Ernie says he regards the front 4 as all strikers.
I'll doff my hat to you mjp.
Wellington Phoenix Club Members Meeting - Thurs 15 Aug 6:30pm, The Grand
I'll doff my hat to you mjp.
Yeah, Ernie was talking about if the wingers are off "having a cup of tea" on the sidelines and Carlos is hanging back with Brockie all alone up front, no-one's doing their job.
Interesting. Thanks for posting, Doloras. Will have to watch the recorded version if possible.
Thanks D great stuff. Is anyone else freakin amped for this season already
I thought that the jazz band were very good, although they never fully answered my question on the validity of overlapping fullbacks in the modern game.
"Great!"
Somebody had to.
I hate jazz.
"We're not selling any home games to Australia. But playing in Singapore or Malaysia... that's a possibility if the sponsorship arrived." - Rob M
I hate jazz.
Johnny?
"We're not selling any home games to Australia. But playing in Singapore or Malaysia... that's a possibility if the sponsorship arrived." - Rob M
Has the Feb venue been confirmed?
A YF tweet read. "Chairman Rob: we are selling entertainment. It's not about winning it's about winning in style. The fans we need aren't hard core."
What does "The fans we need aren't hard core." mean?
It means the hard core will be there no matter what. Everyone else needs bouncy castles, face painting and tiki taka.
A YF tweet read. "Chairman Rob: we are selling entertainment. It's not about winning it's about winning in style. The fans we need aren't hard core."
What does "The fans we need aren't hard core." mean?
The hardcore will be turning up to games no matter what, and they are very very thankful for that. However, in order to grow the crowds to start breaking even, they need to attract people outside the hardcore support in order to grow the crowd sizes . It was said in the context of how they are going to break even, rather than a statement on the current supporters.
If we play 'entertaining football' and still lose the majority of our games; I very much doubt the crowd will improve. Casual fans don't remember how we played, just the results.
People like winning teams. Fact.
"We're not selling any home games to Australia. But playing in Singapore or Malaysia... that's a possibility if the sponsorship arrived." - Rob M
... I think, although the feed was very choppy at that point, he was talking about playing A-League games in SE Asia, if some really big bucks turned up.
I hate jazz.
Johnny?
"Jazz is not dead, it just smells funny" - Frank Zappa
I hate jazz.
Johnny?
Ah fuck. Seven years of carefully hiding my identity and then I blow it with a momentary jazz-induced lapse in concentration.
Now I hate jazz even more.
I am finding so much humour in the threads this morning.
"We're not selling any home games to Australia. But playing in Singapore or Malaysia... that's a possibility if the sponsorship arrived." - Rob M
He was specifically talking about league games.
I hope they've got a contingency plan when they're talking about home games as to where they'll play if Westpac is flattened in an earthquake. And the answer is NOT Ring of Dirt.
hello Christchurch.
I hope they've got a contingency plan when they're talking about home games as to where they'll play if Westpac is flattened in an earthquake. And the answer is NOT Ring of Dirt.
A YF tweet read. "Chairman Rob: we are selling entertainment. It's not about winning it's about winning in style. The fans we need aren't hard core."
What does "The fans we need aren't hard core." mean?
The hardcore will be turning up to games no matter what, and they are very very thankful for that. However, in order to grow the crowds to start breaking even, they need to attract people outside the hardcore support in order to grow the crowd sizes . It was said in the context of how they are going to break even, rather than a statement on the current supporters.
100% this.
"We're not selling any home games to Australia. But playing in Singapore or Malaysia... that's a possibility if the sponsorship arrived." - Rob M
He was specifically talking about league games.
I'd really like to understand the strategy for taking games away from Wellington.
Surely the future for the club is playing to decent crowds week in and week out with perhaps one or two game max away from Wellington. I cannot see any benefit to the club at all in taking matches away other than one off financial benefit which we have already seen will reduce over time as the novelty factor wears off. They've had three very big crowds away from home but each had odd individual factors. Chch was opening of the new stand at Jade Stadium, Dunedin was the opening of the new stadium and Eden Park was one of the first events after the redevelopment. Aside from that crowds have actually been fairly average.
