Phoenix Ownership - Rob says FTFFA

You forgot stadium shape and length of weekend.

God those membership numbers are frustrating.

Perth has 2 million people, just over 5000 members.

Wellington 400k ish 3600 members.

Surely anyone with half a brain cell can see Wellnix isn't the weakness that a picture of a half empty stadium implies.

Maybe the A League is losing money hand over fist and we are their scapegoats while they try to fix the mismanagement.  Then if they fix the mismanagement they can say it was the Nix the whole time.

Beer, ticket and food prices aren't a myth to most.  It's what has kept me away from entertainment at the stadium until I was on an OK wage.

Why should I shell out a hundred bucks for a game when I paid for it live on TV anyway? Especially if the weather is shark.

Because if everyone thought like you we wouldn't have a club?

Even Ifill - who arguably had his best years behind him when he left Crystal Palace - had an immense "Indian Summer" with the Nix. He came here early enough.  

I actually think people are a bit unfair on del Piero - a failure on the pitch? At least in his in his first year Down Under he showed us some excellent skills, and he never behaved like a pompous ass. A true gentleman off the pitch (despite milking penalties on the pitch, but then he's an Italian football star after all).

Unfortunately they don't take good thoughts at the gates as payment, they demand money, and so do the overpriced food stands.

I can afford it now, but couldn't back then.  Plenty of people can't afford it so picking on them for not being able to afford it is hardly fair.

Wow been our getting pissed at the demise of my club. Take a look and buggar we have support from all over. Ya go us. Talk about warm fuzzed. Shark it I'm still going to get pissed.

That was what I was trying to say with the population-adjusted croud comparisons....

Still got the timber from the Hutt Rec stadium?

Whack that up in the middle of the cake tin!

I would normally Agree with that, except for the Ernie factor. Support the man that supported you for seasons.

"staunch advocate of kiwi values", autocratic governance - traits that could bristle with those at FFA HQ.

This may be the identity of why an acceptable deal can't be agreed to.

A dislike of personalities - where the FFA, or Welnix for that matter, can't see things changing, more than any specific 'metric'.

Yea those were awesome man, made an easy apples to apples comparison I thought.

I modeled this configuration in sketchup a while back, images on this forum if you can be bothered looking.

This is a great idea. I'll get on to it tomorrow

Come on down to the stadium and smell the food and drink you can't afford, to experience telling your kids no they can't have a hotdog for acouple hours while you sit in the cheap seats.

Advertising campaign writes itself.

I still don't understand why when we have a core group of 6k fans we only have 3600 members.  It doesn't make sense to me!

The % of population numbers can be misleading.  You've got to be realistic about whether people on the North Shore in Sydney are realistically going to watch WSW for example - the Sydney metro area is massive and it's not really a fair comparison.  There are also so many other things to do in a city like Sydney - I understand the point of the stat but it's not as simple as people make out.

I still don't know why we couldn't get more than 6k on Saturday night.  It was a great day and there were plenty of people in town. 

The first part is a challenge I'm sure the owners are aware.

It shouldn't be an excuse. It's good to have TV viewer demand, more the better for the $'s

What doesn't help is the semi regular shark performances. The new punters goes to a couple of games of that in a 16-20 % full stadium where the players are dots, can't blame them for thinking, nah. 

This goes with the second part where are lot of those problems point to a better stadium for football and for the fans, supporters and entertainment seekers.

Maybe the owners should start stepping up to present and give as weight to a claim for 10+ years. Obviously the FFA want to see more and know they wouldn't accept relative croud figures or a warm fuzzy feeling as actual. 

An actual 5,000+ members, 10k+ plus crouds and consistent performance to get the average Joe to take a Sky look.

Australia is competitive and you have to be naive to think that other people aren't after yours. Especially larger targets like national football franchises. One usually has to be moving forward  faster than the kiwi average and one can't let ours be the easiest bar to jump over.

Now, I would be disappointed if the owners chucked it in. 

There two ways here to say F.U., that and the one with self belief and action.

