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City Football Group (CFG) [Owner of Melbourne City]


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Email reply from Ryan/club 

 

Thank you xxxx, this has been passed on and read. Brad will be speaking to City Terrace leadership tomorrow in a private meeting alongside department heads and we will announce further fan forums shortly. I can confirm your membership is not set to renew moving forward.

 

 

Edited by HughJass
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Just now, HughJass said:

 

 

Man what I would do to have someone like him leading our club. 

Also. Vince Rugari has come out with more details... 

  • The deal is $12m

  • The $140m from Silverlake is to spend on growth strategies not to cover any losses the APL experience.

  • Network 10 is furious

 

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/if-there-was-a-world-cup-for-self-sabotage-australian-soccer-would-be-champions-20221214-p5c65g.html

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3 hours ago, haz said:

Man what I would do to have someone like him leading our club. 

Also. Vince Rugari has come out with more details... 

  • The deal is $12m

  • The $140m from Silverlake is to spend on growth strategies not to cover any losses the APL experience.

  • Network 10 is furious

 

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/if-there-was-a-world-cup-for-self-sabotage-australian-soccer-would-be-champions-20221214-p5c65g.html

Assuming all the money goes to the clubs (and I'm gonna exclude Canberra for simplicity sake) that's $1m each, or just $333K per year. 

Wtf is Melbourne City doing? They would expect to "host" at least one GF in that timeframe, surely that GF alone would be worth that much in attracting and embedding supporters within the club. Winning breeds success off field, something we have slowly been seeing, so why pass up your best way to consolidate that aspect for a measly $300K a year? That's like one mostly injured Florin Berengeur. 

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Spoke to somebody close to Melbourne Victory tonight.

Every club and every chairman knew in advance that the Monday announcement was coming. Those claiming that they were not informed or consulted are dishonest and are just trying to save face. Not all clubs agreed with it but the majority won. It was also said that smaller clubs do indeed fear the influence of Simon Pearce.

Edited by Mr MO
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I think that we should be careful not to get sidetracked by who, at a club level, knew what and when, and who voted and how. The point is that the fans of all the clubs, including those in New South Wales, have been dudded by the decision that has been made because, unless anyone can show evidence to the contrary, fans were not consulted or even considered by APL in reaching this decision.

No evidence is presented to justify the decision except the usual vague statements that the league needs more money, and hard to believe considering that a 1/3 stake in the league was sold to Silver Lake for $140 million only 12 months ago.

It is particularly galling to be a Melbourne City member and to know that our club Melbourne City supported the decision and made absolutely no effort to consider its members. Further it is particularly galling that neither our CEO Mr. Rowse nor our vice-Chairman Mr. Pearce have the guts or the decency to put their names to the "statement" that the club (belatedly) issued this afternoon.

Edited by jw1739
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7 hours ago, jw1739 said:

I think that we should be careful not to get sidetracked by who, at a club level, knew what and when, and who voted and how. The point is that the fans of all the clubs, including those in New South Wales, have been dudded by the decision that has been made because, unless anyone can show evidence to the contrary, fans were not consulted or even considered by APL in reaching this decision.

No evidence is presented to justify the decision except the usual vague statements that the league needs more money, and hard to believe considering that a 1/3 stake in the league was sold to Silver Lake for $140 million only 12 months ago.

It is particularly galling to be a Melbourne City member and to know that our club Melbourne City supported the decision and made absolutely no effort to consider its members. Further it is particularly galling that neither our CEO Mr. Rowse nor our vice-Chairman Mr. Pearce have the guts or the decency to put their names to the "statement" that the club (belatedly) issued this afternoon.

It was said that the Silverlake money is strictly for development and that clubs really needed the 300k per season!

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1 hour ago, Le Hack said:

Here's a thought. Maybe if all fans acknowledge that top of the ladder is the champions and the Finals are simply another crappy tournament like the Australia Cup. The ACL doesn't recognise the Grand finalist. We the fans should just give the finals a non attendance and that'll be that. You think any government going to pay for no shows

That's certainly part of what I am going to do. Essentially a boycott of the "finals matches," which are not covered by a membership anyway.