You weaken the local attachment with the club, potentially weaken local ticket sales etc. For all the talk of "building the brand" around the country that's plainly BS - even if you get fans in Hamilton you don't get any benefit from that unless they turn up to games in Wellington. Bulk of funding comes from the Aussie TV deal. Aside from cash I don't see any actual benefit for the club overall. Now if this is just about cash that's fine, but I seem to sense that they want to build a fan base in those cities which doesn't make sense to me
My only thought is that this is leverage against the stadium for them to start looking at giving us a better deal there.
SE Asia has to be a red herring unless we were playing Sydney with Del Piero say, no-one is going to pay for us to go and play in Malaysia.
Was there any talk about what their strategy is for improving crowds in Wellington? If they get that right then they don't need to worry about taking games away - seems more time is spent on plotting how to take games away rather than build fans at home!
Was there any mention made of the search for a DM?
"We're not selling any home games to Australia. But playing in Singapore or Malaysia... that's a possibility if the sponsorship arrived." - Rob M
... I think, although the feed was very choppy at that point, he was talking about playing A-League games in SE Asia, if some really big bucks turned up.
#Angst
"We're not selling any home games to Australia. But playing in Singapore or Malaysia... that's a possibility if the sponsorship arrived." - Rob M
... I think, although the feed was very choppy at that point, he was talking about playing A-League games in SE Asia, if some really big bucks turned up.
#Angst
The impression I got from Rob was that this game would be one of the A-League "Regional" fixtures (like the Dunedin games), so it wouldn't mean that we get any less home games. He stated that they will always play all of our 13 home games within New Zealand.
...The Globetrotting Phoenix?
I hope they've got a contingency plan when they're talking about home games as to where they'll play if Westpac is flattened in an earthquake. And the answer is NOT Ring of Dirt.
Ring of Liquifaction?
"We're not selling any home games to Australia. But playing in Singapore or Malaysia... that's a possibility if the sponsorship arrived." - Rob M
He was specifically talking about league games.
I'd really like to understand the strategy for taking games away from Wellington.
Surely the future for the club is playing to decent crowds week in and week out with perhaps one or two game max away from Wellington. I cannot see any benefit to the club at all in taking matches away other than one off financial benefit which we have already seen will reduce over time as the novelty factor wears off. They've had three very big crowds away from home but each had odd individual factors. Chch was opening of the new stand at Jade Stadium, Dunedin was the opening of the new stadium and Eden Park was one of the first events after the redevelopment. Aside from that crowds have actually been fairly average.
You weaken the local attachment with the club, potentially weaken local ticket sales etc. For all the talk of "building the brand" around the country that's plainly BS - even if you get fans in Hamilton you don't get any benefit from that unless they turn up to games in Wellington. Bulk of funding comes from the Aussie TV deal. Aside from cash I don't see any actual benefit for the club overall. Now if this is just about cash that's fine, but I seem to sense that they want to build a fan base in those cities which doesn't make sense to me
My only thought is that this is leverage against the stadium for them to start looking at giving us a better deal there.
SE Asia has to be a red herring unless we were playing Sydney with Del Piero say, no-one is going to pay for us to go and play in Malaysia.
Was there any talk about what their strategy is for improving crowds in Wellington? If they get that right then they don't need to worry about taking games away - seems more time is spent on plotting how to take games away rather than build fans at home!
Excellent post and hits the nail firmly on the head...."seems more time is spent on plotting how to take games away rather than build fans at home!" - that does make me wonder sometimes why this seems to be the direction taken. You want to attract fans to Wellington? Easy, give them a product that causes them to think about a day down here. Not a day in their back yard.
Just as a side issue, wouldn't it be cool if Auckland had their own team in there - derby game? Yeah I know it will never happen, they've screwed up twice.
The main focus is to make the club viable/self sustainable.
They are not looking to make money from it but cut down the requirement for top ups from the Welnix founders/funders
The main focus is to make the club viable/self sustainable.
They are not looking to make money from it but cut down the requirement for top ups from the Welnix founders/funders
^^ This.
Context for playing Asian teams China/Singapore/Malaysia (not Indonesia) in preseason was based around working where NZ is improving trade links and there is interest in football.
There was someone on Twitter talking about 'selling games' as if we were going to play some in Australia or Tasmania or something. Never. Happen.
It was also linked to what other (read: EPL) clubs do in Asia in regards to 3-4 team tournaments. That's why the sponsorship was also mentioned (eg prize money and travel/player costs).
