Post by clueless1 on Jul 14, 2016 12:31:22 GMT
Robbie Cornthwaite (affectionately known as Cornflakes) has signed with the Western Sydney Wanderers
Greg O'Rourke has been appointed head of the a-league:
He is a bit of an unknown however he does have somewhat of a portfolio (a decent one)
He started his involvement in football administration in 2001 and was appointed to the executive committe of sutherland shire football and was on the board for football NSW. Recently he has been involved with Pepsico which is involved with manufacturing.
He talked a lot about fan engagement and saying that the only way clubs will be succesful is with unlocking the ability through engaging the fans (i agree with this much, common sense really there)
Gallop talked about driving revenue in the game (something that needs to happen, new TV rights deal will go a long way into that so long as the next season is trouble free relatively, unlikely with the way the roar and mariners are now), he then stated that O'Rourke's executive experience, from dealing with numbers to stakeholder management will be key for this.
Also in regards to expansion, he stated "An expansion of the number of teams is inevitable and the right thing to do. But that’s the second step."
“The first step is to actually make sure that the ten teams we currently have are sustainable."
“There’s no use bringing in new teams if some existing teams are a shaky. So part of my financial transformational background is to make sure the ten teams we have a really solid.
“And then, how exciting is it going to be when we start the conversation about taking it from more than ten teams.
“Once you do that you capture new geographies, new revenues, and opportunities – but the first step is to make sure the initial ten clubs can get the job done first.”
Basically it is on the agenda but making sure the current teams are sustainable is more important. I'd say we're pretty close as the other 8 are running well now, and the roar are trasitioning to new owners so that should bring some sustainability at least. Now its just to sort out what the mariners are doing.
With this appointment its clear what could happen:
More fan engagement
More freedom with corporate sponsorship (already started seeing this with Nissan and City's deal)
Sutherland Shire A-League team (can't say i'm too happy about the shire getting in over Wollongong but the Shire could work, would be even better if the NRL team moved, then southern sydney would be a-league territory and there is good participation at least). Also with his talk about new locations, i imagine that means not just second teams in the cities will be on the agenda, i think that means Canberra finally gets a look it (seriously Canberra would be more viable than the Phoenix is now and have just as much, probably more sponsorship since its the national capital).
What i would like to see:
Expansion:
1. Wollongong Wolves (even though its unlikely, they'd be very viable, huge history and their links with many clubs, especially their rivalry with Perth gives them something). They have WIN stadium which is ready and has a capacity of over 20,000.
2. Canberra United (the region has 400k, more than the central coast and wellington and pretty close to newcastle's population, not much to do their in the summer so it would get good support, plus their is a good football community, even if their state football fed is useless). Bruce Stadium would be more than adequate to host Canberra (capacity of about 25,000).
3. Ipswich Rovers (Gallop wanted to bring Ipswich into the NRL, the mayor Paul Pisale is incredibly keen to build a stadium to host an a-league team so that is something that surely would get approval, plus its the fastest growing region in the country, with close proximity to Springfield and western brisbane, would serve as the second Brisbane team and give the Roar and organic rivalry, also a good kick up the ass because if they're terrible they'll find people heading west for their football needs), biggest issue being there is no exisiting stadium yet.
4. Auckland City (we all know about Auckland City, honestly they would be higher if NZF wasn't so useless and just joined Asia already so we wouldn't have to worry about the AFC getting on our case. If New Zealand was in Asia this would be #1 by a distance and i'd imagine it would get done tomorrow, it makes perfect sense, North vs South (even though Wellington is on the North Island still), Auckland vs Wellington would be a huge rivalry that would capture the nation over there which is rare for football in New Zealand). For Stadia, either Mt Smart Stadium to the city's south or Eden Park which has been proposed, the reason the Knights failed (apart from being historically bad) was due to playing out at North Harbour. Auckland City and the city council have already proposed that if they get Auckland City in they will play out of Eden Park and tarp off the top tier unless its needed (giving it an artificial capacity of about 25k). Auckland if it was in Australia would be the 5th largest city (ahead of Adelaide) with a population of 1.3 million so this makes so much sense.
Those for me are the obvious 4 that should/could happen within 2 years (Ipswich would have to play at Suncorp or QEII stadium until North Ipswich Oval was to be upgraded).
