Phoenix Ownership - Rob says FTFFA (Part 2)

I listened to SST (why do I bother?) or at least the bit about the nix, after all the moaning about getting rid of us (with one of them actually trying to defend us surprisingly) it came to the bid. Apparently they were offered $7.5 million Australian and turned it down outright. 

That's a really good sign if true IMO because if I was worried about a contract extension I'd be tempted to cut my losses and take the cash, or at least see if I could negotiate the price up. Instead it shows commitment and intent.

If it's not true it doesn't matter anyway.

So either a good thing or an ambiguous thing.

Sometimes a good quality lie is better for the morale than an ugly demoralsing truth.

https://www.goal.com/en-au/amp/news/the-covert-agent-southern-expansion-make-offers-to-buy/jblpulz9rvc51sztyh0k6ffb6

Just the same rumor grin SST that Morrison apparently refused out right?

Would have been great to accepted it as the money would be of huge benifet

The money being a huge benefit? WTF? The Nix would have been folded to allow the Southern Sydney crowd in. No thanks, Keep the Nix in there. We have not had to have the FFA bail us out financially.

Would be good to bring in a proper marquee player

To South Sydney?

Don't think you have quite understood how this works James.  To get the money we lose the club.

Did you read the article?

Because the people with the money want to buy the Phoenix license from the Welnix Group, and shift the club to Southern Sydney.  They aren't wanting to invest in the Wellington Phoenix, they want to invest money in the Cronulla Riots.

I assumed you were taking the piss.

What’s or average crowd.  

“A-League chief Greg O'Rourke said this week it was clear some teams were playing in stadiums that were "too big" for them, with the Roar - who have an average attendance of 8,993 this season in the 52,500-seat Suncorp Stadium - a perfect example.“

Frank Farina can tell us. 

And their (Roar) relationship with their owners (Bakri Group) is toxic as per post a week ago in this forum, in comparison we are "above average" on that particular metric.   No matter how you look at it, it is arguably easier to fix problems on the park (Phoenix) than to get a disinterested owner to pay your wages on time (Roar). 

"Strong Government backing" in PR spin usually means "we think it is a splendid idea as long you pay for everything yourself".

Yeah. Tasmania doesn't have any money FFS.

The whole "there are 197 new teams just waiting to get their chance to come into the A league" argument amuses me. IF all these new franchises are cashed up, backed to the hilt and ready to go then why aren't they already in there?

One of the recurring gripes about the current state of the A League is that "it's the same teams, playing one another every few weeks. It's boring". I'd have thought getting 2, 4, even 6 new teams in there would not only solve that problem, it'll bring opportunities for new revenue streams, merchandising, TV exposure, advertising, sponsorship etc as well as getting the FFA a few much needed brownie points.. The whole "Nix are preventing other franchises from coming into the league" is complete BS. If they are ready, viable and can hit the ground running, the FFA should be adding those teams, not considering taking teams away. 

The Nix aren't the reason that the League isn't expanding, the FFA are.

^^^^

Jag... simple Steven Lowy has screwed up the expansion and the civil war between FFA and the Clubs, and the PFA and the State league teams is taking up all the time.

Essentially the clubs want to run the A-League independent from FFA similar to the EPL .... its a clusterfudge of the highest order ...

The VIC & NSW state Associations want a second division and P & R in time...

Their is a push from many to go to a full FIFA model within say 5 to 10 years I am in this camp as well... 

The clubs believe they can sell the additional games to the media... 

The FIFA visit will hopefully deliver a new governance model which will enable the move to a FIFA model in time as opposed to the tied tier franchise model we have today. 

Out of interest here are some of the bids news articles... tis fairly easy simply google "bid Name" A-League bid and heaps for each bid comes up.

A-League team bid for Tasmania alive and well, and government-backed, MP claims

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-13/a-league-bid-for-tasmania-alive-and-well/9045834

Brisbane City

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/may/05/b...

