Should Australian clubs be privately owned?

Marcel great post. .

I think at the heart of this discussion is a concern that we all share, that we want our clubs to be real clubs, not just franchises or worse brands . But I also think that this discussion involves 2 parallel arguments, emotional and economic, that both have their separate realities. In terms of economics then its misguided to believe our clubs can exist without private ownership. Just see how successful Gaz and his 3k mates are at running a club if Palmer pulls out. Even for celebrated models like FC Barcelona, membership and season ticket sales covers barely 20% of annual expenditure. Truth is we are 25yrs away from this discussion having any relevance. And unless cost/wages structures change dramatically in that time the answer will still be no. As for the emotional, well yes Id love for folks to feel more connected to their clubs. As an SFC fan i dont feel alienated by our owner. Quite the contrary, they have such a low profile that Im always curious to know more about them...maybe thats the secret to private ownership . I would love to have had a say in the decision to effectively dump Littbarski for Butcher. but its just an emotional game. Even then just because I vote for my local MP doesnt make me feel like i am running the country. And the Ebbsfleet experiment pretty much proved that football fans are not capable of making the hard decisions required to run a business.

Apparenty on Fox News it's been denied. Thought this kind of story has come out once or twice before in regards to the GCU which is another downside ofhaving 1 big owner rather than broadbased ownership (members or private) A bit dissapointed to be honest. The Roar have a lot of spots to fill and guys like Cullina, Porter, Thwaite and Traore would fit in quite well.

Barcelona is owned by its members or "socios" as they call them. A randomly selected amount of members attend every board meeting and have a say in the running of the club. I know you cannot compare Barcelona with A-League clubs. However, I think allowing members having a say in the running of the club gives people extra incentive to pay that annual membership fee. It also helps with community engagement and they give the board an idea what the common folk have on their mind. I'm not saying that there's no place for private ownership. I'm saying that private ownership shouldn't lead to a dictatorship because that alienates the fans. Without fans you cannot run a football club.

It looks like GCU gone, Hearts next year will leave it at 10 clubs, Rovers the following season will bring it up to 11, at which point I suspect they will go take another look at Canberra. But this is precisely the problem with private owndership - on what basis would a wealthy individual be willing to lose 3 or 4 million dollars per annum providing life support to a soccer club? Billionaires generally become that by having a tight control on finances, not by pissing it up the wall. This spells the start of the end of the private ownership model in the A-League (the truth is, it may well signal the start of the end of the A-League itself).

On some levels this doesn't make sence because he just bought a resort very close to Skilled Park. I kind of hope it's true. I think they are in for a big struggle crowd wise next season and it just doesn't seem viable with that stadium deal in place. I disagree with Hoolifan though because that Northern Gold Coast corridor Ormeau etc is growing massivly with young families. Their is definitely potential their but the reality is any team is pushing it up hill with such a horrible stadium deal. The Titans seem to manage but you could have been mistaken for thinking the Winter Olympics was brought to you by the Gold Coast Titans (and this was Brisbane TV) during their membership drive. The Stadium deal is tough on them so a start up football team run by a very unlikeable owner is always going to struggle. If Fowler ends up at SFC (and playes for them in the ACL) I think that would be great. And Gold Coast United leaving the comp...again not many are going to shed a tear though it would be great if someone would keep their NYL team going. The GCU players coming on to the market could be a great shot in the arm for the Roar. And for Fury losing Fowler I hope they get Minnicon in return.

There might be more to this than meets the eye, perhaps Palmer is having short term cash flow problems?

With Disaster there is learning. We can learn alot whats happened with Ebbsfleet and i have always said that their needs to be a balance between private and community ownership. Those who have invested in A-League clubs did so knowing that there is no short term gain. It is vital that the community become more involved, as in part ownership of clubs. It is the only way for football to work considering mainstream medias lack of involvement because of other corporate interests. The A-League is still young. Its not like that it cant turn a profit, because we have the Asians Champions purse to consider which will only grow in status. Its easy for billionaires like Clive to write off football expenses as tax deductions, but the average Joe is no different. This year you may receive tax back, and if you dont it means you earned too much, so, go out and reward yourself with a PS3, fifa10 and football manager. 1000 bucks well spent...or if you could, invest the cash into a football club, claim it as a tax deduction the following year, and play executive football manager from the sidelines for real. You may even have to claim it as income earned.

found this old article...might still be some hope for them http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2009/12/22/171995_gold-coast-soccer.html

Interesting that Gold Coast United soccer club is about to become defunct. Even a billionaire has only a certain amount of patience. There is utterly no interest on the Coast for soccer. There is only enough for RL and it is a heartland. The Gold Coast is and ALWAYS was going to be fool's gold. AFL you should have stuck another side in Geelong before ever going there. DAFT!

Ebbsfleet has been a complete disaster and the club is on the verge of collapse. They have had to sell their best players and have reverted to semi pro despite the fact their operating cost are a small fraction of what it costs to run an a -l eague club. The model is completely unsustainable both financially and operationally. It is unlikely to be more than a pub team by next year. Based on a $200 dollar membership then SFC would have needed about 50,000 members this year just to break even. I dont understand where this antagonism towards private ownership has come from. The A-league exists today, entirely and solely because of these people who have been prepared to put their money into the game with absolutely no short term expectation of profit. They should be thanked not pilloried. Just how many sausage sizzles and lamington drives do you think it will take for your community club to pay for that marquee striker. Some of you guys are living in a dream world.

I agree with james, Ebbsfleet United is the way to go. FC Barcelona has almost the same membership/ownership structure. Fan/member owners is a lot better. If the club can't come up with enough money, then it's the community's fault and they suffer. It fair. Furthermore, the fans get the feeling that the club belongs to them. However, you need some private money to start the club, so obviously anyone who provides this money should own a big share of the club. Ideally, the association (.e.g the FFA) would provide the start-up money and donate ownership to the club members.

Seems there are very few clubs in the world (football or other codes) that run at a profit without some form of financial assistance or investment - look at Chelsea, ManU, Melb Storm, Swans etc. etc. So the A-League is doing very well to have at least a couple that are.

Yes. It's ugly and I question it's sustainability, but that seems the plan. At least the FFA are better than the NBL in that they have stepped in and kept teams going when they change ownership. Letting clubs like Adelaide or the Roar just disspear would be much worse.

I think for any club going bust the model of www.myfootballclub.co.uk is the best model, charge $200 to anyone willing to pay to have a stake in the club (the website explains it more in depth). basically once you pay the fee your votes decide players signed, kits, sacking the coach etc. You can even propse something to the board (which you voted on) if it has enough support in the forums. Couple this model with a few investors and the FFA would be able to stop cropping up clubs

I like the German model, 51% must remain with the members and the other 49% can be private investors. Obviusly right now private ownership makes sense for the FFA because they need a lot of capital that they don't have to start and maintain a national competition

ditto.