Fox pulling plug on A League

Understand that Fox has not made this final payment so hope this is not the end of the A League.

Football Federation Australia today refused to say if Fox Sports came up with the cash for their latest payment for A-League TV rights, sparking fears the broadcaster has pulled the plug.

Fox was due to put around $12m in the FFA's bank account on Wednesday as the latest instalment of the near $60m a year deal, which still has three more seasons left to run.

But with the A-League suspended last month by the coronavirus, Fox were said to be considering their options on their deal's future.

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whilst this is disastrous news for the league going forward, I can see the bigger clubs' owners being more worried than say the likes of CCM and the Nix. CCM for operating well below the salary cap will not be having to pay the outlandish wage bills. Nix cos our owners arent sharkhouse and likely to bail as soon as the future looks bleak aka Perth.

Really don't see why people would be surprised not sure many of you on here would keep paying for something that you are no longer getting. They might have signed contracts but they arnt getting what they are being expected to pay for.

Does that that mean they wont come back once what they are expected to pay for returns is any bodies guess.

WTF How the hell can you call the Nix owners sharkhouse,get PO when I see that sort of comment they have stuck it out when many would have bailed because the situation had got hard. They might not do what everybody wants but to label them sharkhouse is bullshark.

sorry typo....

Hoping that there is an Optus/Spark sport option put together.

Quite frankly, it's hard to see anyone putting up cash at a time when the league is not able to put together a product that can be broadcast. And the longer that situation continues, the more tenuous the position that the league is in.

Nope. Optus already ruled it out.

This is not a good time for anyone; no one will want to expand their offerings.

CCM pays below the cap because the cap also covers their operation costs, without it they have negligible income or reserves. They're more susceptible than a big team IMO.

Whew did think it was strange coming from you when I read it. 

Does anyone know if Sky Sports paid the FFA there $200,000 for TV rights? Tight-ass Sky Sports does have money unlike Foxtel and if the Nixs want to stay in the league this should be a priority. Maybe Voerman would know?

For what it's worth the Nix are giving away two season passes for next year on social media. They have no reason to do that and probably wouldn't if they didn't think the league would continue.

Are Aussie teams going to be allowed to travel here? Will the Phoenix be allowed to play in Australia without going into quarantine first? If professional sports leagues do return, will they have to be played before closed doors? 

No-one knows answers to the questions right now, and that includes people making the decisions.

Sure, which is why I said for what it's worth. The Phoenix at least think they're still around as is the league ignoring any government issues around Covid policy.

Were they Phoenix season passes? :)

Any word for this season's ticket holders yet?

Ha!

Not only do they specify that they're Wellington Phoenix season passes they specify Sky Stadium, although they don't specify what competition. :)

A positive Promotion. And they say the competition.  Check out

 https://www.facebook.com/wellingtonphoenixfc/

I think however overpriced you might think their product is, Sky have worked hard to re establish local football on NZ tv in the last 5 years or so and the Nix have also been a part of that and It wouldn't be ideal to lose the A League to Spark Sport in terms of  complimenting that product with the Handy and having a friendly time zone to watch football in. Especially as there are probably more people than you think who will watch the Nix if they haven't got anything else going on but wouldn't pay for Spark because they are mainly a Rugby fan.

I expect that no one will likely pick it up ATM anyway though.

I like Sky pushing its Phoenix Rising Tuesday nights at the moment. Looking forward to it tonight.

FWIW, AFL head honcho is saying this morning that they’re planning on a 2020 (calendar) season with ZERO stadium attendance. 
NRL (with Todd Greenberg now given the shove) and Peter V’landys from Racing NSW leading the bubble concept to restart on May 28 - will be the guinea pigs for other sports. 
Rugby Australia is completely fudgeed; suburban rugby in 2021 plus a NSW v QLD state game is all that will be played for a while I reckon. SANZAR is dead. South Africans will hook up with Europe for TV and travel time zone reasons, plus obviously much more money. 
Meanwhile, FFA watches...

Probably a sensible strategy!

Sure, and they only have a few games left to complete the season, whereas the other codes are just at the start of theirs.