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

[iEatHands]

I know this is really simplistic as I am a simple guy, but if every member bought one 3 or 6 game membership for a friend or family member as a present then we hit 10,000 right? I'll be buying a couple for people as presents. Obviously there are people struggling enough already with family memberships but there must be a good way to market this as a prezzie buying option?

I think that is one of the smartest ideas I've heard!! They should be marketed like this throughout the season! Season ticket holders should buy a 3-6 match pass for family/friends to help them join you at some of the games.

 

[priorpeter]

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

Wow mate. Really just sounds like you have an agenda against those in charge at the club. Every single one of your posts has been either slagging off the CEO/Charlesworth/backroom staff, predicting doomsday for the club, or both. Great stuff.

 

[bilo]

Wow mate. Really just sounds like you have an agenda against those in charge at the club. Every single one of your posts has been either slagging off the CEO/Charlesworth/backroom staff, predicting doomsday for the club, or both. Great stuff.

You are right and I will continue to while they keep going on with the NSO and Brookvale and move away from the coast thing. The club is sustainable on the Central Coast and doesn't need to go anywhere. They just need to engage the Central Coast and forget other areas at this point. They said get your own backyard right. Then they need to forget the centre of excellence, forget North Sydney and Brookvale and concentrate on building a Football Club (not a development) on the Central Coast for Central Coast people or whether it is this year, or next year or at some point in the future it will disappear.

WE ARE THE CENTRAL COAST

 

[Big Al]

We could put the GREY BAY next to the yellow army.

They will hear the band & the chants & think what have i been wasting my time at the doctors for. The mariners have cured my hearing. Then they tell their mates of this fantastic cure & boom 10,000 members here we come.

 

[Big Al]

20% corporate attendance is very poor. I think they have been very average in their performance with sponsors.

While Masterfoods has worked fantastically well it's the rest i'm not so sure about.

E.g. Would be our ACL sponsorship. Had at least 6 months to sell it & couldn't(didn't try hard enough). Then went back to the previous years one off sponsor. Who knows whether it was a good deal but I'd assume no as sounded like a rush job. Bruce had just started around that time & wasn't happy when I spoke to him about it & said Gallop was pissed as well. That's an example of poor results (the effort might have been there but I doubt it).

They should be pushing game day sponsors etc a lot harder.

Even if you had to remove Masterfoods as your main sponsor if a better one came along. You could give them the masterfoods end with the now famous sauce bottles & I'm sure they'd be pretty happy if we could get other big sponsors.

Sponsorship dollars are just as important as getting bums back on seats.

All prices are for the premium games - take about $10 p/h off for Newy games
Private Suite - $185 p/h 12-18 people - Min $2,200 - $3,330 max
Corporate box - Catered - $105 p/h 8-12 people - Min $840 - $1,260 Max
Corporate box - Uncatered - $58 p/h 8-12 people - Min $464 - $696 (Not much more per head than a cat A ticket really)
Beach Bar - $100 p/h 20 people - $2,000 (sauce bottle end)


Really these are not overly pricey costs. There should be enough small businesses on the coast to fill these regularly. They only needed it once a season if you can get enough of them taken up.

All prices taken from the mariners website

Taken from Sponsorship page
During the 2012/13 season the Central Coast Mariners Football Club delivered possibly the highest ROI for its partners of any football club from any code with in Australia. With TV audiences in excess of 30 million for two of our matches during the 2013 AFC Champions League and a 29% increase in TV audiences for our Hyundai A-League fixtures last campaign, the Central Coast Mariners represent a fantastic opportunity for any emerging company that seeks to have their brand noticed on both a national and international platform.

2012/13 Season Facts:

• Delivered over $4,000,000+ in sponsor media exposure value in the Hyundai A-League
• 9,000+ members
• 20,000+ database contacts
• 129,000+ home game attendees
• 339,000+ total game attendees
• 2,300,000+ A-League TV audience
• 37,000,000+ AFC Champions League TV Audience
• 55,000+ website page views per month

 

[Roy Law]

Some positive initiatives; one thumping big negative. Will hold fire until I have worked all this through my feeble brain.