In regards to the playing attractive football comments, Rob said something along the lines of some hard core fans want us to win, even if we win ugly. That goes really bad when you end up losing ugly (not an exact quote). And he's right. That has happened for the last few seasons, if we're honest.
Rob wants to see attractive AND winning football. Everyone is well aware that winning games is the key factor.
And yes, taking some of the games away is about getting cash. Even if 10-12,000 show up to a game in Auckland/Christchurch/Dunedin/Hamilton/Napier/Waikikamucow that's still more than the average 5-6,000 people Wellington is getting.
And game day ticket sales have a big impact on finances for the club. It's no secret that the break-even for costs for the club is around 10,000 tickets per game.
[quote=Blew.2]
And yes, taking some of the games away is about getting cash. Even if 10-12,000 show up to a game in Auckland/Christchurch/Dunedin/Hamilton/Napier/Waikikamucow that's still more than the average 5-6,000 people Wellington is getting.
And game day ticket sales have a big impact on finances for the club. It's no secret that the break-even for costs for the club is around 10,000 tickets per game.
and what if we get 6,000 in Auckland/Christchurch/Dunedin/Hamilton/Napier/Waikikamucow? What was the attendance at the Dunedin game last season?
Also, what if moving these games out of Wellington is affecting the supporters and the attendance here? I would imagine that we will lose a lot of supporters between the first game of the season here and the second one that is about 5 weeks later. There is also the fact that people from Wellington have less affinity with the NZ Phoenix than they would with the Wellington Phoenix.
[quote=Blew.2]
And yes, taking some of the games away is about getting cash. Even if 10-12,000 show up to a game in Auckland/Christchurch/Dunedin/Hamilton/Napier/Waikikamucow that's still more than the average 5-6,000 people Wellington is getting.
And game day ticket sales have a big impact on finances for the club. It's no secret that the break-even for costs for the club is around 10,000 tickets per game.
and what if we get 6,000 in Auckland/Christchurch/Dunedin/Hamilton/Napier/Waikikamucow? What was the attendance at the Dunedin game last season?
Also, what if moving these games out of Wellington is affecting the supporters and the attendance here? I would imagine that we will lose a lot of supporters between the first game of the season here and the second one that is about 5 weeks later. There is also the fact that people from Wellington have less affinity with the NZ Phoenix than they would with the Wellington Phoenix.
Last few Dunedin games were poor, which is obvious why they don't have a game this season.
It's getting hard to back up claims of 'taking games away drops our support' when a) the main people that affects is season ticket holders b) season ticket holders haven't significantly dropped away c) game day ticket sales have been poor for all the games in Wellington regardless.
Don't get me wrong, I am all for Rob's comments of wanting to build a home for the Phoenix here in Wellington. And Welnix see that as very important (eg proper training facilities, academy, etc). But we can't tell the club to play all the games in Wellington until the average per-game crowd gets back up to the 10-12,000 mark. They don't see it as a financially sustainable option.
It's also getting hard to back up claims of 'taking games away brings us shitloads of cash' when I think we have only really had significantly better attendances when the games have been tied in with other events such as the opening of a new stand or stadium (Chch, 1st time in Dunedin, possibly 1st time in Auckland).
It will always be harder to build loyalty and consistent attendance from the casuals when we are a travelling circus.
You've also got to factor in that costs to the Phoenix are going to be higher when they are playing out of Wellington, e.g. travel, hotels, extra publicity (from memory they did a lot in Auckland before that game last season). So a 6k crowd in Welly is actually cheaper that a 6k crowd in Auckland if I understand things right.
So a 6k crowd in Welly is actually cheaper that a 6k crowd in Auckland if I understand things right.
Exactly; but how does a 6k crowd in Welly compare to an 11k crowd in Auckland, which is the real numbers?
These are business people. You'd expect them to make decisions based on surplus of revenue over costs, but then I expected Terry S not to fall for a Nigerian scam from Bahrain. And I really think "taking away home games alienates potential Wellington supporters" is a hypothesis for which I've seen no evidence.
To be factored in is what the promoter/Stadium is offering to get the away game. May be better that Westpa$
It's kind of a shit position. We aren't getting big enough crowds to be properly sustainable in Wellington which is forcing us to take home games to other cities; but in doing that we are potentially losing the ability to attract a few more (more likely to be long term) fans in Wellington.