Grand Final - FFA will do it again

[bikinigirl]

I think bikini girl has hit the nail on the head.

. that's beacuse it was based on my 'discussions' with ffa representatives the last time this issue raised its ugly head

 

[patrick_vieira4]

Unless the game was against Sydney or the Scum, BT for sure. A full BT would look much better than 25k at the SFS.

I think the idea is a team is meant to attract around 20-40k (depending on what team is playing) of their own supporters from their own team to show support at a GF, then leaving say 5-15k of away supporters, and a fair few neutrals to watch the game. Bluetongue, Ausgrid, they're both too small at their current stage. Ausgrid when one day an all-seater might be different. I can't see how they can develop Bluetongue (is there any possibility to make Bluetongue bigger, space-and-money-wise?). Bluetongue is just way too small to host the biggest A-league game of the year.

Besides, it's only an hour away. It's not really an away game for the fans.

If the GF was against Sydney, and CCM had hosting rights, I'd be furious if the GF was at SFS. You have to go neutral ground at the very least.

 

[patrick_vieira4]

You of course say this from a position of intimate knowledge of the FFA's motivations, and a fine record of making sensible, parsimonious predictions in the past.

Remember this?



and my personal favourite:



OK, here's what we've got: the Rand Corporation, in conjunction with the saucer people, under the supervision of the reverse vampires are forcing our parents to go to bed early in a fiendish plot to eliminate the meal of dinner.

We're through the looking glass, here, people...

lololol

 

[Roy Law]

Besides, it's only an hour away. It's not really an away game for the fans.

Unfortunately it is an away game - you will never get 10,000 Mariners fans to the SFS

 

[Muppet]

. although we are obviously not a huge focus for "them" (considering the relatively small central coast market) ... i wouldn't take the conspiracy theories too far (and i love a good conspiracy theory)

. "their" issue is their delusions of grandeur ... they insist they have a 'spectacle event' which draws in thousands (or tens of thousands) of random people that just want to be part of the event ... apparently sydney is a market full of them that don't care who is actually playing (this was proven to be bullshit last time)

True. The problem will be that if they hold the game in Sydney, and it is against Adelaide for example there is no way you are going to draw a massive crowd. The FFA is blinded by visions of build it and they will come. They leave themselves open to failure and ridicule if they fail to draw a big crowd at a nuetral venue. Best to let it be played in the whichever team has the home ground advantage, you are garaunteed a full house with a fantastic atmosphere which would do more to promote the game than a half full sterile venue with no soul.

Now is the time to start sending in your emails and tweets to the FFA and A League. Leave it any longer and it may be too late, the other thought is that IF we did make the GF and FFA moved it to another venue what better way to show your dissatisfaction than not to turn up for the GF. I'm sure they would get the message when the is the threat of not active supporter base watching the game at the venue.

 

[Roy Law]

I think it should be played on neutral territory - I suggest Wembley Stadium

 

[bikinigirl]

... the other thought is that IF we did make the GF and FFA moved it to another venue what better way to show your dissatisfaction than not to turn up for the GF. I'm sure they would get the message when the is the threat of not active supporter base watching the game at the venue.

. i respect your conviction ... but i can't imagine not being there when we actually win one

. unfortunately the ffa know it ... you don't have a coupla thousand fans willing to travel to brissie but not willing to travel to sydney. but it would still never be what it could have been. refer to pjennings response above - that is the right message and it should be what the ffa want. any shortfall in numbers from those that would refuse to travel on principle would be disguised by any bandwagonners so the message will be lost

. if the players refused to 'travel' though that would be a different story (surely the ffa would notice that)

. the club would never be cocky enough to initiate discussions now ... but hopefully they take every opportunity presented to them (that is, when asked by the media) to present pj's message - the live site would be brilliant

 

[patrick_vieira4]

Besides, it's only an hour away. It's not really an away game for the fans.

Unfortunately it is an away game - you will never get 10,000 Mariners fans to the SFS

Well yeah, the Mariners struggle to get that number of fans to a normal home game. You'd imagine with the euphoria of a grand final you could muster more fans though.

 

[pjennings]

. pj, please send this on to the club, ffa and any number of football related media outlets ... sums things up perfectly

. as for those saying it is too early to discuss it ... once we have made it, it is far too late - the decision would have well and truly been made

Bikinigirl - as you said - the decision needs to be made now - not in a rush later. As suggested I have sent it to the FFA and the Mariners.

I have received the following initial reply from the FFA

Dear Ian

Thank you for writing to Football Federation Australia.

This is a note to advise you that your letter below has been passed across to both Lyall Gorman and Kyle Patterson for review as requested.

Ian, I wish to thank you for your interest and for your continued support of football in Australia.

Kindest regards
Kellie



Kellie Willis
EA to Head of Corporate Affairs and Communications

 

[garlo]

Sadly I agree with Patrick ..don't really mind if it's at sfs ..as much as I'd love it to be at bluetongue ..sfs ain't too far away and I believe we would get ALOTTTT of people

 

[pjennings]

Sadly I agree with Patrick ..don't really mind if it's at sfs ..as much as I'd love it to be at bluetongue ..sfs ain't too far away and I believe we would get ALOTTTT of people

Based on what. There were 36000 at the 2008 Grand Final (our best year for crowds) with maybe 2000 neutrals and the scum bringing slighntly more than us says a crowd of 15,000 plus away fans at the the SFS. Since it is likely to be Heart or Brisbane they would maybe bring 4,000. So you are looking at less than 20,000 at the SFS or a sellout plus a huge carnival atmosphere at and around BlueTongue.

