Coast Football Ramble Podcast

[Big Al]

Don’t know why you guys didn’t think of this. Could have put those flags to good use.

Is the pod equipment broken? Or just had enough of the season like many others?

 

[Coast Football Ramble]

Don’t know why you guys didn’t think of this. Could have put those flags to good use.

Is the pod equipment broken? Or just had enough of the season like many others?

Pod equipment has been shitting me, and as it's a split round we decided to do it next week and let our emotions settle after the weekend before making comment.

The last lost episode, was rather despondent and depressing, I didn't want this to happen again.

 

[pjennings]

Hi Guys - since you seem to have good access to Shaun can you give him a few observations and ask him a few questions in your podcast next week. It may read like a whinge list - but that is not the purpose. It is simply to get answers to some questions and comments on some observations The questions are bolded.

Hi @Shaun Mielekamp

Many on the forum (long-term rusted on supporters) are finding it increasingly frustrating not only watching the team struggle, but watching the support, that many of us have convinced to come along, dwindling away before our eyes. I don't see our problems as only on-field but a series of whole of club issues.

I love your engagement with the fans as well as that of DDTMM - but the goals in the strategic plan is for 12,000 members and average crowds of 14,000 at the end of 5 years. One year on from you saying we are aiming for 12,000 members in 5 years time we have gone from 6265 to 7000. While it is a good result we will need similar results for the next 4 years to reach that goal. Crowds on the other hand are likley to be down in a year where we have had 6 NSW only games and a NYE game. Extra units in the Gosford CBD precinct will help the club achieve their goals as will the new bars and restaurants that will follow. However, controlling the stadium, and the game day experience, from the sound system to the screen/s to the staffing levels, to the food and drink on offer will make the biggest difference. It has the potential to be the game changer. A better game day experience will attract more members and if you control the stadium and its income then individual match day prices can be more realistic to attract other NSW based fans.

There has been minimal work on the stadium since it was built in 1999. Since the Council have taken over running the stadium the catering is worse, seats remain broken for long periods - greater than 2 years,We are charged $6 for a sausage sandwich at the stadium. In general the quality, cost and choice of food at the stadium is poor The new screen to me is underwhelming given what was planned by the club. It seems to be twice the size of the interim screen – not the original screen and the image is also not as sharp as some others in the HAL. The additional change rooms which the interim council said would be ready for last October have still not be started. Can you provide an update on progress and on the likleihood of W-League team next season?

A a ratepayer you have to ask do I want to pay for all these improvements when the Mariners have said they will make these improvements and more (likely at a higher quality) at their expense and give the Council a fee for management rights. That sounds like a win-win-win scenario for the Mariners, the Council and the ratepayer. Is there any potential for the Mariners to get management rights to the stadium or are we just tilting at windmills?

Once again we have spent at the salary floor and it shows. We were told we would be spending at the cap this year. I know some latitude needs to be given here as at the time the salary cap and the size of the grant were not known. From what I gather both the cap and the grant are less than what was alluded to with the clubs. Can you please give a bit of background on how and why the squad spending expectations have changed?

The idea of the coaching merry-go-round continuing at CCM is something that I would want to avoid if possible. I like a lot of what Okon does but am incredibly frustrated by other aspects. However, he is only halfway through rebuilding the squad and has done so to this stage with one hand tied behind his back. I don’t want to see a coaching merry-go-round at the Mariners and want to see what he can do with a full squad plus our "every third year marquee" That said a football manager is always judged by results and he will need to deliver before everyone's patience is gone. Is the club actively looking at extending Paolo's tenure?

The COE has ground to a halt (probably due to the access to Ibis being delayed until the major Tuggerah Straight / Wyong Rd was completed). Is anything likely to happen there soon?

The cost of a ticket for a non-member actively discourages attendances. With a small membership base (many of who may be 3 and 6 game members) the attraction of casual fans, whether they be locals or WSW, SFC or Jets (non-members) is important to getting incerased attendances. What the price point is I don't know but tickets approaching $40 are not a sustainable model. Will the club be reviewing process given the lower crowds this season?

There has been talk of investors looking at the club. Can you comment on this if you are able to?

There are fixes for each of these problems but simply put - the strategy is not working.The challenge for the club is to determine why it isn't working and to devise ways to get back on track.

I think there are many things that the club has done better in previous years than they do now. Equally the club does some things a lot better than in the past. My concern is the club is essentially a small one with a small staff all trying to do their best. The focus is on delivery but maybe they are concentrating too much on executing their plans without continually examining whether their plans are working.

