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What's really wrong with the Wellington Phoenix?

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Posted February 07, 2018 04:32 · last edited February 07, 2018 04:43

The whole WelNix reign has been characterised by an ownership group who seem naive or even oblivious to the emotional aspects of football fans. They seem to not understand why people are fans of football teams (outside of the big English and European clubs) - local identity and a sense of community. The travelling roadshow matches may make economic sense in the short term but as I can remember saying ages ago, they chip away at the supporter base in Wellington which is the long term future of the club. The way the club will be viable is if it has enough core support in Wellington. I suspect that the issue stems from the WelNix guys not being passionate football fans themselves, and coming from industries where brand loyalty isn't a big factor (for instance, infrastructure. It's not like people choose to fly out of a specific airport because they have an emotional attachment to it over other airports).

This has been coupled with a lack of ambition for the club from the top down. Yes we have factors which work against us (travel, NZ base, less money) but we have an advantage in the kiwi players as locals rule (which we bafflingly have chosen to minimize) and because of the salary cap we aren't as far away from the big clubs as small clubs are in saythe EPL. But instead we talk about goals of making the top 6 when we could/should always be aiming to be top 4 at least. Yeah we might not get there but setting expectations low just adds to our tag as losers, which is how the general public see us, and which the players are surely aware of.

Having been in a couple of workplaces where shark has spiralled downhill before I think I see similar signs at the Nix - there's a rotten culture. Mediocrity and going through the motions are accepted, poor performance is not addressed, and different parts of the organization seem entirely disconnected from each other. And on top of that, there's terrible communication.

It's great that WelNix saved the club from Terry's financial meltdown but I hope they have the ability to reflect on how their decisions have contributed to the problems we have today. 

Darije is clearing out the playing staff which might help, but the back office needs a huge shakeup too. Dome should go. The football committee needs replacing with a director of football. Rob needs to engage with the public a lot more, or at least delegate someone else to do it.

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Unknown editor edited February 07, 2018 04:43

The whole WelNix reign has been characterised by an ownership group who seem naive or even oblivious too the emotional aspects of football fans. They seem to not understand why people are fans of football teams (outside of the big English and European clubs) - local identity and a sense of community. The travelling roadshow matches may make economic sense in the short term memory but as I can remember saying ages ago, they chip away at the supporter base in Wellington which is the long term future of the club. The way the clubswill be viable is if it has enough core support in Wellington. I suspect that the issue stems from the WelNix guys not being passionate football fans themselves, and coming from industries where brand loyalty isn't a big factor (for instance, infrastructure. It's not like people choose to fly out of a specific airport because they have an emotional attachment to it over other airports).

This has been coupled with a lack of ambition for the club from the top down. Yes we have factors which work against us (travel, NZ base, less money) but we have an advantage in the kiwi players as locals rule (which we bafflingly have chosen to minimize) and because of the salary cap we aren't as far away from the big clubs as small clubs are in saythe EPL. But instead we talk about goals of making the top 6 when we could/should always be aiming to be top 4 at least. Yeah we might not get there but setting expectations low just adds to our tag as losers, which is how the general public see us, and which the players are surely aware of.

Having been in a couple of workplaces where shark has spiralled downhill before I think I see similar signs at the Nix - there's a rotten culture. Mediocrity and going through the motions are accepted, poor performance is not addressed, and different parts of the organization seem entirely disconnected from each other. And on top of that, there's terrible communication.

It's great that WelNix saved the club from Terry's financial meltdown but I hope they have the ability to reflect on how their decisions have contributed to the problems we have today. 

Darije is clearing out the playing staff which might help, but the back office needs a huge shakeup too. Dome should go. The football committee needs replacing with a director of football. Rob needs to engage with the public a lot more, or at least delegate someone else to do it.