Turbulence (then calm sailing, then turbulence) thread.

[tsd]

If he was going to pick a random spot on google maps to move our club he should have at least gone with Hornsby!

Has someone explained to him the hills district that he wants us to move down to engage is 15min down the road from parramatta?

 

[rbakersmith]

Manly's majority owner has some fairly ambitious plans for Brookvale...

Manly Sea Eagles want to turn Brookvale Oval into Giants stadium

First it was "Fortress Brookie". Now Manly could have a "Giant" stadium should new Manly majority shareholder Scott Penn have his way.

Penn wants to transform Brookvale Oval into a multi-purpose stadium, replicating baseball heavyweights San Francisco Giants' home ground AT&T Park, which – aside from being a 40,000-seat stadium – hosts concerts, has retail and food outlets, a wall of fame and a garden.

Penn hopes to have the stadium completed in time for the 2017 season.

"I've been to San Francisco and spent a lot of time there and have been through the stadium," Penn said. "They created a precinct. In baseball they play a lot more games, about 60-70 home games, so they get good utilisation. You don't want a white elephant. You want to use it.

"We need to have 20,000 undercover seats. You want facilities underneath the stadium. There is a need for additional retail and commercial space. A residential hotel. We have to look at what makes it financially viable."

Negotiations have already begun with the Central Coast Mariners to bring A-League games to the venue while National Rugby Championship team the North Harbour Rays are also keen on the redevelopment.

The Sea Eagles already have $20 million in government funding for a new grandstand with about 3000 seats to be built on the eastern side of the ground.

Brookvale Oval has long been considered a second-rate venue, one that prompted Brisbane back-rower Todd Lowrie to describe the ground as a "shit-hole" earlier this year.

Then there was the "chair-gate" fiasco when spectators rising to their feet to witness a miracle Manly try were blamed for an NRL timekeeper not seeing referee Matt Cecchin signalling time-off in their home side's clash against Penrith.

The timekeeper was forced to stand on a chair inside the timekeeping box because his view from within the main grandstand was blocked, costing the Panthers up to 14 seconds to stage a comeback.

Penn hopes to have the first plans completed by December.

"We are trying to come up with a schematic in the next month or so, so we can sit down with key stakeholders to work out how we will fund it," Penn said.

"The state government has made it clear they can't fund a stadium. [Premier] Mike Baird has been incredibly clear with that in his stadia strategy that they are sticking to. If there is funding for Brookvale Oval it has to be a community asset. It needs to tick some boxes, we know what we need to come up with in order to satisfy it.

"If we can get everything lined up this off-season, get all the plans and everything through the appropriate bodies next year and, in the meantime, get all the ducks lined up, there is no reason – in a perfect world – why we can't start [work] at the end of next season and it's probably going to be an 18-month build."

 

[dibo]

Tell him he's dreaming

 

[midfielder]

Tell him he's dreaming

Not if it has joint tenants .... Eagles & Mariners .... as there is no way the NRC side could afford to open the gate ... I still think deep down in my soul Charlesworth's wants to pay far less rent than the council want to charge... and my understanding of the funding needed to develop Brookie needs a major second player... hope I am wrong ...

 

[Capt. Awesome]

Not if it has joint tenants .... Eagles & Mariners .... as there is no way the NRC side could afford to open the gate ... I still think deep down in my soul Charlesworth's wants to pay far less rent than the council want to charge... and my understanding of the funding needed to develop Brookie needs a major second player... hope I am wrong ...

We only pay $7500 per game which is the cheapest in the A-League. Can't see how that is his issue.

 

[dibo]

Not if it has joint tenants .... Eagles & Mariners .... as there is no way the NRC side could afford to open the gate ... I still think deep down in my soul Charlesworth's wants to pay far less rent than the council want to charge... and my understanding of the funding needed to develop Brookie needs a major second player... hope I am wrong ...

Back to this again? FFS.

FFA won't let it happen (at least, not more than a couple of games a year). That's not enough to pay for a redevelopment of Brookvale.

We only pay $7500 per game which is the cheapest in the A-League. Can't see how that is his issue.

I'm almost certain that that figure (when it was quoted in the SMH) omitted a zero. $75,000 a game is *far* more likely, given the number of staff you're paying for, road closures, police presence, etc.

 

[Capt. Awesome]

Back to this again? FFS.

FFA won't let it happen (at least, not more than a couple of games a year). That's not enough to pay for a redevelopment of Brookvale.