 

[Holy]

Hey guys, did you end up doing a podcast this week?

 

[Coast Football Ramble]

Hey guys, did you end up doing a podcast this week?

Hey Holy

We did, on the way home now.
Apparently we're currently in a black out so it'll have to wait till tomorrow to get uploaded unfortunately.

Had a quick chat with Shaun.
A rather laid back pod.
We're glad we took the week off to make sure it was a bit happier than what it could have been following the WSW loss.

 

[Coast Football Ramble]

After a little break, we're back and struggling to remember the last few weeks, Which is probably for the best.
We get into a little rant whilst rambling on about something.
And the lovely Shaun drops by to answer some questions.

 

[Holy]

Great stuff boys, enjoy listening to each podcast.

Thanks for the invitation back to the bay next Friday.

I accept, look foward to saying g'day

 

[Forum Phoenix]

I'm half way through Shaun's interview on the pod, enjoying it as ever – except for that French nonsense – but I'm pretty confused by Shaun's statement re the justification of not spending the cap as had been stated for this year...

Shaun you said you would come on here to clear up any further questions, so would be grateful if you could address the following:

You said do the math on I think was it 3000 less fans @ average profit of 20$ each x 3 games so 180K? Do I have this right? maybe I need to re listen to what you said. Can someone confirm for me?

If so, then 180K was the differential on us actually spending the cap this year? If not what will our actual shortfall of the salary cap be this year?

I'm also wondering how much the Kubi sale and the dismissal of Adsrubal's might have offset that?

That aside, as flat and stale as the league clearly is now, with a lot less WSW fans obviously travelling, I still also agree with Erin (and people like Bikin Girl and others on here) in that there's no way if we hadn't been performing better (ie had a couple of additional desperately needed quality players) our crowds would not have been better and those losses at least somewhat mitigated? I just personally know and have seen too many people being strongly affected by our continued struggles this year. And also most people on here would have to be full of it. It's been straw and camel stuff that I'm seeing/hearing from people.

And now for the remaining 3 home games, you'd have to expect we'll probably be down a couple of thousand per game (Might be a deal more if we were having a great run instead of a poor one) so that's 120K revenue lost based on the seemingly avoidable downturn of our fortunes? Then of course there's surely the longer term damage being done by perpetually not performing?

After so long awaiting improvement on field while we pay our money, game after game, year after year, to mostly watch loss after loss... I believed (and advocated for) Mike and the club when you apologised for the austerity measures but stated why it was necessary and how it would be turned around and understood how hard it had been in the interim etc... But seeing now that no matter what the club may have said or planned and how badly the supporters/paying customers may need a bit of silver lining with their 4 years of cloud, that as soon as the budget lags once again the player wages will do all the heavy lifting to balance it... and what that means is that everyone is consigned to another season of heartache and those who have bought memberships and or persuaded others that "no this year will be different" are made to look and feel very foolish and disheartened.

I can only assume our ownership, investors and sponsors were unable or unwilling to respond to this budget challenge? Which is an enormous shame when it was so apparent to I think anyone who knows football, that we just needed a little more of a leg up to get over that tipping point and finally become worth the price of admission again. It's been a body blow to a very long and patiently suffering supporter base and I'd like to know Shaun why people should keep the faith? And I'm not trying to be a prick here. Help me out please. Because I've fought bloody hard to create ongoing good will and belief in this club with all the people I know in the community, and I support it year after year, but I'm truly out of answers. And others are clearly out of patience, and out of love...

 

[Gratis]

I'm half way through Shaun's interview on the pod, enjoying it as ever – except for that French nonsense – but I'm pretty confused by Shaun's statement re the justification of not spending the cap as had been stated for this year...

Shaun you said you would come on here to clear up any further questions, so would be grateful if you could address the following:

You said do the math on I think was is 3000 less fans @ average profit of 20$ each x 3 games so 180K? Do I have this right? maybe I need to re listen to what you said. Can someone confirm for me?

If so, then 180K was the differential on us actually spending the cap this year? If not what will our actual shortfall of the salary cap be this year?

I'm also wondering how much the Kubi sale and the dismissal of Adsrubal's might have offset that?