Personally I go to a game to experience live sport.This is a habit/affliction based on growing up in England at a time when going to the game involved minimal expense beyond the turnstile fee and half-time entertainment was someone peeing on the terraces, hopefully not on your jeans. 

Of course taking children to the game is a different issue, one which you've only raised a few comments into the discussion 

My main point is that NZ is not a country of unconditional support, whatever the code. The Warriors and Breakers attendance, above the hardcore,  is hugely dependent on winning games.The Breakers didn't consider moving to the Vector until they'd won at least one Championship.
When I first came to NZ in the early 90s, Auckland held the Shield for ten years and still had attendance of under 5,000

I don't want to get into a 'slanging' match with a fellow supporter :-) COYN!

New Zealand First are pushing for Jonathan Coleman (Minister of Sport) to get in touch with his Australian counterparts to discuss how dropping the Phoenix goes against the Closer Economic Relations agreement between NZ and Aussie. 

Whether this happens remains to be seen, however if we can convince the Australian Government to look into it along side the support from the other A-League clubs and things start to look a little bit brighter.

Still surprises me why the FFA made the announcement 3 rounds into the season as it gives the Phoenix more time to rally support to put pressure back on the FFA but hey it might just be our saviour.

You're a better supporter than everyone else. We get it.

Yea all I'm pointing out is prices are a valid issue for a lot of people,  especially ones with families who live pay check to pay check.

I love my Nix and will go rain, or shine, winning or being spanked.

Hell the most fun I've had at a game was 2 years ago when we were fighting to not get the spoon in the last game of the season, and yellow fever was just having fun for the sake of having fun.

I was looking forward to turning my boy into a life member who held the same attitude, and it's terrifying that my plans could unravel in 6 months.

But the stadium is and always was an issue.  Expensive for the club, expensive for the sometimes fans, and there is no scarcity to tickets.  More people would buy tickets in advance if there wasn't going to be a guaranteed 25000 free seats.  And if you've bought the tickets then you had might aswell go.  Just the stadium killed most reasonable chances of a medium sized stadium in the region.

I'm still boiling under the surface at the #FTFFA and NZF for letting it get to this.

Crap, I'm on the same side of a political issue as NZ First, I am beginning to think maybe I should take up rugby.

Still dont get why people place so much importance on the price of food and drink. I go to the stadium to watch a game of football  not waste my money on over priced booze and crap food. FFS some of you must have a real problem if you cant go without a drink for 2 hours.

Don't do it, field hockey needs your support more than rugby.

Wow this has derailed. 

Very interested in this Closer Economic Relations idea. On that trend, the latest episode of Out Of Our A-League discuss the potential for the Phoenix to be replaced (in part) with Kiwis not being imports for A-League clubs based on our immigration arrangements. 

Lots of decent discussion on the whole issue: http://podcast882.podomatic.com/

in fact in portugal you cant actually buy alcohol at football matches, just alcohol free beer. but the fans dont mind at all.

Scotland it's just Bovril

It's interesting that the current Sydney team owners are spewing too as they feel there isn't the support in Sydney and would actually water their clubs and the darbies down.

This was an outcome that I wondered about in the early hours after the FFA announcement. It is probably the only way I could stay really engaged with the league at all. The Champions League squad restrictions would be a big issue, especially since the FFA wants to move towards having the league in line with those regs.

Clubs tend to sign extra players for the Champions League anyway, it would be up to the clubs but it least it would give Kiwis a viable option. I also worry for the affect on the rest of OFC, we are the only club that has shown any interest in giving Island talent a chance. A guy I know in Fiji has said the Phoenix have done a lot for football in the Pacific and the way we've been headed (preseason trip to Fiji, giving islanders trials) only indicates that this would get better.

Even if you do not watch the game live at the stadium, it only costs $50 a season to be a club member.

Does not give you game tickets, but it makes you part of the magic number of "paid up members" FFA seems to care about.

Get them to sign the Petition and write to the FFA telling them how much the Phoenix have done for football in the Pacific