 

[sydmariner]

You are right and I will continue to while they keep going on with the NSO and Brookvale and move away from the coast thing. The club is sustainable on the Central Coast and doesn't need to go anywhere. They just need to engage the Central Coast and forget other areas at this point. They said get your own backyard right. Then they need to forget the centre of excellence, forget North Sydney and Brookvale and concentrate on building a Football Club (not a development) on the Central Coast for Central Coast people or whether it is this year, or next year or at some point in the future it will disappear.

WE ARE THE CENTRAL COAST

 

[localpom]

These fan forums tend to bring out the negatives but its worth remembering that the vast majority of what this club does is bloody fantastic! On a budget way below most, if not all the other A league clubs. I think continued improvement and lots of these types of things so there is lots of transparency is the way to go. I can live with 2 home games at NSO and BO if that is all it will ever be...but that has to be the line drawn in the sand. No more than that. And preferably both Friday night games against teams we don't pull in big crowds for.

 

[Roy Law]

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

I thought the players and coaching staff are all on holiday? I wouldn't begrudge them a break.

 

[sydmariner]

I thought the players and coaching staff are all on holiday? I wouldn't begrudge them a break.

in brazil

 

[rbakersmith]

You are right and I will continue to while they keep going on with the NSO and Brookvale and move away from the coast thing. The club is sustainable on the Central Coast and doesn't need to go anywhere. They just need to engage the Central Coast and forget other areas at this point. They said get your own backyard right. Then they need to forget the centre of excellence, forget North Sydney and Brookvale and concentrate on building a Football Club (not a development) on the Central Coast for Central Coast people or whether it is this year, or next year or at some point in the future it will disappear.

WE ARE THE CENTRAL COAST

You're right - the Mariners belong to the Central Coast. But Blind Freddie can see that in a geographically constrained region, with competition from other sporting codes (remember the stats from the FFA guy about Australia having the most competitive sporting market, with 17 top-tier team alone in Sydney?) that there is only so far that we can grow the supporter base on the Coast. I'd love to see CCS packed for every single game, but if you relied on locals to bring 75% of the crowd - and 15K members should be a long-term goal for the club - then you're asking roughly one in every twenty residents to come to a game, and with maybe the exception of the Wanderers there is no club in the A-League that is capable of doing that with their market right now.

If we want to see the club grow and become truly sustainable then we should accept the need to expand our market, and the only way to do that is to expand into Northern Sydney. The Mariners can engage with CCF clubs all they like, be in schools across the coast week in week out and promote the hell out of the game on the Coast - and they should, and from what Bruce was saying last night they're going to do it in a big way - but at the end of the day the numbers simply aren't there. If the club can successfully involve the Northern Suburbs and Manly-Warringah FAs and the business communities in those areas then we could end up with thousands of extra people willing to come up the freeway to see our team, our players, at our ground.

As for your suggestion of "forget the centre of excellence", that's one of the most ridiculous suggestions I've heard so far. The Mariners need a dedicated, high-quality training and support facility that forms part of a "build, not buy" strategy of bringing local footballers up through the ranks into the A-League. The revenue that will come from the commercial space will also lessen the reliance on bums on seats to keep the club afloat - there was the example given of the new technical area sponsor willing to spend $200K on space within the CoE complex.

If you think you have a better strategy for building a sustainable future for the Mariners on the Coast - including a proper football development pipeline - that doesn't involve expanding into Sydney and doesn't involve building a CoE, then let's hear it. I'm sure Mike Charlesworth would love to keep those millions of dollars of his in the bank.

 

[midfielder]

The club is sustainable on the Central Coast and doesn't need to go anywhere. They just need to engage the Central Coast and forget other areas at this point. . Then they need to forget the centre of excellence, forget North Sydney and Brookvale and concentrate on building a Football Club (not a development) on the Central Coast for Central Coast people or whether it is this year, or next year or at some point in the future it will disappear.

WE ARE THE CENTRAL COAST

You know this why ... you have access to the books ... sponsors ... you have spoken to sponsors .... you have carried out surveys and undertaken extensive analysis of local trends and wants ... the COE is not needed your answer will be interesting include in your answer Musty / Sainsbury / Bernie / Matty Ryan / where and how we get these players without the COE ...

Further I look forward to where you illustrate where MC & the CEO were incorrect ....

Just on fans I used to live in Epping and choose the Mariners over the Flying Hackers because of the COE concept and so did the four people still coming from Epping with me ...

