Phoenix Ownership - Rob says FTFFA

I think the Hutt Rec. Games are a proof of concept. If they work I expect to see an alternative boutique stadium project on the table again.

Must listen, starts at 10 mins after 9

"we have to have a presence in Auckland... New Zealand's biggest market... But we're not going to base ourselves up there... we are a Wellington Club."

There. Unambiguous.

At the very least an arrangement to set up the temporary seating for a few games in the middle of the season where attendances are never any good. That way you can break even on those games rather than a loss.

Games at Westpac at the start of the season. 

Hutt rec middle of the season.

Back to Westpac at the end of the season as attendances increase if we are doing well. 

Add an Eden park game toward the end of the season to boost the coffers and really cash in on any potential boost in attendance from us doing well and being in finals contention. 

I wonder if they didn't push the stadium because they couldn't secure a license.

Who says they couldn't secure a license? (Apart from the uninformed, unwilling to do some research and actually interview people about it NZ sports media that is)

As I understand it they are working with the FFA to to get the license approved by the Asian Football Confederation. 

The only reason the Phoenix license was handled differently to the other clubs is because since they are in NZ, they need AFC signoff, and the other (Australian) clubs in the A League don't. So their license arrangments went through. And ours needs to go through some extra steps.

I think we have to recognise that they've spent a lot of money just getting close to breaking even.

I still think we're not looking at singing the right type of player, our overseas players need to be stars or have the potential to be stars and I'm not sure that's the way we look at it

I seem to be listening to something called "controversy corner"...I assume it must be a.m.

Ok sorted now.  Good interview, still think they need to just shut up about crowds for a while and focus on the football

Absolutely agree.  If we were winning and people didn't come along it would be a fair cop.  

What day was it on?

The Wellington urban area is home to 400,000 people - Wellingtonians also have the highest average wage in NZ, it's a young city and an educated city, add to that the fact that living costs are lower than Auckland we should have plenty of people with disposable wealth to go to a game.

yeah public transport in Wellington is great. But on a Sunday it is bloody horrible. 

Free parking in the city on Sunday though - and the part of town that the stadium is in has plenty of parks available. Anyone that lives outside of Wellington itself is going to have a car.

And Auckland's is just as average, and was downright diabolical 10 years ago. Everyone remember this next time you curse the broad JAFA masses for not wanting to go to NHS to watch the Knights lose.

Not true; my mate in Stokes Valley has never owned a car.

Of those population figures, I'd suspect a fairly large majority of those numbers don't actually give a shit about football and would choose to spend their disposable income somwehere else. Our crowds should still be larger than they are though. Breaking through the sad and unfortunate apathy and disinterest of a large number of people who call themselves football fans is the tough part

Get things right on the park and the rest will follow

How about electricity and running water?

Just saw this in my local cafe over coffee sorry if it's posted before ... from the reliable TerrOR graph an item at the end of the article...

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/football/al...

WILL NZ FALL IN LOVE WITH PHOENIX?

It’s no secret that FFA are starting to look on Wellington Phoenix as the league’s problem child – David Gallop made clear at the start of the year that the competition couldn’t just carry a Kiwi club as tokenism.

Which may explain the talks that are going on to get Phoenix onto free to air TV in New Zealand, given the appalling ratings on Sky TV over there. The deal would follow the sharing precedent established by Fox Sports and SBS, in the hope of selling the club’s good story on the pitch this season.

Don't be so prejudiced. Stokes Valley has had both those things since at least last year!

Fair enough.

err... running water out of a tap?

Interesting all these stories about Gallop and his mob having all these issues with us, while seemingly ignoring other clubs who are balancing on (or have fallen from) a financial precipice. We may not be pulling in 30K crowds every week, but at least we're not looking to the FFA to bail us out of the financial mire

the amusing thing is that CCM were one of those Clubs. Couldn't even pay their stadium bills without wee macs (and FFA incompetencies) help. 

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Spot on. If only the club would open its eyes to this. Oh, thats right they did. They rewarded the fans with the birdie dance.

Very positive interview

The other key thing for me was the comments about knowing they need a winning team and that was why they have spent more on players this year

Plus the comment on how constructively they are working with Westpac Stadium and the Council on that side of things.

Thurs 9:10-9:18pm

Does that mean previously we were under the cap? Because Welnix have always said the budget is now the cap - or have we moved someone like Burns or McGlinchey marginally outside of the cap as a domestic marquee?

