Mariners deny Singo's exit spells financial doom

[midfielder]

HMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmm .......... I wonder is there anything to this...

I have found Sebastian Hassett to be a good journalist ... and not a person who writes the Sky is falling all the time... and I remember some time ago when we through we where going to buy Bluetounge ...

Not good timing with the stories about the Canberra matches being for money .... I always through we had good sponsorship ... so am not to sure what to make of this.


http://www.smh.com.au/news/sport/football/a-league/mariners-deny-singos-exit-spells-financial-doom/2009/07/10/1246732472473.html

Sebastian Hassett
July 11, 2009

THE CENTRAL Coast Mariners admit they are about to enter a difficult financial period but deny claims they are staring at a $400,000 financial black hole for the coming season.

Speculation has grown that the club has struggled to attract sponsorship and create other revenue streams, leaving the Gosford-based entity facing a concerning time as the economic downturn continues. But the biggest single blow is believed to have come from the withdrawal of financial support from benefactor John Singleton, whose $1 million contribution over the past four years will not be extended. His ongoing involvement with the Mariners is still yet to be determined, although he still owns the marketing rights for Bluetongue Stadium.

However, Mariners executive chairman Lyall Gorman denied being concerned about any shortfalls and said the club was planning to keep expanding its commercial partnerships. "We're not across any major [problems] at this stage and that's an area I drive personally," he told the Herald. "The reality is in all the commercial aspects of sporting clubs, not just football clubs, and in business generally is that in this environment people are far more conscious with their dollar spend and where they allocate it. But I can tell you that in the next few weeks we're looking at announcing two or three new partners and maintaining the majority of our previous partners."

Gorman insists the biggest problem for the Mariners is not so much attracting potential benefactors or sponsors as it is fans, whose numbers have dwindled in recent times. Crowds sagged from an average of 12,741 in 2007-8 to 10,465 during the last A-League season, with an especially concerning trend emerging during the three Asian Champions League matches, where three home matches brought an average of just 7377.

 

[midfielder]

Interesting Lyle says ... crowds are their biggest financial issue.....

 

[FFC Mariner]

So their decisions to alienate the fan base seem even more odd................

Time for some Churchillian "backs to the wall" stuff methinks - own the under dog space

 

[clarence]

Interesting Lyle says ... crowds are their biggest financial issue.....

Oh that's right, blame us on the lack of attendances when they put out a dire mob of players to deal with the best of Asia!

Admit it Lyall, you and the Board got caught out trying to 'compete' in the ACL for pennies, and when fans got wind of it they weren't going to buy into the charade.

Look the GFC news of late has shown some promising signs just around the corner & our main owners are property developers so that augurs well for the future if they can hold for a year.

Personally, I am glad Singo is not directly involved with the club and if they can find a lazy $250K per season til property prices rise again then so be it (even if that means a Canberra game or two, maybe BETTER communicated though?).

But it is looking like the business model that the Mariners are based on is a bit flawed...

 

[FFC Mariner]

Our obvious plan is to be self financing. Thats fair enough, why should someone be forced to keep putting their hand in their own pockets for us?

The GFC is a "Black Swan" event (google it) and both our owners personal c/flow and those of our sponsors have been hit hard.

I was at Crown Plaza Coogee in the week for a meeting and was talking to one of the staff, she said that in the last 6 months, their corporate income was down about 60% - companies are just not spending.

That obviously flows through to a football club as well and if we can hang on, things will get better.

Surely a good time to look to engage the community will some sort of fans trust/community ownership options or is that too simple?

 

[dru]

Surely a good time to look to engage the community will some sort of fans trust/community ownership options or is that too simple?

Don't think it would work well, although it might not be a bad idea to test the waters for interest, we would never be a serious stakeholder in terms of being able to provide funding. Although we could possibly cover the cost of amount singo was putting in.

working on the myfc amounts it would be about $100 a year meaning about 2500 of our members would need to be involved to cover the amount each year.

If it was to be a gestue of good faith by a small group of supporters then 250 members at about $200 could be putting in a 50k amount each year.



The model they want going forward is actually a good one, I doubt a football team will ever be fully self sustaining though, if we can get the pokie revenues from the couple of clubs as well as hotel profits heading into the coffers it will be a lot more sustainable. add to that womens and youth gate and food/beverage takings funding those programs then we might be getting close.

