ISPS Handa Premiership

http://www.nzfootball.co.nz/newsarticle/67824

So, some quick maths shows that Southern United will be featured in 1 live game all season - and it's an away. 

Canterbury, Hawkes Bay and Tasman only slightly better with 2 games, but both Tasman's are away so there won't be any games from the newly renovated Trafalgar Park. Shame, it's a good venue.

Team Wellington also have no live home games, again. Patrick, get the camera out.

Meanwhile, everyone's favourite financial hole Waitakere get 4 home games and so does the present home for the much travelled Eastern Suburbs, at Riverhills.

We'll see Kiwitea Street just once live all season (that is a change).

I wonder if clubs will be able to use more more than the 2 minutes NZF gets given this season, to actually promote the league.

Otherwise, 25 to 30k well spent. 

I'm way more excited for the new Handy Prem season than I am for the A-league.

Having WeeNix and TeeDubs games both in Wellington at times that clash twice through the season is a bit poos. 

I think, from the fixtures, they've managed to ensure there's a home game in Auckland every weekend - which had been one of the minor issues with it.

Think it's curious that some of the better venues for getting a good atmosphere have been sidelined though.

Edit: logo shenanhigans in round 13 - Wellington Wanderers and the Hamilton Phoenix.

What's the logic behind moving to Riverhills?

AFAIK - they can't charge entry at Billy Mack (or something, plus the astro isn't brilliant), Madills is a no go zone because of cricket, Ngahue is still (possibly) part of that legal case including Ruffell.

Fencies is one of their partner clubs, Ellerslie is another and Riverhills may be the only decent grass pitch around that way now.

Hmmm... lots of events at Bill Mac have entry fees. Maybe Unimount wasn't sharing the alcohol profits?

I thought grounds had to have a stand and everything, does Riverhill have a stand?

East Tamaki is such a prick of a place to get to for the standard Eastern Suburbs fan :P

Ridiculous that Tasman don't even get a home game televised. One of the best crowds in the league and, a fantastic, newly refurbished venue. Fudgeed up if they're paying the same fee to have TV matches as Auckland City are.

This. And Canterbury finished 3rd last season, yet...

and Hamiton Wanderers will have more televised games this season than they won last season.

Maybe they're putting in temp seating - none apparent with a quick google maps.

No idea how they intend to charge people at Riverhills unless they build a whole lot of new fencing asap. The playing surface is ok but the rest of the facilities are dire

Also of note, Hamilton Wanderers v Tasman United at Centre Park in January. 

Well now thats a bit disappointing, was hoping for atleast 2 live games a week but no. 

Pretty sure Sky is in bed with Rugby its plastered all over their social media channels, they could atleast be smart and diversify their investment in other NZ sport competitions and reap some rewards with it rather than relying on overseas sports markets. I mean if they can make Provincial Rugby games live across the country surely they can give us atleast 2 games of Handy per week.

At the end of season review from last season, NZF asked us to move from Bill McKinlay as their feedback from the other clubs was the surface at BMK wasn’t acceptable.

— Eastern Suburbs AFC (@ESAFC) September 10, 2018

The mystery solved.

So amped! Season fixtures are diarised. I feel a blog brewing

Seriously, NZF should dump SKY "deal", save their $ and allow clubs to livestream games on Facebook. The Aussie NPL clubs are all over this and there are software packages available to attract some sponsorship coin. Would reach more people all around the world.

Very interesting. Bill Mac is a pretty decent pitch, obviously short of a good grass pitch, but a pretty decent pitch.

Unfortunately, the pitch is at its worse when it it is dry (which it is over summer) and if the rubber has just been scraped. For some reason last season the council always used to time this for the morning of the national league games.

Where is the headquarters for Sky ? Are they in Auckland ? And are they based in West Auckland ? What's the deal with Waitak Utd getting the majority of coverage ? O yeah Waitak are in West Auckland. Hmmmm.

Here's my preview of the issues facing the clubs...

A Handy HandyPrem Preview

wow amazing how an award gets you writing again :-p

NZF give SKY the list of games they want shown each round - so your question is where is NZF based.

FYI SKY is Mt Wellington - Auckland

does the location of the OBU's have an influence on cost or on Skys ability to show games in particular?

