Are you making the trip to Bluetounge for the flogging of the Tards…

Our advantage is that we are well organised and frankly the only league in the whole of Asia that I am jealous of is Japan.
I find the EPL and other Euro leagues entertaining because of the quality of the footballers on display. But of the really capitilist leagues England, Spain Italy I am seldom inclined to watch their mid table teams and would much prefer (the more regulated Bundisliga).

the NRL and AFL are highly regulated and considering their small base (about half of australia each) they do really well on a world scale. if we translated that level of support to the HAL I think we would be pretty close to the J league. That’s is a pretty loose argument I know but I honestly think if we remove the cap then spending on non player improvements will fall in priority for clubs. That would be a real shame because safe and stable off field organisation could be one of our competitive advantages.
We start letting clubs rack up big debts and turning over owners frequently then we can’t be sure of what will happen.

At the start of the season, people were complaining about 8,000 at Townsvilles’ games, and I was thinking to myself: what’s wrong with 8,000 in a small town? I would have guessed that that would have been decent.

In the Dutch Eerste Divisie (their second tier), many clubs only have about 4,000 capacity at grounds – it’s a decent standard, and their total salaries are not too far above that paid in the A-League.

How do these clubs operate? In truth, most of them are privately owned and rely on annual donations from wealthy owners. Whether this can work in Australia in the long term remains to be seen.

But one thing is for sure, even in the Eredivisie, they are relying less on crowds (the middle sized clubs are around the 12,000 mark in attendances), and more on TV revenue and sponsorship.

The A-League just has to survive these next few years and it will be another step in long term sustainability.

I reckon the CCM model is an interesting one, well worth following.

If we work on the basis that longer term, the A-League will be more about incubating talent that leaves to go off-shore around the age of 21-22, and welcomes them back at 30+, then CCM is positioning themselves in a world when they know they will have fewer revenue streams (compared to Sydney and Melbourne) in terms of memberships and sponsorship, but will remain competitive by producing its own talent, and may very well be able to turn it into a thriving business venture.

There are plenty of overseas clubs who work on this model – but note – these clubs rarely win silverware – this is the big gamble in the Australian context – but its a model worth aiming for which might give CCM, for all of its hurdles, a bit of a competitive advantage in what is likely to become a dog eat dog comp in the near future.

Back to the point about entertainment – we have to be honest with ourselves – last night’s CCM vs Glory game isn’t going to drag crowds through the gates.

And every home team is playing like that this season! (except maybe Sydney) Melbourne has got most of its points on the road this season – that’s good for Melbourne, but it means other home teams dropping points, and Melbourne has been on the back of three home shellackings this year – not a good look for generating some home town support!!

Why does it happen??!! we’ve been asking this same question almost since day one!!

At a minimum, regardless of how you’re going, you need to do well on your own dung heap, supporters need to turn up knowing there’s a chance of some home team goals and a good chance of taking the points.

Supporters will watch their team, even if they’re on the bottom, if they know they are always a chance to do well at home – this is one thing the Premier League stlll retains – despite the strong clubs dominating, supporters always feel they are a chance at home against anyone – it’s a very powerful thing to have.

This year the Mariners are $ 300, 000 under the salary and two players short of what they can have… Meaning a couple of things LM is being very selective with who he brings to the club as we have trailed heaps of people.. or we are short of coin…

However there is a lot to do in the A-League to get it right… our crowd last night was just under 8, K… very poor in many ways.. we have been playing excellently lately it was a perfect night… what has happened I think is the cross coders have stopped coming… I wonder is it the same at other clubs….

What does mean if I am right we are in the year of the hard core rusted on at games… the FFA need to make the night as a whole more entertaining in some way to entice the cross coder back.. I think the constant war talk is not good for Football, Pip is a excellent model. It is obvious Pip enjoys his AFL..but equally enjoys his football..Thus he finds himself constantly defending AFL to football folk and football to AFL folk… most give up and say the hell with it and go back to their first choice…

Not sure I know the answer because there are a number of AFL / RL & RU folk who enjoy slipping the boot in … I guess it requires clever reply’s that do not put the cross coder off.

On the point of having a couple of super clubs it is very debatable Towser posted some compelling links to say I think in essence .. Trust in Footballs world wide model…. no limit on salary, promotion and relegation , built on a fast attacking style …

The Mariners have always assumed the salary cap would one day be taken away… further we have assumed big city teams would fill stadiums and have easier access to big sponsors… Thus the building of the Mariners Centre of Football Excellence is to provide the club a source of top players who would in time be on sold thus income… It is a massive effort and has many on the coast and overseas coming together to pull it off… Hoping and praying works starts on time next year…

I guess it’s a judgement call, when do you relax the SC and the judgement is when the smaller clubs can survive the relaxation…

I also have my doubts on Bresciano. I caught up with him in Palermo a month or so ago and he was loving life in Sicily again. Also even the Marquee spot just can’t match the money on offer in Europe or Asia. He’s so young as well. Would be great to have him back but it wouldn’t surprise me if he went for a couple more years to the highest bidder.

I can say that I’ve heard from very reliable sources about some other players who have either signed or are close to and I think Heart are heading in the right direction. Heff’s signing as a centreback is brilliant. Not sure about that sort of money ($250,000 is heaps) but such a ‘modern defender’ could go along way to helping Heart do very well.