The South Melbourne & Gong bids already have stadiums and teams in the NPL … they are ready to go …

The southern Bid is ready and by far the strongest…

Adelaide City is near ready and can share stadium with AU,

South-east Melbourne A-League bid comes to life. Not ready but huge interest as local government have allocated land and it appears Vic gov will help with stadium.

https://www.casey.vic.gov.au/council/news-publications/mediareleases/team112june17

Personally and I could be wrong is we will over the next say 4 to 5 years grow to a 16 team competition... it will be like now a tired tire franchisee model.... at the same time a second division will start up ... then somewhere between 7 & 10 years out P & R will start.  

The 16 teams will need to grow the league to a level that P & R can be introduced ... Broadcasters who will have a say in the new teams want teams that will  rate ... so expect capital city Australian teams especially Sydney, Melbourne & Brisbane.

Can we please have a mute button?

But how will you know if you win prizes?

The other part of this, is that all these "amazing bids" were announced before the last TV deal when FFA was telling everyone the amount from the TV deal would double and thus all teams would be able to break even.

That hasn't happened so I wonder home many are reallt interested now and how many have owners prepared to throw away half a million dollars.

If I was the FFA I would do something like what F1 does, if you want to start a new team pay a bond of a few million which the FFA returns after X years and also slowly ramp up how much TV money a new team is eligible for.

Thats a reasonable point as is who will fund the second division sides.

The general feeling is if Hal becomes in time a full FIFA model then money will flow ... how realistic this is is open to interpenetration.

The untold elephant in the room is funding FFA, because the AFC took has the media rights to all its important games, meaning FFA's non Hal revenue has lost its major income source... The fight then becomes is why should Hal fund FFA and the response is because there is no other revenue... 

Suffice to say we are in a civil war between various stakeholders essentially over revenue and the pace of expansion, and other stakeholder wanting greater representation in the decision making process.

However governments seem to want to back Football .... this is a 442 article on what the South Australian gov is doing ... the News artile sits behind a paywall but its copied in the 442 thread... 

I personally thing the bidders are still there, we need a new leadership group urgently to unite the tribes.

442 link ...https://forum.insidesport.com.au/2622326/New-26-mil...

A conversation with myself and my Dad. I highly doubt this is happening, but I will find out his "source".

I love your snarky reply! Seems strange that Welnix would do that. Don't believe it for a second.

I'd expect more rumours flying around if that was the case. They'd be in negotiations with the ffa for instance. Would be extremely hard to keep that quiet.

Probably related to the clubs pushing for an independent A league, rather than specifically the nix being out. 

With five A-League clubs currently owned by foreigners including Central Coast, Brisbane Roar, Sydney FC, Jets and Melbourne City and maybe a soon to be Adelaide United, what's the likelihood of Chinese investors buying into Wellington Phoenix?.

The Southern Expansion is purely backed up by Chinese investors ready to build a new stadium etc.

I bring this up as we only have 2 years left on our current licence that must be meet by metrics and if we "Spoon It" up until then would the Welnix just pull the plug?. I'm sure if we had that resource of investment we could build a proper football stadium let alone get a marquee player signed.  

The A League this season has been down on many benchmarks from fans to TV ratings but it doesn't stop investors wanting a peace of it or finding it attractive.

I just wonder if Welnix have ever been approached. 

I'm telling you, WelNix are holding on until the club is worth real money.

100% not true.

at this rate they'd have to pay someone to take the team off their hands

I acknowledge this may a moot point, but I reckon our financial competence will see us survive a couple of rounds of A league expansion in 2020 and 2022, after which ProRel will not be far away - 2024?

ProRel will provide plenty of incentive to invest, but the reality is that the clubs and FFA need to sort out their 'control of the game/revenue' shark fight before anything much can change. I believe that somehow it will happen; independent league or, more likely, some sort of compromise.

At that point, we need better quality football management at the club (where is the next Tony Pignata?). However imagine the difference a savvy, experienced football administrator would bring to the party right now. If only long term tenure could be secured.

Feeling glass half full this morning.