Like wow so insightful … gee wiz what a post so spot on all the mess the FFA are in…

40 million dollar A-League media deal plus Socceroo AFC revenue… FFA Cup old ethnic Sydney United V SFC close to 9k crowd, 60K TV ratings more than most Super Rugby matches in Australia… New National Premier league with 100 clubs in two divisions each needing to have a coaching technical director… new national coaching measures in place.. talent identification processes …

Just signed off on a media deal in parts of Asia for the A-League to be broadcast live to close to 400 million …

Memberships up about 15% on last year, TV rating are up and expected to increase and the next two rounds are expected to break the 100K crowd… Overall crowds are expected to break the 2 million this season.

They are expecting a 100 million dollar media deal next time for the A-League and are expecting all clubs to contribute ..

What a mess FFA is .. Heart sold to Man City for millions ... WSW sold for millions ... three and four pages of A-League in the papers today ... heaps of other media ... Gallop gotta go for sure..

And as we see each week the press only reports on the problems. The M F lists above is good to see - would be even better if the fans go to see this regularly rather that the press we see that lead to my list. But we are in NZ and only see the good news if we go looking for it or by 442 AU - Or am I only seeing one side of the great game talked about.

FFA might not have issues but the Jets and Mariners are in at least the same sort of situation as us, and some might say worse because at we (currently) don't have budgetary concerns.

The Jerks no as they are in a Football heartland and always get reasonable crowds and memberships... they don't any-more have a rich owner... The Mariners are sorta on notice to improve as well ... three things going in their favour, 3 and will be 4 sides to have derbies against which help crowds overall, a 50 million dollar investment in a COE...youth academies that have supplied a number of Socceroos.. however we too have to lift ...

did the Sydney Morning herald do an article on CCM this week?

Sorry Midfielder you seem to be blind to the money the FFA has spent propping up clubs in the A league.Sold for millions, will interesting to see how long it is before their owners coming running back to the FFA asking for money.Very rosy picture you attempt paint,how many clubs in the A league at the moment havnt had to be rescued by the FFA,dont have any idea what the number is but would imagine it be a few.Then you have those clubs that have disappeared but guess its easier to throw thing in our direction.  

I am worried about the license extension but on balance I think it's going to be ok. I don't think the FFA would get rid of a club which has solid financial backing at this stage. There's 10 teams in the league, 3 teams have already gone bust (if I'm counting right) and Auckland aside, there's no substantially bigger market in Australasia that doesn't already have a team. And although WSW have been a big success, Heart were not going great until they got oil money thrown at them. So a 2nd Brisbane team or a 3rd Melbourne or Sydney (or Geelong or South Coast) team would still be a gamble. Why kick out a team that seems like it can survive and risk replacing it with a team which might not be able to?

Doom and gloom articles aside, Welnix are acting like they are in this for the long haul I reckon. 

How am I blind and where have I said they have not funded some teams and further find one post where I have said the Nix current ownership is no good nay very good... If you definition of being good is being able to pay the bills remember Clive Palmer was kicked out and he had heaps of money to pay the bills... 

What I have said and posted often and in many threads is how poor nay pitiful the media coverage in NZ is and how many posters like yourself seem incapable of distinguishing between a criticism that looks at real issues and a egg ball attack... like every post that is not all sunshine lolly pops and sugar coated candy drops, not from a non Wellington person has alternative reasons... all this conspiracy theory does not help..

Perfect example is the FFA post above where it says FFA are concerned about crowds and especially ratings and critically  revenue coming out of NZ ... so to help they are trying to get FTA coverage of the A-League and especially the Nix... the responses are FFA are in a mess, another FFA stuff up ...

Your owners seem to want to enter into a debate / discussion / dialogue on crowds in Wellington ... and are openly attacked as being out of touch, interfering etc... its their fault... 

At some point arguably the two most important management groups that impact on the Nix are signing the same song these being your current owners and those that manage the A-League ... both have said similar things...

You can bury your head and scream its woeful management who don't understand and what a hopeless mess the FFA are .. but at some point you should consider what they are saying... more importantly how they are trying to help.. 

Also understand what FFA are trying to do and become part of it ... FFA plans are very aggressive and are to become the biggest code and they want a 100 million dollar media deal for the A-League alone within two years.. to put this into context the Super Rugby in the SANDZAR have offered for all Super Rugby matches and all national rugby games less than 15 million... NZ & SA will fund the Australian side of if they go broke ... Football is smashing Union and already in Melbourne and Sydney killing RL in crowds ... 

I may be a pest in your mind however my head is not buried in the sand and blaming everyone else ...