After these 4 teams come in (so they're announced at the next TV rights deal, so next year and come in around 2018/19 or 2019/20).
Along with this, another thing that has been talked to death about is a stand alone second division.
I would scrap the national youth league or make it a cup competition instead, at the end of the day the youth teams are in the state leagues already and its pointless to dedicate money to something barely televised when a pathway through the NPL is available.
Now in a large nation i know some have said it won't work due to costs of travel. That is true it would be expensive but i think we could get a TV deal and sponsorships to cover this. At the end of the day football in this country has never had more exposure (so many leagues now with Bein on standard cable), in addition every commericial channel has secondary channels and even sports channels. Also SBS and ABC both don't show any male sport that is regular (W-league is on ABC). Now its looking likely that the a-league will probably sign a deal with Channel 10 (who are looking to compete with Channel 9 who has the NRL and Channel 7 who has the AFL) and securing the third major football code. Now Channel 10 themselves have a secondary network (actually 2, Channel 11 and the One network, one shows sports more so a second division would be on there). 10 showing first division and second division games on both their main and secondary channels would benefit them also.
I'd start with 8 teams initially in terms of a second division:
1. South Melbourne (they have the stadium with Lakeside, this is more a time thing, they will go up to the a-league in time, just need City to establish itself, if South Melbourne came in now i think they could actually kill city or the other way around and South Melbourne may find that those who where loyal back in the day aren't as loyal now, still the biggest club from the NSL deserves a place and in time, the title of the third melbourne club)
2. Geelong FC (another club from around the way, Geelong is one of the main clubs when talking about expansion, however size is not in its favor, the city has a population of sub 200,000, that is probably not enough to get it into the a-league directly, however Kardania stadium is more suited than most AFL grounds to host the a-league and if they got the numbers, they could get promoted)
3. Sutherland Sharks (they're the team that is probably first off the rank for a-league expansion with the new boss but i still think there is less overlap with Wollongong and Sydney than Sutherland and Sydney (after all, Sutherland is still Sydney whilst Wollongong isn't), would be one of the bigger second division clubs either way.
4. South West Sydney (people always talk about a South West Sydney team, well it is far enough from the Gong and the rest of Sydney for this to work)
5. Hobart (Same story with Geelong, people have talked about Tasmania as a whole but no way a state team works, they'd become semi-nomadic like the Phoenix which is B.A.D. Hobart is a decent size for a second division team, 200,000 people and there is no professional football team in the entire state, there are several stadiums which could be converted or a stadium could be build, in the meantime they could use an AFL ground).
6. Gold Coast City (the graveyard for all Australian sport, or so they say, as someone who knows the area pretty well i can say that a lot of the issues probably stem from the fact that they chose the worst location to have a stadium possible, with Gold Coast City they would need to play somewhere near the tram line or at least easily accessible by bus. I'd say it should be nomore than 10-15 minutes from the coastline, where the bulk of the population is, obviously Surfers Paradise is just unrealistic but their home at Palm Beach now is a good option to expand actually)
7. North Sydney (Charlseworth has toyed with moving the mariners to north sydney so much its a bit of a joke, but their is merrit, its sizeably cheaper to run a team out of North Sydney Oval and whilst capacity is limited to 7k, who cares, its the second division where that would be par).
8. Melbourne Knights (another Melbourne club, really now? well Knights are the other major team from the NSL days really from Melbourne, the stories of Melbourne Croatia vs Hellas is well known, but they have good facilities, which with some minor upgrades would be perfect for a second division club and its based in the north of the city, making it geographically seperate from the two central clubs and south melbourne).
The idea of the second division would be to prove that you can sustain yourself and be viable, then upon evaluation the FFA could pick who they want to bring on up to the a-league (at least thats how it could work for the first 10 years, and work well really without much resistance or calls for P&R).
anyway Cap would be 1.5 million (half of the a-league cap) and each team is allowed 3 foreign players (at the end of the day, this is also about more pathways for football players, and this provides a semi-pro pathway at the bare least), no marquee players (to keep it all relatively even and not have overpaid players debilatating a semi-pro club) but cap exemptions (young players, long serving players, loaned players from a-league clubs etc). Minimum of 23 players per team, maximum of 30 senior players
Each of these teams will be required to maintain a youth team that will play in their respective state league (so South Melbourne youth team replaces south melbourne in the NPLV, Sutherland Sharks youth in NSWNPL, Gold Coast City NPL in the Qld NPL and so on).
