlike the other nine clubs, the Phoenix's licence was not extended by the FFA last year with their current deal expiring at the end of 2016.

Gallop said he was waiting to hear from Phoenix powerbrokers about their plans before a decision will be made.

"We're talking again about the condition of the licence and the ball's in their court," he said.

"We'd like to know what their long-term strategy is.

"Let's wait and see what their proposal looks like."

That is very interesting. It sounds like something is not 'normal' in this situation. My guess would be that some form of discussion has already taken place regarding whether or not Welnix will be hanging around for much longer as owners.

It's good that he's honest, although he could focus more on the people that showed up than the ones that didn't

I'd like for welnix to extend their shareholders (with a consequential slice of the decision making)....fan bond scheme haven't worked too well before in the UK though.

All good.

Maybe Welnix is starting to have second thoughts, the definitely do not seem to be as involved as they were at the start and the club is unlikely to break even in the near term.

You have to run on the assumption that the owners have a passion for the club, derive enjoyment from it.

Hilarious.  When Gareth or Rob are in the paper commenting people whine that they should shut up.  When they have a lower profile people whine that they have lost interest.

Fudgeing miserable cods.

This thread is making my head hurt. Please make it stop.

I think it still seems highly unlikely that the FFA would chuck out a club that's financially secure, gives them access to a potential market the size of Sydney or Melbourne, all while not significantly diluting the player pool for other clubs (thanks to our kiwis counting as locals). Also, what message does that send to other potential investors in the league? IMO this is all just bluster for negotiating purposes

Just saying. I don't believe its true neccersarily, the club is obviously making quite a few investments at the moment and aren't behaving like they are preparing to wind down.

My take on this is the media asked Gallop what was happening, he said we've asked them some questions as we have with all clubs and we're waiting on a response and the credible media has immediately beaten that into 'the Phoenix are doomed' because it supports their myopic sensationalist agenda.

Do you know anyone that is actually plugged into the game that honestly really believe that the Phoenix are doomed?

Cockerill?

Happy Ted ?

That is more hopes than believes isn't it Brick Top?

Clearly the FFA are watching ACFC over in Morocco and have decided to pull our licence and give it to Bluemagic. Who of course doesn't want it.

I suspect BlueMagic, in one of the most hypocritical acts ever to be seen in NZ, would gladly take the licence for an Auckland A league team. 

It'd look something like this: 

Having talked with Thundersticks about the media reports a couple of times now, she confirms that the welnix team are equally frustrated by the negative reports and quotes they write on. She confirmed that the welnix give the papers multiple stories depending on the questions asked ie increase in memberships, neededing people through the turnstiles. The media choose to write on the negative stuff and focus on Domey's "we need 10k in wellington and 18k in Auckland" comments.

As for our continuation in the A-League I'm confident that the owners are still keen to stick with the nix, they have spent all this time and energy on acadamies, getting a team in the ASBP to simply throw it all away by not making a presentation to the FFA for them to stay.

We are only financially "secure" while we have the continued financial backing of owners. Just like every other A League Club.

The club is now run a lot better, but dont confuse that with being financially secure.

relative to other clubs I think its fair to say we are secure. 

The fact we have multiple owners rather than just one also helps. 

and why exactly are NZ not part of the Asian Conference????