#standupforthemariners

[midfielder]

On hols and posting from my phone will add more latter ..
But our club is less than ten years old in former RL heartland. The Mariners are the fourth Football club I have supported..

I suspect if this market is pushed to hard there is not the tradition or history for football on the Coast for it to hold in good times and bad.

I understand before posting many rusted on hard core may find what I am about to post as unloyal however tis how I feel ..

Many moons ago I followed Auburn a Soccer club I was very young and my Dad took me and somehow we fell out of love with Soccer and started to follow RL .... then the Super League come along about the same time as the Northern Spirit and I returned to the football family ... in between I followed Blacktown Demons when I lived in Blacktown...

Then the NS fell over and much moved to the Coast...

Lets start again.... ten years on and here we are ..

My point is the A-League and especially the CC has no tradition and generation to generation of support and if another rich guy comes in and changes everything like the owners of the NS then I am off will go to the odd match when time and date suit ...

My guess is our fan base can not be compared to a European team more over its not that our fan base is fickle tis more we know what we don't ..

MC needs to how easy it would be to cut our crowd in half I don't want to die a death from a thousand cuts ... Man U is still there as is the EPL which I hardly follow but at one stage was a huge fan,,, so is RL .

Put simply I don't need the A-League ... while I follow football and do as much as I can if some prick appoints a dick head to do his bidding my guess is I and many others will be lost ...

To put some balance into my post I fully agreed about expanding the team in the Northern parts of Sydney but we don't need to shift games to do it... that is lazy and inept management ..

 

[Bladesman]

Given that MC keeps coming back to the COE as the key thing around commitment to the coast I started to have a think about how we could make better use of it.

Now given that Tim Cahill is without a doubt the biggest name in Aussie football, his tweets over Xmas show he loves it here on the coast, his major sponsor in Sanitarium has a big connection with the coast plus he is running community football development programs throughout the country surely we could be having conversations about the "Tim Cahill Centre of Excellence". It could be the pinnacle of the programme in a similar way to the Nike Academy for Australia's most promising players.

Even if we couldn't convince him to come and play for us it would certainly boost our profile, attract footballing talent to the coast, help attract sponsors and help us leverage a much under utilised asset.

too be fair I am not sure the cash would be the driver for Tim but being able to create a footballing legacy that could certainly be appealing.

 

[VicMariner]

Given that MC keeps coming back to the COE as the key thing around commitment to the coast I started to have a think about how we could make better use of it.

Now given that Tim Cahill is without a doubt the biggest name in Aussie football, his tweets over Xmas show he loves it here on the coast, his major sponsor in Sanitarium has a big connection with the coast plus he is running community football development programs throughout the country surely we could be having conversations about the "Tim Cahill Centre of Excellence". It could be the pinnacle of the programme in a similar way to the Nike Academy for Australia's most promising players.

Even if we couldn't convince him to come and play for us it would certainly boost our profile, attract footballing talent to the coast, help attract sponsors and help us leverage a much under utilised asset.

too be fair I am not sure the cash would be the driver for Tim but being able to create a footballing legacy that could certainly be appealing.

Not a bad idea at all.

One thing I'd change is instead of:
"Tim Cahill Centre of Excellence".
How about:
"Tim Cahill football school at the Central Coast Mariners Centre of Excellence".
Don't want to write our name out of our biggest investment. Got to benefit from the publicity.

 

[Big Al]

I understand before posting many rusted on hard core may find what I am about to post as unloyal however tis how I feel ..

Many moons ago I followed Auburn a Soccer club I was very young and my Dad took me and somehow we fell out of love with Soccer and started to follow RL .... then the Super League come along about the same time as the Northern Spirit and I returned to the football family ... in between I followed Blacktown Demons when I lived in Blacktown...

Then the NS fell over and much moved to the Coast...

Lets start again.... ten years on and here we are ..

My point is the A-League and especially the CC has no tradition and generation to generation of support and if another rich guy comes in and changes everything like the owners of the NS then I am off will go to the odd match when time and date suit ...

My guess is our fan base can not be compared to a European team more over its not that our fan base is fickle tis more we know what we don't ..

MC needs to how easy it would be to cut our crowd in half I don't want to die a death from a thousand cuts ... Man U is still there as is the EPL which I hardly follow but at one stage was a huge fan,,, so is RL .

