By Davidde Corran
March 22nd 2010 @ 5:02am
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How a town outside Venice could save the A-League
If you cross back over to the Italian mainland from Venice and then take the freeway northeast for about half an hour, you’ll eventually arrive at Portogruaro.
The Stadio Piergiovanni Mecchia, home of local side Portogruaro-Summaga, stands as one of the first main sights you’ll see as you enter the town. However very few in this rather well off community pay the ground much attention. Even on match day.
Think Lyon but before Olympique Lyonnais’ revolution about a decade ago. The only difference is Portogruaro is less than a tenth the size.
While on a good day the club gets around 1500 fans to a game, financially the club remains secure. All their players and employees are paid on time thanks to investment from a local furniture company with a burgeoning European profile.
Right now the 20-year old outfit are fighting for promotion in Italy’s third division with two Serie A size clubs, Verona with 15,000 season ticket holders and Pescara with 8,000.
From Portogruaro head a couple hundred kilometres south past Verona and Modena and you’ll eventually arrive at Sassuolo, home of US Sassuolo Calcio.
Here replace Italy’s old Serie C with Serie B and Verona with Torino and you’ve got an almost identical story to that of Portogruaro’s.
They are two small clubs standing tall in a land of falling giants.
While both Portogruaro and Sassuolo have Socceroos on their books, the ability to help Australian football doesn’t end there.
These two clubs are emblematic of Italian football’s future. They are calcio’s best hope and the A-League could learn a thing or two from them.
This is not a discussion on the quality of Italian football (yes, the top teams in Italy have fallen behind the best in Europe but few leagues offer such depth in technical and tactical quality). The real problem with the game in Italy is poor administration and looming financial disaster.
For starters the main reason why some of Italy’s richest men used to invest in football clubs, the ability to make money easily through tax breaks and the like, no longer exists.
While, with a few notable exceptions, TV money keeps most of the top flight clubs afloat, below that disaster looms large for many of Italy’s smaller, yet significant clubs.
Take Gallipoli for example, the Serie B side hasn’t paid its players since August.
Right now Italian football looks a lot like the leaning tower of Pisa – both are leaning perilously over the edge and despite ‘facelifts’, they will eventually reach their expiry date.
Yet there is hope in Italy and it comes in the form of these smaller clubs like Portogruaro. Through strong financial investment and smart finances, they could show the way to some of their more experienced peers.
All this has been achieved without significant income from TV money and that is where the A-League can learn. Here are a couple of examples:
In a few months Sassuolo’s signing of Carl Valeri might prove to be a shrewd piece of business. Even if they do achieve promotion, expect Valeri’s club to look to on sell the player for a seven-figure number if he gets some game time at the World Cup.
Meanwhile, just like the Agnelli family used Juventus to grow the profile of their Fiat company, other smaller businesses are now investing in Italian football clubs to expand their horizons.
While Australian football clubs exist in a better TV climate, AU$20 million a year would be amazing for Italy’s lower divisions, they shouldn’t rely on it for survival and development. The key is investment from companies which receive a lot out of the promotion of being involved in a club.
Australian football needs to tap into this and the best way to do so is through the Asian Champions League. The promotion offered by one of Asia’s biggest regions is a marketer’s dream and could take Australian football clubs to the next level.
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Midfielder said | March 22nd 2010 @ 5:47am | Report comment
Davvide
I think making the ACL is considered the best part of the A-League and what binds it together… why Fat Tony (Clive Palmer) runs the Fold Coast… and why gov pits in so much money…
AndyRoo said | March 22nd 2010 @ 8:31am | Report comment
I am not sure if outside investors pumping money in is the answer though. That has been the undoing of clubs before when they have a wage bill not sustainable from their support so as soon as said investors run out of spare change the club goes into a serious spiral.
whiskeymac said | March 22nd 2010 @ 10:03am | Report comment
Am i right in surmising that you are saying (i) small towns with big corporate backing survive despite miniscule crowds. (ii) the secret to happy commercial backing being potential exposure across the continent you play in.
if so, then I think the HAl has that already but with the added bonus of better crowds and a better TV deal, without inflated wages. Not saying we cant learn form other clubs, and i think we shld always be looking to improve, but what we can learn, and are getting better at, is to leverage transfer $ back into the game and try and develop grass root and community ties.
if SFC and NQ both lost about 5-6M this season, and had succesful seasons despite their varying positions on the table etc, you need to keep the sponsors happy.
