MV want to revamp the A-League

[midfielder]

Following on from the threads and stories about is the FFA not being up to the job... MV chairman Geoff Lord wants to take control and set up a A-League commission...

Personally I think this has a lot of merit ... and we need to explore what he is saying...

http://www.theage.com.au/sport/a-league/victory-in-bid-to-revamp-aleague-20100912-156yt.html

Victory in bid to revamp A-League

Michael Lynch

September 13, 2010

MELBOURNE Victory chairman Geoff Lord is seeking talks with Football Federation Australia CEO Ben Buckley and deputy chairman Brian Schwarz in a bid to revamp the A-League.

Victory wants the FFA to appoint an independent commission to run the competition and make several other changes to make the sport viable for present and future investors.

At present clubs are bleeding money, several are being propped up by the FFA and crowds have been a cause for concern as the A-League plays its early rounds against white-hot competition from AFL and NRL finals games.

Lord has already talked to newly appointed A-League boss Lyall Gorman - who replaced former St Kilda chief executive Archie Fraser in the position before the season started.

But the Victory chairman is determined to take his concerns, and those of several other club owners, right to the top.

Fraser himself launched a blistering attack on the management of the game this week, saying it had ignored the health of the A-League while it concentrated too much of its resources and time on pursuing its bid to host the 2022 World Cup.

Lord says he has presented a detailed-14 point plan with a number of changes - including a shorter season and a mid-season knockout cup involving State League clubs - that he believes are necessary to relaunch the A-League, cut costs and increase its marketability.

''We would like a shorter season to make the competition stronger and more viable,'' he said. ''We would like to play a mid-year cup knockout competition, we could have State League clubs in it to make it more interesting and give them something to aim at.

''The clubs have basically had enough. The main thing is that we want a commission which would meet regularly, with representation from all clubs, to help run and strengthen the league. We want to have our own budgets, so money is not just lost in some central pool.

''The FFA don't have too many ideas, don't come up with any innovations or plans.

 

[Jesus]

This is what happens when you have nonfootball people in charge of clubs.

We need a longer season, not a shorter one. We need it to attract and improve talent.

 

[Jerem]

what is it with all these AFL drop kicks running football in ths country,
granted we had an ARU exec at one stage, im not willing to give or take from him either BUT
can someone enlighten me as to who ran the NSL and their background as opposed to now?

I am rapidly developing a short fuse with BB, his brand is getting attacked questioned from every angle
and he is not doing what branson would do, defend it at all costs, probably has a plum job to walk into back in AFL
anyhoo

 

[midfielder]

what is it with all these AFL drop kicks running football in ths country,
granted we had an ARU exec at one stage, im not willing to give or take from him either BUT
can someone enlighten me as to who ran the NSL and their background as opposed to now?

I am rapidly developing a short fuse with BB, his brand is getting attacked questioned from every angle
and he is not doing what branson would do, defend it at all costs, probably has a plum job to walk into back in AFL
anyhoo

Not so sure I agree ... Hal 1 to Hal 3 ... growth ... Hal 4 to Hal 6 .. decline...

Playing in protected six month zone does have its advantages ... and cost saving in regards stadium hire is no small thing... I always tho we pushed to the 27 week now 30 week and if Rovers get in next year 33 week plus finals way to early... so a 37 week comp... meaning playing about 16 weeks in the NRL / AFL seasons... and the AFL are expanding meaning they will have a longer season... with 22 rounds plus finals say 26 rounds we are somewhat protected ... however having about 40% of the season in competition with the business of the NRL & AFL seasons does not make much sense to me...

Now here is the delima those screaming loud and long are by and large the same people who want a long season... if we have a shorter season it may help with the figures but not with the long term goal of playing for 9 months...

 

[Jesus]

I dont think there is any evidence to suggest a shorter season would result in higher crowds.