I'm almost certain that that figure (when it was quoted in the SMH) omitted a zero. $75,000 a game is *far* more likely, given the number of staff you're paying for, road closures, police presence, etc.

Wow that's some serious cash. I wish all these numbers were made public so the fans have a better idea of what the club is up against.

 

[dibo]

*Still* cheaper than most I gather. Adelaide United is meant to be cheapest (at around half the cost of our deal) but if we got to have that deal we'd only save ~$500k/yr.

 

[scottmac]

The penn's are off with the faries. I've spent a bit of time with the guys they just bought out for complete control of the club. Manly would have been much better off if they would have sold out 2yrs ago like they were being pressured to do. The turmoil in the club was fabricated to try & force the penn's out & there wasn't anyone on the board other than Penn family that didn't want it to happen.
His idea will never happen. They are full of promises which never get delivered.

 

[rbakersmith]

I'm almost certain that that figure (when it was quoted in the SMH) omitted a zero. $75,000 a game is *far* more likely, given the number of staff you're paying for, road closures, police presence, etc.

I'd say that $75,000 would be close to the mark, given Bruce's comments in this story on page 3 of today's Express Advocate:

Mariners fight for fans
SHRINKING CROWDS SERIOUS CONCERN AS EXPENSES MOUNT
THE Central Coast Mariners are looking at ways to be more sustainable in the wake of dwindling crowd numbers at Central Coast Stadium this season.

Mariners boss Bruce Stalder confirmed the club has broken even only once this season, with their derby win over Newcastle at the start of last month, which attracted a crowd of 10,443 to the Gosford venue.

The crowds have dropped off markedly since then, with 7237 on hand to watch the Mariners lose to Wellington 2-1 and 6391 at Sunday’s loss to Perth.

“We’re not getting enough people to games,” Mr Stalder said. “We need to get just under 9000 people to a game to cover all the expected and unexpected costs.”

With an average of 2500 people buying tickets at the gate, the club is encouraging supporters to buy in advance. Although pre-sale tickets are already discounted, Mr Stalder told the Express Advocate the club was looking at more pre-sale discounts ahead of their November 23 home match.

The clash with Adelaide is the Mariners’ last game at Gosford until after Christmas. While they are taking games to North Sydney Oval on December 5 and Brookvale Oval on February 7, Mr Stalder stressed the club was committed to the coast.

“The Central Coast is the heart and soul of the club,” he said.

“The owners have invested heavily in the Tuggerah Centre of Excellence, which is a clear indication of our intention to stay on the coast.”

The club would be looking at the draw and at what kickoff times worked best for games here and, while it was looking at building support on Sydney’s “northern strip”, 75-80 per cent of home games would remain at Gosford into the future.

Here's hoping the cheap GA tickets for the Adelaide game help boost numbers...

BTW - before anyone gets carried away by the "75-80 percent of home games", that works out to 11 games per season in Gosford which is what was flagged at the fan forum.

 

[Wombat]

I'd say that $75,000 would be close to the mark, given Bruce's comments in this story on page 3 of today's Express Advocate:



Here's hoping the cheap GA tickets for the Adelaide game help boost numbers...

BTW - before anyone gets carried away by the "75-80 percent of home games", that works out to 11 games per season in Gosford which is what was flagged at the fan forum.

Let's hope those thinking of buying the cheap tickets haven't seen us play this season........

 

[Bladesman]

We seem to be stuck in a loop, no money to put a team on the park that will attract fans, play shit negative football less fans through the gate money problems increase.

He needs to have a chat with Moss about the awful football we are serving up.

 

[dibo]

Funny that Bruce has these quotes - I've been banging on about the need for the club to actually communicate what is needed. Essentially, it would appear that under existing ownership, there are three options:

• Club starts to break even based solely on Gosford base (be that through the stadium becoming cheaper to hire to allow break-even on present numbers, crowds getting up over the existing break-even number, or through additional corporate support filling the holes);
• Club takes advantage of cheap rent for three games in Northern Sydney in order to guarantee long-term future based (mostly) on the Coast, or;
• The club relocates/dies.

He's done what I was banging on about ages ago and set a target for us to hit. We can now know that if we regularly get 9k (and our long term average is 9,356, our last three seasons have been 9,628, 9,969 and 9,398) then we're just about right. Our Sunday crowds are 500 or so below our average; our crowds in November are about 400 below our average; neither Wellington nor Perth are big drawcards (Perth has gone OK on NYE matches) and when our position is low so are our crowds.

