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Future of City post A-league


TheStig
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Hi all

With the Coronavirus wreaking economic havoc and Foxtel possibly pulling the pin on its contract with the A league , it begs the question of what would happen to City in a post A-league world.

Melbourne United may well fold (would anyone care?) and even Victory could be vulnerable.

However we have oil wells so we could pursue other options. Would playing in the J-league be an option? Japanese teams fly down here and we fly there for the ACL competition so maybe that would be an option. it would certainly raise the standard of football played here and possibly even attract viewership on tv with more attendance. Getting to away games would become a bit more expensive however.

cheers Peter

 

 

 

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16 minutes ago, KSK_47 said:

CFG could buy out the A-leauge and rebrand every club to be called City and wear sky blue.

IMO the question should be rephrased as to whether there will be any clubs other than City left in a post-virus country. Further, whether even City will wish to continue, not because of lack of funds but of lack of potential growth for the investment, something that CFG has commented on in the past and reflected in its unwillingness to bring in really top-class marquees.

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Spot on JW, Sydney FC and us I think are the only clubs still paying our players as normal, I don't think we have anything to worry about.

Fox is a bit of a worry, but they brought it on themselves paying way to much for AFL and cricket. It could open new doors though, DAZN have sounded interest lately and Optus could be a potential as well.

The biggest concern would be sponsors, if companies don't need a tax write off, they will be less inclined to get on board.

 

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Who knows what this means for the league going forward? The other major leagues are struggling financially and we already were, but at least our season was almost finished, which probably mitigates the financial effect somewhat. However, the league won’t get the revenue from the Final Series, so that will probably hurt the bottom line.

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On 30/03/2020 at 7:37 PM, TheStig said:

It just takes a bit of entrepreneurship.

Look at Socceroos games. People will play to see quality players and quality football. If we were part of the Chinese league  we would attract a huge chinese audience with massive international exposure. And we would attract a decent audience here to our games.

 cheers Peter  

 

 

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14 hours ago, Shahanga said:

After these events how much appetite will there be for multi national leagues?

Fair point. But I'm thinking that only big city clubs will be able to be professional and draw enough support to be viable.

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  • 2 weeks later...
2 hours ago, mjake1234 said:

Interesting article on ftbl.com. The aleague would do well with some solid financial backing. One will have to wait until the Covid settles down.

https://www.ftbl.com.au/news/american-investors-eye-a-league-546623

I see the problem for clubs as obtaining financial backing (and therefore stability) whilst still being real football clubs that fans can relate to. We've seen what happens when absolute wealth takes over a football club. I think I would describe the support for City from the people of Melbourne as "lukewarm." I think back to the days of Heart - those fantastic scenes of the southern end at derbies, our fan magazine, family days when you could talk to Sidwell, pre-season matches here and there when afterwards you could ring up John Didulica and give your opinion on the trialists - we were  closer to being a club then as we ever will be now. I think we've paid a heavy price for financial stability.

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1 hour ago, jw1739 said:

I see the problem for clubs as obtaining financial backing (and therefore stability) whilst still being real football clubs that fans can relate to. We've seen what happens when absolute wealth takes over a football club. I think I would describe the support for City from the people of Melbourne as "lukewarm." I think back to the days of Heart - those fantastic scenes of the southern end at derbies, our fan magazine, family days when you could talk to Sidwell, pre-season matches here and there when afterwards you could ring up John Didulica and give your opinion on the trialists - we were  closer to being a club then as we ever will be now. I think we've paid a heavy price for financial stability.

Doesn’t always have to be like that.

New owners can also leave the fundamentals of the club in place and just add more financial resources to work with. Our owner took the heart out of the club by forcing certain changes and for years just neglect and ignore its fanbase.

Edited by Mr MO
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2 hours ago, Mr MO said:

Doesn’t always have to be like that.

New owners can also leave the fundamentals of the club in place and just add more financial resources to work with. Our owner took the heart out of the club by forcing certain changes and for years just neglect and ignore its fanbase.

If anyone knows how to create buzz around sport teams it's the Yanks!

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5 hours ago, haz said:

I don't think that it's going to be as simple as some think. Unless we're going for a totally virus-free country, which is the way NZ is going, I don't think people are going to flock back to any sporting events, particularly if they have to use public transport to get there. If the virus is wandering around the community, older people in particular are going to wary of the risk. And our ball games are nothing without the fans.

