How to rebirth the Phoenix/The "What can we do to improve?" thread

...Of course if we were a big well know Aussie city with a population that is actually in to football (eg Melbourne), there's a high chance that the NIx would be owned by some foreigners meaning money and attendances would not be an issue, nor would be playing the FFA at the signings game.

Sadly outside of NZ and Australia, NZ is only really known to play Rugby and Cricket and most people will only have heard of Auckland (our main airport), Christchurch due to the quakes and Queenstown for its beauty. Most people have never heard of Wellington let alone Hamilton, Dunedin etc making it hard to sell to foreign players, coaches and potential owners.

I had a bunch of school friends that attended games in the first few years and now have all dropped off. My guess as to why is that it's not a cool/affordable thing to do once you're 17/18/19.

I think pushing the $45 student memberships hard would help, as would something similar to what the Highlanders do down here with the Zoo which is all students getting pissed with their mates. They did a similar thing for the Football United game here and it definitely helped boost the crowd and atmosphere.

The problem is that they don't stick around, the good thing is the stadium is big enough to have family zones, student zones, etc.

Knights had the Charlton logo on their sleeve. Not Chelsea's.

something to bring back sortof fans, the nix could reward the loyal by giving season or multi pass ticket holders a chance at each home game to win a trip away with the team to aw games, also as a runner up hang with the team for a whole home game? 

I don't know why there is this apparent view that the football world is some way different from the rest of the sporting world. Here we have a theory on why players don't come to the Phoenix because no one has heard of Wellington and the like. Well sorry, you only have to look as far as basketball and you see professional players from some rather large cities being enticed to come and live in the likes of Invercargill, Napier and New Plymouth to play professional sport. Professional sports people will play wherever they can get a gig [by and large] and I seriously doubt there is much in your theory Marto.

I met a US professional volley ball player once who was based in a small, provincial city in Siberia.

Wellington consistently rates as the most liveable city in NZ, and NZ rates as one of the most liveable countries in the world.

People could do a lot worse.

Actually we got some decent import players here attracted here over the years. I think the issue has less to do with attracting foreign players to Wellington than with the ease of attracting foreign players to large Australian cities where our competitors are based, especially in the last several years. 

I look forward to others on the forum perhaps pulling out some stats on proportions of visa vs non-visa players in all HAL clubs over several seasons.

 

over the last few home games, a lady has been handing out envelopes on the concourse, i think between 14 and 20 people( not sure on exact numbers) you got to go under the stand before the game, walk past the changing rooms and into the tunnel where you watch the players come in from their warm ups and then wait for them to line up beside you and walk onto the field.  you then get paraded out the tunnel  and walk to stairs by aisle 18 then back to your own seat. found it quite interesting being that close to the players before the game.

i travel from hawkesbay to go to matches i think this is the least they could do for their faithfulls ...

But there are only so many import spots open on the other squads and a considerable number of pro footballers in the world. A lack of quality in the Nix is down to poor recruiting rather than the players not being there.

That is correct - but that is also precisely my point. With the same or similar number of import spots at the Nix you would expect good talented pro footballers to appear on our doorstep.  

Or - to follow the argument made by Doloras, and others - maybe these talented players did sign up, but then settled for mediocrity?

Which if our imports are we complaining about? They all seem to be a-league quality imports.

But our year-in year-out performance is not a-league quality, unless doing as well as CCM or the Jets is our expected standard. I would like us to aim for the Brisbane / Perth / Adelaide standard instead, recognising that we are never likely to be in Sydney / Melbourne level group.

I do not think we are complaining about the imports as such, but about our overall results. Part of that soul-searching is whether we have the right quality / number / of imports to get us above what I call the CCM Golden Standard (largely local players, shoestring budget, small club).

Anyway, I just got my membership survey from the club, and I let them know that:

a) I don't think much of management's communication with members and other active fans;

b) the management has a reputation (deserved or otherwise) of being out of touch with the fans and being unwilling to listen to criticism.

Any other members, make sure you take this opportunity to unload. Gunman and Hatter can go nuts about how the "regional home games" aka Travelling Circus are vile and depraved.

You got it but I have been informed that they are well aware of our thoughts and offered solutions

They'd have to disband oceania if they lost NZ surely. Mind you, FIFA are that incompetent that they still might not.

