What is still pissing me off about the whole thing is that as a club we are not in the financial crap of at least two Australians clubs yet Lowry & Gallop are making a big song and dance about us having to give more dosh. Sure things could be better, I acknowledge that but really, they need to sort out their own teams financial woes before worrying about us. Just give us the ten year licence to show we can do something long term...and get another Auckland side up and running, make it quite interesting and it gives Australian players another door in which to try and make a name for themselves. Thus having two opportunites instead of one such as South Sydney for example.
Well apparently its socceroos money that is paying for the A-League cap, i.e. out of the 40 million broadcast deal most of that is for the Socceroos while a smaller amount is for the A-League. So if that's the case then you can see why the FFA think that they are subsidising NZ football and want some contribution from the NZ stakeholders. That was mentioned by Ryans Rovers on twitter and as we all know here he's not prone to posting shark for no reason.
I'd like to know a bit more about that. The A-League is approx. 140 games per season. How many games do the Socceroos play each year? The ratings of those games must be astronomical if they can be seen as "subsidising" the A-League. I can see that it's possible though.
RR - do you have any more detail around the breakdown?
Aussies get pretty nationalistic when its an Aussie on the world stage. Lots of casual sports fans, who will never follow the A league, tune in to Socceroos World Cup games. Golden Goose.