Stop the phoney outrage, and join the 2018 party

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By Con Stamocostas, 15 Dec 2008 Con Stamocostas is a Roar Pro

Tagged:: Champions League, football, Socceroos, Tim Cahill

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What is it with journalists of the egg ball variety being outraged every time one of our football teams makes an international final (AFC Champions league) or receives government funding ($32m election and $45m World Cup bid)?

Rebecca Wilson you should watch the
video embedded below. It’s Australia celebrating at the World Cup in 2006 with Men at Work, Down Under playing in the background.

It’s called Australia’s historic sporting culture.

Something you probably may not recognise as ever being part of your sporting existence is its joy… pure unadulterated joy. Will it be hard to fathom that in your life your greatest creative achievement; your greatest art will be your inability to love the beautiful game, unable to experience the collective thrill of supporting the Socceroos like the rest of the country does?

Rebecca just stop the hate of the game and join the party.

Don’t be afraid, we are like you; the Australian Football family invites you to the party. C’mon, you know you want to.

Australians are the best party people in the world; it’s what we do best, besides loving sport.

I would say that if you don’t support football in this country then you’re un-Australian. That’s right! If you don’t like to party and don’t like football you are un-Australian.

Us Australians love to follow the party; we will travel for hours to find the best one. But we all know the best parties are the ones in your own back yard. So join us for the biggest party Australia will ever see in 2018 and stop the phoney outrage, the football family welcomes you with open arms.

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The Crowd Says (268) | Page 1 of Comments

MarkH said | December 15th 2008 @ 7:28am | Report comment

Con, its 45 Million on a maybe. So juniors of all codes wear it for a dream for a few. Not all of us like Soccer, so why should we pay for it.

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Dave said | December 15th 2008 @ 8:08am | Report comment

$45m between 21 million people with about 10m tax payers = $4.50 each. Tell you what Mark H l’ll pay yours…in fact l think l’ve paid for plenty of naysayers already this financial year.

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Redb said | December 15th 2008 @ 8:20am | Report comment

Dave,

I think MarkH has a point, if funding is cut or not allocated to other football codes as a result of of this bid that is unfair. I have no problem with the bid, but think the Fed Govt needs to be careful that it is not picking winners amongst the football codes. Only time will tell if some of the $45m finds its way into anything other than bidding for the World Cup.

They should ensure all codes get some development funds in their own right. In saying that there is some onus on the CEO’s of those organisations to get their act together.

Redb

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True Tah said | December 15th 2008 @ 8:30am | Report comment

Con

are you going to South Africa in 2010?

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Dave said | December 15th 2008 @ 8:33am | Report comment

Redb

What funding has been cut or re directed from other sports to enable the WC bid?

The Govt and FFA have conducted a number of studies to determine whether this is a worthwhile bid…the conclusion is yes it is.
Now everything else is speculation on our parts eg world football politics and the like.
In the scheme of things $45m will not bankrupt the country nor, as far as l am aware, will it disadvantage other football codes. Perhaps people looking for an axe to grind should concentrate on the hundreds of $millions in Olympic funding!
I didn’t protest or question the $32m given to WB for their ‘redevelopment’.
There is some risk no doubt just as there were in funding given to the Olympic bids for Melb and Sydenee. Did you question those?

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Redb said | December 15th 2008 @ 8:49am | Report comment

Dave,

First up, seeing that you soccer folk continually point to the $32M for the Western bulldogs, let’s make sure that all we know that there is a big difference between $32M which is not all Fed Govt funded and is going to a disadvantaged area for a communtity asset not just sport, to $45m to grease the wheels of a world cup bid. The $45M is not creating a permananent structure or community asset, if the bid fails we lose the $45M let’s get that straight.

But again and I stress I have no problem with the basic premise and think $45M is not a lot of money and worth a go. I also think the CEO’s of sports orgs need to get their act together and lobby more effectively.

As a taxpayer I dont want this money to drive an agenda towards one football code, i would prefer it be seen as a once off opportunity for have a crack at getting the World Cup here in OZ (fantastic) and that is all. I’ve said before I dont’t trust Frank Lowy to limit this money to just the bid, he is hoping to seize an agenda for soccer as a whole on a national level, whether the Fed Govt realises this or not. Thus I agree with Mark H to a point, as along as it is not to the detriment of football codes that is fine.

Redb

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Pippinu said | December 15th 2008 @ 9:29am | Report comment

Con
I’m starting to worry about you becoming fixated by Ms Wilson!

The $45 mill is probably comparable to what we spent on the Olympic bid – except this is for a whole country rather than one city – so that bit is ok.

But I’ll just repeat the same cautionary note I have been saying since 1 November of last year. We are no chance of winning 2018. If this bid somehow precludes us from seriously going after 2022, then we have wasted taxpayers’ money and Federal Ministers have been duped.

Also, is these economic times, the press is right to put this sort of expenditure under the blowtorch – absolutely no one should have a problem with that – it’s called a free press for a reason.

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jimbo said | December 15th 2008 @ 9:30am | Report comment

Olympics, RU WC and WYD transformed Sydney and gave it a real cosmopolitan party feel.
As a Sydneysider, it was great to see and the benefits of all that keep accruing.

But the Party pooping about 2018 isn’t phoney – it’s genuine.

Sports people psyche – sports people love to win, they are competitive by nature, they love to see their team win, they love to see their state win – they are biased and love to see their sport win.
So it’s no surprise to hear all the grumbling about “government handouts to Soccer”, while on the other hand completely ignore the hundreds of millions of dollars of government handouts to AFL clubs to buy votes in the AFL mad Deep South or funding to the NRL in the Deliverance country north of the Murray.

BTW the election promise to give $32M ($8M per year for 4 years) to football by the Rudd government is still just that – an election promise. Nothing has been done on that front and they haven’t even drafted a bill to vote on yet. There’s even a chance that the Red Necks majority will vote against it in the senate anyway.

The current arrangements of a miserly $3M per year of government “funding” for the country’s most played sport – the most number of players, officials, competitions and clubs to run, still stands till 2010.
That’s about sixty cents per year for each person involved with football in this country or about 5 cents a month. What can you buy with 5 cents these days?

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Millster said | December 15th 2008 @ 9:32am | Report comment

Hey hang on lets not get bogged down in detail.

First we live in a country where there are still enough surpluses that no-one and nothing needs to be cut for football to get $45mill. Its not that big an amount for a government program anyway.

Secondly to MarkH and RedB I tend to agree. If any other sport or for that matter any other cultural event can be hosted in Australia that would get cumulative TV audiences of ~15billion and the attention of the entire planet then yes I would hope that some of my tax dollars would go towards it as such events are momentous for Australia. I had no problems with helping to fund Sydney 2000, nor (and I don’t know whether taxpayer support was involved) would I have a problem finding out that the public purse helped out the Rugby Union 2003 World Cup. These events transcend sport and are about national stature and pride, and the welcoming of the world to our land.

Finally even if we don’t win what a chance to get a properly funded study into our national sporting setup – infrastructure, facilities etc. It strikes me that at the moment we have a range of stadium/facilities development projects littered around the land at various stages of success, with some going ahead, some delayed and some binned. What a chance for the codes to get together and agree to a common logic that will be based on this bid but also with a clear view to a sustainable and top-shelf lanscape into the future.

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Millster said | December 15th 2008 @ 9:34am | Report comment

Redb – can you elaborate on ‘seize an agenda for soccer as a whole on a national level’. I don’t quite get exactly what you mean. Genuinely not being argumentative, just curious as to your thoughts…

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