As Patrick said - the worst case is we win the right to host and they force us to play at the SFS. At the very least it should be moved to Homebush - where it likely to look even more stupid

 

[garlo]

Haha I ain't getting into numbers I just think we would get alot of people
Let's make the gf first

 

[dibo]

I'm not saying there is an FFA comspiracy. It is just FFA incompetence. We had huge crowds towards the end of season 3. If we had hosted the Grand Final, with a live site in the park opposite - the waterfront with a plethora of food options and a carnival then we would have had 50,000 in the precinct. If that had happened the wave of support may well have carried us through to a win as it had in the major semi. At the least it would have etched football permanently into the minds of the Central Coast. What happened though was a controversial loss, Danny's huge suspension (as opposed to what didn't happen to sackwhacker) and a huge number of fans that made the effort to go to Sydney being permanently turned off by the FFA.

Sorry - but this is a no-brainer. What is good for the FFA is for each of the clubs to be viable. If you continue to disadvantage a club in this way then they will always attract less corporate interest and sponsorship and inevitably will struggle finacially. It is in the long-term FFA interest for the Grand Final to be at Bluetongue if the Mariners win the right to hold it.

I wasn't implying you thought the FFA was conspiring - only Milhouse up there.

I couldn't agree more with your assessment of 2008, and while I was reasonably dovish about it then, I'm hawkish now.

They've f**ked us once, and we lost out badly - average crowds here dropped hard since then. We shed 18% the first year after even though we made the finals, and then another 29% in Lawrie's last year as the club struggled to 8th place.

We barely recovered last year - only up 4% even though we were top 2 material most of the way through the year, and so this year's 30%+ growth is very welcome.

The one sure-fire way of killing that off is to f**k us over the grand final. If they want a weakling club here, always bleeding but never quite sure if it's finally dead, then fine, f**k us again. Runt of the litter, we'll be syringed mother's milk from time to time, but we'll never be big and we'll never be strong.

I have to say, I don't see the problem with selling out the ground. Allocate the away supporters a similar amount of seats as they'd get at another ground (i.e. we had a bay or two last year, a few bays in 2006) and then sell the f**ker out. Let everyone know that members get first bite at tickets, and if you want to be there you should get your memberships. Have it packed to the rafters, have people with their noses at the fence straining for a glimpse. Make it the most desirable, the hardest to get ticket in town.

And when we win, put on the biggest f**king firework display and open air party that Gosford has ever seen.

It won't just make the club, it'll just about make the city. Ten years from now, there'll be 50,000 people who insist that they were one of the 20,000 people in the ground the day we finally won the A-League.

 

[dibo]

I've pulled in a bunch of posts from the derby thread that belonged here.

 

[patrick_vieira4]

I think everyone is getting a little emotional. It's not the club they're trying to screw over, it's not trying to bleed them to near death, it's not any of that. It's the boutique stadium. That's it. The FFA have saved the mariners out of bankruptcy before, they love the club. The little man against the big cities. They eat it up.

Milhouse's views are quite frankly ridiciulous - the FFA can't control on-field results. Apart from wishing really hard that a certain team might beat another (similar to Terrance and Phillip being wished cancer upon), what the hell do the FFA have control over? And where is the evidence that the FFA wanted [insert every team other than CCM here] to win and not the Mariners?

 

[dibo]

I think everyone is getting a little emotional. It's not the club they're trying to screw over, it's not trying to bleed them to near death, it's not any of that. It's the boutique stadium. That's it. The FFA have saved the mariners out of bankruptcy before, they love the club. The little man against the big cities. They eat it up.

I don't think it's a deliberate thing to screw our club - our two clubs really. I just think that getting this call wrong would be a tragically myopic decision - for a very short term gain they've got a very long term cost and they're sacrificing a very short term cost for a very long term gain.

In 2008 they sold 16,000 more seats than they would have sold at our ground. Let's be say at $50 a pop (and I bought my ticket for about $35, so I'm being generous) that's worth $800,000 to them. How much do you reckon they've poured into our club since then?

And *that* was a derby in a season where both of our clubs were getting record crowds - neither club has seen anything like it since. What would it be like now, with a derby being very unlikely? The argument just doesn't stand up.

Milhouse's views are quite frankly ridiciulous - the FFA can't control on-field results. Apart from wishing really hard that a certain team might beat another (similar to Terrance and Phillip being wished cancer upon), what the hell do the FFA have control over? And where is the evidence that the FFA wanted [insert every team other than CCM here] to win and not the Mariners?

There's always one in every crowd, right?

 

[dibo]

Addendum: Even if they take it interstate to Melbourne or Brisbane (which could only be money-motivated) they'd only make $1.6 million. Short term, great, long term, even worse.

 

[Golly]

Close this thread
Still 12 rounds to go before semis
I think this could jinx us
CLOSE THREAD

 

[dibo]

THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS A JINX!

 

[Bex]

I'm dreaming of the scenario Dibo described. Wouldn't it be the most amazing life experience if it were to happen..... I would dearly love it if the FFA did not deny us the opportunity. If, by some weird chance, it doesn't do good for the Mariners and the A-league, then put it down as a lesson learned. We all have more to gain than we have to lose by giving it a go.