Phoenix City - Farewell

well done lads. Cheers for getting domey on board to defend the Welnix group and their position.

As a boring ex-banker, I'd love to see a P&L statement and Balance Sheet for Wellington Phoenix FC. Nothing more sexy than a set of accounts. But just to see how bad the bleeding is month to month. As Dome says, he often feels guilty going cap in hand to Welnix, asking for this and that to be paid.

I'm sure the people close to them, like their wives, accountants, private bankers - must at times question their sanity.

Knowing the wages would of course be juicy to know.

In an old job in Melbourne a few years, we banked a couple of high profile Victorian state cricketers. Between gigs in Oz, IPL and English County cricket - the annual wages possible blew me away a bit.

It was interesting hearing Domey reference Welnix treating this club as philanthropic activity. This reality is sometimes missed in the hoopla of metrics, coach and player movements and run of the mill seasonal issues. 

I work in the philanthropic sector and the first rule of fundraising is to say "thank you" - repeatedly - to your funding sources. 

Tifo perhaps? Just a thought.

I imagine that there would be a lot of red on both those documents.

is there any possibility of having kiwis overseas at the start of the podcast rather than the end?

A newbie to listening to the pods, and they are very good. 

But sorry whoever reads through the Kiwi overseas, doesn't do it with a great deal of enthusiasm! Reminds of an old Alas Smith & Jones skit.

Oh how Burnley have risen.

The weekly Niche Cafe - Flying Kiwis is great for catching up on how NZers overseas are going.

Really not saddened that Kiwis overseas was missed all together.

it's the highlight of the pod

At the end it's a bit like being a kid and having to watch the news to get to the sports news

Good thing you can fast forward through a podcast. 

you know me Tegal, i don't believe in this tech circumventing stuff

Really interesting podcast.  A few things jumped out:

- The Phoenix really don't trust the media (NZ and Aussie) so have pretty shut up shop.  I think that's massively backfired because the void has just been filled with speculation.  I think they need a new media strategy and better engagement with the media rather than what they are doing now because simply, it isn't working!  Hoping that speculation will just die off so not killing it is really pretty naive if you ask me.  When you have a captive media like the Dom Post,  Piney on the radio and through the Herald online and also Yellow Fever which has actually got a decent reach, they should be using it to their advantage to get their positive stories out there.  

- Talking constantly about how much money the club is losing isn't really helping anyone.

- The Phoenix have no relationship with the FFA and have thrown their towel in with the club association.  If the FFA are still running the A-League in 2 years we're gooone

- Rightly or wrongly, the Phoenix have a bit of a victim complex.  They think everyone in NZ should be praising them for their altruistic decision to "save pro football".  They think there is no-one out there who would be willing to do what they do and therefore their mistakes should be excused.  I do sometimes think there is a lack of ownership of the decisions that get made and the performances...

The media needs to start reporting things accurately, how often have we read articles which are largely positive about the nix but have a negative headline and a negative first introduction and conclusion.

I think the Phoenix as an organisation have to look at their overall strategy though.  There is a lot of negativity around I agree, but a lot of it has been self inflicted.  When there have been good news storiers, Like Cacace and Singh getting games, they have been pretty well covered

The media were pretty scathing about Smith though, even though his time in goal corresponded to some pretty good performances by the team.

If everything you say gets twisted why would you say anything? Only performances will get good press. Remember at the start of the season when the team was performing well and just having narrow losses and the media on both sides of the ditch were full of praise?

You raise some good points. Certainly the club/Welnix is not above criticism. Dome himself admitted that this season they got some things wrong for sure.

However I don't think it hurts to now and again, highlight that the club bleeds cash - and this is in effect a philanthropic exercise by the Welnix. Highlights that current FFA ownership model is not sustainable, and clubs deserve the opportunity to try and turn things around themselves, into at least a break even position, via an Independent A League.

Also highlights that when you are losing money monthly, Welnix are entitled to explore every opportunity to increase club income eg take some games to Auckland etc. Also reinforces that they can't just go out and buy, the Sydney FC squad or coach. 

No use living in a fool's paradise. It is what it is. 

I really doubt there is anyone else in NZ, interested into stepping into their shoes. After nearly 7 years, no Kiwi that I'm aware of, has ever made any overtures? Of course anything commercial like that would be confidential, but just don't think it's happened.

What the Phoenix should be doing is being more frank on social media and communicating directly with their supporters.

Also, if clubs like Brisbane are talking bullshark then put their emails on line, the high road is killing the club.

Yes to first point. 

I think no to the 2nd for now - risk getting into a written war of words with Strikers, and just a waste of energy and time. 

Certainly if Brisbane tried that shark again, via Australian media - then yeah not such a bad idea.

Like it or not, this forum is being monitored by all parts of the media and we are a ready source of stories for them, both good and bad. 

Lazy media is a key reason why the nix need a superb media person. If the NZ media are going to trawl for stories via this forum then there has to be someone from inside the club feeding them stories. Even if it's just "Dome had  a marketing meeting today". I say flood the NZ media with daily/weekly tit bits of what's going on. They'll either print them or not but at least they'll have no reason to go looking for bad news.

It's a conspiracy, even when we play well and still lose none says nice things about us

It would be considered an "UnAustralian" thing to do if a media outlet over there published praise or something positive about the Nix. It just can't be allowed to happen.

Pod this week?

No worries at all

The star of the grand final was the VAR - for all the wrong reasons. The pod chat about what went wrong. Meanwhile, NZF have announced parity for the Football Ferns, and the TeeDubs host Lautoka in the OCL final this weekend.

https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/thekidsareallwh...

Podcast isn't working for me..? Loads the page, but doens't actually play. 

I'll try on my work PC but is anyone else having issues? 

Mine played fine on my phone.

Appreciate the discussion on Ridenton's departure. Well said.

Doesn't work for me either - but it's on Spotify thankfully.

Is there a pod this week guys?.

You’re in for a treat. 

Logistics hard to get more than 2 of us  in a room together at all this week, but look like we might be managing it tomorrow morning.

New pod out! We did a Saturday morning record and I can confirm it was not fun having to get up and pod that early. http://yellowfever.co.nz/podcasts

Frostie hosts the pod this week, as we chat about the lunch with Rob Morrison that the other three of us attended earlier in the week.

https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/thekidsareallwh...

The Phoenix City crew's efforts are appreciated as always

Love those Seattle Sandals 

Thanks for the pod, boys. Quality as usual.

In regards to a Melbourne and Sydney team that will probably get chosen, it won't be South Melbourne. The Melbourne clubs are already "split" either side of the Yarra River, or so they say so you'll be screwing with Melbourne City's fanbase (as Victory have a big enough fanbase).

Also, South are still too Greek-central. Their fans are all ethnic and why would the FFA want that when the RBB can still be unruly? Because South's fans will be, they're stuck in the NSL days. 

Considering they spread the rumour that we were in talks with them on their official page(!!!), they're getting desperate. They're not an in-favour bid.

Southern Expansion is most likely dead too, if Wollongong wants its own standalone team and expect to be in the A-League by the end of this bidding process ?