Phoenix Ownership - Rob says FTFFA (Part 2)

I'd like to agree with you but have my doubts if wining and dining the journos will sway them, unless we make sure that during the touristy activities they are also constantly flooded with the facts as we know them, so they don't talk shark when they get back home. Otherwise we would need to assume that NQ Fury got shut down because they did not take the journos on a Great Barrier Reef cruise.

Personally i think Morrison is on the right track taking NZF and SKY to task for low public support for Phoenix. Anything to enable greater exposure for the team, from more coverage in the media to at least some coverage (HAL highlights?) on FTA networks, would help.

We've already seen some change.  I've seen more promotion for the A-League on Sky and we're getting between game packages and talking heads instead of hilights from some irrelevant sport.

Of course Morrison needs to do what he needs to do here, as per your comment. My point is that we need to do that AND try to stop some of the factually incorrect drivel from too many journos in Oz, via a charm/facts campaign. Such jaunts are common practice amongst many NZ companies wishing to influence the influencers - as part of a wider business strategy.

Tourism NZ do this promo stuff all the time in the tourism sector - they're called 'famils' and are incredible jollies -  but they get a pretty good return from them.

And it shouldn't be too hard to put together some sort of marketing-style 'metrics' factsheets  - we are still hearing a lot of the misinformation being repeated over and over again with no apparent strategy to debunk it and get ahead of it 

If we accept as given that Phoenix is good for NZ economy (nevermind if it is good for FFA economy), for example in terms of travelling Oz fans etc., then the Sydney office of TradeNZ should be the first one to get our side of the story disseminated across the Tasman.

Go Ernie

Optimistic stuff in here

The Age; "Wellington Phoenix coach Ernie Merrick hasn't let the prospect of his club's unknown future deter him, saying he's already begun the process of re-signing players and working out their pre-season itinerary.

The future of the New Zealand-based club looked to be in dire straights a month ago when Football Federation Australia claimed the club had failed to meet a list of "metrics", subsequently denying the Phoenix's owners a 10-year licence extension.

But just as the FFA looked to have opened fire on the Phoenix, the campaign to save the club has been equal to, if not more powerful than, the push to remove them.

"The support has been unbelievable. It was a surprise in some ways but then again, wherever we go in New Zealand, we're so popular and I've never come across that before," Merrick said after the club training session at Lambert Park in Sydney's inner west. "A-League fans everywhere have backed the "Save The Nix" campaign, we've even seen it spread to the Bundesliga at Dusseldorf, and it's been something that's really very special. It fills me with a lot of hope and confidence."

Despite being knocked back for a long-term licence, the FFA is now privately urging the Phoenix to apply for a four-year extension and has cooled on the idea of cutting them loose at the end of the season. Whether a four-year stint with no long-term guarantees is enough to appease the WelNix consortium is the more pressing issue. The Phoenix's licence expires at the end of the year, at which point players' contracts could be thrown into jeopardy.

"What I know is that we'll be playing next year in this league and I've already started to re-sign players, look at new players and plan for pre-season. The board is totally supportive of that," Merrick said. "I'd say it's almost business as usual, at least from my point of view. I have absolutely no reason not to plan ahead. We've appointed a new academy coach, Paul Temple, we now have an under-20 team in the New Zealand national league team and nothing will stop us moving forward."

FFA right now:

I'm strugging to see your point. Of course they aren't the highest paid, they are much smaller sports than football on a world scale. But kiwis want to watch those sports, and whether they are big on a world scale or not, the players are still some of the best in the world for that sport.

Superstars are about ability first and formost, though being a knobhead can often help market them. So do we need Roly to start a fight is Mish Mosh or something?

Ernie's comments and positiveness cant help but fill one with confidence.

I think the point Ryan is making is that we can make superstars, we just need the media to market the shark out of them.  A great player can play well and be known in football circles, but those circles are likely already going to the match.

what we need is Ridenton to get caught peeing in his mouth on camera.  Then a public apology, then him visiting sick children and playing a game of football with them and letting them win.

Then he needs to go play in the NRL for a season, but miss his first training session to his new code to go skiing (and telling his coach he is sick) but also not telling the Nix that he is leaving the club until he is catching his flight out of the country and then when he comes back say he wont play against his old club but then play against his old club.  Wait sorry that's how you become an AB.

I get what Ryan is saying, that we need some kind of appeal to the masses, and the masses read more trash on stuff than they could list the top 5 players in the world.  We need Beckham appeal to get interest in the club, but that's no simple feat either.

As I've said elsewhere, his willingness to give the lads a serve for their not-horrible-but-sub-par performance in Parramatta is also confidence inducing. If we were doomed he'd be patting them on the back and trying to make them feel good about themselves.

Well Boyd watched a movie when the team were playing once.

I'm saying that rugby and league stars earn more money in Europe than they do in NZ and Australia, so attracting and retaining top talent is not just about money.

Being a superstar is not about being a knob head, although that is what often gets you into the public eye. Being a superstar is 100% about media exposure.

Yeah so one of the FFA's metrics is that we don't have ambitions to acquire a marquee, but the only marquee's that will get people through the gates are the likes of Beckham, Rooney, etc. And these are people who we absolutely cannot afford. It's pointless getting an ageing Marquee who is after a final pay check and has limited appeal outside of football supporters especially if someone like Bonevacia is our accounting marquee. We also don't have an ageing golden generation to attract back.

So the media needs to get on board and make our players household names. They might not be the best in the world, but the difference sometimes isn't as big as you might expect. It would be nice to get, say a breakfast cereal sponsor, who can have Wellington Phoenix trading cards, or daily updates on the news of a former nix player, like Tyler Boyd, and his quest to get into a top european league ala Jarryd Hayne and the 49ers.

I agree.  I am a knob head but I am not a superstar.