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FMD in the space of 4 days we’ve had this as a chance to ‘create tradition’, then move to saving the league from the financial impacts of Covid, to this morning ‘not enough of you have bought into our shitty streaming service with an unproven provider, which by the way no one seems to like’. Can’t wait to see where this ends up after the weekend, what a joy following this league & team is!

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19 minutes ago, Cityamatic said:

FMD in the space of 4 days we’ve had this as a chance to ‘create tradition’, then move to saving the league from the financial impacts of Covid, to this morning ‘not enough of you have bought into our shitty streaming service with an unproven provider, which by the way no one seems to like’. Can’t wait to see where this ends up after the weekend, what a joy following this league & team is!

I think that the outcome of all this may not be reflected so much in an immediate decline in membership numbers or even attendances, but rather more in the intangibles such as commitment and interest both in individual clubs and the league as a whole.

One thing I've noted, just as an example, is the decline in comment and discussion on this Forum over the past 2-3 seasons. I can't quantify it, but it is reflected in, say, player of the match voting numbers, and by the lack of discussion you wouldn't believe that there is a derby tomorrow!

IMO APL is taking a huge gamble on the Grand Final decision, and for a measly $10-12m. Its last initiative - attracting 35 "name" players to the league (or was that "leagues"?) -  was complete misfire.

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52 minutes ago, Cityamatic said:

FMD in the space of 4 days we’ve had this as a chance to ‘create tradition’, then move to saving the league from the financial impacts of Covid, to this morning ‘not enough of you have bought into our shitty streaming service with an unproven provider, which by the way no one seems to like’. Can’t wait to see where this ends up after the weekend, what a joy following this league & team is!

The you have posts like this where they are saying that KPI's have been met or exceeded, waiting for not enough fans have bought new Isuzu D-max and MUX's

 

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1 minute ago, HughJass said:

The you have posts like this where they are saying that KPI's have been met or exceeded, waiting for not enough fans have bought new Isuzu D-max and MUX's

 

It is baffling. It’s like they think we’re too thick to look into things ourselves or remember shit we read for longer than six minutes or something 

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37 minutes ago, Cityamatic said:

It is baffling. It’s like they think we’re too thick to look into things ourselves or remember shit we read for longer than six minutes or something 

Precisely. It's the boy who called "wolf." APL keeps crying poor but doesn't produce the evidence. So eventually no-one believes, and IMO that's just where we are now.

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^^^^^ EXACTLY.  Manager GAGGED.  Players GAGGED.   As if it could not get any more contrasting.....  look at this

 

https://www.news.com.au/sport/football/melbourne-victory-coach-tony-popovic-throws-support-behind-angry-fans/news-story/26f4f472ab3a341aa42931761dc98431

 

I'm really just about done with  Melbourne City.  I do feel sorry for the players but I was never a Man City fan one bit, and this venture-capitalist behaviour is at my limit.  I am actually bringing several years' member scarves and caps to the ground tomorrow to chuck over the fence and leave there.  I will never be buying any City merch (not that I bought much) and if I do go again (NEVER to finals) it will be in red. Which suits this Forest fan.

 

Fvck, it's so bad I actually miss the Heart days!!!!!

Edited by CityWildcat
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I've had a few days to think about this debacle, initially I was of the " how can they do this"  team, but on reflection the finals series means nothing to me, where else in the world of football do they tag on a finals series to the season to determine who the champions are. The ladder is the only thing that counts. I would be happy if they did away with finals altogether, moving it to Sydney means I don't have to go to a game that is irrelevant.  I agree that the way it has played out is abysmal but on the big scheme of things pro/ rel is so much more important and if the funds help that come to fruition its worth it. Just my thoughts before everyone walks out at 20 mins.

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2 hours ago, CityWildcat said:

^^^^^ EXACTLY.  Manager GAGGED.  Players GAGGED.   As if it could not get any more contrasting.....  look at this

 

https://www.news.com.au/sport/football/melbourne-victory-coach-tony-popovic-throws-support-behind-angry-fans/news-story/26f4f472ab3a341aa42931761dc98431

 

I'm really just about done with  Melbourne City.  I do feel sorry for the players but I was never a Man City fan one bit, and this venture-capitalist behaviour is at my limit.  I am actually bringing several years' member scarves and caps to the ground tomorrow to chuck over the fence and leave there.  I will never be buying any City merch (not that I bought much) and if I do go again (NEVER to finals) it will be in red. Which suits this Forest fan.