 

[bilo]

You're right - the Mariners belong to the Central Coast. But Blind Freddie can see that in a geographically constrained region, with competition from other sporting codes (remember the stats from the FFA guy about Australia having the most competitive sporting market, with 17 top-tier team alone in Sydney?) that there is only so far that we can grow the supporter base on the Coast. I'd love to see CCS packed for every single game, but if you relied on locals to bring 75% of the crowd - and 15K members should be a long-term goal for the club - then you're asking roughly one in every twenty residents to come to a game, and with maybe the exception of the Wanderers there is no club in the A-League that is capable of doing that with their market right now.

If we want to see the club grow and become truly sustainable then we should accept the need to expand our market, and the only way to do that is to expand into Northern Sydney. The Mariners can engage with CCF clubs all they like, be in schools across the coast week in week out and promote the hell out of the game on the Coast - and they should, and from what Bruce was saying last night they're going to do it in a big way - but at the end of the day the numbers simply aren't there. If the club can successfully involve the Northern Suburbs and Manly-Warringah FAs and the business communities in those areas then we could end up with thousands of extra people willing to come up the freeway to see our team, our players, at our ground.

As for your suggestion of "forget the centre of excellence", that's one of the most ridiculous suggestions I've heard so far. The Mariners need a dedicated, high-quality training and support facility that forms part of a "build, not buy" strategy of bringing local footballers up through the ranks into the A-League. The revenue that will come from the commercial space will also lessen the reliance on bums on seats to keep the club afloat - there was the example given of the new technical area sponsor willing to spend $200K on space within the CoE complex.

If you think you have a better strategy for building a sustainable future for the Mariners on the Coast - including a proper football development pipeline - that doesn't involve expanding into Sydney and doesn't involve building a CoE, then let's hear it. I'm sure Mike Charlesworth would love to keep those millions of dollars of his in the bank.

I understand what you and Bruce are saying but if we then loose 3000-4000 that currently come to games and say 1000 members because of the move to North Sydney then is it worth it. Also Bruce said last night they haven't engaged the local community or business well in the last couple of years. My point is do that first and see if we can get more.

Secondly the Centre of Excellence is a great idea in concept but it drains on the football club. It has sent Turnball to the wall and how long do you think Charlesworth can sustain it for. Maybe we are in too far now to pull out but it has drained financially on the Football club.

 

[midfielder]

Bilo

Lets do some analysis ...

All those who attend games and are members ... after last night who will not renew because of last night announcements ...

Lets revisit ... 11 games at BT per season with assumed Nix type Friday night games moved ...

Tidy up the stadium

Improve the game day experience

Pay local park teams a commission for selling tickets to our matches ...

Attempt to increase corporate uptake at games ...

Market directly to three associations in the Northern Beaches and Northern Sydney ... again with commission for selling tickets to BT / NSO & BO.

Play 2 or 3 games away with the view to making $ 200, 000 .00 per match ..

Your turn now to post what you see as negatives or is it just a gut feel...

 

[rbakersmith]

I understand what you and Bruce are saying but if we then loose 3000-4000 that currently come to games and say 1000 members because of the move to North Sydney then is it worth it. Also Bruce said last night they haven't engaged the local community or business well in the last couple of years. My point is do that first and see if we can get more.

I honestly don't believe that two or three games a season will result in a net loss, and definitely not in the numbers you're talking about. For that sort of thing to happen you'd be looking at 5-6 games heading south, and without a doubt the FFA would step in well before that point.

As for "do that first and see if we can get more", I'm not sure if we can risk it. How long do you persevere with that strategy - one year? Two? Three? If it doesn't result in substantial growth in bums on seats and sponsorship dollars then the club will go to the wall and this time I don't think there would be anyone to rescue us. The FFA would just as happily give our licence to Wollongong - who have a strong football tradition - than risk another owner up here losing millions.

If we push hard and make a sincere effort to engage the community and business on the Coast and provide a quality match day experience then without a doubt the people of the Coast will come and watch Mariners games at Gosford. But there is no reason why we can't make a similar effort in Sydney as well. If we get Sydneysiders turning up to games at NSO and Brookvale in decent numbers to support the Mariners, that's great. If we motivate them to go up the freeway and join the rest of us at Gosford... then it's icing on the cake.