The players are paid for 12 months anyway. The key is to even out the cost of match day services. Those costs are the only things that should diminish the plan for a longer season

 

[midfielder]

I dont think there is any evidence to suggest a shorter season would result in higher crowds.

The players are paid for 12 months anyway. The key is to even out the cost of match day services. Those costs are the only things that should diminish the plan for a longer season

Maybe not but it would give a start when FFA could promote the league and have less losses on stadium hire for clubs...

Currently the league looks in trouble so many cross coders may not come ... but if it started when the others finished then they may...

If we go for a 33 week comp when Rovers come in (assuming that happens) plus finals plus weeks off for friendlies it becomes somewhere between a 40 & 42 week comp...meaning half is played in the business end of the NRL & AFL seasons... given the current play in Australian sport and media coverage that is dumb...

 

[adz]

And from Clive Palmer:

Billionaire Gold Coast United backer Clive Palmer will decide on whether to continue funding the supporter-starved club based on a response to structural changes recommended to the A-League.

Palmer, who has already pumped over $7 million on his struggling outfit, has detailed a list of changes he wants to see implemented by Football Federation Australia (FFA), including increased funding to the clubs and an independent commission to run the A-League.

Palmer and his fellow protagonists - Perth Glory’s Tony Sage, Melbourne Victory’s Geoff Lord and Sydney FC proxy boss Scott Barlow - have joined forces to lobby for reform and will press their claims at a meeting between the owners and FFA top brass Frank Lowy, Ben Buckley and Lyall Gorman in Sydney on October 7.

Condemning FFA’s current A-League business model as fatally flawed, iron ore king Palmer made his position clear when he told The World Game: “I don't want to cease backing the club because there are futures and livelihoods at stake but we all have to make sure we have a sustainable model to make the A-League viable.

“Nobody knows what the structure at the top will be like next year, so it’s hard for any club or individual to make commitment beyond this season. We need to make sure that the A-League as an entity has a future.”

Palmer believes he has some of the answers to salvaging a competition suffering a sixth season slump with crowds melting away and the Newcastle Jets - United’s opponents on Wednesday night at Skilled Park - praying that FFA rescues it from the edge of a financial abyss.

The Palmer plan includes the setting up of an independent commission to run the game, TV telecasts being shown on delay in host jurisdictions, FFA spending all sponsorship dollars generated by the A-League exclusively on the competition and match takings from home and away fixtures being shared equally between clubs.

“We need an independent body with full authority over the A-league and we need it very soon,” he said.

“That was what the Crawford Report (back in 2003) recommended within five years but it hasn’t happened because certain individuals are more interested in power than the greater good of the game.

“Fox Sports should also only show on delay games in host cities. Showing them live does nothing to attract people to the stadiums when you can watch it at home far more easily.

“Fox Sports should also cover the club’s salary caps by way of compensation for having the rights and all sponsors dollars that flow into the A-League should go to the clubs.

“Home teams with larger populations are at an advantage when it comes to gate takings over a team like Gold Coast. The money from the home and away games should be pooled together and split 50-50.

“We also need clubs to be able to eventually develop their own grounds. As things stand, clubs can only get money from local sponsors and home crowds. But with so many inequitable deals with stadiums, how can most clubs support their $5 million budgets.”

Palmer also claimed that while fellow billionaire and FFA chairman Frank Lowy had rescued the game from oblivion, his vision on the way forward may have become blurred with the clubs losing a total of $25 million last season alone.

“Frank Lowy rescued Australian soccer but we have to move on from that,” he added. “Frank’s model is about having a viable Australian national team before you have a national competition whereas my model is other way round. We differ in our views on that.

“I would like to see the Socceroos coached by an Australian rather than a foreigner on millions of dollars and to plough the money you save into developing local coaches.”

Despite ambivalence towards United by a disengaged Gold Coast public, Palmer insists that despite his multiple business interests his commitment to the club has not wavered.