That aside, as flat and stale as the league clearly is now, with a lot less WSW fans obviously travelling, I still also agree with Erin (and people like Bikin Girl and others on here) in that there's no way if we hadn't been performing better (ie had a couple of additional desperately needed quality players) our crowds would not have been better and those losses at least somewhat mitigated? I just personally know and have seen too many people being strongly affected by our continued struggles this year. And also most people on here would have to be full of it. It's been straw and camel stuff that I'm seeing/hearing from people.

And now for the remaining 3 home games, you'd have to expect we'll probably be down a couple of thousand per game (Might be a deal more if we were having a great run instead of a poor one) so that's 120K revenue lost based on the seemingly avoidable downturn of our fortunes? Then of course there's surely the longer term damage being done by perpetually not performing?

After so long awaiting improvement on field while we pay our money, game after game, year after year, to mostly watch loss after loss... I believed (and advocated for) Mike and the club when you apologised for the austerity measures but stated why it was necessary and how it would be turned around and understood how hard it had been in the interim etc... But seeing now that no matter what the club may have said or planned and how badly the supporters/paying customers may need a bit of silver lining with their 4 years of cloud, that as soon as the budget lags once again the player wages will do all the heavy lifting to balance it... and what that means is that everyone is consigned to another season of heartache and those who have bought memberships and or persuaded others that "no this year will be different" are made to look and feel very foolish and disheartened.

I can only assume our ownership, investors and sponsors were unable or unwilling to respond to this budget challenge? Which is an enormous shame when it was so apparent to I think anyone who knows football, that we just needed a little more of a leg up to get over that tipping point and finally become worth the price of admission again. It's been a body blow to a very long and patiently suffering supporter base and I'd like to know Shaun why people should keep the faith? And I'm not trying to be a prick here. Help me out please. Because I've fought bloody hard to create ongoing good will and belief in this club with all the people I know in the community, and I support it year after year, but I'm truly out of answers. And others are clearly out of patience, and out of love...

Great post FP.

To me it's as simple as this.
The product quality has declined (considerably) due to cheaper and lower quality components.
Customer satisfaction has dropped markedly.
Fewer customers are/will be willing to buy the product any longer.

Cheaper components were used to cut costs. We're now seeing fewer sales. Sales drop, revenue drops, need to cut further costs...

Seems a pretty clear mistake to continue to lower the quality of the product to make more sales.

Then again I'm not in business. Can someone who is point out what I'm missing?

 

[nebakke]

Great post FP.

To me it's as simple as this.
The product quality has declined (considerably) due to cheaper and lower quality components.
Customer satisfaction has dropped markedly.
Fewer customers are/we be willing to buy the product any longer.

Cheaper components were used to cut costs. We're now seeing fewer sales. Sales drop, revenue drops, need to cut further costs...

Seems a pretty clear mistake to continue to lower the quality of the product to make more sales.

Then again I'm not in business. Can someone who is point out what I'm missing?

My exact thought when Shaun said that... I can see why there's a clear impact, income/cost, and I know that the club is struggling financially but at some point we might have to come back to spending money to earn etc. etc. and I think that time might be now, considering the level of impact that we're seeing now.

 

[Coast Football Ramble]

My exact thought when Shaun said that... I can see why there's a clear impact, income/cost, and I know that the club is struggling financially but at some point we might have to come back to spending money to earn etc. etc. and I think that time might be now, considering the level of impact that we're seeing now.

Our second most expensive player was Asdrubal, if the gamble on him actually paid off with goals we'd be sitting a bit prettier on the table and in the stands I think.
Relatively we spent a bit of coin on him, then we were holding out for a visa player during the January transfer with the coin that 'should' have come in during the first half of the season.

I see all your points about spending money to get a decent product, we sort of did this and it didn't work out.

We should have probably spent a little more money and got a decent back up for Asdrubal for if/when it didn't work out with him.

As for the money 'saved' on letting him go, it's only half a seasons worth of player payments that we would have had to work with there.

 

[Big Al]

For me it was never delivered as we will spend in January if the crowds are as budgeted.

It was yes we will spend and there was some signs of we will sign in January if we can, however I thought that was more if we are in the top 6 I’ll buy you a good player to compete for the title if it’s going well, not that is the difference between a cap floor team and the full cap.

Spending the cap floor and hoping crowds and ladder position will viable in January is dangerous and has failed.

SFC and WSW our cash cows games were extremely disappointing. SFC was a Friday night which is hard for us to get to so none of them want to travel and they don’t want to watch there team when they are best in the league is disappointing but they are getting greedy dare i say that and are bored.

WSW were in a complete heap when they came up on a Saturday night and Sunday is a shit time slot.

