Charlesworth, Shaun, Okon public forum at CCL. Friday 27 Jan

[Big Al]

I bloody hope they realise that more of the same is likely to start impacting membership and crowd numbers next season.
They're gonna need to make some good signings quick smart at season's end.
When it comes to signings Mediocrity won't cut it for most next season. Even the least engaged of fans know that we need a CB and CAM at a minimum and i doubt it a NPL player would be accepted.

Was basically Pauls comments I'm not just getting someone for the sake of it or for 3months. Looking for someone who helps with next year as well. Basically won't do a deal that doesn't suit long term. Basically he will sign more Youth but of better quality. Paul is not an NPL type guy IMO

 

[midfielder]

My two cents from the night
On the A-League in general.
· They expect a million dollar lift in the salary cap.
· Seems 10 and Fox have agreed a price to pay for the next FFA deal, with either 7 or 9 having to outbid them.
· SBS seemed when they changed management no longer wanted to be the home of Football.
· If 10 it will be all out and they expect big things. Sounds like other shows.
· FFA have plans to chase the participation base on FTA.
· MC said we need to expand fast and stop F….g around.
· MC has a dream that FFA binned about playing teams considered A-League in East Asia.

On the Mariners – team(s)
· We will be applying for a W-League team.
· Acknowledgement by the club, that they got player recruitment and coach selections badly wrong in the recent pass.
· Okon seems to have quite a strict method on player selection and will only sign quality.
· We were had an overseas player but his club changed their mind.
· Okon is a no BS speaker.
· Okon is speaking to players he wants to keep and believes he will keep all players he wants to keep.
· 16 players off contract many won’t be resigned.
· Okon has a playing style he wants the team to play.

On Mariners Management

· The back office is the best it has ever been.
· We are losing money.
· By the sounds of things the Canberra thing is not going down to well and I doubt it will be there next season.

On Mariners Facilities i.e. COE & Stadium Bid

· CEO meeting with council Wednesday so the next phase can begin, but wants to get going on it.
· Stadium, we have all read the articles, not much different tonight.
· MC said he wants fans to also push for the stadium in particular to help get it over the line.


I am sure I have left bids off …

 

[Forum Phoenix]

Thanks everyone. heading to the Coast ramble feed now.

 

[Big Al]

Also started presentation with A League Ad about new logo.

We weren't in it.

FFA don't rate us but we don't care

 

[Pirate Pete]

It was mentioned we, "The Voters" as MC pointed out, should be writing letters to the council and newspapers.
As well as phoning radio stations.
I'm not sure how much attention the council will pay to letters to the paper. And if the club want us to write to the council
I think we should have some idea who exactly to write to. 350 000 or so people on the Coast. How many people can be
bothered to write? 500 maybe? It's not a big percentage. My view is if the council need extra money for other things they
could look at a deal.
As for radio apart from Scott Levi on ABC do any other stations have phone ins at all? The club should get onto Scott
to get Shaun on the show and take it from there.
Maybe we, the fans, should put candidates forward at the next council election.

Big Al, I think I briefly saw Connor Pain. Briefly though, very briefly. You obviously blinked at that nano second.

 

[tim...]

Also started presentation with A League Ad about new logo.

We weren't in it.

FFA don't rate us but we don't care

We are in it - very briefly though.

 

[adz]

Made the mistake of looking at the members page on Facebook this morning.
Either people weren't at the forum last night or they only hear what they want to hear.

 

[Big Al]

It was mentioned we, "The Voters" as MC pointed out, should be writing letters to the council and newspapers.
As well as phoning radio stations.
I'm not sure how much attention the council will pay to letters to the paper. And if the club want us to write to the council
I think we should have some idea who exactly to write to. 350 000 or so people on the Coast. How many people can be
bothered to write? 500 maybe? It's not a big percentage. My view is if the council need extra money for other things they
could look at a deal.
As for radio apart from Scott Levi on ABC do any other stations have phone ins at all? The club should get onto Scott
to get Shaun on the show and take it from there.
Maybe we, the fans, should put candidates forward at the next council election.

Big Al, I think I briefly saw Connor Pain. Briefly though, very briefly. You obviously blinked at that nano second.

The advocate section has Lucy in there every 2nd week trying to set the record straight or use it as tool to promote there endeavours.
Look at the performing Arts centre. Does anyone not a greenie actually care but it's considered an issue because it's in the local paper every week. There are contributors to the local section who are in there every week. E.G. Bruce Hyland (little controversial but that gets them more replys)
As you say what is the point of writing to a council who doesn't give a shit and are not running but candidates will be reading the local papers and listening to the local radio TV to see what issues will get them votes.

Wasn't paying attention to the ad, just going off what Shaun said about us not being in it, so maybe he needs a magnifying glass and not blink as well. Gallop has form in this area, did it in NRL leaving out lower or regional teams

 

[pjennings]

I think we all know Michael and Shaun's views on most things from previous forums and comments so a lot of what they said came as no real surprise. My big take-out football wise is that Paul is probably a lot more ruthless than our previous coaches with the possible exception of Arnie. That is not meant as a bad thing - we need that bit of mongrel to go with his obvious passion for the game. If he is going to be patient and get the right players for next year that is fine by me - just avoid that bloody spoon this year!@@!!#@#@!@!.

 

[dibo]

Mike expects $1m from Tv rights which will cover our losses. Didn't say what he'd do if doesn't get it.

I take that to mean salary cap + $1m.

I'd guess that the cap will go from $2.6m odd to $3.5m odd. So whilst he's telling journos he wants $6m, he really needs $4.5m or so.

