Gold Coast United are A-League's biggest mistake

Hmmm, I don't agree with all of it but he's doing a pretty good impression fo not being a crazy fool. Some of what he says seems on the money. Seems he cares at least a little. http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/news/1023861/Palmer-demands-A-League-reform

Palmer's mining companies gross about $1.2 billion dollars a year which is about $4 million a day, which is about what GCU lost last season.

She's not an AFL plant, she's a news limited bush. :)

The issue with GCU is, in essence, very simple: Clive Palmer is a mining man, with a background in property development. His brother in law, Clive Mensink, is a mining executive. Neither has ever had to market anything. Neither has ever been involved in running a sports club. Miron Bleiberg is a coach of limited ability. He made his money by selling carpets. Again, no marketing experience, no experience running a sports club. His spell at Queensland Roar was fraught to say the least. They lost their first marketing manager after just two months. His replacement, lasted less than a year. Clearly the club can't retain qualified marketing personnel. In any normal business, a CEO who presided over a crash and burn of this magnitude would be out the door in 2 seconds flat, but Palmer appointed his brother in law. Very, very unwise - and very surprising for a man who has been good at making money, even if he started with a lot in the first place. But then again, Clive is the man who bankrolled the "Joh for PM" campaign, and if that wasn't a lapse of judgement, then I don't know what is.

I don't reckon anyone buys a football (any sporting?) club expecting to make money. They usually do it for reasons as diverse as "stroking their ego", or as a networking business tool, or simply b/c they love the Game. Last month, business advisory firm, PKF, conducted its 9th annual survey asking Football club finance directors in the UK about their club’s financial position and the forthcoming season The findings of the survey include: * the overwhelming majority of clubs operate with the expectation of making a loss, with only 22% of Finance Directors expecting to make a pre-tax profit in the next accounting period * this attitude of "expecting to make a loss" may lead to increased scrutiny from the tax ofice (HMRC), which has shown it will quickly take action against clubs which have failed to pay tax on time and over a quarter of respondents (27%) admit to being late with their tax payments. NOTE: last season the HMRC tried to wind up EPL club, Portsmouth for being behind in their tax payments - the percentage of late tax payers is higher (40%) for Division 1 clubs and less for EPL clubs * half the clubs surveyed now think that it is important to attract external investors and, with the exception of the EPL, a significant proportion of respondents in every league are actively looking for new external investment – so most clubs are clearly still cautious about the state of their finances. ------------------ And, let's not forget most UK football clubs are 100+ years old and have entrenched support within their communities. Source: http://www.pkf.co.uk/pkf/news/press_release/football_survey_2010_568

Your implying he has a plan. I don't think that's the case given he sold memberships and tickets for the stand he closed after one home game..... doesn't strike me as well planned. Cutting costs and surviving until the well run teams like MV boost revenues is a way of becoming profitable. One of the baseball teams in the US is being accused of this and it is concern in a franchise league that some teams don't pull there weight but get alrgely the same revenue as those that do. I don't think that is what is going on here though given the chop change nature of his regime.

Using the word investment is in terms of investing in shares - its a gamble but one day those shares might be worth something. If clive builds the Manchest United of Australia than maybe the club will be worth many millions more than what it is now to banks and international investors and sponsors that will want to be part of the club.

THe point is Clive is losing money running the club. By cost cutting he is stil losing money. If he continues this way will he keep losing money? Yes, will he ever make money this way? No. So if he wants a football club that maybe worth something he needs to invest in it and hope the investment can turn into some equity. Its a massive gamble but surely he knew that if he is so clever.

What cricket franchise and what athletics franchise are you talking about? They won't need a 25k seated stadia. The Bulls have the Gabba they would be lucky to draw 100 patrons to the venue between them. Make no mistake this venue was Demetriou's doing a waste of QTP funds in a Rugby League town.

My understanding is that: 1. Qld Govt is spending $60 mill on a redevelopment worth $130 mill, which remains the property of the Qld Govt 2. the stadium will be rented by the Suns for six months of the year and is available for cricket and athletics for the other six months 3. it will be part of a future Commonwealth games bid 4. the AFL has guaranteed all upkeep on the stadium in perpetuity. To my eyes, it sounds like an excellent model for all future stadium redevelopments.

If that is true, Jimbo, then Palmer is a one man justification for the mining tax.

Shooting the messenger much?

Mike hasn't agreed to wear the Roar tracker so readers can keep tabs on him to make sure he's attending games. But from what I can gather going through his garbage* I think he's been in Brisbane of late and I know he has attended Roar games when he's been in town. Since he's from West Sydney he probably follows SFC to a degree but there not the most loveable team..... * joking,from past articles.

Thanks for that "heads up", True Tah. I never realised Mike was providing his analysis of the A-League from outside the country! Wow. That's very interesting, indeed.

That's simply not true. Simply follow the wonderful match-day analysis written each week by Tony Tannous that will, often, attract 100+ posts. The majority of Football fans, who now attend A-Leage matches, are keen students of the game and are enjoy discussing the technical & tactical aspects of a match with peole, who also display a deep football knowledge.

Fussball Mike actually lives in Japan, so I think it would be fairly hard for him to attend games on a regular basis. Im sure when he returns to Australia, he would make every effort to attend as many HAL games as he can.

Billy the reason people like Clive Palmer are supposed to be billionaires is not losing money...they don't make their money by running loss-making ventures. On a bigger picture, Clive has a reputation for taking litigation, he has threatened to sue the Qld Govt, the FFA and maybe even the WA Govt. Its not as easy of spending $$$ to build up a club. In the UK, some professional clubs still draw less than 20K, and they have had 100 years of being in the community, in a sport that absolutely dominates the sporting market.

jimbo how do you actually know how much money Clive Palmer makes in a day?

MadeWT I would be disappointed if Newcastle were to fold, but that's the nature of commerce - some businesses survive others fail. Heck, even the bluest of blue-chip IBs on Wall St - Bears Sterns & Lehman Brothers - hit the dust after making poor business decisions. In 1996, AFL club, Fitzroy was liquidated (some will claim the club "relocated" to Brisbane, but many prominent past players & administrators will have nothing to do with the new Brisbane club) .... and, Fitzroy was a club with a proud successful history in the VFL: 8 Premierships, 8 Brownlow Medals, 4 Coleman Medallists In 1982. VFL club, South Melbourne was liquidated and moved to Sydney (again, many prominent past players & administrators will have nothing to do with the new Sydney club) .... South, too, had a proud & successful history: 3 Premierships, 9 Brownlow Medals. I don't know enough about NRL club history, but I do know several teams have also "merged", which is often a business euphemism for "liquidated".

Tony that was for the Roosters v Panthers game - Panthers are based way in Penrith, whereas the Roosters generally dont have too many supporter. In any event, 23,500 is bigger than any crowd that attended any HAL game this year.