Will the Mariners Centre of Excellence work?

 
The Crowd Roar Pro

By Midfielder, 22 Jul 2009 The Crowd is a Roar Pro

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There is some information here about the plans submitted to council for the Mariners Centre of Excellence. So let’s put a value on the centre.

Land, 22 acres at 1.5 million per acre: that’s 33 million. Building and fields, 18.5 million, plus furnishing, fitting, equipment and so on, say 5 million. A working club with normal bar and food facilities and some pokies, say 1.5 million.

Total tangible asset value is $58 million.

Now we have to add the intangible assets such as goodwill, knowledge and so on.

The Mariners centre will use the Brazilian giants San Polo coaching methods and the academy management structure of Sheffield United. The community goodwill and the value of future players needs to be added. Plus the revenue streams coming out of the 120 room motel.

Plus the benefits from the relationship with Newcastle University, who will set up part of their medical school. The Sports Management school will also be run out of the Mariners Centre of Excellence..

So what’s it worth? My guess is somewhere between $58 and $65 million.

By heck, that is an investment in football.

When completed, the Mariners Centre of Football excellence will feature six full sized playing fields, including a boutique arena, ten small sided, multi-sport fields, a 6-story administration building, a sports science building, a 120-room accommodation block, an indoor aquatic centre, gymnasium, and a refurbished and extended licensed club.

But will the Mariners Centre of Excellence deliver what has been claimed by the Mariners board since before Hal 1?

The premise behind the Mariners Centre of Excellence is that football will grow in Australia and for a regional centre to compete with it’s capital rivals in the future, it needs something. The something is an academy based entirely upon increasing the technical ability of the players within the academy and the Central Coast in general.

How valid is this claim that by simply producing technical better juniors, a regional club will grow?

To date, the Mariners Board record is impressive. They have convinced a local RSL club to provide 12 acres of land and their premises in return for having their club refurbished. The Wyong council has provided an adjourning 10 acres of land.

Part of this trust was developed when in Hal 2, Lyle Gorman (Mariners CEO) was invited onto a local Area Health board and he wrote a paper about the connection between alcohol abuse by local youth and sport. Only a few months after Lyle wrote the paper, a beer company offered the Mariners a six figure sponsorship contract.

The club was still losing money, but Lyle rejected the offer, which was a massive ethical stand. Many locals say that this in itself earned the trust of the local community and why, when Lyle presented to the RSL board and Council what he wanted to do, the 22 acres of land and club was handed over.

That said, can a training academy based on creating the best technical junior players in the country make a small regional area a power house in Australia football for years to come?

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