Phoenix Ownership - Rob says FTFFA

Ćevapi, prosciutto, delicious bacon...?

Okay, I'm a conspiracy theorist, but hear me out on this.

FFA: "Okay, Welnix, we need more from you Kiwis on crouds, memberships and TV ratings before we can let you have a long-term licence."

WELNIX: "Hmmm... how's about this? You guys start leaking that you want us out by the end of the year and you'll replace us with some drongos in Cronulla. That will put the wind up our fanbase and THEN they'll buy memberships and start coming to the games. Bloody Kiwis are too complacent. They haven't listened to our threats, but they might take it more seriously coming from you."

FFA: "Okay, we'll give it a go."

Brilliant reading, thanks for posting! Put a smile on my face for the first time in a few days!

Make stripes with black duct tape. Then every week will look like a sellout!

I actually thought this as well a few days ago. Morgan the cheeky ninja!

Lowy: “As is stands, Phoenix has four years to demonstrate that they are an asset to the competition and not a liability instead of simply asking for a 10-year extension to their licence." - But you gave 20 years to the Jets and CCM?

Lowy: “I advised Scott that any future decision will be based on facts and figures and not emotion and asked him to provide FFA with a carefully considered submission about his club’s position. I also advised him that that FFA would consult with his club, or any other club, affected by any future proposals." - those same facts and figures where we are at least in the same ballpark as the Jets and CCM, who you just gave 20 year license extensions to?

Lowy: “This is why there is no point in conducting an uninformed public debate, which simply creates confusion and unnecessary anxiety." - why did your organisation issue a vaguely worded statement saying you wouldn't issue the Nix a 10 year license and the Nix could "request" an application for a 4 year one, just after there was heaps of media reports about a South Sydney club being set up?

Fudge you you fudgeing shark cod. There's no rational business reason for not keeping the Nix in the league for 10 more years and you fudgeing know it. 

So really Lowy is an even bigger cod than Gallop.

What Gallop has been saying is coming directly from Lowy and the board (also known as just Lowy and people who say yes to him)

Yep, but he's still a cod. 

I would have managed a modicum of respect for FFA if they just owned their truth, which seems to be "this is a competition for Aussies, now fudge off sheep shaggers". But they would need to grow some balls to do that. Would love this to escalate to FIFA but not likely is it?

Wow. Just wow.

That made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

understand the club's reticence to fight this through the media,  and acknowledge they've been very active on social media but would love to get the message out there that they want to continue and that memberships and attendances are the way to go to support the club.  The online petition is a waste of time

Club email:

great stuff 

You can tell a lot about a man by their signature and that's one cool one domeys got going on there. 

I had to sign up today to say I am totally gutted at the thought of the Phoenix being shut down. I have a song for the fever to sing if they please and a story behind it. So, first the song.

You are our sunshine, our only sunshine
You make us happy when skies are grey
You never know, nix, how much we love you
Please don't take our Phoenix away

FFA, FFA

Please don't take our Phoenix away

Now the story.

My father took me to the football in Scotland every weekend as a child to see Raith Rovers. Rain, snow or even worse sunshine! The last time I saw my father was two years ago when I finally took him to a football game. This club means the world to me and I am crying now when I say this is my last link to him.

I spread the love of this club every chance I get and always try and bring people to home games. The two people that came to the Brisbane game loved it and have proclaimed they are buying season tickets. Everyone I know has been asked to at least buy a membership, from Nelson to Scotland and Fiji between.

The song is a slight change on one sung by the Raith faithful (probably while dancing in the streets).

Much love, Keep fighting!

Looks like a cock and balls.

Edgy sig.

ballsy is exactly what we need now

That's a very defensive statement by Lowy. To me that shows that they have come under some unexpected pressure. Pressure from their own neck of the woods that they did not expect.

That Shirley Bright is an excellent writer - and very well informed.

Have total faith in Welnix to make the right calls on this. Smart play to not only assess their position, but keep it clear of the mammoth media coverage of the World Cup Rugby Final. 

Gallop has us in a couple of areas - crouds which are poor for all sport at Westpac Stadium (much to do with so many job losses in a public service town decimated by the centre right Government) - and no significant cash by some other NZ stakeholders.

Time really for all concerned to standup. Best place to start, and only place at this stage, is for Wellington to turn up in droves to the home game against Adelaide. A statement simply has to be made. Anything less will be disastrous. So to the 7,000 fans (above the 6,000 core) who used to turnup prior to Terry's financial issues, for flips sake, buy your tix now !!

