Hoop the (ex) Hoop

Surprising to see no comment here (unless I missed it) abaout Hoops saying he want to re-sign and loves Wellington. This is a huge endorsment for the club. Lets hope it works out well.

Has he done an interview somewhere?

Gary Hooper wants to stay at Wellington Phoenix.

"Yeah, I’d be happy to come back. Obviously we’ve got to get this season done and then see where the club is at for next season. I’ll have a word with the gaffer in the next month or so and we’ll go from there."@newstalkzbsport pic.twitter.com/86DMB8v481

— Jason Pine (@pineyzb) June 27, 2020

with a full pre season behind him and provided he is not asking for silly wages, hopefully we do it

I can't see him getting much better in a league one team and maybe the championship is now behind him - that league is also going to face some major financial issues next year if there are no crowds 

I would love to keep him but it is gonna come down to the money we can offer. The payout the clubs get from the TV deal is gonna be a fraction of what it has been, so there is gonna have to be cuts made on some level so its gonna need some very deep pockets from the owners to keep the squad together.

As long as he loses a few Kg he should be fine for next season.

Agreed, everyone's expectations post-COVID will be somewhat reduced.  But if he wants to give a smallish league in a relatively safe area a shot, A-League beats League One.

yeah, would be absolutely stoked if he stayed here. Only real competitor is Championship if he thinks he's good enough (which he absolutely is) and if he feels safe going back there. We're in such a good position.

People underrate the importance of squad consistency. All five imports back would be unprecedented for the club

he’s wanted to stay all along, so I’m glad to read nothing has changed on that front. Would love to see it happen, but the reduced deal, I’d expect he’d be one of the means to cut the cloth? There wasn’t really a player I didn’t want to see back next season. All have played superbly so far

You guys do realise that the salary cap will basically be halved for the next season, and that the club is facing a prospect of no income from ticket sales until 2021 at least?

Possibly but more chance of playing before crowds then the UK 

Plus we have the ace up our cards

Jacinda and Graant are bank rolling us, don't think Boris will put it all on the line for a league one team

That million bucks won't go far.

I'm worried about who we can afford to keep that we've signed for next season already, let alone how we strengthen the squad.

Are you talking about Hoops or a particular member of the fever?

Yep, great point - the current deals that extend beyond this season were all made with a larger salary cap (and income) in mind, so they will have to be re-structured, and some players probably let go too.

Boris, as mayor of London, actively sabotaged AFC Wimbledon's new stadium, so yeah

True story, was one of the architects on that. I remember Boris called it in just before he vacated the mayors office, could even have been the last day.

Will certainly be interesting to see who we can afford to keep

Or it might be seen as an opportune time to bin the salary cap all together. There's enough excemptions at the moment that it's mostly pointless. 

Scrapping of the cap will happen sooner rather than later, assuming the league gets through this tough period. But it's illusory to think that any club in the league, in the current environment, will be looking to splash serious cash on the squad for next season even if there is no cap in place.

If Aussie keep their borders shut until late next year as has been suggested. It may be case of who wants to live in Oz for a season as o mto how much we can pay them.

Factor in the extra expense for the Nix, if they get a W league side up and running. Start up cost for that will be significant.

Government will fund the Womens team partly IMO. It is in their interests to have a successful National Team with us hosting the World Cup.

Ain't so simple.

The A-League salary cap is $3.2 million for the 2019–20 season. Clubs must spend at least the salary floor which is $2.88 million (representing 90% of the salary cap). 

If the salary cap is reduced, all clubs are in the same boat. Probably good news for "economical" clubs like ourselves.

Or should they just reduce the salary floor for next season?

Not sure it's very fair to call us an 'economical' club. Our squad has two ex-Premier League players, an ex-Bundesliga player, and a bunch of others with good experience and track record in competitive leagues around the world. It's certainly not a cheap squad, and I would be shocked if our player budget for this season in particular was in the bottom half of the league.

The whole point of the salary cap and floor as a concept is to keep the spend on players across all the clubs in the same ballpark, so any measure really has to cover both at the same time. 

I do expect both to go once the new league structure gets in place (assuming all goes well), but that will bring a new set of issues along too. The most important thing for the league next season is to ensure financial viability and demonstrate commercial potential to attract new partners and that's going to be a challenge given the incoming income hit for everyone, and the greater overlap with NRL and AFL seasons next year.

The other benefit of the salary cap is to try and stop teams from gambling by taking on a lot of debt to try and win the league and hope the returns from that make it worth while.

All that's true, but they've also got two players they're not paying at all.

Wait what? who's not being paid? 

Sutton is one, Zac Jones the other maybe? Not exactly big savings on offer considering what their market rate would otherwise be.

Why are those two off the payroll?

They're on Academy deals, aren't they?

Ah, so when the academy went on hiatus they stopped being paid? Although it was said recently that the academy is back up and running.

I don't think we should overdramatise our wage bill

Of the two premiership players mentioned

1: One wasplaying in league one (and a quick google search indicates wages in that league are not high)

2: The second was released from a championship club and if he didn't come here was heading to the league below 

Hooper was never going to League One, far too good, just had a huge string of injuries so Sheff Wed couldn't justify taking a risk and paying him the huge wages he was on

If he actually had an offer from a championship club I dont think he would be here do you?

That would actually apply to any of our players