Do away completely with transfer bans, at the end of the day its not preventing Melbourne City buy whoever they please, they're just using the parent club in City as a proxy. Do away with the middle man basically, this will provide lower end teams revenue and actually sell their players instead of releasing them for free if they move within the a-league. Also bigger teams benefit by getting better talent more easily. I'd say 10% of all fees lets say goes back to grass roots, at the end of the day that could provide a lot of coaches, training and equipment etc. Wins for everyone involved. Also those players who are transferred still are paid under the cap, so whatever new contract they sign, that will be counted to the cap, also no agent fees or player sign on fees for players under the cap, only the transfer fee itself is exempt.
So if we followed that by 2019/20
A-League:
1. Brisbane Roar
2. Newcastle Jets
3. Central Coast Mariners
4. Ipswich Rovers
5. Sydney FC
6. Western Sydney Wanderers
7. Wollongong Wolves
8. Melbourne City
9. Melbourne Victory
10. Adelaide United
11. Perth Glory
12. Canberra United
13. Wellington Phoenix
14. Auckland City
Second Division (B-League/A2 League/NPL National, whatever you want to call it):
1. South Melbourne
2. Geelong
3. Melbourne Knights
4. Sutherland Sharks
5. South West Sydney
6. North Sydney
7. Hobart
8. Gold Coast City
Then below that is the other NPL teams
This structure at least provides 14 professional teams with an additional 8 teams that are either professional or almost professional teams (ideally if we could guarantee 22 professional teams that would be excellent, professional doesn't have to be flashy, it just needs to be effective). Could also see a lot of journeymen in europe and even asia come back home and see NPL players who may not have gotten a chance usually get the chance to play at a high level, A-League clubs are rubbish at scouting in the NPL, however bigger NPL clubs find talent from anywhere and everyhwere and make them stars. This would provide a bridge.
Anyway i clearly got carried away, i just hope the thoughts and premise is there with the current a-league boss and he has somewhat of a long term plan in regards to not only the a-league and its current clubs, but future clubs (expansion) as well as other divisions.
Greg O'Rourke has been appointed head of the a-league:
He is a bit of an unknown however he does have somewhat of a portfolio (a decent one)
He started his involvement in football administration in 2001 and was appointed to the executive committe of sutherland shire football and was on the board for football NSW. Recently he has been involved with Pepsico which is involved with manufacturing.
He talked a lot about fan engagement and saying that the only way clubs will be succesful is with unlocking the ability through engaging the fans (i agree with this much, common sense really there)
Gallop talked about driving revenue in the game (something that needs to happen, new TV rights deal will go a long way into that so long as the next season is trouble free relatively, unlikely with the way the roar and mariners are now), he then stated that O'Rourke's executive experience, from dealing with numbers to stakeholder management will be key for this.
Also in regards to expansion, he stated "An expansion of the number of teams is inevitable and the right thing to do. But that’s the second step."
“The first step is to actually make sure that the ten teams we currently have are sustainable."
“There’s no use bringing in new teams if some existing teams are a shaky. So part of my financial transformational background is to make sure the ten teams we have a really solid.
“And then, how exciting is it going to be when we start the conversation about taking it from more than ten teams.
“Once you do that you capture new geographies, new revenues, and opportunities – but the first step is to make sure the initial ten clubs can get the job done first.”
Basically it is on the agenda but making sure the current teams are sustainable is more important. I'd say we're pretty close as the other 8 are running well now, and the roar are trasitioning to new owners so that should bring some sustainability at least. Now its just to sort out what the mariners are doing.
With this appointment its clear what could happen:
More fan engagement
More freedom with corporate sponsorship (already started seeing this with Nissan and City's deal)
Sutherland Shire A-League team (can't say i'm too happy about the shire getting in over Wollongong but the Shire could work, would be even better if the NRL team moved, then southern sydney would be a-league territory and there is good participation at least). Also with his talk about new locations, i imagine that means not just second teams in the cities will be on the agenda, i think that means Canberra finally gets a look it (seriously Canberra would be more viable than the Phoenix is now and have just as much, probably more sponsorship since its the national capital).
What i would like to see:
Expansion:
1. Wollongong Wolves (even though its unlikely, they'd be very viable, huge history and their links with many clubs, especially their rivalry with Perth gives them something). They have WIN stadium which is ready and has a capacity of over 20,000.