Merrick's side are playing great football, and the players and owners deserve this to happen.

Can I just point out, which has been said a number of times before on these boards. The Nix croud isn't actually down and in fact the average croud attendance has gone up the last three years

Been trying to work out dynamics to come down for the game on Friday 13th against Adelaide but last flight out of Welly back to Auckland is 9:35pm and dont really wanna stay overnight.

It would be great if the Phoenix could do something with Air NZ to get super cheap return flight/ticket package just for this one game so that as many outta towners could get down.

Anyone know how to make this happen?

I know people you can stay with for free if that helps, for the cause right?

That doesnt matter to the FFA, though;

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/10616675/Phoenix-under-threat-if-poor-crouds-continue

We know it is not the crouds - it is the TV money. Money that Fox is handing over and gets little in exchange from SKY TV, who are obviously very quiet on the whole issue. I would expect SKY TV to have said something by now, seeing as a large chunk of their devoted customers might disappear together with the Nix coverage ( = sarcasm), and their silence is deafening, probably for a reason.

Sure the FFA is ignoring it, but other people, newspapers, fan bases are reporting about poor croud numbers when really the Nix are bucking the trend in the league and have gone up when league as a whole has gone down.

Im doing my best to come over from Sydney for this

The Club just Tweeted me and said that they will update tomorrow

Wouldn't be surprised if there weren't that many more sold, though. It's easy to think they're going gangbusters when you see a few people tweet about it.

I'm veering from overwhelming negativety to weirdly optimistic every few minutes it seems..

they have gone up from really terrible, to poor. The crouds are not good enough.

I posted a few pages back, but Mana Bus have a 9.45pm overnight bus to Auckland every day which leaves from in front of the train station. Could this be an option? Probably be a bit tight to make it after a 7.30pm kickoff unless you leave the stadium very quicky, but could be good for 7pm kickoffs. Don't know how comfortable it is overnight trying to sleep though.

From the Nix FB page this morning:

Also from Facebook:

#metrics

Think memberships will go slightly gangbusters if the club confirms their intent for 4 years. Also when RWC Final saturation media coverage ends. We also get a clear week's coverage in leadup to Nov 13 at Westpac. Right now many of us are waiting for the Welnix response and decision, which they understandably can't offer yet. They have a lot to work through, including legals, and what the 'metrix' are in 4 years time for the Phoenix to prove they are 'an asset' and not a 'liability'. If they don't get that, and their investigation proves that the FFA just don't want us regardless, then I'd pull out now if it was my money.

Agree. It doesn't actually help our cause to emphasise "metrics" that can be so easily unpicked.

A more important point to me is that crouds are not the FFA's revenue stream, they are the club's.

They need to improve but that shouldn't be the FFA's primary concern.

This is about TV money and that's more complicated.

The FFA are totally taking the piss with this "prove you're not a liability" line.

The Nix are not a liability to the FFA in just about any commonly understood sense of the term. The club operates at close to break even and any losses are covered by the owners. The money that the FFA pays the Nix is not a donation or subsidy to football in NZ - this a myth that needs to be dispelled. It is exactly the same amount they pay all the other clubs and it buys them exactly the same thing - a squad of 23 players who play at least 27 games a season on the telly. The Nix get a 10% share of the TV money (that the FFA allocate to A-League clubs) and they provide 10% of the content. They also provide that content at much lower risk to the FFA than many other clubs.

The only way you could possibly call the Nix a liability is if you very specifically frame the question in terms of maximising the potential amount of TV money that the broadcaster is willing to pay, and that is driven by ratings. It's true that the Nix ratings are not the highest but they are also no lower than a few other clubs. Also, if you replace the Nix with another club it has to rate higher than the Nix and that's not a given. The FFA seems to think that derbies rate higher so is looking at an extra Sydney team, but that would mean going from 3 Sydney derbies a season to 9. It could actually dilute the interest in derbies (there would be a derby every 3 weeks) leaving them back at square one, or worse. A more sensible strategy would be to go back to the content part of the equation and expand the league. More clubs = more games = more content.

Their attack on the Nix is an ill-conceived, slightly desperate, knee-jerk reaction by them to an overall ratings plunge in the league, which the FFA themselves are accountable for and which they don't seem to know what to do about.

The good news is that quite a few people, including club owners and media, seem to have seen straight through this. The FFA won't back down completely but I'm hopeful that Welnix may now be able to take up a 4 year extension on much more agreeable terms if they are also willing to compromise.