National League review and future

Our market size and public fascination with another sport is what hampers our chance to develop a professional league.

I'm also pretty sure that the ITM cup is heavily subsidised by the money that the NZRU makes off the All Blacks' plethora of sponsorship and endorsement deals. If rugby can't even make a self-sustaining professional domestic comp, what hope does football have?

ITM Cup also gets around 10x the numbers through the gates that the ASB Prem does and still needs subsidising heavily.

Plus Sky presumably pay more to broadcast it than they ever would pay for domestic football because of the much bigger audience

"Martin (also) confirmed a review of the ASB Premiership had been completed. Franchise licences expire at the end of next season, but change is imminent beyond that. NZF will present its recommendations to the executive committee on July 2, with its eyes on a remodelled league launching late next year."

Steven Holloway Robert Van Royen in today's Herald.

link?

No link. But it's at the end of his interview with Martin in today's Herald Sports Section U-20 round-up.

"late next year" suggests a summer league at least.

At the meeting I went to in Palmerston North, we were told the new competition would not kick off until 2017 - that from Cam Mitchell

Those of you who like to brood over the future of the ASB Premiership and the concept of the national league in general may be interested in the following publication which I am selling via email in PDF format:

“The National League Debates: A potted chronology of the twists, turns and conflicting ideas in New Zealand football since 1990” examines the historic ferment over the challenges of finding a sustainable format for our flagship competition.

For a competition that has been in existence for 45 years, there have been remarkably few publications dedicated to the national league.

But this 276-page manuscript is arguably even rarer, insofar as the focus of The National League Debates is strictly on the politics of the game, and arguments over how our football should be structured, as opposed to physical production of football and the on-field dramas.

It sets out a chronology of the twists, turns and conflicting ideas that the code has grappled with over an extended period of time. You won't know whether to laugh or cry when you revisit some of the more amazing convolutions in this tortured history.

Anyway, if it piques your interest, in the first instance visit this website.....

www.nationalleaguedebates.weebly.com

Could be interesting.

Any idea where the lastest NZF 'revamp' will be taking us Bruce?

Hi Jerzy,

No, I can only guess as to where to from here... I am not part of the inner sanctum.

But my hunch is they will opt for a "national" continuance as opposed to a "conference system".

And they will allow a mix of clubs/franchises - basically allowing the various centres to establish models which best suit them.

The big question is going to be summer v winter.

Meanwhile Wanderers to continue in the 2015-16 season as an U23 team ahead of Olympics.

From a Waikato perspective there is the prospect of a few games back at Waikato Stadium for the first time since 2005-06 in the forthcoming summer. And before everyone says "ghost town", I understand Waibop had the second highest aggregate attendances for last summer. 

Which should provoke a bit of thought, coming from what was easily the lowest-budget franchise operation.

from the meeting I attended it was pretty clear that the league needed to stay mostly summer based as there were real needs to have teams at their strongest when CWC time came around (from a financial point of view) - the next thing was how long it should be which in an ideal world would be much longer but then came issues over running into a winter season.

I don't know where the solution is heading but it is nice (despite the history of the comp) to be asking all these questions as you have to hope that there will be some benefits (and that they will outweigh the negative changes)

Cheers. Btw I thought Waikato stadium was great for the U-20 matches I saw there. It's a fine footie venue.

I took my little fella to a few WaiBOP games at Cambridge last year. He loved it (me too!). Great atmosphere

we went down to Cambridge last season to watch Auckland play Waibop and loved it. It was an evening game with a very good croud and a great atmosphere. Having said that I think its stupid that Cambridge FC don't allow you into the clubrooms after the game unless you have a VIP pass!!!!

Wasn't it a 'special event'?. You're not special enough.

Story of my life!

How many active non-new zealand players are in the league? How is that looked upon if there is someone coming for a trial or similar?

Are they generally welcomed?

1. Lots

2. Depends if it's your club or not.

3. Ditto.

Bruce

Have read the first 70 pages (us retirees can do that on a cold damp day) and am enjoying the memories 

Recommend this to anyone who has an interest in the National League.   Quite scarey the historic similarities with what is happening now.