I just spent the last two weeks visiting a number of clubs in Italy from Serie B to the fourth division and every single player, other then those at AC Milan, said they’d love to come to Australia to play. Even some of the Serie B doesn’t out pay our league. It makes some of the Fury’s decisions all the more astounding…

Anyone interested in Eastern European football should read Jonathon Wilson’s ‘Behind the Curtain’. Great writer, gread read and fascinating area. Can’t wait to make it to Eastern Europe for the first time next year.

The salary cap applies to the A-League only.

When you enter the ACL, it doesn’t apply – the only restriction is that you are allowed one less foreigner.

So come March next year, the Victory and Adelaide can recruit whoever the hell they want, pay as much as they want, once they start playing in the ACL (with the restriction on foreigners).

Are they going to splash out big time doing so?

Of course not!!!

Talk of the cap is a bit of a furphy. Melbourne is turning a slight profit, CCM is managing to breake even last I heard – absolutely everone else is losing millions of dollars per annum.

One top liner starts at $1 mill per annum.

Clubs are actually allowed to pay that out plus some on one marquee – but how many are doing so – even Melbourne has opted for a cheap marquee for the whole five seasons to date.

A looser salary cap may have allowed MV to keep Fred a couple of years back – but they would have been forced to triple the salary for a player that was good by A-League standards, but who was not actually a world class player.

IN other words – the current salary cap is currently where clubs can afford to be – only one or two clubs can currently afford to pay above that at the moment.

On the other side of the coin, there is a need to ensure some strong A League clubs that are capable of making a mark in Asia and being competitive in the ACL, having campaigns like the one just gone where CCM and NJFC are getting thrashed using teams missing key players (Jedinak) which haven’t been replaced yet or far removed from championship winning teams (NJFC and to a degree Melbourne missing Fred) is not in the interests of the A League and Australian football either. So from that perspective it is good to have some strong clubs that can get out of the group stages and into the knockout stages by and large quite regularly

So there is a bit of a balancing act required. For mine the solution lies in adjusting the salary cap allowing some of the richer clubs to go out and get some decent marquees to give them an edge, while ensuring it is still fundamentally there to allow other teams to still be in the mix and to ensure financial sustainability

Quite frustrating as it piqued my interest but I hadn’t being paying attention properly, Liverpool playing to such a poor standard can have that affect.

Our home record reads

Played 8 – Won 2 Drawn 3 Lost 3 GS 10 GA 16 Points 9

SFC’s home record this season

Played 7 – Won 6 Drawn 0 Lost 1 GS 11 GA 4 Points 18

I’d easily put Werder Bremen before Wolfsburg – as would most of the world’s population, most of whom have a better chance of knowing who Bremen are – and the current season’s results would say the same. Hell, it would even say that six teams are currently better than Bayern and Wolfsburg… and they’d probably be true.

Germany haven’t really had a “top team” for years, and yet so many people (whether they actually watch the league or not) still consider it one of the world’s top leagues. Goes to show that there are always exceptions to what people think should be the case, and why a constant one or two horse race isn’t necessarily the answer to the A-League’s woes. Even Turkey doesn’t have that problem (how many of you had heard of Besiktas, the current champions, before they’d played against Manchester United). Popular isn’t necessarily the same as powerful.

I fear the discussion of A-League salary caps is nearing the status of “done to death,” if it’s not already at that point, too. We’re aware that it keeps getting lifted little by little, and that it isn’t a permanent situation (until expansion is at a certain point, and the league/clubs can appropriately sustain the cap’s abolishment), so I’m not sure why this dead horse keeps being beaten.

The complex is worth that much .. the land and club are free… Simmo from a thread I made some time ago http://www.theroar.com.au/2009/07/22/will-the-mariners-centre-of-excellence-work/

“”"”….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.

The building will cost about 18 million … but staffing it will be aside from Mariner staff will be Newcastle University with thw school of medice. TAFE will also have some input I think.

I guess the Mariners will borrow much of the building cost as they have parntersips in place already with San Polo from Brazil.

The motel is planed to make enough money to pay the loan and provide a sourse of funding long term for the Mariners.

The Mariners Centre of Football Excellence http://wm.a-league.com.au/HAL/CCM/ccm_081222_enc.wmv will ensure we will always be one of the great clubs… remember we are investing 50 to 60 million dollars in a football academy…

Back in the 80’s the NSL did not have to compete with the J-League, K-League, China & Middle East in order get quality players. HAL does and that is why we are losing good Aussie players to these leagues and why we need to get the salary cap up.

In news today, it looks like Skoko will be joining the new club. The club is also trying to lure Dukes but not as a Marquee.
The club is hoping that motivation to win a title back in their home town, and not money, will be enough to lure the players.

If they can pull this off this it will be quite a coup and leave room for a Marquee signing.
Who knows – they might be be putting out the feelers to Bresciano to become the Marquee.

http://www.theage.com.au/sport/soccer/heart-warms-to-viduka-bid-20091126-julu.html

However, what has not kept up with time; is the Newspaper space given to Football… Old habits don’t change easily with old football folk like me… Although I live on the Gold Coast I still buy the Sydney papers (Daily Telegraph) the space given to Football has not changed since 1974 except briefly for the 2006 football world cup…

I still buy the paper today (DT) only to find Football buried back in the last six to eight pages searching for football items.. Before it comes NRL, Grooky, Union, Cricket, Golf ect. ect. do you get my drift…

This is the major problem with Football in Australia, it is still treated appallingly by the press, which does not allow the natural flow or build up of excitement leading up to the weekend fixtures … there is no natural press promotion that is so often enjoyed by the other codes in the print media, and no FTA TV coverage..

But I do agree with you in “ALL” that you say a higher salary cap would help greatly with the next TV deal…

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KB