Interesting article on who / what / type of structure should be Mariners get a big pat on the back.
http://campbelltown.yourguide.com.au/news/national/national/sport/for-love-or-money-aleague-demands-both/794155.aspx
For love or money? A-League demands both
SEBASTIAN HASSETT
21/06/2008 12:00:01 AM
WHEN Geoff Lord introduced himself to the Australian soccer community in December 2004, it could be argued he lived up to the stereotype that so many of the game's true believers feared.
Taking the lectern at the official launch of Melbourne Victory, Lord confessed he was still learning the intricacies of the game. Until hearing about a new competition, he wasn't a football man at all - his roots existed primarily in the AFL, where he'd previously served as president as Hawthorn.
That day, Lord didn't exactly extol some of the deepest thoughts on the game. The best offering was that "soccer" had a more legitimate claim to the term "foot-ball', whereas Australian rules more closely resembled "foot-and-hand ball".
He even added a new word to the footballing lexicon - "Fyefar". You know, the mob who sit on the banks of Lake Zurich?
Aficionados hoping the owners of A-League clubs would resemble downsized and regionalised versions of Frank Lowy cringed.
Football, but not as you know it? You bet.
But whether the game's self-appointed intelligentsia liked it or not, here was a man prepared to pump some money into football when it was still a dodgy proposition, and that saw him welcomed with open arms. Lord's speech was greeted with a chorus of applause. It had to be. Football needed his brave commitment of cold hard cash.
How times have changed. Fast-forward to 2008, and it's an unimaginably different footballing landscape. The game once begged for investors; now it's knocking them back.
And so it should: this is the sexiest proposition in Australian sport.
Lord has taken Victory from strength to strength.
Private ownership in football clubs is invariably a double-edged sword. They offer guarantees, security and stability. But equally, perhaps inspired by the success of the A-League, prospective owners may look at football as a mere vehicle for investment (Adelaide's owners have pocketed a reported $1.3million from recent player sales), or even worse, a plaything.
Without it, there is no A-League. But with it must come a degree of responsibility from the owners. Football, in this country, simply cannot afford to alienate whatever supporter base it has, or it will go the same way as the National Basketball League.
It's an argument that has come sharply into focus as the A-League seeks to grow from eight to 10 and eventually 12 teams.
The figures on paper show that Melbourne has been the success story of the competition but anyone with their finger on the pulse will testify that an asterisk must be applied. Melburnians were desperate for a team to call their own; adopting the Victory wasn't an issue.
But over time, the club has shown a bewildering misunderstanding of their fans, by far the club's greatest natural asset.
The lack of football-nous in certain sections of the club has threatened to quell the once-unlimited goodwill; increasingly, fans are sick of being treated as customers. They want to feel a part of something worthwhile, not used for promotional back-drops on flyers designed to line the owner's pockets.
The club will argue differently, but the fan base largely fell into their lap. Compare this to the Central Coast Mariners, who flagged themselves as a community club from the start and then went about proving it. Newcastle eventually figured this out as well. Now both are perhaps two of the best models of how to build an A-League club.
It is no coincidence that most people behind both clubs care about football and the local community. In looking at the prospective A-League bids, hopefully Football Federation Australia keeps this in mind.
Of the 10 bids currently on the table, disappointingly, barely a few have gone public. Scarily, even fewer have spoken about their desire to engage with the locals.
One wants to be, as one insider put it, "Australia's own Roman Abramovich".
The new owners must have a conscience to build the game, not just their bank balances or - even worse - their bulging egos.