Luckily we learn our lessons from these things... oh, hang on.

Hi Graeme, yes, some of the parallels with 20-odd years ago definitely concentrate the mind...

And you've still to get to the really astonishing stuff, the court cases, the revamp of the revamps, the rethinks etc.

I'm not surprised Bruce, as you know Waikato, Melville, Hamilton FC, Wanderers and even the likes of Ngaruawahia, Claudlands etc have always had a decent following.

I just wish a team from the Waikato could add to our silverware, something we've not achieved since '92 at a national level.

So is the smart money on a mixed-model league - some  clubs, some regional franchises? If so, does it look like this: Otago/Southern, Canterbury and Waibop for the regional team approach? ACFC, Waitakere, plus one or two more from Auckland? South Auckland? NCR/Hawkes Bay, Wairarapa. Questions would then be Nelson, and what is the mood from the Wellingtonistas? Miramar, Olympic, Wests, and a combined Hutt entry; or regional team Welly?

yeah I think you are pretty close - but I would say this change happens over a couple of years - I would bet that for the 2016/17 season they start with all the teams they had in this years comp (minus the Wanderers and possibly the Phoenix), then each year the bottom team to be removed and replaced with a regional winner or applicant who meets some criteria.

Wellingtonistas, what's the mood in Cane Country, or are you all buying tickets from scalpers for the Canes match?

Hello, for the info of those who have purchased a copy of my National League Debates publication (see www.nationalleaguedebates.weebly.com ) as a further postscript, the interesting thing in the Waibop Federation financial statements at their annual meeting in Tauranga last night was that one of the "assets" was listed an unsecured interest-free loan of $27,000 to Waibop United made in December.

The federation made an overall surplus of $36,000 in its annual financial statements, and has financial reserves in the vicinity of 6 months of operating costs, so I'd argue it was ultimately a good outcome to "invest' in the national league in this manner.

Yes, you could argue that given for the nine seasons when Waikato FC was run by a handful of volunteers it somehow always managed to cover entry fees from grant funding, sponsorship or fundraising, this was retrograde step.

However I personally favour socialising the cost of national league, especially given it is now touted as an integral part of football "pathways" within the federation structure, and we simply had to move on from five overworked amateurs sweating the big stuff late at night with pressing deadlines.

So even if this $27,000 loan follows the patterns of an earlier advance of $65,000 made to assist Waibop United after the federation takeover, and gets converted to a "grant", you could alternately think of it as just a levy under another name.

Divided among the code's 12,971 registered players in the federation in 2014, that equates to a "levy" of $2.08 cents each.

Or, presented another way, it was not much more than the $23,000 the federation sucked out of from clubs in terms of misconduct fines for the 2014 season (NB, the increased misconduct charges magicked into law without consultation a few weeks into the 2015 winter season is a real issue for Waikato clubs, and Andy Martin, who was at the meeting, was made aware of this).

The loan was acknowledged but drew no real discussion.

In her annual report retiring chair Patsi Davies noted their was ongoing concern about the viability of the national league and anticipated "this will be reflected in the outcome of its review of this competition".

However Patsi blotted her report a little by twice referring to Waibop United as Waikato United (in writing).

If it becomes a mixed-model league, I cant help think that registration for Juniors will quadruple in cost to help fund the (Involved) Clubs senior squad. Does anyone know if this happened in the past National League back in the 90s etc.

Hello, I need to retract my comment earlier in this thread that we should expect Wanderers SC to continue in the 2015-16 summer as an U-23 proposition.

I was wrong.

It's looking now like we should now expect no Wanderers entry and a return to an 8-team league.

Bit shark if thats the case, they are a competitive Premiership team, the Pheonix need them playing at the highest level posible.

Alas the Reserves will still be involved in ASB Prem.

They will also have a team in Youth League 

So Wanderers will be no longer in ASB Youth League? Or will be a 13-team tournament?