Secondly the Centre of Excellence is a great idea in concept but it drains on the football club. It has sent Turnball to the wall and how long do you think Charlesworth can sustain it for. Maybe we are in too far now to pull out but it has drained financially on the Football club.

I don't deny that the CoE has been a drain - it's probably not a project that I would have started so early in the club's existence, or at least not without significantly more financial support. The fact of the matter is that the CoE is part and parcel of the Mariners now, and it's in the club's best interests to see it to completion.

 

[bilo]

Midi

I hope your right. I am involved in a local club right now and what these guys fail to see is local clubs won't sell tickets on behalf of the mariners.. Not because they don't want to they are just so busy organising their own clubs with nets, BBQ's, players etc.

Also after last night I know personally of 12 people who will not renew because games are going to North Sydney. Especially as they were told the cost of memberships won't reduce for less games on the coast

 

[nebakke]

Midi

I hope your right. I am involved in a local club right now and what these guys fail to see is local clubs won't sell tickets on behalf of the mariners.. Not because they don't want to they are just so busy organising their own clubs with nets, BBQ's, players etc.

Also after last night I know personally of 12 people who will not renew because games are going to North Sydney. Especially as they were told the cost of memberships won't reduce for less games on the coast

But, the point is that selling tickets won't put extra strain on those clubs, the sales give them an income stream to pay for the equipment etc.

And why on earth would they not renew at all? There are both 3 and 6 game options to choose from too after all...

 

[pjennings]

I am disappointed to hear that cost of memberships won't reduce for less games on the coast. I have a $260 membership and think they should offer an 11, 12 and 13 game memberships at $220, $240 and $260.

I don't think we have a hope in hell of changing MC's mind on keeping all games here so I have tried to see the best way to split the games

Realistically we will not get the NSW based games as last year - and they must never away from BTS

I can see our draw containing these mix of games. I have allocated the games to NSO and Brookvale on the basis

1) that all NSW based games, Victory games and Roar games should be at BTS.
2) we don't do Friday nights well - Brookvale and NSO should be our only Friday night games
3) only teams where we have 2 homes game are eligible to move (i.e. - you see each team at least once at BTS)
4) One of the lower drawing teams to be played on NYE - this year I have picked Adelaide for their style of play
5) I have kept Heart away from NYE in the hope that their City connections bring in some marquees/guests

BTS NYE
Adelaide

BTS - Saturday night or Sunday Afternoon

Sydney X 2
Jets x 1
WSW x 1
Roar x 2
Victory x 1
Glory x 1
Heart x 1 (before the MLS starts and hope for Lampard and Villa as well as Duff)
Nix x 1

Brookvale Friday Night
Adelaide

NSO Friday Night
Heart later in the year when any guests have gone

 

[bilo]

I am disappointed to hear that cost of memberships won't reduce for less games on the coast. I have a $260 membership and think they should offer an 11, 12 and 13 game memberships at $220, $240 and $260.

I don't think we have a hope in hell of changing MC's mind on keeping all games here so I have tried to see the best way to split the games

Realistically we will not get the NSW based games as last year - and they must never away from BTS

I can see our draw containing these mix of games. I have allocated the games to NSO and Brookvale on the basis

1) that all NSW based games, Victory games and Roar games should be at BTS.
2) we don't do Friday nights well - Brookvale and NSO should be our only Friday night games
3) only teams where we have 2 homes game are eligible to move (i.e. - you see each team at least once at BTS)
4) One of the lower drawing teams to be played on NYE - this year I have picked Adelaide for their style of play
5) I have kept Heart away from NYE in the hope that their City connections bring in some marquees/guests

BTS NYE
Adelaide

BTS - Saturday night or Sunday Afternoon

Sydney X 2
Jets x 1
WSW x 1
Roar x 2
Victory x 1
Glory x 1
Heart x 1 (before the MLS starts and hope for Lampard and Villa as well as Duff)
Nix x 1

Brookvale Friday Night
Adelaide

NSO Friday Night
Heart later in the year when any guests have gone

Excellent Post - exactly right. We need to cater for the NON tragic football person

 

[VicMariner]

I know this is really simplistic as I am a simple guy, but if every member bought one 3 or 6 game membership for a friend or family member as a present then we hit 10,000 right? I'll be buying a couple for people as presents. Obviously there are people struggling enough already with family memberships but there must be a good way to market this as a prezzie buying option?

Good idea!