However are they not coming because we have increased our prices for them to visit. Do think it’s not noticed. Also we do offer family deals but there are alot of single males who like to attend. They are saying bugger that. $40 plus booking plus booze to watch SFC think they’ll win in a stroll again or WSW who were losing badly. They just aren’t down for that.
Sure we get slugged the same and I definitely have not gone to our games in Sydney because the price for a couple is ridiculous. That and who wants to sit a mile from the field at soulless.

I wonder if the Newcastle deal will continue or now that they aren’t so shit they might have some fans who want to start paying again?

This crowds thing sounds more like an after excuse than the original problem.

I suspect it is the tv split but why wouldn’t Shaun say that if so.

Hope he can give more details later with more time.

 

[Big Al]

The season fell apart after Wellington win when we all thought we were going to be top 6 minimum.

Then the Wout dramas (injury and suspensions), Asdrubal injury while having to send DDS and TBT overseas sent our team into a spiral at the Crucial moment we had momentum just after we’d blown the first part of the season leading almost every game and failing to win.

We were always very thin on depth but our first 11 could compete with anyone.

On top of the chopping and changing our key players have dropped off. Wout DDS Pain Hoole have all been injured, suspended or just plain shit in the 10 game winless streak.

I agree with Erin DDS has been a disappointment. His shots are weak and to often straight at the keeper. He should of had at least 5 goals by now and he’s not setting up the useless blokes around him either. They are not fluffing anything from Danny. Love his efforts but is no way a Socceroos bolter

 

[pjennings]

For me it was never delivered as we will spend in January if the crowds are as budgeted.

It was yes we will spend and there was some signs of we will sign in January if we can, however I thought that was more if we are in the top 6 I’ll buy you a good player to compete for the title if it’s going well, not that is the difference between a cap floor team and the full cap.

That was what I heard as well. Spend the cap and if we are in a good position but need a push to compete then bring in someone outside the cap in January.

 

[Big Al]

The week off may have lead to a more positive pod but I expect full blown anger this week.

Not even 2 weeks off would make me forget that dribble just served up. The boys went to water.

Who’s fault? Bad coaching, bad players?
Was the dumbest football you will see from the team with the extra player and had the ref as well in the 1st half.

While we scored two goals they weren’t from open play again.

 

[Wombat]

Dumb is the key word this season......just so f**king dumb

 

[Forum Phoenix]

Yeah that’s well summarised and agree Big Al - only I think “our first 8” could compete with anyone. But whichever way we now hold it up to the light, it’s pretty clear the flaws are/were our lack of depth - and lack of quality up front - which are both directly related to our spend.

A 1 year deal (was smart) but indicates we were stillnot confident that he was what we needed. Powell was injured and does not have the record and Okon clearly thought Bingham was not up to it. Which always indicated we needed another striker from the get go imo.

The week off may have lead to a more positive pod but I expect full blown anger this week.

Not even 2 weeks off would make me forget that dribble just served up. The boys went to water.

Who’s fault? Bad coaching, bad players?
Was the dumbest football you will see from the team with the extra player and had the ref as well in the 1st half.

While we scored two goals they weren’t from open play again.

That ones on all of them. It's a trifecta. The lack of quality on the park. The coaching. The club and it's inability to find a way to field a competitive team after 4 years. Sometimes every business needs to take on some debt to continue to function or grow. We won't. And without a serious change for next year, feels to me form what I'm seeing and even feeling myself like we're going off a cliff. And even with a serious change, a lot of people simply won't believe it until they see it anymore. It's been too many dire years now. Some may be lost forever.

 

[bikinigirl]

Our second most expensive player was Asdrubal, if the gamble on him actually paid off with goals we'd be sitting a bit prettier on the table and in the stands I think.
Relatively we spent a bit of coin on him, then we were holding out for a visa player during the January transfer with the coin that 'should' have come in during the first half of the season.

. frankly, that surprises me - ahead of the dutchies and Baro

. the strategy of spending on a striker is sound, but i always assumed Asdrubal was the 'bargain-purchase-punt' considering the resistance to pay Roy more. makes me even more keen to know what the $ difference was between the two options ... the devil you know or a complete unknown?

 

[Big Al]

The players should go back to the bay and let us have a kick against the nix.
We might loose but we will bloody try

 

[adz]

The players should go back to the bay ans let us have a kick against the nix.
We might loose but we will bloody try

Would be more entertaining