Phoenix Ownership - Rob says FTFFA

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/wellington-phoe...

Sky NZ pays $180k for the rights to the A-League, they used to pay $100k. They pay $16m for the League, no wonder they don't promote the nix much. They don't need to do much to get a return on their investment.

They need to start judging their success by what happens on the pitch.  Breaking even shouldn't be thought of as success, winning football game should

I don't think they are doing one at the expense of the other though. No doubt they have KPI's around performance on the pitch as well as off it. 

Signing a marquee would be nice, but the reality is that we can't afford it. 

club making loss = can't afford it. 

That would be nice. 

They like to take a lot of credit for things they have changed off the pitch.  My point is none of that matters to me unless we start winning.  Ultimately, as owners I don't judge them on what their plans are, or what back office changes they have made.  This is pro sport and it's about winning or losing

Is the 15,000,000 quoted the TV rights money we are given as part of playing in the competition? I feel if this is true, its somewhat of a kiwi bashing. Yes we need to perform better in the league, but surely as being one of the few consistent (in terms of $$$) clubs in the league we deserve the biggest opportunity to maintain our license. 

I think the point is made in relation to how much of that money we give back from the deal with SKY vs the money each Australian club gives back through FOX. 

I think it is a bit of a simplistic way of presenting our contribution to the league. But thought provoking nonetheless. 

Melbournes crowds average 20k. Ours average.... 8k? 

When you have that amount of extra money coming in, you can afford a marquee. If we were averaging 20k, I bet you we would have a marquee.

Apparently Sky TV also contributes 10% to the production costs of the a-league which is obviously the cost of filming the nix.

If SKY only pay $180k then why the fuck isn't someone in terrestrial TV looking at the A-League rights and getting in there?  Or why aren't the A-League looking for a different broadcast partner - seems bizarre as it's such a low amount.

Someone like Sommet simply wouldn't be able to screen Nix home games, they could only do games from Fox in Australia.

That is the problem, it's a straight lack of competition. Whereas in Australia there are others who can produce the content. 

FFA would like to split the offering and maybe give someone else A league minus the nix and sell sky the nix home games to net more money, but then I suggest sky would pack a sad and not take up the nix rights. 

NRL is probably a bit different as interest isn't soley dependent on the Warriors, so they can threaten to split the package and sky would lose out. So they pay well for it. 

More negativity from the club's official spokesman.  The threatening hasn't worked, seriously needs a new strategy

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

Worked well for Terry. He won nothing and went bust, but boy we had a fun year in 2010/11.

I agree. Cheer up Domey, publicly anyway.

Also some hopeless reportage...Hutt Rec games (stadium size: 8000) aren't going to "help the numbers" are they Mark Geenty? The same crowd we had on Sunday will practically fill the place up. So if anything, it's going to hinder the Nix lifting their average.

Someone should burn down whatever journalism schools there are in New Zealand.

" Long term we need to be in Auckland, there's no doubt about it. If we're doing really well and we're top four then who knows what we could get at Eden Park, we could get 25,000. That's very good for the club, it gets our numbers up and the FFA love it. It just makes sense. "

You'd be loving this , eh ?

Basing the idea that Auckland would get better numbers on 1 game a year there getting over 10k is stupid, look at the history.

Knights & Kingz were both in Auckland, and I am pretty sure neither averaged anywhere near 7.5k at their games.

Seriously the Phoenix don't get it, these constant threats of taking the club away is stopping some from investing in the club as they don't want to get on the bandwagon and then have it ripped out from under them as Aucknix decide to take the club to Auckland because they can "get 25,000 there" 

You know what Aucknix, if you really think you can do better at Eden Park than at Westpac, go, take the club there for a season, and when you get 5,000 average crowds don't come crying back to us.

We came last then 2nd to last in the previous 2 seasons. No wonder crowds are down.

Also, the FFA whinging about poor attendances is a bit rich when they are the ones who force us to play at dinner time on Sundays. Not exactly a great time to take the family, or to go and get drunk with mates if you're part of the child-free crowd.

I agree. An HAL team in Auckland would be going back to the well a 3rd time after not learning the previous 2. Makes Welnix seem like fools if they think they can pull it off. 1-2 games a year? Ok but I am not convinced that two games would get 20k each time. More like 13-17k plus on road costs. Eden Park trust aren't exactly doing mates rates right now and the last visits have had Domey chirp that they need 20k to break even.

The Auckland focus of Welnix is worrying and upsetting. Their approach seems to be that as soon as the Phoenix have a good run of form and get in the top four they'll take the game to Auckland. Thanks Welnix! I'm assuming this would be a play-off game.Obviously there is no memory of 2009-2010 when we got 30,000+ in Wellington

Welnix are in cuckoo land if they think they can turn an apathic Auckland crowd into one that turns out consistantly kver 2,500 on a good day. Sure a one off here and there will draw the novelty factor with nothing better to do but to do so consistantly, no! If they wNt to move to Auckland, start with a new club called Auckland Queens so we can have our own "Derby" games. They have had the Knights, Kingz so why not Queens?

I just don't get it.....why do dome and co think that waivbing threats around is going to make the crowds come. The sporting market in NZ is toguh right now, has been for years. Look at crowds to any sport that's not an international - they have been dropping for years. The 'canes can't get more than 10k, nor can the lions, the firebireds can barely fill tha basin. Basketball and netball are played in small stadiums.

