Fury on the Brink

[midfielder]

WOW did not see this coming although some early signs were there...

http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/news/972442/Fury-on-the-

The future of North Queensland Fury has been thrown into turmoil with its owner, and sole investor, Don Matheson deciding to withdraw from the loss-making club after pumping iin excess of $2.5 million of his own money into the franchise

 

[Hagar the Horrible]

How much money would the major sponsor have to put into the Fury for there to be a conflict of interest?

 

[BrisRecky]

http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/news/972442/Fury-on-the-

The future of North Queensland Fury has been thrown into turmoil with its owner, and sole investor, Don Matheson deciding to withdraw from the loss-making club after pumping iin excess of $2.5 million of his own money into the franchise
[/quote]


Geez, the travel bill musta been a fair cost for the club....SO...does this mean the Western Sydney team gets accelerated if the fury goes toes up, half the players could go to the new sydney team

 

[marinermick]

qantas pays for the travel bill

 

[FFC Mariner]

Time to tap up Fowler perhaps?

Every cloud has a silver lining

 

[Jesus]

Was always going to be a struggle for Don to do it on his own. Though i thought the break even mark was reported at 8k, so must have in fact been a bit higher than that.

FFA will surely step in and help them.

Fury have been the big success this year for me, very good crowds for start up, especially compared to gold coast.

Best of all they are becoming unbeatable at home, which is great for attendances.

 

[pjennings]

I thought I saw an article - not that long ago - about Matheson keeping a stake, a consortium of Townsville businessmen and an overseas investor taking stakes and about a 10% stake being floated to the general public.

The article was positive - this one is negative - but both are talking about spreading the investor base.

 

[Jesus]

I thought I saw an article - not that long ago - about Matheson keeping a stake, a consortium of Townsville businessmen and an overseas investor taking stakes and about a 10% stake being floated to the general public.

The article was positive - this one is negative - but both are talking about spreading the investor base.

There was an article on that.

This one is written very negatively.
Sponsorship should be easier to get next season after a very good showing, and having fowler, which will make it a bit less expensive. If they keep the 7.5k and add to it as the season goes on next year, that should help as well.

I think the FFA would not be too worried about taking a major stake in the club as it seems to be set up pretty well

 

[Jerem]

it sounds like the league is dying a slow painful death
http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,26803073-5000940,00.html
is this just teething or genuine problems or a media bashing

its a tad ironic, the best standard ever in this country and its bleeding millions

 

[marinermick]

it sounds like the league is dying a slow painful death
http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,26803073-5000940,00.html
is this just teething or genuine problems or a media bashing

its a tad ironic, the best standard ever in this country and its bleeding millions

trade off you get - more money equals better standard but it is not sustainable in the long term

thought the article was well balanced and factual and defintely not media bashing

 

[dibo]

So... what they're basically saying is that the HAL is eating more money than it's bringing in with TV rights ($120m / 7 years ~= $17m / year). Hmmm...

There are other incomes: gates and sponsorships mainly, and I gather from discussions around the place that it costs around $8 mill to run a club for a year (which makes me wonder how the f**k Sydney lost so much!) making $80 million for the league so a $20m loss across the league indicates that we're getting back in revenues another $40m+ on top of TV.

There was other talk that the new deal might be around the $60 million per season mark, which obviously would makes things a little rosier, but given costs will rise over time there's no substitute for bums on seats and corporate support.

The league needs to get some shine back. This finals series is helping, but then the f***ing geniuses in College St scheduled it so the semi-finals are split with a damn international in the middle! I think the positive stories have got thinner and fewer, and there have been far too many negatives this year:
Adelaide needing new owners,
Brisbane's ticket prices being shithouse and crowds slumping,
NQF looking to play out of smaller grounds and having barnies between marquee man and manager,
Mariners moving games to Canberra for cash,
Newcastle continuing to lack support,
Gold Coast United,
Crowds down...

They've outweighed the positives:
The football's probably better than ever,
Great crowds in Welly, Perth and even in Townsville when you get down to it,
Marquee players like Ifill, Hernandez, Aloisi and Fowler earning their dough,
The return of Perth Glory...

The World Cup might spark things again, but if the Pimeroos bore us all senseless and do as I expect (go out of the tournament with one loss, two draws and probably no goals scored) then that won't be worth that much either.

 

[midfielder]

One thing the A-League had when it started were Home Ends... FFA has run a policy of not trying to create negative media and are fearful that HE will bring bad press... with this in mind they have done all sorts of things to MV and watched traveling HE groups like a Hawke.

The Nix have taken the opposit view and have let YF be ... and their crowds have steadily grown...

This is a gut feeling ... BUT HE's with lots of colour bring football something others don't have... BB and the current board want to police the HE trying to take away all the negatives like say swearing, standing etc so those sitting cannot see...

However they have totally devalued that the colour wit and responce of a HE brings life to a game and the crowd around them...

So FFA have done fark all promotation themselves but have also stopped the HE's from being HEs.

Me thinks FFA / clubs /.... suits & marketing guys need to re look at many of their basic assumptions ... as I think they are getting it wrong just a tad to often...