(Do I win $10?)

Tell Stuff, thats genuinely more interesting than half the crap they put on there.

That's easy, report his name as Tyler Kardashian Boyd and thatbhe loves any cooking, building, surviving, bacheloring singing show and you can be guaranteed he will not only get the biggest headline but also ongoing irrelevant mentions for 21 days running.

I finally tried to watch 50 Shades of Grey the other weekend. What a piece of shark. Even as a trashy erotic thriller it sucked  badly. Not even in the same category as Wild Things. And if you want to watch some light BDSM with your significant other then Secretary was not only way dirtier but a much better film in terms of character development, plot, and so on.

Seriously Tyler, not cool.

I feel for you Conan.

I found 50SoG rather depressing and least of all erotic, maybe because it takes itself too seriously. "The Secretary" had a certain sense of humour, and Maggie Gyllenhaal' wicked smile alone (and her typing skills) were worth an Oscar.

speaking about tyler boyd, he's actually doing quite well in portugal. getting good game time for vitoria guimaraes' b team in the portuguese  2nd division. might have even scored some goals i think.

Interesting agenda item (13.3) in upcoming FIFA ExCo meeting. A Swiss club is seeking to be dual registered in 2 FAs - Switzerland and Germany. If Nix applied to be dual registered could they compete as NZ rep in Club World Cup?

Just maybe if NZ Football and all those who claim to be football fans offered some support,then maybe the Media and others might also do the same. .

I also fail to see what playing in the reserve team is such a big deal i mentioned Boyd as an example of an aspiration story, but otherwise there is Reid, Wood, Thomas, etc who never get any coverage. Outside of football there's the likes of Mitch Evans, etc. But once again we won't see bugger all of these stories until someone else validates it for us, we need to grow up to be honest.

The sports media in this country are horrendously biased and have lost most of their brain cells in a few too many rucks.

But it has to be an important race, not just any race.

I don't know what you guys are watching or reading [if at all] because I consider that I have a pretty good knowledge of what is happening with Kiwi sports people throughout the world. Admittedly I don't glean all of that information from the front of the newspaper or the TV [in fact I rarely watch the TV news now] but I am interested enough to either seek out the information or recognise it as being of interest if it comes across me in the more mainstream media. The point of this post is not to demonstrate how amazing I am but more to put forward that I think those that are interested will look for that information. I certainly don't expect the mainstream media to report on how a Kiwi is playing in the German 3rd division or even that there are kiwis playing there. Mainstream media is essentially a paid for service and they will provide what the general populace want, sometimes they will generate a story if they think it will benefit them or ignite public interest but they are looking for the biggest bang for the buck.

We can't sit there and moan because there is not enough coverage of football in the NZ media when we can only get 6 or 7 thousand to the top level of the game at the Cake Tin. We can rant and rave about how many people play the game but how much of that is real interest? the type of interest that gets people along to games, watch it on TV, read it in the paper etc? Like I paly pool when I'm at the pub, yet I don't pore over the snooker results in the paper nor watch Pot Black or the World Snooker Championships.

Player registrations are held by the FFA and the players are represented by the Australian PFA.  I would have thought that would make them an Australian club based in New Zealand rather than the other way around.

To be fair, Lydia Ko deserves her chunk of the segment because she is doing amazing.

It would be nice for us to get more exposure, but you are right, more media exposure legitimises the comp, the team and that generates interest.  

That was my line of thinking too. An Australian club, LOCATED in New Zealand. And I thought the reason OFC didn't allow them to represent NZ in CWC was because they weren't originally playing in the the NZ domestic league; but now they are; and if they applied for dual registration (as the Swiss team are), then...

Yeah, because she became the No. 1 ranked woman professional golfer on 2 February 2015 at 17 years 9 months 8 days of age, making her the youngest player of either sex to be ranked No. 1 in professional golf. On 13 September 2015, she became the youngest woman, at age 18 years, 4 months and 20 days, to win a major championship when she won The Evian Championship in France. Her closing round of 63 was a record lowest final round in the history of women's golf majors.

She had been the top-ranked woman amateur golfer in the world for 130 weeks when she announced she was turning professional on 23 October 2013. She became the youngest person ever to win a professional golf tour event and youngest person ever to win an LPGA Tour event. In August 2013, she became the only amateur to win two LPGA Tour events. As an amateur she never missed a cut in 25 professional tournaments, and by September 2013 had risen to fifth in the Women's World Golf Rankings in only 23 professional tournaments.[9] Ko played her first LPGA Tour event on 9 February 2012 (14 years, 9 months, 16 days) and made the cut in her first 53 LPGA Tour events through 4 June 2015 (18 years, 1 month, 11 days).

In April 2014, Ko was named as one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people. The same month she advanced to No 2 woman professional golfer in the world when she won the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic.

On 22 November 2015, Ko won the LPGA Rolex Player of the Year Award by a mere two points over Inbee Park, making her the youngest winner in the 49 years of the award.

(from Wiki)

I think she deserves here media coverage.

I heard or read somewhere recently that the Phoenix were an Australian club based in NZ but now they are registered as a NZ club playing in Australia.

In Aussie Rules (where this whole membership culture is coming from); they make a big deal of who holds the Number 1 ticket. Generally a high profile person. Who holds the Nix #1 ticket? Lydia could be a wonderful #1 ticket holder if she (or her "people") had any interest at all in football.

If I wanted to read subpar _Twilight_ fan-fiction with the names changed, there's plenty available free online.

But yeah, _Secretary_ is much better if you like that kind of thing.

Haha I was watching the RoosterTeeth Stream raising money for charity a coup0le of weeks back, and they had people read out the excerpts, my God I haven't heard/seen such bad writing in a long time...was horribly bad, almost illiterate.