The problem is that us having hit those targets historically doesn't seem to be enough for MC to not pull the trigger. Breaking even across the season doesn't appear to be enough, he seems to want to break even for each additional game. It's there that we need to look at our minimum crowd each year:

Over the last 5 seasons (including this year so far) our bottom crowds have been: 5,858, 6,883, 6,081, 5,787, and 6,391.

To be able to break even on those numbers, we'd need a massive boost to corporate income or a massive cut to stadium costs.

 

[Bladesman]

Funny that Bruce has these quotes - I've been banging on about the need for the club to actually communicate what is needed. Essentially, it would appear that under existing ownership, there are three options:

• Club starts to break even based solely on Gosford base (be that through the stadium becoming cheaper to hire to allow break-even on present numbers, crowds getting up over the existing break-even number, or through additional corporate support filling the holes);
• Club takes advantage of cheap rent for three games in Northern Sydney in order to guarantee long-term future based (mostly) on the Coast, or;
• The club relocates/dies.

He's done what I was banging on about ages ago and set a target for us to hit. We can now know that if we regularly get 9k (and our long term average is 9,356, our last three seasons have been 9,628, 9,969 and 9,398) then we're just about right. Our Sunday crowds are 500 or so below our average; our crowds in November are about 400 below our average; neither Wellington nor Perth are big drawcards (Perth has gone OK on NYE matches) and when our position is low so are our crowds.

The problem is that us having hit those targets historically doesn't seem to be enough for MC to not pull the trigger. Breaking even across the season doesn't appear to be enough, he seems to want to break even for each additional game. It's there that we need to look at our minimum crowd each year:

Over the last 5 seasons (including this year so far) our bottom crowds have been: 5,858, 6,883, 6,081, 5,787, and 6,391.

To be able to break even on those numbers, we'd need a massive boost to corporate income or a massive cut to stadium costs.

The problem this year with the numbers is going to be the lack of the crowd pulling games - No NYE game, only 1 WSW and Syd game at home, the games we have taken to North Syd and Brookvale will not get as good a crowds there as they would on the coast but the Wellington one would have about the same crowd.

 

[rbakersmith]

Interesting if true:

I hear there has been some movement re the Mariners board. A board member has been told he is no longer needed.

http://www.twitter.com/Gatty54/status/534218999416893440

I can only assume at this point that it would be McCabe...

 

[nearlyyellow]

Interesting if true:


http://www.twitter.com/Gatty54/status/534218999416893440

I can only assume at this point that it would be McCabe...

Rumours, rumours But as I don't know, what is the composition of the current board? (RC) Edit: I meant MC of course: is a given as he is boss cocky, no matter what some may think! Who are the others please?

 

[rbakersmith]

Rumours, rumours But as I don't know, what is the composition of the current board? RC is a given as he is boss cocky, no matter what some may think! Who are the others please?

According to the club's website the board is MC, McCabe, Paul Chapman (CEO of the IFS) and Duncan Tweed (CEO of the NSFA).

I can't imagine that there would have been any deterioration of relations between the club and the IFS recently, and dumping Tweed would be plain dumb given our present push south...

 

[dibo]

Board of Directors
- Majority Owner & Chairman: Michael Charlesworth
- Director: Kevin McCabe
- Director: Paul Chapman
- Director: Duncan Tweed
Read more at http://www.ccmariners.com.au/about/about-us/ciqnqq6gr2cw1ml3m64z3b55y#qxjCvQ8y6P9BkHJ2.99

• MC is obvious.
• McCabe's there from the Valad/Sheffield Utd connection.
• Paul Chapman's the head of International Football School
• Duncan Tweed is the head of Northern Suburbs Football Association

It'd be interesting if we saw someone like Ken Schembri on board...

 

[Atomic]

McCabe and his involvement in the Mariners has always seemed to be a bit obscure to me. Apart from suggesting to Monty that he should come here, I can't see what he has brought to the club. Nothing ever came of the the SU partnership. Doesn't seem to be a big loss if he is removed from the board.

**tip: if you want free parking under the Brian McGowen bridge on game day, tell the attendant your name is Kevin McCabe. His name is always on the list but he obviously is never going to show up **

 

[Luke]

It's not McCabe according to Gatty on twitter who is almost always reliable.From a couple of things I've heard I'm thinking it's Paul Chapman but we'll have to wait and see.