Name change official for the ‘new’ Brisbane Roar
By Laine Clark, 6 May 2009 Laine Clark is a Roar Pro
- Tagged:
- A-League, Brisbane Roar, football, Peter McLennan, Queensland Roar
It’s official: Queensland’s first A-League team will now be known as the Brisbane Roar. The competition’s worst kept secret was finally confirmed when the Queensland Roar officially changed their name on Tuesday.
Roar general manager Peter McLennan said it was a case of “same club, different name”.
But there is no doubt the club has a different look following a tumultuous off-season.
The team will retain their colours and ‘lion’ logo.
But off-field there have been major changes.
It took governing body Football Federation Australia (FFA) to step in and save the Roar by buying a 51 per cent stake of the cash-strapped club recently.
Apart from support staff cuts amid the club’s financial crisis, there was also chief executive Lawrence Oudendyk’s shock resignation.
A replacement CEO is still yet to be named, with reports emerging on Tuesday that AFL club Brisbane Lions boss Michael Bowers knocked back the job.
McLennan didn’t rule out taking over the reins but was more intent on selling the new name.
“It’s something I will discuss with the board,” he said of the CEO position.
“The FFA are right with us, they are searching the market place for an appropriate candidate.
“We still have one of the most stable player groups, got a fantastic coaching staff under Frank Farina.
“We assessed the market place over six months and made a decision (on a name change) that we thought was right.”
Farina said it “made sense” that they changed their name with the arrival of two more teams from the state in 2009-10 – North Queensland Fury and Gold Coast United.
“I think it is a pat on the back for Queensland, the first state to expand to three teams in the A-League,” Farina said.
“I hope everyone accepts it (name change) and embraces it.”
Farina predictably said there were no anxious moments during their well-documented financial problems.
“There is always going to be issues or problems within any football club – they have been really professional with the way that they have moved forward,” he said.
“Unfortunately it gets played out publicly and people tend to get a little worried.
“But I just think it is a process that we had to go through.”
Farina also had “no problems” with the FFA stepping in at the Roar.
“It is not a long term thing. They are here to assist all clubs in the A-League,” he said.
Farina also paid tribute to Oudendyk, saying it was “sad” to see him go.
“He was obviously one of the founders of the club, and got it up and going,” he said.
“It is always disappointing to see someone with that passion move on.
“But that’s what happens in life and football.
“Hopefully the club will be able to move on and be successful.”
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Towser said | May 7th 2009 @ 9:34am | Report comment
Another angle to the now Brisbane Roars story explaining in effect why things turned out as they have. Anybody following Football in Brisbane closely is not suprised. This story doesnt also mention that many key Admin staff left to join GCU after season 3. Read between the lines & its easy to see where the problem lay regarding responsibility. It was never really properly funded in the first place & would not have got off the ground if required to go through the the stringent process at the FFA re finance NQF & GCU did.
Hopefully like Perth a solid investor can be found to back up a club in Australias 3rd biggest city.
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,25343673-5012448,00.html
Pippinu said | May 7th 2009 @ 10:05am | Report comment
Thanks for the link Towser.
When Farina says: “I think it is a pat on the back for Queensland, the first state to expand to three teams in the A-League,” – it’s a tad ambiguous, seeing that NSW had three teams from the start, but I guess it is true to say that it’s the first state to get to three teams post-commencement of the comp.
Being the Southerner that I am, and I’m sure regular Roar bloggers like redb and MC will share my puzzlement – but I do wonder why the FFA sees private ownership as the only model for the A-League.
Can’t the club just be turned over to the members? Or does that provide insufficient capital to get back up and running?
I ask this question for this reason.
I’m not a financial wiz kid, but I understand that private individuals and corporatations make “investments” because they half expect they’ll make a return.
In the case of a football club – while it is possible for clubs to turn a profit (and a few manage it even in a small market like Australia), it’s not exactly the first thing I would choose to put my super fund into.
So in the Australian context, when we talk about investors in an A-League club – what are we actually talking about?
Actual investors hoping for a financial return, or are we talking about finding sugar daddies (a la Palmer), who are just happy to run an expensive hobby out of their petty cash?
Towser said | May 7th 2009 @ 10:49am | Report comment
Pippinu
I guess as has been discussed the members business is a Southern thing as you have noted with the members uptake on MV. Not having the “figures” its a guesstimate on whether members will cover the start up costs of a club. Bayern Munich have 147,000 members I doubt whether thats whats keeps them solvent & other revenues like gate takings sponsorship TV revenues are icing on the cake.