That's entirely plausible given the rights are at least $55m in the first year. It's $51m plus either an extra $4m from Fox or a FTA network offering more.

So if we're suddenly breaking even rather than losing $1m a year, then we've got room to grow rather than just space to survive.

 

[pjennings]

I think the clubs have been told at this stage that the cap will be around $3m with the grant around $3.6m. That assumes no competition for FTA and 10 picking it up for a relatively cheap price. I think it was Mike (I could be wrong here) that previously said that the $3m marquee was a waste and they need to invest $10m there and ensure that each club has a marquee. The reasoning is that the investment would pay off in overseas sales, especially in the UK where morning Saturday and Sunday football shows would pay markedly more than they do now. So at this stage I think that means the grant may be $3.6m with some upside. They really is a conflict of interest in the FFA running the HAL

I think these questions need to be raised as to
1) Why is there not an independent commission to run the HAL
2) To what extent has the increased sponsorship of the FFA been on the back of the HAL and how much from the Socceroos
3) How much of that money should be put towards the HAL of that increased sponsorship
4) What do similar size FAs spend on administration around the world. Anecdotally we seem to leading the pack.

TBH - I know that they have been raised by the CEOs - but how can we push this further?

 

[nebakke]

Paul is not an NPL type guy IMO

I should probably add that it's not that I have a problem with us signing NPL players - I think we should... Bingers and Posco both came out of the NPL and I think they've been worthwhile signings.
Just that we need something more than "just" NPL and Youth now... We've got those, some of them are looking like they'll be decent with the right support too... This is about signing that "right" support.
Tavares has been better than I expected, except for the injury situation, but similar clearly wouldn't cut it for next year...

I'm trying really hard to be reasonable as well though, thinking that, if we'd had luck in those couple of signings that we were rumoured to be going for at the end of last season - convincing Wilko to come back for example, things would've been a lot different... So clearly some of this comes down to us not having enough cash to match it with the big city clubs.
But once that's said, obviously that's why they need to make damn certain that they have a backup plan... If the guy that they're looking at falls through, there should be someone else to fall back on.

 

[Wombat]

My two cents from the night
On the A-League in general.
· They expect a million dollar lift in the salary cap.
· Seems 10 and Fox have agreed a price to pay for the next FFA deal, with either 7 or 9 having to outbid them.
· SBS seemed when they changed management no longer wanted to be the home of Football.
· If 10 it will be all out and they expect big things. Sounds like other shows.
· FFA have plans to chase the participation base on FTA.
· MC said we need to expand fast and stop F….g around.
· MC has a dream that FFA binned about playing teams considered A-League in East Asia.

On the Mariners – team(s)
· We will be applying for a W-League team.
· Acknowledgement by the club, that they got player recruitment and coach selections badly wrong in the recent pass.
· Okon seems to have quite a strict method on player selection and will only sign quality.
· We were had an overseas player but his club changed their mind.
· Okon is a no BS speaker.
· Okon is speaking to players he wants to keep and believes he will keep all players he wants to keep.
· 16 players off contract many won’t be resigned.
· Okon has a playing style he wants the team to play.

On Mariners Management

· The back office is the best it has ever been.
· We are losing money.
· By the sounds of things the Canberra thing is not going down to well and I doubt it will be there next season.

On Mariners Facilities i.e. COE & Stadium Bid

· CEO meeting with council Wednesday so the next phase can begin, but wants to get going on it.
· Stadium, we have all read the articles, not much different tonight.
· MC said he wants fans to also push for the stadium in particular to help get it over the line.


I am sure I have left bids off …

was that Big Al you were sitting next to?

 

[midfielder]

was that Big Al you were sitting next to?

No True Beliver

 

[true believer]

My two cents from the night

On Mariners Facilities i.e. COE & Stadium Bid

· CEO meeting with council Wednesday so the next phase can begin, but wants to get going on it.
· Stadium, we have all read the articles, not much different tonight.
· MC said he wants fans to also push for the stadium in particular to help get it over the line.

this is interesting . there are a number of political animals in here .
this can be done but needs a co-ordinated operating centre/person and a non partisan (you won't believe how hard that would be ) and dare i say ruthless approach .

 

[Gratis]

Only other thing of interest that I can think to add is that Okon mentioned that MC was about to offer him another contract

I said to Paul afterwards that he has to sign it as the fans are right behind him

 

[Big Al]

Any body notice
The proudly owned by central coast council sign attached to the big screen. Trent hit it right smack bang in the middle.

Has that always been there? Looked new and I've never noticed it

And who broke the big screen

 

[Pirate Pete]

Any body notice
The proudly owned by central coast council sign attached to the big screen. Trent hit it right smack bang in the middle.

Has that always been there? Looked new and I've never noticed it

And who broke the big screen

I asked the same question about the sign a few weeks ago. I thought it might have gone up as soon as we
made it public we were interested in the stadium. Someone replied there used to be a Gosford Council sign,
but now it's been replaced by that Central Coast one..

 

[tim...]

Pretty sure it's been there all season. The Mariners-themed signs at the top are new though

 

[Big Al]

I asked the same question about the sign a few weeks ago. I thought it might have gone up as soon as we
made it public we were interested in the stadium. Someone replied there used to be a Gosford Council sign,
but now it's been replaced by that Central Coast one..

Maybe only noticed because of what is going on and Trent hit it with his shot.
Don't remember you saying it either but I would definitely have read it. Sign looks new and definitely strategic placement