 

[dibo]

I think YF work hand in hand with the club and the ground authorities. They have a positive, cooperative relationship. This is different to 'letting them be'. They're actually fostering and building the support. CCMFC used to, but we don't hear as much these days and our support these days would probably refuse any offered help.

I don't buy the idea that the FFA wants to kill off active support. If they did, they would enforce no standing rules, they would allocate every seat in the stadium and not designate any areas for active supporters and they would implement blanket bans on flags, banners, megas and the rest.

Certain *grounds* on the other hand don't see it the same way. To them their job is done once there's a game on the field and the lights are on. Anything beyond that is too much damn hassle and will clearly only result in people tripping over, broken seats, riots and mass destruction and the ultimate collapse of the universe.

 

[FFC Mariner]

I think we need to also factor in the fact that many families have been struggling over the last year or so. Whether in reality or simply perception is another debate.

If you market yourselves as a family club and your target market begins to worry about spending, you will always have an issue.

Also, its possibly fair to say that the club itself has completely dropped the ball over the last year or so in terms of its community/fan engagement. The antics in terms of home games/post match functions etc has been covered to death in other threads but suffice to say they didnt exactly spread much love around did they?

A winning side and people come back. Its usually the simplest recipe

 

[midfielder]

I think YF work hand in hand with the club and the ground authorities. They have a positive, cooperative relationship. This is different to 'letting them be'. They're actually fostering and building the support. CCMFC used to, but we don't hear as much these days and our support these days would probably refuse any offered help.

Big call I know little of our HE have just seen it get smaller ... but are you saying those running our HE would not accept help from the club or other interested groups...


BTW have to fly ... POETS date as I have refered to in the other thread so off to the Hunter...

 

[FFC Mariner]

As I understand it, there is constant dialogue between "active support" and the club (maybe not all elements but it happens)

A lot of the people who used to head to Bay 16 but have not migrated to 23 arent anywhere in the ground, thats the issue (I know there have been a handful of movers, but not all of them)

 

[Ted]

The more a team struggles, the more they need to be involved in the community. A winning team will draw a crowd, a losing team needs to work harder to draw the needed support.

 

[curious]

Unless my eyes are crook, each club's active support has grown appreciably but the rest of attendance has dropped. Accept for one club's active support (the kids and teens?)who must now prefer blue light discos or staying home on MSN chat.

I doubt the WC will aid the aleague in any form. I think the Socceroos and aleague are two very separate beasts in the public mind. Casuals don't want to step down half a dozen rungs in the ladder to watch aleague after following their national team at the highest level, just for the sake of following them like most Aussies do with any national team. The Olympics and the WC being typical examples of this once each 4 years 'interest'. And if the Socceroos exit quickly it's just another reason added to turn the nose up and ignore football again for another 4 years.

 

[Jimmy]

Just heard on ABC radio that the fury players have been told to look for a new club/job.

 

[curious]

It might be a case of saying one thing while doing another. I like the quote in bold. 

http://www.abc.net.au/sport/stories/2010/03/05/2838199.htm?site=sport&section=all

The writing's on the wall

By Zane Bojack

Posted March 5, 2010 21:22:00
Updated March 5, 2010 21:24:00
Future clouded ... North Queensland Fury may not see a second season

Future clouded ... North Queensland Fury may not see a second season (Getty Images: Marty Melville)

    * Map: Townsville 4810

It seems the end is nigh for North Queensland Fury.

It is only been a year-and-half since the North Queensland FC bid team won a licence to build an A-League side in Townsville, but after disappointing crowds and dwindling finances, it appears Football Federation Australia (FFA) is ready to pull the pin on its experiment.

The ABC understands representatives of the FFA told contracted players and coaches that they should find other clubs, with the sole investor and chairman of North Queensland Fury, Don Matheson, running out of finances.

After investing $2.5 million over the past 12 months and losing $40,000 a week during the season, Matheson has signalled that he is unable to continue supporting the organisation.

Club insiders have informed the ABC that head coach Ian Ferguson was told to move on with his contract declared null and void along with assistant coach Stewart Petrie.

It is also apparent that the team including marquee Robbie Fowler is free to negotiate with other clubs.

This is despite FFA issuing a statement on Friday claiming a crisis meeting between their representatives and potential investors could save the Fury from going into liquidation.

FFA chief executive Ben Buckley says discussions will continue over the clubs future for weeks to come but Fury employees told the ABC that they are bewildered by the actions of the FFA.

"To be successful long-term there needs to be wider community and corporate support for North Queensland Fury and it cannot be left to one person to drive the club," Buckley said in a statement.

"We are working through the processes with many interested parties and are confident there is strong support for football to remain in Townsville.

"I strongly encourage everyone in Townsville and North Queensland to get behind the team and show how much they want a successful football club in their region."

High-ranking Fury officials say FFA representatives told players they would not have a job next year prior to the meeting with local business representatives.

They believe players have been given bad advice with the meeting this afternoon providing some chance that the club might find some investment from outside sources.

As an ABC source enunciated, "FFA wouldn't know their arse from their elbow".

Whatever the outcome, it does not sit well with North Queensland football fans, who are worried they will not have a team to support next season.