As for private investors if their doing it for the purposes of turning a profit then the ” Nutters” club needs new members.
Clive Palmer types & Tony Sage types are the way to go. Both expect though some return from networking in Asia due to football connections. Risky sure as we see with world financial meltdown,but then again any person hoping to retire this year on Superannuation that is half what it was a couple of years ago knows about risk. In the meantime we hope that the sport grows enough in every area that greater revenue is received for it to grow ,including A-League clubs,but that is also a risk for any sport wishing to expand in the current climate. See following article:-
http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,25438388-23217,00.html
Pippinu said | May 7th 2009 @ 11:06am | Report comment
A another good link Towser – it’s good that O’Neill has a cautionary word of advice for his former employer – but I’m not sure how objective his views on the subject might be!!
Working Class Rugger said | May 7th 2009 @ 11:22am | Report comment
I think O’Neill cautionary words might have been aimed more at League and AFL. League in the sense that they are talking about expansion when several of their clubs are struggling to barely keep their head above water. And the AFL are planning to move into Western Sydney. Which will be a long and expensive battle which could very really unltimately fail. If anything Soccer the only game with the sufficient player rank to undertake such as significant expnasion. Quality might suffer a bit though at first.
Robbos said | May 7th 2009 @ 11:30am | Report comment
I think John O’Neill was not talking about football, the A-League has an 8 team competition that is just not big enough, they need to grow, to 10 next year & 12 the following year & possibly to 14 in the not too distant future, I think O’Neill knows this.
I believe that O’Neill was more aiming this at Rugby League & maybe even to a lesser extent AFL (though I believe AFL have the money & the want to give expansion a go).
The AFL was successful (well at least from a unknowledgeable AFL northerner) in moving Melbourne clubs to other regions of Australia ie Swans & Lions. The NRL were unsucessful in this. The NRL & this is what I believe O’Neill was talking about, was to dilute the oversaturated Sydney market & move some teams to central Coast, 2nd Brisbane team or elsewhere. The same may apply with AFL as they tried to relocate Nth Melbourne to GC afew seasons back.
I think expansion is needed in football to make the competition more viable whereas the other codes are trying to do so in competition to the other football codes as their competition is already viable.
Lazza said | May 7th 2009 @ 11:57am | Report comment
I’m a little bemused as to why any A-League club should be in financial difficulty? The modest salary cap is covered by the Foxtel money and then they have all that match day revenue and other sponsorship? Where’s the money going? Is it an issue with stadium deals?
Working Class Rugger said | May 7th 2009 @ 11:57am | Report comment
When O’Neil stated that he wanted Rugby to be Aus number 2 code. I didn’t get the impression he meant behind AFL.
Towser said | May 7th 2009 @ 12:53pm | Report comment
Lazza
Why bemused? in the case of the Roar. If you read Mike Colmans article,they never had the money for start up costs which were deemed by the FFA to be about 5 million.Consequently that puts you behind the eight ball. Even MV had this initial problem. I should imagine that air fares hotel accommodation meals & paying associated hangers on eats up your revenue as far as the A-League goes plus paying the referees costs too.TV revenue of $120 million over 7 years is peanuts,17 million a year. Take out the above costs (& I’m sure I will have missed some obvious additional costs) & distribute the rest among 8 clubs now 10 ,soon to be 12 & maybe 14 that $120 million starts to look like a loaves & fishes job.
What I would like to know as a Roar fan is what sort of screening test the FFA had at the start for potential new screen stars. The Roar certainly slipped through the screening process whatever it was. Who was the director ?The same man talking about cautious expansion yesterday John O’Niell. So whilst i applaud much of what he did he was not the Messiah,not even a naughty boy,just better than his predecessors Labbo,Sir Arfur,Knob,etc. Maybe Frank is a better judge of men to do a job for him than us so called football experts?
Lazza said | May 7th 2009 @ 1:11pm | Report comment
Towser,
I haven’t read the article, it was just a ‘generic’ question considering a few other teams are doing it tough as well. I thought your wage bill would be the biggest expense and if that’s covered by the TV deal then they should be solvent.
Perhaps, like you say, I’m underestimating other costs involved in fielding a team.