2. Canberra United (the region has 400k, more than the central coast and wellington and pretty close to newcastle's population, not much to do their in the summer so it would get good support, plus their is a good football community, even if their state football fed is useless). Bruce Stadium would be more than adequate to host Canberra (capacity of about 25,000).
3. Ipswich Rovers (Gallop wanted to bring Ipswich into the NRL, the mayor Paul Pisale is incredibly keen to build a stadium to host an a-league team so that is something that surely would get approval, plus its the fastest growing region in the country, with close proximity to Springfield and western brisbane, would serve as the second Brisbane team and give the Roar and organic rivalry, also a good kick up the ass because if they're terrible they'll find people heading west for their football needs), biggest issue being there is no exisiting stadium yet.
4. Auckland City (we all know about Auckland City, honestly they would be higher if NZF wasn't so useless and just joined Asia already so we wouldn't have to worry about the AFC getting on our case. If New Zealand was in Asia this would be #1 by a distance and i'd imagine it would get done tomorrow, it makes perfect sense, North vs South (even though Wellington is on the North Island still), Auckland vs Wellington would be a huge rivalry that would capture the nation over there which is rare for football in New Zealand). For Stadia, either Mt Smart Stadium to the city's south or Eden Park which has been proposed, the reason the Knights failed (apart from being historically bad) was due to playing out at North Harbour. Auckland City and the city council have already proposed that if they get Auckland City in they will play out of Eden Park and tarp off the top tier unless its needed (giving it an artificial capacity of about 25k). Auckland if it was in Australia would be the 5th largest city (ahead of Adelaide) with a population of 1.3 million so this makes so much sense.
Those for me are the obvious 4 that should/could happen within 2 years (Ipswich would have to play at Suncorp or QEII stadium until North Ipswich Oval was to be upgraded).
After these 4 teams come in (so they're announced at the next TV rights deal, so next year and come in around 2018/19 or 2019/20).
Along with this, another thing that has been talked to death about is a stand alone second division.
I would scrap the national youth league or make it a cup competition instead, at the end of the day the youth teams are in the state leagues already and its pointless to dedicate money to something barely televised when a pathway through the NPL is available.
Now in a large nation i know some have said it won't work due to costs of travel. That is true it would be expensive but i think we could get a TV deal and sponsorships to cover this. At the end of the day football in this country has never had more exposure (so many leagues now with Bein on standard cable), in addition every commericial channel has secondary channels and even sports channels. Also SBS and ABC both don't show any male sport that is regular (W-league is on ABC). Now its looking likely that the a-league will probably sign a deal with Channel 10 (who are looking to compete with Channel 9 who has the NRL and Channel 7 who has the AFL) and securing the third major football code. Now Channel 10 themselves have a secondary network (actually 2, Channel 11 and the One network, one shows sports more so a second division would be on there). 10 showing first division and second division games on both their main and secondary channels would benefit them also.
I'd start with 8 teams initially in terms of a second division:
1. South Melbourne (they have the stadium with Lakeside, this is more a time thing, they will go up to the a-league in time, just need City to establish itself, if South Melbourne came in now i think they could actually kill city or the other way around and South Melbourne may find that those who where loyal back in the day aren't as loyal now, still the biggest club from the NSL deserves a place and in time, the title of the third melbourne club)
2. Geelong FC (another club from around the way, Geelong is one of the main clubs when talking about expansion, however size is not in its favor, the city has a population of sub 200,000, that is probably not enough to get it into the a-league directly, however Kardania stadium is more suited than most AFL grounds to host the a-league and if they got the numbers, they could get promoted)
3. Sutherland Sharks (they're the team that is probably first off the rank for a-league expansion with the new boss but i still think there is less overlap with Wollongong and Sydney than Sutherland and Sydney (after all, Sutherland is still Sydney whilst Wollongong isn't), would be one of the bigger second division clubs either way.
4. South West Sydney (people always talk about a South West Sydney team, well it is far enough from the Gong and the rest of Sydney for this to work)
5. Hobart (Same story with Geelong, people have talked about Tasmania as a whole but no way a state team works, they'd become semi-nomadic like the Phoenix which is B.A.D. Hobart is a decent size for a second division team, 200,000 people and there is no professional football team in the entire state, there are several stadiums which could be converted or a stadium could be build, in the meantime they could use an AFL ground).