Put simply I don't need the A-League ... while I follow football and do as much as I can if some prick appoints a dick head to do his bidding my guess is I and many others will be lost ...

To put some balance into my post I fully agreed about expanding the team in the Northern parts of Sydney but we don't need to shift games to do it... that is lazy and inept management ..

Agree with what your saying. There are plenty like you and me who the coast is not there birth centre but who enjoy sport and support the mariners to engage in the local community and enjoy a night out but some of us might not have the passion of others and are easily turned off and current decisions like moving games remind people who where RL followers of the Northern Eagles and they know where it's headed so they don't waste there time or money or on a hot day just head to the beach.
My first NSL game was Blacktown City Demons in the 80's as a kid and loved it but then so was the parra eels and sydney kings. With choice it's easy to go to winners and stop going to games of the other codes even though you still follow them. While there isn't the sporting teams to jump to people will still drop off if they loose interest.

 

[dibo]

I've been reading Soccernomics, and there's a really interesting section where they talk about why industrial cities have such strong football culture. Cities like Manchester, Liverpool, Munich, Milan and Turin all grew enormously at the turn of the 19th/20th century, and drew in vast populations from other areas looking to work in the newly created and fast-growing industries. Internal migration meant people were dislocated from family and place so they needed something to belong to, so the rise of football at the same time drew them in and gave them something to feel like they were at home.

We obviously aren't a rapidly growing European industrial town in the early C20th but there are some similarities. First - because the area's gone from sleepy coastal village to big and growing commuter belt since the 80s, *many* people who live in the area (or in my case, lived in the area in the past but identify with it) have the football club as a key part of feeling 'at home' on the Central Coast. There isn't much else.

I wasn't born in Gosford, and only my (much) younger brother was out of my family. But my parents still live there and my fiance's parents still live there and when I buy property it will be on the Central Coast because it feels like home. A large part of it feeling like home is the fact the Mariners are there. It's become a part of the region's identity, and I feel like it's become part of me and why I feel at home on the Central Coast. If it weren't there I'd feel like a bond had been cut.

 

[midfielder]

Big Al

I honestly don't think MC understands deep down how new Football is on the Coast nor does he appear to understand Northern Sydney.

If. he tries 6 games at NSO an 7 on the Coast he will fail I am sure...

So I just can't see myself going to watch it all fall apart and hurt the A-League at the same time.

I hope common sense and good management take place and we are all here...

However should he chose the path some are suggesting then I think many will walk away..

 

[MagpieMariner]

I'll be one of the ones to walk. I need to have a personal connection to a sport and a team to follow. My personal connection to football is the Mariners because they represent where I live. If they no longer represent me, I no longer follow, either the Mariners (or whatever they rename themselves as) or football.

 

[nearlyyellow]

the area's gone from sleepy coastal village to big and growing commuter belt since the 80s, *many* people who live in the area (or in my case, lived in the area in the past but identify with it) have the football club as a key part of feeling 'at home' on the Central Coast. There isn't much else.

Nah, there's the beaches, coastline, national parks, and all the recreational activities that go along with those.That was part of the attraction when we moved up here in 1978 when we bought our first house up here, never regretted the commuting and all that sh*t, coming home for weekends and holidays made it all worthwhile. And it was a sleepy little place back then.

A large part of it feeling like home is the fact the Mariners are there. It's become a part of the region's identity, and I feel like it's become part of me and why I feel at home on the Central Coast. If it weren't there I'd feel like a bond had been cut.

Yeah, I just caught the "Yellow" bug just before I retired 3 years ago, and I love it! I have immersed myself in Football, and the Mariners, and it's even better than "when I were a yung lud" supporting my beloved Bears.

COYY

 

[Big Al]

Big Al

I honestly don't think MC understands deep down how new Football is on the Coast nor does he appear to understand Northern Sydney.

If. he tries 6 games at NSO an 7 on the Coast he will fail I am sure...

So I just can't see myself going to watch it all fall apart and hurt the A-League at the same time.

I hope common sense and good management take place and we are all here...

However should he chose the path some are suggesting then I think many will walk away..

Agree middy.

Also north sydney IMO has lost some of the shine it had in 90's and is not the business hub it used to be. Still a busy place but in the 90's was the place to be not the city.