Phoenix Ownership - Rob says FTFFA (Part 2)

Ring the club and speak to Kyla. Guess it might depend on how many replies they have had.

I have cracked this re-branding problem.

Simply adding a question mark after Wellington creates enough ambiguity to satisfy all parties i.e. Wellington? Phoenix FC

"So do you mean Wellington or not?"

"Maybe, maybe not, it's open to interpretation"

"Oh great, that's basically where I live so I now feel a level of engagement with your brand that will translate into commercial value for you"

"I can feel my metrics throbbing"

I have rung Frank Lowy and he has signed it off so all good now.

Exactly. 'NZ Phoenix' is insanity. By necessity a rebrand would involve changing the colours. My guess is they would go with black and white stripes like Juventus. It's the kind of thing that will look great on a billboard for a few months, but will fall completely flat when you are actually walking into the half empty stadium. And then you have ripped away the emotional attachment that people had. It sounds innocuous but it's actually a really big deal. 

Melbourne Heart is a case in point. They changed to Melbourne City and the average attendance shot up to a new record for one season... but has now come crashing down to its lowest ever. They have alienated a lot of loyal supporters who will never come back.

And, I tricked him because we can put the ? in a much smaller font and/or superscript so ha, ha, fudge you Frank you got played.

Seems Frank Lowy is still off balance

The new name is just another red herring from FFA. They seriously wouldn't think that calling the team NZ Phoenix is going to result in a massive spike in metrics. Apart from a few fanatics here and there, there would be very few genuine NZ football fans who refuse to support a team called Wellington, and changing that name to NZ is not going to make them become fans all of a sudden.

I suspect the Warriors and Breakers dropping any Auckland reference is more because of the anti-Auckland feeling in the provinces

The Breakers have only ever been NZ so have never re-branded.  They did try and take games on the road but quickly retrenched to Auckland when they realised the business case just doesn't stand up and crouds plummeted once the novelty wore off.

The Warriors rebrand was timed with the change of onwership to Watson.  I suspect that had less to do with wider engagement and more to do with changing the brand to re-inforce the more secure ownership model.

Takapuna Tiki-Takas?

How about the team rebrands itself to the <INSERT YOUR TOWN HERE> Phoenix, it will take a bit of work but it goes like this.

If you watch from Auckland they play in blue and black..

If you watch from Christchurch they play in red and black.

If you watch from Wellington they play in yellow and black.

And all the branding and posters are tailored to the city that they are advertised in.

Now here's the tricky thing, they actually play in Yellow and Black all the time (shh, don't tell the FFA) but they engage the advanced compositing knowledge of Weta Studio to recolour that Yellow to the colour of whatever city you are watching the Phoenix from. Obviously Sky needs to be involved, but everyone makes a little mess in their pants at the mention of Weta Studio so why wouldn't they be.

We may also have to composite in Eden Park, AMI Park, etc.

I'm assuming that Sky knows where people are watching from and therefore can make these changes, it might require a custom nix firmware on all mysky boxes.

For streaming we can make a good guess at where someone is watching from based on their IP address so can also modify the stream colours in real time. 

If people access the Phoenix website it will use the above geolocation to show them their colours and cities name. 

If you access it from Australia it will default to the New Zealand Phoenix.

No one will be any wiser.

This week the Lads (My crew), coming down from Palmerston North include 5 Season Members (4 are new this year after I shouted them games last year), 2 Lads over visiting from the UK, and 2-3 footy friends I have encouraged to come down and visit me to watch the game. I think the phoenix could grow a really strong supporter base from Wanganui/Palmy down as there are a lot of passionate people about football up there. I know of two other groups that come from Palmy pretty much every game as well.

Anyone want a ride down from Hawkes Bay? Will leave Fri morning about 10 or 11am and return Sat morning.  Let you sleep on the fold out couch. I wont be drinking.  

I wouldn't mind just being called The Phoenix or Phoenix FC. The super rugby franchises did that ages ago and there was no harm done there.

The Phoeni

fudge them.

It's no longer time to wrap scarves on lamp posted its time to go tell lowy to fall off another stages and boycott queensgate.

Let me go on record. If the name changes, I will boycott your sharkbox shopping centre and encourage others to do the same.

I think the FFA think that they can just replicate the WSW outcome in South Sydney

I agree with this comment. The Sydney Rovers (to be based in Campbelltown, of all places, to "tap into South Sydney market") did not happen until the concept eventually found fertile ground further north-west, and was embraced by larger Western Sydney.