I agree that ince game in Auckland getting 15k looks great, but I just dont think the Auckland fanbase will go to mroe than one or two games, particularly if we are not winning. I think the owners need to get real and look at the product we are being offered as fans. Our team that we love has finished 9th/10th in a 10 team league for the last two seasons, we've been playing some ok footy but still losing. The only way the crowds will come to any game is if we are consiatantly winning at home - like we used to.

The investment in players for this season may be the change we need to get results, hopefully this season is the first back into the playoffs. If it's not then getting crowds will be tough.

The other thing that has to happen is to get the local footy players to the games. You're only going to get that with results/lower costs/better onfield results and awareness that the nix are in town! Simple bus stop posters don't work, radio ads are better - have heard some on Hauraki recently. Personally I think there is a lack of care/awareness in wellington about the nix and yet we have a massive amount of football players in town. Why are they not coming to the games? Has anyone bother to ask and actually listen to the response?

I don't have the answers but we all know that Kiwis are horribly apathetic about sport/politics etc. We have to focus on changing that, not threatening the loyal fans with more games in yet another footballing void of a city (Auckland)

I read Welnix's message as simply being: if Wellingtonians don't support the Nix then why bother ? I just see that as being upfront. I don't read it as a threat at all.

With respect to moving to Auckland I read the comments meaning a couple / few games not the whole club - why would they do that - they're Wellingtonians whose motivation is more the City than the sport.

Message is the world doesn't owe us the Nix and if not enough want it then they'll move on. 

I am personally confident that results on the pitch will take care of results off the pitch.

"We just have to be realistic. If the trade off is you have a professional football club in Wellington and play three games a year in Auckland; or no football club, what would you rather have?" - David Dome

TBH, if the above was the case I would take it.  10 games in Wellington with 3 trips to Auckland.  Its no worse than what we got last season (Auckland, Napier and Christchurch)

Bear in mind ...the " novelty " of Auckland games will soon wear off ...

If the threat of losing the license is real and based on poor crowd numbers.... and Welnix want to keep the club, they need to do something about the crowds. Moving to Auckland will do no better than being in Wellington if they don't provide something exciting on the pitch, crowds will drop off just like they have done in Wellington. Welnix need to buy a serious marquee to drag people through the gates both here and in Aussie and ensure the clubs survival. Forget about the cost, pay big money and survive to find a long term solution or carry on as now and maybe lose the license AND lose money. No use moaning about people not turning up MAKE US TURN UP, give us something to get excited about. I have travelled especially to see ADP, Rbbie Fowler and others, so will many others if we had out own stars.

If FFA was really worried about crowds, they wouldn't schedule 5pm and 7pm games on Sundays. There is more money, and thus sustainability in the TV rights.

If you are going to have 2 games in Auckland, make 1 early in the season and 1 late in the season so they come around roughly every 6 months. That may stop the burn off at the turnstyles due to frequency of games. Alternatively, 1 in Hamilton and 1 in Auckland. Hamiltonians might get behind it better (what else is there, Tui and syphilis?) and you can canabalise both metro markets.

If the FFA gave a shit, they would put the Phoenix games in more favourable timeslots to help with attendance. I somehow don't think the FFA are as worried about attendance at the Phoenix games as Welnix are or they would do more to help profile us and better time slots.

Its already been mentioned that finding a Saturday night game for 12 pubs was hard. Its because we don't have many.

And given the financial state of some other clubs, I reckon we are down the list of problem franchises. That's not to say we don't have issues. But crowds is a New Zealand issue for all sports.

Somehow the mindset of the public needs to evolve from bandwagon to season pass holder. Not an easy task.

Agreed... The latest thing they've tried is for those that bought a ticket to the Perth game, they can get the cost of that ticket off their membership. Good idea but shame a) we lost, and b) I only saw this on twitter so the average Joe who bought a ticket probably isn't even aware of it.

I was thinking about the tv rights last night, if its true that sky only pays $200k and if I was a member of Welnix I would buy the rights to the Phoenix myself, do a deal with TVNZ where all Phoenix games are played free to air for a season and stream the rest of the A-League plus all the build up and post match shows on a subscription website (or free if you could do it ad supported).

Imagine how many fans you would get if people have free access to your product, especially when your competing with cooking shows and renovation shows.

After a season of everything free to air I would switch it so that only the nix away games are broadcast free to air while the home games are behind a paywall, or still free and streamed but geo blocked so its only available outside of the Wellington region.

The issue would be building a broadcast facility - you could include that in the deal with TVNZ (they film all home games and get the content for free) or hire a production company to do it. The F1 for instance handles their own production for a lot of the tracks and lugs all the gear around the world. Nowdays it shouldn't be that expensive or complicated to do it yourself.

Or ... Grey Lynn Flat Whites/ Remmers Short Blacks? Gotta think of the marketing angle bro. That's what it's all about. Apparently.

What are you talking about? There are no blacks in Remmers, the Residents' Association and David Seymour made sure of it.

More seriously; Grey Lynn's a league town. I used to live next to Grey Lynn park and go and watch the Richmond Bulldogs. Now, perhaps a "North Shore" branded team for the Birko/Glenfield crowd...

^ Nth Shore can't even get a team together for the ASB Doloras.