These sporting bodies seem to think that they are God's gift to the public. Death by the slow respiratory strangulation from this virus is the cruellest death, totally cut off from other human contact. I certainly don't want to go that way.

IMO sport in this country needs to be putting pressure on the Feds to change the apparent policy, which seems to be one of "containment" rather than "elimination."

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17 hours ago, jw1739 said:

I don't think that it's going to be as simple as some think. Unless we're going for a totally virus-free country, which is the way NZ is going, I don't think people are going to flock back to any sporting events, particularly if they have to use public transport to get there. If the virus is wandering around the community, older people in particular are going to wary of the risk. And our ball games are nothing without the fans.

These sporting bodies seem to think that they are God's gift to the public. Death by the slow respiratory strangulation from this virus is the cruellest death, totally cut off from other human contact. I certainly don't want to go that way.

IMO sport in this country needs to be putting pressure on the Feds to change the apparent policy, which seems to be one of "containment" rather than "elimination."

We're already heading to several states being virus free, so I don't think it's an impossible aspiration for a virus free Aus. At that point we will be able to interact more freely, though there'll be no international travel until there's a treatment or vaccine. 

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Don't think there will be a problem with the top teams coming out of this pandemic but the lower teams are a worry. This article puts a positive spin on it and also comments on the short sightedness of the previous regime. Money driven rather than entertainment, engagement and a long term view.

https://amp.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/if-it-survives-the-pain-of-fox-sports-split-a-league-could-blossom-20200418-p54l1g.html

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This could fit in a number of threads but I'll post it here.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-26/foxtel-pulls-pin-a-league-may-not-return-after-coronavirus/12184472?section=sport

The situation looks very serious. The first thing that strikes me is what a bloated organisation FFA is - how on earth can it justify 230 staff? The second is that the change to an independent league has not been handled well at all, irrespective of the virus situation.

Perhaps I'm overly pessimistic but I really can't see any of the current A-League clubs surviving if there is not a decent league in which to compete.

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32 minutes ago, moops said:

FIFA just gave the FFA $780,000 and there is another payment coming apparently from a pool of $380M.

There are advantages of belonging to a global game.

So 80%of that $770k will be going to exec salaries?

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38 minutes ago, jw1739 said:

I would like to see an organisation chart for FFA with names and salaries.

Tbh the 230 "staff" might not be too bad depending on how that number is derived. If we are including referees for A-League, socceroos players, socceroos coaches, backroom staff etc. then the number could get high very quickly. However if it is just admin staff then I agree it is way too high.

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230 does seem rather a lot. Especially for an organisation that is only the peak body, but as @malloy says who are they counting? 

We’ll see what happens next. If the FFA have a half decent contract then Fox would be in breach.
At least we aren’t hearing nauseous things like the NRL and AFL ran out about “the game not surviving”. The game will survive, but the admin jobs and the current format? That’s something else. 

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1 hour ago, jw1739 said:

Fox's argument would be that the product isn't the one that they signed up to televise?

In that case, they should be cancelling all their contracts, not show any televised sport, then die a painful death.

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Everyone is just positioning themselves to be able to get the best deal possible,  all this talk about cancellation and litigation is just talk, both parties need each other and unless they are super pigheaded a deal will be done.

Just like millions of others have renegotiated rental leases etc to get through this extraordinary situation. 

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G'day lads hope everyone's well. Just wondering if anyone knows what the hell is going on with the Aleague. Last I heard is that some shit happened with foxtel not paying the ffa and the government funding AFL but not the Aleague. If anyone has anymore news of what's happening please post.

 

If anyone wants the play some Warzone on ps, I'm all in 😂

Oh yeah also, if anyone is interested, I might start up an online soccer manager(osm) lobby for us. Let me know if u guys are interested.

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16 hours ago, NewConvert said:

how are we going to cope with a short off season?????

Many questions. Signings and contracts? Who's even running the League next season? Which clubs will participate? Fixture? Where will they play? Spectators?

From what I've read - which is not much - the so-called "Independent League" has no administrative framework in place and not even a telephone number.

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4 hours ago, jw1739 said:

Many questions. Signings and contracts? Who's even running the League next season? Which clubs will participate? Fixture? Where will they play? Spectators?

From what I've read - which is not much - the so-called "Independent League" has no administrative framework in place and not even a telephone number.

IIRC, as long as the current deal with fox is valid, there is no independent league. FFA and the clubs didn't want to give fox and excuse to get out of what is a good tv-rights deal, especially given the current circumstances.

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