Good spot. I think it was the other way round as you pointed out, Kingz=Chelsea and Knights=Charlton.

id like to hear an anthem at home games so we can get our heckles up in support of the lads, also the drum should be non stop to shame the  non chanters and try to raise the passion.

                                                                        oi oi    rudeboy

wrote this in the other thread: I feel really grateful to have been on holiday without TV or good net for the last one. Our two most disappointing results this season have been against WSW.

I don't feel so bad about this season as a northern fan- had some good games up this way and that Garage Project beer was stonking.

That said- I hate the length of the off season.

It sucks too that because I think we had a genuine right to be excited with the talent at our disposal this season and for whatever reason- team failure, a combination of crap fixtures and some very poor offside calls that prevented us getting away to a good start...

For whatever reason the team didn't gel, the tactics didn't work...

For the Wellington fans it seems like a terrible deal this season- hardly any games before Christmas and we've given up fortress Westpac in a big way. At least Ricki had that right?

The attacking verve was supposed to make up for the defensive frailties, but has never really eventuated.

A-Rod, Smeltz, Krishna, Mikey...each of them put their hand up at one time or another as a possible salvation, but each has fallen away.

I personally have enjoyed the games I've been to and been frustrated by a number of the ones I've watched- especially away late in Perth, Sydney, Melbourne etc etc...

Is it broken beyond repair? No way. But let's not kid ourselves it's as easy to turn around as say Adelaide, with their history and friendly reffing (!) or other clubs in Aussie.

We need a combination of a great man manager and a reasonable tactician. We're always going to need players to play above themselves and develop if we are going to do well. But we also need someone who can convince good Aussie players to come here. Merrick had that, more than any of our coaches so far.

I'm Phoenix till I die. Just want some players to go to the Brown/Sigmund/Muscat/Daniel/Greenacre/Riera school of effort and commitment. Thought Watson and Tratt were on their way, but both seem to have dropped off and Krishna looks exhausted...

Want to see a bit more of with your shield or on it. A bit more of any loss really hurting and any win being richly richly enjoyed...

Home Again should be our anthem.

i just listened to it sorry but im not broken i think born again black sabbath .... or not!!!!

I'm sick of us having songs which have no connection to us, Home Again is about being overseas and away from a girl in Wellington and is very singable in a crowd.

phoenix is a bird born again and its one of the images in the song but i want to get pumped not sad

This was at North Harbour stadium and there were lots of families there and new fans in a way that made me feel really hopeful about the 'Nix, so I gave him a beer! Absolute legend. If these aren't the faces of optimistic 'Nix fans I dunno what is...

A couple of wins and we'll be on the up again. 

How uplifting are You'll Never Walk Alone or Sunshine Over Lieth? Home Again is Tony Robins compared to those two.

75000 voices ill never walk alone bvb dortmund very incredible i agree but 6000 half harted bastards i say the song or music has to do the talking or we could use slice of heaven agggggggh never 

So why not have one of the APRA top songs in NZ history, one that is not over used or claimed by other sporting codes and has an intrinsic connection to Wellington?

[quote=Ryan]

So why not have one of the APRA top songs in NZ history, one that is not over used or claimed by other sporting codes and has an intrinsic connection to Wellington?

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you mean flesh-d-vice flaming souls .. only frackin with ya it would have to go to a vote , but i like your enthusiasm

Yeah, of course it should be a vote. I'm merely advocating that we choose music which is associated with our fair city. If we do decide to get an anthem I really don't want to end up with some European imitation like never walk alone, some overused kiwi classic like slice of heaven, or something absolutely terrible like that bang bang song that the Rugby uses.

Phoenix City FTW

ring of fire was the best. They shouldn't have stopped it. 

I liked Ring of Fire as well...but if people want something more Wellington...

How about "Wellington" - Mutton Birds?

LOL10 seasons and here we are that same old discussion again.Good luck getting a consensus on a song,

Ryan it's called Home and Away, not Home Again.

Phoenix city and Ring of Fire are too on the nose.

Not much else worth discussing.

lets have a vote some you original 07 members must have some kind of push. come up with a list. put it to a vote from members maybe not counting trialist new members. im not from welly and i dont like the weather so whatever goes...

We could sing that at the Travelling Circus games.

I'm amazed that ACFC don't sing Dominion Road.