Fan Forum - Monday 2nd June 2014 - questions for absent fans

[midfielder]

Many questions answered in the presentation and yes there is a plan .... Watching a vid now on the new gfs cup

 

[midfielder]

CEO has just agreed with my request to come on the forum and take questions

 

[nebakke]

CEO has just agreed with my request to come on the forum and take questions

Oh was THAT what was said? Couldn't hear either of you up here in the back ;-)

Oh and GO THE ACL... Hopefully... ;-)

 

[Wombat]

Hope it's not too late :/


How can we increase the amount of actual coasties in our team in the future?
Is this even a goal?

Early signs were good; Damien brown, Matty Simon, brad porter, andrew redmayne, matthew trott and olly bozanic

But we haven't signed a "new coastie" for a few years

Not to mention we have lost out on joe Gibbs, chris Payne and James holland.

If they are good enough they will get a gig. Of those you mentioned only Simon and Olly have been of the required standard.
It's nice if they come from the coast but not important.
Holland......I can't remember the twat!!

 

[Wombat]

CEO has just agreed with my request to come on the forum and take questions

Middy....doing a good job by the sounds of it! Well done.

What was the vibe like tonight?

 

[midfielder]

I have to say I walked away tonight impressed...

The new CEO comes from a marketing and events background and it shows... They plan a lot and it more customer friendly ...

To some specific information..

We will play a minimum of 11 games per season at BT... in a 13 match season 1 at NSO and 1 at BO , 3 away in a 14 match season. ... but only if they meet pre-conditions in making the club at least $ 200, 00.00 per match ... the away matches are planed to both grow BT crowds and make heaps of money ... the NSO & BO as well as BT matches will be in part marketed by park football clubs were the club gets money for selling tickets to our matches... also NSO the corporate sponsor is being chased for the Mariners... we need the profits from these matches...

Essentially the away matches are to make money and are limited and members will be advised and fully informed... at least we know were we stand and why ....

On existing formulas we need 11, 660 fans at BT to make it work ,,, however this figure is affected by poor corporate income... we sell about 20% of our corporate seats per match and don't do local sponsorship that well... if these were increased the average would fall from 11, 660....

The plan moving forward has lots of sides ... however it has three core parts...

Community engagement which MC & the CEO believed had not been well done past Hal 3 ... so lots more visits by the side to park teams etc...

The match day experience to be improved by changes to the stadium and other things being planned...

Increase benefits to members ... essentially have a number of advantages in being a member ie 10% off at Wombats HHHMMMmmmm place ... drive lots of deals with local businesses and offer these to the members ... I have already agreed to be local sponsor thus Mariners members will receive a discount at my practice.... BTW this was in my private discussion prior to the meeting you where kinda limited to one question in the forum...

Also they are planning a grey bay and plan to market the Mariners as a healthy lifestyle to the more senior locals... they will be close to the toilets, food stalls...

They are aiming for 10 K members .. last year 5,965 memberships were sold...

 

[Atomic]

Great job MF . Reassuring to hear you came away impressed.

 

[Roy Law]

Well done Midfielder, excellent work.
First reaction to the potential of three games away from home in a fourteen games season is how that will grow the gate at Bluetongue; it is more likely to persuade people that the Mariners don't care about the Central Coast and make the crowds fall. If they are going to be so in touch with the members, and the forum is a good start, they should listen and learn from history.
But at least they gave you a fair hearing and appear more open with their intentions.
10k members would be awesome.
Grey Bay? Goodness me, I am already there
No news on recruitments or departures I take it?
And, I am putting my trust in you; you were impressed!

 

[dibo]

We will play a minimum of 11 games per season at BT... in a 13 match season 1 at NSO and 1 at BO , 3 away in a 14 match season. ... but only if they meet pre-conditions in making the club at least $ 200, 00.00 per match ...

Oh good. I'm sure that's going to be really easy to do, considering that if ticket sales are $25k a pop, we need 8,000 people there if there isn't a dollar spent on ground hire or other costs. If we have to spend a single cent on other costs (and what other costs might there be - marketing, venue hire, security...) then obviously we're going to need more than 8,000. Seems optimistic. Hopelessly optimistic.

the away matches are planed to both grow BT crowds and make heaps of money ...

Oh good. I'm glad to hear there's some sort of logical reason for fans to think that this plan will both grow crowds and make heaps of money. How exactly the club will grow its home crowds by taking them away is less than clear - I really hope the logic is stronger than "we can sell about 128k tickets per season; if we sell them across 11 games rather than 13, then our crowd average will go from about 9.8k to 11.6k and we'll make squillions on the away 'home' games". I wasn't there obviously, but I don't understand at all how weakening the offering to the coast will bolster support on the coast.

the NSO & BO as well as BT matches will be in part marketed by park football clubs were the club gets money for selling tickets to our matches... also NSO the corporate sponsor is being chased for the Mariners... we need the profits from these matches...

Why not chase after sponsors and *not* weaken the core offering?

Essentially the away matches are to make money and are limited and members will be advised and fully informed... at least we know were we stand and why ....

So as long as we're clear that the plan is based on wildly optimistic calculations and assumptions about basic fan behaviour.

 

[Roy Law]

http://theworldgame.social.sbs.com.au/?p=latest
this page has lots of interesting comments from the forum especially the one that say the Mariners' average TV viewing for the ACL was 1.3 million...

 

[nebakke]

I have to back you here Middy I came away fairly impressed too. The mood was decent, with the crowd clearly not impressed at first, with the moving of games...
But I thought they made their case well.
It should be added that they said that games at NSO and BO, will also only be played, with members tickets allowing access and free transport provided.