6. Gold Coast City (the graveyard for all Australian sport, or so they say, as someone who knows the area pretty well i can say that a lot of the issues probably stem from the fact that they chose the worst location to have a stadium possible, with Gold Coast City they would need to play somewhere near the tram line or at least easily accessible by bus. I'd say it should be nomore than 10-15 minutes from the coastline, where the bulk of the population is, obviously Surfers Paradise is just unrealistic but their home at Palm Beach now is a good option to expand actually)
7. North Sydney (Charlseworth has toyed with moving the mariners to north sydney so much its a bit of a joke, but their is merrit, its sizeably cheaper to run a team out of North Sydney Oval and whilst capacity is limited to 7k, who cares, its the second division where that would be par).
8. Melbourne Knights (another Melbourne club, really now? well Knights are the other major team from the NSL days really from Melbourne, the stories of Melbourne Croatia vs Hellas is well known, but they have good facilities, which with some minor upgrades would be perfect for a second division club and its based in the north of the city, making it geographically seperate from the two central clubs and south melbourne).
The idea of the second division would be to prove that you can sustain yourself and be viable, then upon evaluation the FFA could pick who they want to bring on up to the a-league (at least thats how it could work for the first 10 years, and work well really without much resistance or calls for P&R).
anyway Cap would be 1.5 million (half of the a-league cap) and each team is allowed 3 foreign players (at the end of the day, this is also about more pathways for football players, and this provides a semi-pro pathway at the bare least), no marquee players (to keep it all relatively even and not have overpaid players debilatating a semi-pro club) but cap exemptions (young players, long serving players, loaned players from a-league clubs etc). Minimum of 23 players per team, maximum of 30 senior players
Each of these teams will be required to maintain a youth team that will play in their respective state league (so South Melbourne youth team replaces south melbourne in the NPLV, Sutherland Sharks youth in NSWNPL, Gold Coast City NPL in the Qld NPL and so on).
Do away completely with transfer bans, at the end of the day its not preventing Melbourne City buy whoever they please, they're just using the parent club in City as a proxy. Do away with the middle man basically, this will provide lower end teams revenue and actually sell their players instead of releasing them for free if they move within the a-league. Also bigger teams benefit by getting better talent more easily. I'd say 10% of all fees lets say goes back to grass roots, at the end of the day that could provide a lot of coaches, training and equipment etc. Wins for everyone involved. Also those players who are transferred still are paid under the cap, so whatever new contract they sign, that will be counted to the cap, also no agent fees or player sign on fees for players under the cap, only the transfer fee itself is exempt.
So if we followed that by 2019/20
A-League:
1. Brisbane Roar
2. Newcastle Jets
3. Central Coast Mariners
4. Ipswich Rovers
5. Sydney FC
6. Western Sydney Wanderers
7. Wollongong Wolves
8. Melbourne City
9. Melbourne Victory
10. Adelaide United
11. Perth Glory
12. Canberra United
13. Wellington Phoenix
14. Auckland City
Second Division (B-League/A2 League/NPL National, whatever you want to call it):
1. South Melbourne
2. Geelong
3. Melbourne Knights
4. Sutherland Sharks
5. South West Sydney
6. North Sydney
7. Hobart
8. Gold Coast City
Then below that is the other NPL teams
This structure at least provides 14 professional teams with an additional 8 teams that are either professional or almost professional teams (ideally if we could guarantee 22 professional teams that would be excellent, professional doesn't have to be flashy, it just needs to be effective). Could also see a lot of journeymen in europe and even asia come back home and see NPL players who may not have gotten a chance usually get the chance to play at a high level, A-League clubs are rubbish at scouting in the NPL, however bigger NPL clubs find talent from anywhere and everyhwere and make them stars. This would provide a bridge.
Anyway i clearly got carried away, i just hope the thoughts and premise is there with the current a-league boss and he has somewhat of a long term plan in regards to not only the a-league and its current clubs, but future clubs (expansion) as well as other divisions.
"United’s flag is deepest red, it shrouded all our Munich dead. Before their limbs grew stiff and cold, their heart’s blood dyed it’s ev’ry fold. Then raise United’s banner high, beneath it’s shade we’ll live and die. So keep the faith and never fear."