 

Fvck, it's so bad I actually miss the Heart days!!!!!

Remember that Popovic can say what he's said because his Chairman has resigned from the APL Board.

Rado, just like Leckie and Tilio, are gagged and have to stick to the party line.

Of course he couldn't do it, but Rado would have been better off to deflect those questions to Rowse or Pearce - conspicuous by their absence of course. The hypocrisy gets me. We love our fans but that didn't stop us from kicking them in the teeth last weekend.

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The real killer is the very fact we're currently in a grand final window having played in the last three and we're currently top, meaning WE'RE the most likely club to be directly affected by this travesty of a decision. 

It's as big a "fuck you" to the fans that the CFG oligarchs could have possibly given us. 

I feel for my poor partner who has only really started supporting the A-League and City the last few years as she adores the team and players, to the extent that I told her I'd still attend games if she wanted to. But after hearing that City Terrace and the other active groups would be boycotting the season, I think she realised how soulless the games were going to be and has now joined me in writing this season off.

That's what you've done City HQ, if you're reading. You're not only pissed off hardcore fans, but you've alienated new fans too. Fuck off and re-do your customer relations and management degrees you frauds.

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So Paramount is holding money back as certain haven’t been met. Are they that naive really??

People aren’t buying a service that isn’t up to standard or people have canceled the subscription for the same reason. Paramount has done absolutely nothing to deliver (no additional content either) or improve.

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20 minutes ago, jw1739 said:

I think this is an interesting update dated 26th September 2022. I urge everyone to read it.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/silver-lake-now-second-largest-shareholder-city-group-thovhakale/?trk=pulse-article_more-articles_related-content-card

I must say that that I was unaware of all the more recent changes.

The conflict of interest with Pearce, Johnson and Silver Lake is massive throughout our government bodies. Not to mention we are also part owner of the Jets I believe?

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

So Paramount is holding money back as certain haven’t been met. Are they that naive really??

What I posted earlier says kpis have been met or exceeded..... APL just making stuff up as they go ever since the announcement 

Wouldn't surprise me if this is some sort of financial accounting tricks for silver Lake to show they are making money 

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31 minutes ago, HughJass said:

What I posted earlier says kpis have been met or exceeded..... APL just making stuff up as they go ever since the announcement 

Wouldn't surprise me if this is some sort of financial accounting tricks for silver Lake to show they are making money 

Next week the narrative will be that we’ve brought this upon ourselves as we haven’t bought enough Isuzu utes.

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38 minutes ago, HughJass said:

...

Wouldn't surprise me if this is some sort of financial accounting tricks for silver Lake to show they are making money 

Almost certainly. Inflate the value of the "asset," induce some sucker to buy it from you, and then move on.

APL has sold itself to the devil. Gradually we lose control of "our asset." Just like Heart did. Policies and decisions no longer made in Melbourne.

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3 hours ago, jw1739 said:

I think this is an interesting update dated 26th September 2022. I urge everyone to read it.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/silver-lake-now-second-largest-shareholder-city-group-thovhakale/?trk=pulse-article_more-articles_related-content-card

I must say that that I was unaware of all the more recent changes.

to be honest, I think I had read that but not put it together.

It is absolute clear that we, Melbourne City are a clear driver behind this announcement. Our public facing comments since have been horrific from a fans point of view. This is why following this club is extremely questionable if not damn near impossible for me going forward.

I had been wondering all week what was in this for us - why did we agree to something like that? Obviously the money is negligible. It may be as simple as looking after our shareholder silver lake making the A-league financially stronger however it is still too much to our detriment surely.

My gut feel is going back before Silver Lake, who knows if in fact Silver Lake were involved behind the scenes long before they bought in...what has always got me is the Western United decision.

Why on earth were the SE Suburbs neglected for the comparatively much weaker western suburbs? The population boom in the south east had to be the clear choice, surely?

Moving on, suddenly we ditch the northern base for a SE base - I think a backroom deal was made for us to take over that market (very slowly) and in return the league wont base a competitor there.

We may have owed a vote/favor, with tit for tat support going on by the individuals running the league even during the FFA days. 

The whole league an sport in this country really does reek.

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