 

[Jesus]

Crowds were shit in ACL because we played shit. The 2nd game had a very reasonable midweek crowd. The last crowd was shit because of the shit the supporters put up with. I wondered why i bothered turning up to the torrential rain knowing that we would undoubtably lose to an inferior 2nd string teda side.

Crowds can be fixed by added community involvement. They seem to just expect the crowds to make themselves.

No doubt why they are going for the cash in canberra where they will get paid if no one turns up, and the more turn up the more money they make.

 

[FFC Mariner]

Just a side note that the Penrith/Souths crowd at ANZ last night was apparently 9,017.

Listening to ABC in the car last night, they reckoned 3 or 4 tops - we arent the only ones with problems

 

[Razorback]

Only 50k to see Richmond v Carlton today at the G! I dare say that 90 to 95% of these spectators are members of each club or the MCG. Is there anyway that CMFC can introduce more incentives to sell memberships to fans! I think if they can manage 10k members they would be well on their way to securing financial stability! There must be something that can be done to make these memberships more attractive!

 

[~Floss~]

Look the GFC news of late has shown some promising signs just around the corner & our main owners are property developers so that augurs well for the future if they can hold for a year.

"If they can hold for a year," forget the GFC, by that time I'd be hoping for some flow-on effects from the WC instead

 

[Arabmariner]

Only 50k to see Richmond v Carlton today at the G! I dare say that 90 to 95% of these spectators are members of each club or the MCG. Is there anyway that CMFC can introduce more incentives to sell memberships to fans! I think if they can manage 10k members they would be well on their way to securing financial stability! There must be something that can be done to make these memberships more attractive!

10K members is a fair way off.

Rumour has it less than 2k renewed so far.

 

[FFC Mariner]

SFC hoping for around 9k members I believe?

 

[Atomic]

There is a renewed feeling of optimism amongst SFC supporters... something we lack.

Also, I like to apply the 10% rule when it comes to SFC CCM comparisons. Due to population size (3 million vs 300,000). I don't know if it's valid, but it makes me feel better when you talk about membership numbers.

 

[Arabmariner]

There is a renewed feeling of optimism amongst SFC supporters... something we lack.

Also, I like to apply the 10% rule when it comes to SFC CCM comparisons. Due to population size (3 million vs 300,000). I don't know if it's valid, but it makes me feel better when you talk about membership numbers.

The population thing is valid Atomic but I think a fair % of that 3 million can be discounted.I don't know any figures but I would imagine the vast majority of their members are from within 15k's of the CBD.

Football fans outwith that area are waiting on a team to follow and a few follow us.

 

[adz]

Only 50k to see Richmond v Carlton today at the G!

... pardon? only 50k? to see two teams that have finished bottom 3 the last few years .... didn't read beyond that tbh.

 

[uptheguts]

Interesting to see where the $M will come from to build a centre of excellence. Would love it more for the club to become a public trading company. (not even sure if that possible - I am sure Dibo will confirm) Happy to see the current panel of 'board' members be pushed out by the shareholders......

 

[marinermick]

Interesting to see where the $M will come from to build a centre of excellence. Would love it more for the club to become a public trading company. (not even sure if that possible - I am sure Dibo will confirm) Happy to see the current panel of 'board' members be pushed out by the shareholders......

millions are coming from turnball and mccabe

 

[uptheguts]

Surely they are going to want to get a short & long term return on investment. I appreciate the long term...... what are the short terms? 

 

[midfielder]

There is a renewed feeling of optimism amongst SFC supporters... something we lack.

Also the McMariner tag on a number of sites does not add to the confidence..

I guess it comes down to ... do you think the Management & LM can put a competitive team on the park... do they have the marketing skills to get people back through the gates ... further are FFA doing enough to support the clubs .. OK that is an entire other story ...

AS I see it Perth, Gold Coast, Choppers & AU are all moving forward Scum not sure .. Fury gee they look like the could crash real bad.. Sheep Shagers appear to have gone backwards, Roar & Tards about the same ... leaving us as a surprise package ... could go very well could crash & burn ... LM is putting together a squad .. let's see if it works .. will the crowds come back then...

 

[Bex]

Shouldn't need to rely upon constantly winning to get the basic crowd they need to keep the club financial. That wouldn't be a very good business model. Getting into the finals should be enough for that IMO.