Axel V said | March 22nd 2010 @ 10:10am | Report comment
Very interesting article.
Does the furniture company finance the club at a significant loss? Are the crowd numbers not so important when they have sponsorships and TV deals that dwarf the crowd revenue in comparison?
Smart of them to have a Socceroo that may(or may not) sky rocket in value after the World Cup, perhaps the A-League could take a more professional approach when scouting for under rated players, develope them and sell them for much higher as another source of club income.
Clubs like Arsenal, Ajax and PSV buy gifted players for peanuts, (e.g less than 5 million AUD) and end up selling them for 50 million plus (or at any profit)! Of course the scale of finance down here is completely different, but the same rule could apply for buying somone for $100,000 and selling them for $500,000. Is it true that Beijing get paid 10x more than the A-League salary cap?
Dogz R Barkn said | March 22nd 2010 @ 10:33am | Report comment
The one indisputable fact is that Serie C clubs and Eerstedivisie clubs (2nd tier of Dutch football), have crowds that are either on par with the A-League, or far, far less than the A-League, and yet they sustain wage levels that are around that of the A-League, or slightly higher.
But – this is the big but – they invariably are owned by wealthy people who are happy to fund the inevitable operating loss that occurs each year.
I just can’t believe that that can be in anyway sustainable over the long term.
Surely the lesson for Australian clubs is not to go down that route, rather than embracing it.
Surely two different clubs like the Victory and the Mariners are showing how to thrive in the A-League?
Mick said | March 22nd 2010 @ 10:52am | Report comment
Davidde,
The A-League has had a few problems but does not need ’saving’. Your Italian example seems pretty irrelevant. Fans are the way forward, not corporate dollars.
Dogz R Barkn said | March 22nd 2010 @ 10:58am | Report comment
Mick
that could probably be better phrased – all professional sports need corporate dollars – but what you are probably talking about is private ownership, or more accurately, having a situation where your existence relies on the benevolence of wealthy backers, rather than being self-sustaining through your football operations.
Ben of Phnom Penh said | March 22nd 2010 @ 11:18am | Report comment
I think the key in this article is about investment from medium sized businesses that are ingrained in the local community. It means that the corporate engagement can also have an emotional component, as opposed to a purely economic one. It is also about reciprocal arrangements. The medium sized businesses want a higher profile and the growth of the local club provides that; the clubs want long term financial security in which a solid local business can play a role.
The question therefore is how do you ensure that the right type of business is engaged, particularly in the context of Asia. In the past, and hopefully all of next year, the A-League has been shown on Australia Network and clubs are seen on a multitude of channels when playing in the ACL. This provides far greater scope for exposure in the region than a domestic audience alone affords. It is important that clubs align themselves with businesses that benefit from this exposure to achieve greater synergies. Someone who has cash and loves football too often shall not suffice.
AndyRoo said | March 22nd 2010 @ 12:36pm | Report comment
That makes more sense but that wasn’t clear from the article, which did covera lot of topics.
I don’t actually see anything attractive about a team with very little support doing better than a team with more support because they have found investors that will likely never get their money back.
I am more in the Dogz camp for sure. Sustainability is key and in most cases in the A league that means getting a good stadium deal. Manage to get crowds like MV and you reach that point where you are an attractive summer tennant.
Benny said | March 22nd 2010 @ 12:34pm | Report comment
Would love to have my company’s name linked to Kantarovski’s walking in defence or Cole’s long balls to no one.
Dogz R Barkn said | March 22nd 2010 @ 12:40pm | Report comment
The last thing I would have expected to have seen on this thread was someon have a go at Kantarovski!! He’s still just a kid!!
Benny said | March 22nd 2010 @ 12:50pm | Report comment
Over.Rated.
Ben of Phnom Penh said | March 22nd 2010 @ 5:54pm | Report comment
I agree, Dogz. Whether he’s overrated or not is a question that will be answered in a few years time, not now
Davstar said | March 22nd 2010 @ 7:06pm | Report comment
Very interesting article good read