He, the CEO, also acknowledged that the whole NSO game had been very poorly handled this season. His view is, that if we are to play there, it should be advertised, have time to bed in and members should have plenty of notice, otherwise there's no point as no money will be made.
I took the comment about the 200.000 to include any once off sponsorships as well as sales and other, match-related stuff.
They are also looking to increase sponsorships and engage better with the sponsors.
Apparently they just signed a $50.000 sponsorship deal for the technical area, today.

 

[bilo]

I was there tonight. If anyone thinks what was dished up tonight was what is expected of a professional club they are kidding. The room was terrible, they limited questions from the floor and then the CEO sounded like a used car salesman while saying everyone on the coast wore thongs and drove utes.

It was amateur hour and I am really afraid of the fact that they have no idea what they are biting off. I just hope Charlesworth has deep pockets

 

[rbakersmith]

I was there tonight. If anyone thinks what was dished up tonight was what is expected of a professional club they are kidding.

I'd like some of what you're smoking if you think that tonight's presentation was "amateur hour".

The room was terrible

What would you have preferred, a conference centre? Yes the room was basic but it served the purpose, you don't need to go all out to have a meeting.

they limited questions from the floor

It was around 9:30 by the time the forum ended; it would have been unreasonable to allow unlimited questions from the floor. I don't know about you, but plenty of us in that room have to go to work in the morning (especially after having travelled back to Sydney from Gosford).

and then the CEO sounded like a used car salesman while saying everyone on the coast wore thongs and drove utes.

Given that he's lived in Queensland for at least the last 10 years, I'm not surprised. But at the same time Bruce Stalder was involved with the Roar from the very beginning; short of Lyall Gorman (in his WSW incarnation) if there's anyone in the A-League who knows how a club should engage with business and the community it's him.

I still have my reservations about whether playing games at NSO & Brookvale is in our best interests. Having said that, if Stalder can actually get a solid amount of support from the business and football communities down here - and follow through with his statements re transport - then he may just get more bums on seats in Gosford as well.

 

[sydmariner]

what did he say re transport?

 

[rbakersmith]

what did he say re transport?

He suggested that there would be free buses transporting members from Gosford to the games at NSO/Brookvale. I also asked whether integrated ticketing was being looked at (public transport as part of the ticket, similar to SFC and WSW games) for the games in Gosford and Sydney and he said that he was talking to Transport for NSW.

 

[Kareem]

If they are good enough they will get a gig. Of those you mentioned only Simon and Olly have been of the required standard.
It's nice if they come from the coast but not important.
Holland......I can't remember the twat!!

Don't think Simon would be given the same opportunities as he did back in McKinna's time


Redmayne was good as well...and isn't doing too bad at Heart. Although admittedly the club couldn't offer him the chance to become number 1 at the time

Porter did a decent job in the early seasons...although I was glad when he retired


I think there are obvious benefits to putting a focus on young local talent...
Loyalty and connection with the fans
Think gerrard, wilshere etc.

And I am not saying to ignore players like Amini, caceres and kalik.

 

[nebakke]

I was there tonight. If anyone thinks what was dished up tonight was what is expected of a professional club they are kidding. The room was terrible, they limited questions from the floor and then the CEO sounded like a used car salesman while saying everyone on the coast wore thongs and drove utes.

It was amateur hour and I am really afraid of the fact that they have no idea what they are biting off. I just hope Charlesworth has deep pockets

You wouldn't happen to be one of those guysup the back, who talked/commented their way through Stadler's presentation would you?
There's no point going to a thing like last night, if you're not willing to let them present their case.
For mine, the worst speaker of the night, was clearly the FFA guy. He was a shocking speaker, sounded unprepared and was an excellent example of why people like Stalder try to inject a bit of colour when they speak.
Add to that, that talking for almost 45 minutes, question time only started when the whole session was supposed to end, I don't have a problem.
You have to draw a line somewhere, or we're there all night. They said there'll be more forums and that they're willing to engage outside the forums too, so if you have a question, ask it.
Oh and personally, I think people need to get over the Flores thing, it happened, move on...

 

[bilo]

Guys more than happy to be proven wrong but when they came out and said they are going for 10,000 members this year and really had no plan (or none that was presented) I knew they were just telling the people in the audience what they wanted to hear. I will make a prediction now (and by the way I hope I am wrong) but they won't break 5000 in the memberships this year.

Secondly the CEO could sell ice to eskimos. Lets now see if he delivers anything.

Lastly, If you are going to have a fan forum you generally have someone there from the football department (maybe the coach).

Need to remember the people in that room are already converts. I guessing there was 150 people there. Thats a long way short of 10,000

They have always lost me when they talk about taking 2-3 games away from the Central Coast. They don't need to do that but they don't know how to make it work on the coast.

 

[localpom]

Sounds like an interesting night...shame I couldn't make it. Was there any talk on strengthening the squad for next season? 10,000 members is a big ask but then again if they can market it really well then I think its a possibility. There are a lot of people that get to half a dozen games a season and the 3 and 6 game memberships are the ones that will appeal to the casual punter (or those that have big family/work commitments).

 

[sydmariner]

Guys more than happy to be proven wrong but when they came out and said they are going for 10,000 members this year and really had no plan (or none that was presented) I knew they were just telling the people in the audience what they wanted to hear. I will make a prediction now (and by the way I hope I am wrong) but they won't break 5000 in the memberships this year.

Secondly the CEO could sell ice to eskimos. Lets now see if he delivers anything.

Lastly, If you are going to have a fan forum you generally have someone there from the football department (maybe the coach).

Need to remember the people in that room are already converts. I guessing there was 150 people there. Thats a long way short of 10,000

They have always lost me when they talk about taking 2-3 games away from the Central Coast. They don't need to do that but they don't know how to make it work on the coast.

10000 members next season are they serious also they should have at least some players there so people can get there POV