There are only TWO televised games that aren’t in Auckland/Hamilton or a curtain raiser for the nix (which sky are already set up for)

Only one televised game in the entire South Island. 

What a rip off this sky deal is. 

Otherwise, very excited for the season to start. 

Sky offsetting their loss of subscribers by cheaping out on flights?

I'd personally have no issue with the lack of Southern televised home games, if they were compensated by away games. 

In all honesty, I'd prefer televised away games to home games (if I want to see them play at home, I can go - easy!). If we had the 0-4 split that TeeDubs have I'd be stoked.

I suspect so, the televised game in Napier 20th January, there is a cricket ODI in Napier January 23rd

Similarly the January 27th game in Hamilton is between two crickets games in Mt Maunganui January 26th/28th so I'd suspect there is some link for the ability to show games outside the main centers.

Technically Riverhills is in Pakuranga.  East Tamaki doesn't start until the other side of the creek ! 20 minutes drive Madills to Riverhill at non-peak / non shopping times.

My club commitments are ooooover! Back to the keyboard.

I agree regarding the rip-off - paying all that money for 1 or 2 games televised is a joke.  Why not live stream as others have suggested and the clubs could save some money (which they could then probably waste on players).

The location of Sky TV doesn't only rely on the location of cricket or other sports.  When I was working in Rugby League in Christchurch we had a televised provincial final set for a Sunday.  The Sky crew who turned up had been at a South Island race meeting on the Saturday so there is that flexibility.

There are better streaming platforms than Facebook, otherwise it's something the league needs to be looking at if they aren't already for sure. 

But I think it all comes down to clubs having $$$ freed up from not paying Sky/NZF to be able to do their own thing too. 

I'm pretty sure there is OB vans based in the south island as they are extremely expensive to get over on the ferry so they stay down there and do a bunch of sports (like someone mentioned above), racing, cricket, rugby, rugby league etc.  So I don't understand the collective snubbing of the south island.

Probably easier to film that football, but the NBL [basketball] stream their games via the NZ Herald I think. As others have said, there are other ways to televise gaames that might be cheaper and provide as much coverage for the game/clubs.

Sounds like there are 4 games still to be allocated for live broadcast by Sky (going off Southern twitter), with Southern hoping they will get some (all? ;) ) of those. You'd think playing a couple of games at Forsyth Barr would make it easy for them to broadcast from and there shouldn't be an excuse not to.

I reckon they should try a combination of a streaming platform and linking up with Sparks streaming service to see what is possible. And don't lock all the games into a contract so that the games can still be streamed by clubs if theres no one broadcasting the game. 

Its stupid that Sky has all the rights to lock out viewers and streamers of the games they don't broadcast, it doesn't help the players show their talent and it doesn't help the profile of the clubs. 

I’m a fan of NZ Premiership ‘clubs’ taking control of their media distribution via live FB feeds, that they can use as a revenue source from sponsors. The SKY deal is SO BAD they really should demand NZF pull it. 

And this appeared on my twitter feed tonight, which is also true. 

Pleased to see it appears NZF have seen sense to allow clubs to do their own clips and highlights for non broadcasts matches https://in-the-back-of-the.net/2018/09/24/the-stream-age/

Just spit balling but I can see the benefit of removing sky but mandating the clubs need to spend 30k per year on streaming.
Year one single camera set up
15k camera and audio visual equipment
5k laptop or PC to stream
2k fibre for pitch (maybe talk to spark to sponsor with their push to sports)
3k to set up a platform for camera
5k for two techish Savey club members one behind camera one behind computer.
You can use OBS (free software) to stream (potentially through YouTube then you also have VOD), add graphics etc. If it's good enough for gamers to use to make 500k a month I'm sure it can he used for this.

Sure year one might be a bit worse than sky but you get every game.
Year two repeat and get a second camera angle.
Years three+ just keep investing it.

This way clubs build their own identity with it and their own base if that makes sense.

Or you contract a local video company who has most of that gear and get them to do it for you under the clubs banner. Save a bunch of hassle imo. Also, might be a bit cheaper.

Either way, that Sky money could definitely be better used to get a whole bunch more games shown via streaming platforms. This season I can see it being an issue paying that Sky money and then finding extra cash for streaming on top of it, but the clubs need to keep it in their budgets post Sky deal.