“There’s not a week goes by that I don’t spend three hours on the phone talking to our coach Miron Bleiberg and making suggestions and kicking around ideas.

“I’ve been in business for years and never made a loss on anything until I got into this. I want the club to be self-sufficient. What happens if I die? We don’t want it to simply survive because of me.

“That’s why we looked at the crowd cap. We make more money at our youth league games at Southport Tigers than we do at an A-league game. And that can’t be right.”

On the shaky future of the Jets, he said: “It’s inevitable that clubs will disappear because the formula that currently exists won’t allow any club to cover its costs under any circumstances or any assumption.”

And on United’s crowds, which hit a new low with just 2,037 for the weekend match with the Mariners and fears of that figure dipping even lower against the Jets, he said: “There’s been a lot of unfair talk about our crowds. But up to this point we’ve averaged about 5000 and that’s two per cent of the local population whereas some of the clubs in the big cities have averaged only half a per cent of their local populations.”

link

All fair points I think.

 

[curious]

And from Clive Palmer:


link

All fair points I think.

and match takings from home and away fixtures being shared equally between clubs.

What's the thoughts on this? Victory, for example, with the biggest crowds and income from attendance, sharing income with CCU, with what will likely be around 4.5 - 5 million less in gate takings. (based on last years 15k more than GCU x rounds x $20 average ticket price)

Or an average based on last season, Victory's attendance/gate takings income will drop to from 20k average to the league average of 10k or about 3 mill. reduction in income.

Where's the incentive for low attendance clubs to be responsible for their own performance and destiny and not have a reliance on riding on the back of the performance of others? And on the other hand, the incentive/reward for better performing business to rise above would appear, on face value, to be severely dented.

Is there a literal precedent for this in sport?

 

[MagpieMariner]

The AFL has done a few matches where one of the poor teams has been awarded a "home" match against one of the well supported clubs - the gate receipts going to the poor club to help them out. However, I don't agree with gate receipts split every match, for the reasons quoted above.
I agree with others who've said get teams out of the mausoleums into little boutique stadiums to reduce match-day expense. Surely the cost at e.g. Bluetongue or Hindmarsh would be less than SFS or Etihad, or even Dairy Farmers.

 

[adz]

The AFL has done a few matches where one of the poor teams has been awarded a "home" match against one of the well supported clubs - the gate receipts going to the poor club to help them out. However, I don't agree with gate receipts split every match, for the reasons quoted above.
I agree with others who've said get teams out of the mausoleums into little boutique stadiums to reduce match-day expense. Surely the cost at e.g. Bluetongue or Hindmarsh would be less than SFS or Etihad, or even Dairy Farmers.

Fair enough with the gate receipts, I guess I'm a bit on the fence on that point. I can see how the clubs can be saying about population advantages (of other clubs) and such, but that's not much good when you get less than 10k to a game anyway. Do they also want to pay a share of the losses incurred for those events? And if they are whinging about not having the population to draw from, why set up in that area in the first place?

As with you spike, I keep thinking of how the AFL does things and compare to that. Have a look back 10-20 years and they were playing out of places like Waverly and Kardina Park.

The TV thing I agree with 100% ... there used to be hardly any live AFL games on TV in Melbourne so if you wanted to see your team play you had to go to a game. When we moved up here (1991), there was more live footy on the TV here than you could get in Melbourne!!

It's changed a bit now, as the AFL has grown... you see all the Melbourne based games either at the MCG or the Dome because they outgrew all the smaller grounds. You get more live footy on TV, especially with Foxtel. But the crowds are still there... Collingwood averaged 63,000+ this season. That could even end up being more than a whole season of Gold Coast crowds, at every Collingwood game this season!

It just seems like the A-League has tried to run before it could crawl. Like they thought they didn't need to build up a following and could rely on the whole attitude of "It's the World Game... 512 billion people watch the world cup every week so we just need to build it, and they will come".