The identity gap between WSW and SydFC is pretty big and probably growing - it is not necessarily just geographical but linked to a chasm between two different demographics. WSW fans may be therefore found in Syd FC geographical "territory", but not vice versa (or at least nowhere near as many SFC fans would dare to live west of Parramatta).

Lowy's inane suggestion for Wellington Phoenix to become New Zealand Phoenix is akin to ask someone to adequately cover themselves for the night with a pillowcase. No matter how you stretch it you can't really call it a duvet. it is still just a black-and-yellow pillowcase.

For a moment I thought the owners of our beloved Nix was FFA yeah right. Hell no, Feck no, 10 more years kients

"I may be Frank Lowy, but at least I'm not Frank Lowy"

The best thing about being Frank Lowy's age is that you're always meeting new people. Sometimes, in the mirror.

New stadium in petone would solve everything

Nimby Alert , Nimby Alert. New headline in Doomlost tomorrow as your suggestion become irrefutable fact.

A refurbished Rugby League park stadium in Newtown would solve everything !
Its a natural amphitheatre,loads of parking ,needs three stands to compliment the one that's already there ,compact 8000 to 10,000  rectangular purpose built football(rugby) stadia !

You know it makes sense!

Nice video on stuff: https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/a-league/739...

Good work.

We have some very canny owners in Welnix

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/a-league/739...

And I am now officially blimmin relieved and looking forward to the game on Friday and the rest of the season.

Isn't that the Hurricanes training ground? Is it used for anything else?

Not sure if it will be available online later but Fox Sports Football Roundtable which is screening tonight is worth a look, purely for comedy value and getting extra practice at swearing at your TV. A panel of 'experts' (Harper, Rudan, etc) deliver their opinions on the Phoenix and regurgitate all the halfarsed FFA metrics tripe, lumping us in with failed clubs Gold Coast and NQF. Just an astonishing lack of insight and a wilful ignorance of the issues. Although actually not so astonishing.

Don't think so,apart from a me and a bunch of other "should know betters" having a kick about every Sunday morning on it !

Seriously don't know why Wellington Rugby and the Phoenix couldn't share it ,I suppose politically  it would be a disaster as the Westpac  stadium would become the biggest white elephant in the country !

(perhaps it already is )

Don't think so,apart from a me and a bunch of other "should know betters" having a kick about every Sunday morning on it !

Seriously don't know why Wellington Rugby and the Phoenix couldn't share it ,I suppose politically it would be a disaster as the Westpac stadium would become the biggest white elephant in the country !

(perhaps it already is )

Yep that was a very good piece by Hamish Bidwell and Morrison's statements were also reassuring.

I am also pleased to see that he shares my sentiments about the pathetic coverage of the Nix' exploits by NZ media and looks to other outlets than just the one negotiated by FFA (Sky TV).

Are you listening, Lowy, Gallop? It is time SkyTV stopped squatting on their licence!

I'm not sure that's the right location but we definitely need a proper study on options for a new stadium.

Meanwhile could anyone give a bullet point summary of tonight's meeting for those of us who couldn't be there?

If you want to criticise the guy stick to the facts; there are plenty of those. Leave his age out of it. Ageism is no different from all the other "isms".

Anyone with updates on what was said at the Yacht club tonight? Did Rob totally bin the idea of NZ Phoenix??????

I couldn't sleep, this came to me. 

The suspense is killing me!!!. 

Piney's interview with God

Morrison: Positive talks on Phoenix Future

https://www.radiosport.co.nz/sport-news/football/morrison-positive-talks-on-phoenix-future/

I just don't understand what Morrison wants from NZF. In this interview he acknowledges they already support the club financially but says that is not what it is about. In the past few days he has asked them through the media for "actionable steps" and "thinking outside the box". Now in this interview he says he wants a "shared infrastructure". What does he mean? If he has a proposal for a new way of managing the club he should lay it on the table. Very strange to put the burden on NZF to come up with a new model. That's not their job any more than it is to come up with club strategies for ACFC or Canterbury United.

true

the bit about shared infrastructure is probably around Phoenix (Academy) being the pathway/prep for our NZ youth teams. i.e. instead of having Wanderers in the comp have the players in a Nix side. Shift the base from Akld to Wgtn.