FFA, not Palmer, to blame for Gold Coast's death

Now I have just lost it. The FFA have decided to call a presser at 9pm tonight. Sounds good doesn't it? Oh wait, isn't there an A-League game on then?? Even the FFA don't know when they're own games are on. Or don't care. The FFA are quickly losing me here, and I have lost count of the amount of times I have defended FFA and football in general to mates. But if they can;t be bothered to run things properly or at least appear to then...

I think more definitely needs to be done in terms of advertising, especially on FTA and around town. The number of times I've been asked for match times whilst wearing my Glory jersey is good but also frustrating.

"1 Operating in Asia which has provided many unforeseen obstacles to work out & overcome." Would point out that the list of sports administrators in this country with extensive experience in Asia is nil. The only source of such administrators is the FFA itself and they're growing them as we speak.

Definitely agree with this, there is no sign he ever listened to advice, even from his own coach! Miron told him time and again not to try and make decision in a business mindframe but rather a football mindframe but it had to be Palmer's way or nothing at all!

Bela I agree with what you've said, and in the interim, there's probably no other choice - such is the fate of a newish competition.

Davidde, its one thing to argue the counterpoint of what the vast majority appear to think and believe, but at least back up your position with some strong arguments. Surely thats why you have 'expert' under your photo...

To be fair, I don't think it's fair to blame FFA for choosing the Gold Coast location. The area is fine and there is no reason why it can't support an A-League club. Under the Clive model in season 1 of, "This is my team with my players, come watch it and if you don't like it piss off", they attracted crowds between 5-7k (bigger than nearly all NSL crowds) on a regular basis. They could have easily maintained this supporter base over the years, and with actual community engagement, normal A-League ticket prices ($20 Adult), specials (kids free) and all that, they could have easily reached 10k fans with a little bit of effort. The mistake from the FFA was granting the license so cheaply without any conditions or objectives that have to be met (should they have ever approved GCU with a $160,000 a game stadium rent deal?), it had to be planned very carefully in how they are going to do their business, and giving a billionaire the freedom to do as he wished and neglecting and deliberately pissing off the fans (ironic that the owners are calling for more control) has proved to be a massive failure. I hope that mistakes are learned, I really do. The problem with the A-League right now is that all clubs (not all but on the average) are losing $3 million dollars a year, now apparently $1.3m of this could be closed with the next TV Deal, but that is in doubt now, but even if that were so it would mean that the clubs are still losing $1.7m a year. If they want to cut costs they can slash player wages, but that would mean losing quality A-League players, talented youth and the standard becoming rubbish, which would mean less crowds and stadium, sponsorship and TV revenue, meaning the game shrinks. In the MLS, the majority of the teams now play in their own boutique stadiums, with the capacities fitting their fan base (most are 15,000-30,000 capacity), their operating costs is much less than what it costs to rent, the atmospheres are very intimate and they encourage their fans to behave like football fans to stand and sing! 15 years ago MLS clubs were playing in 60,000-80,000 stadiums, that were 80% empty and the clubs were being bled dry by the insane rental costs, with business owners paying for it and then later pulling out of the club, sound familiar? By getting a good stadium deal or owning their own stadium, it gives the clubs a chance to grow a loyal supporter base, meaning more stronger ticket sales, better game day experience, sponsorship venue increased and looking better on TV, meanwhile they save $1 million a year on rental costs. As far as long term sustainability goes, it makes sense! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_League_Soccer#Stadiums

We must glue you to that seat one of these days, don't want to throw a hip out! Really, Palmer must bear the first and last responsibility for what he has achieved. It was, at the end of the day, his club and no one else could run it for him.

"FFA, not Palmer, to blame for Gold Coast’s death" says Davidde Corran, and I nearly fell off my chair shaking with laughter & rage. And, in other breaking news .. * "US regulators, not avarice and lack of a moral compass of Wall St Bankers, is to blame for GFC & collapse of blue chip companies" * "Rocks, and not I am to blame for the sinking of the Costa Concordia" says ex-Captain, Francesco Schettino Yup we live in an age where everyone wants to blame someone else for not holding their hand and telling them they're useless. Clive Palmer is the owner of a business that failed. He, and only he, is to blame for the business collapsing. For some journos, it seems, the FFA is always to blame ... in fact, I'm sure I saw Ben Buckley lurking around "the grassy knoll" in Dallas on 22 November 1963 ...?? Come on journos surely there's a story there to be told?

Club presidents come and go, none are more loudmouthed that Kennett for instance but they don't own the club, when the president goes, the club remains. The problem is that we've chosen the franchise model, not necessarily for bad reasons, but this is the downside of that model. The NSL demonstrated the downside of the club ownership model, there's no model that's risk free, and look around the world, almost all football clubs are losing money.

The World league of loud mouthed Presidents would by a doozy! I think his training and experience would hold him in good stead, but I tell you what, you're up against the best of the best.

Clive could have the breakaway league he desires. "The Loud mouthed Presidents League". Clive a shoein to win the Aussie comp. Then on of course to the Asian version the ALMPL. Clive could well win this one(Although I"m sure in some countries he would face stiff competition) & then onto the World equivalent the WLMPL.

To me the FFA are damned if they do, damned if they don't. The timing could have been better perhaps, but if the FFA had waited and the game copped another 4 weeks of Palmers antics, the FFA would have been blamed for not saying or doing something about Clive Palmer.

Other codes have their fair share of loud mouthed presidents hogging the limelight and occasionally having a go at league administrators - but there's no doubt that CP sits in a category of his own, and his antics could not be tolerated any longer.

I suppose FFA are not entirely blameless but the fact is that John O'Neill, Andrew Demetriou and David Gallop would NEVER EVER put up with the recalcitrance shown by Clive Palmer and Frank Lowy should not be expected to either.

No apaway - that's all the FFA's fault. Unfortunate as it is that its happened at such a crucial time and when the A-League was actually on the up again, I think the genuine fans of the A-League will take it in its stride and the league will go on without Palmer. Gorman is a good administrator and could caretake GCU till the end of the season. I am more determined than ever to get along to some games in the next few weeks and support the League. Go Heart! They need us now more than ever. I think Lowy's legal team is as good as Palmer's and he acted on good advice and isn't throwing money away. Will be interetsing to see if GCU field a team this week and continue to play out the remaining four games. At least GCU aren't going to make the finals!

Well said JAJI. Agree wholeheartedly. And what about Palmer not talking to the FFA, changing his shirt and stadium advertising without permission of the FFA or the league and contavening existing contracts. The FFA should be suing Palmer, not the other way around.

MC Spot on the issue of CP has two elements and the decision to put a team on the Gold Coast was the reason all this has happened. As for CP ... a waste of space regarding football... Many many wrongs in this story .... but Davvide your lack of analysis of how poor CP ran the club says a lot about you.

Good rant---I support what you say. Zero effort on behalf of the FFA to promote the HAL. And most importantly zero effort on the Gold Coast over the past 3 years where we have been bombard with AFL and NRL TV commercials on Gold Coast TV. The FFA have produced a good commercial "We Are Football" and I can tell you I had not seen it on Gold Coast TV from the start of the season to this point. I had to google it to see it on YouTube. It only appeared in Melbourne and Sydney as a guess, where it was not needed as much as it is on the Gold Coast. The FFA are a shambles when it comes to promotion---the blame for the demise of GCU lays squarely at the feet of the FFA because of no HAL TV media placement on the Gold Coast---a new region for football that needed the promotion more than any where else. And everyone blames Clive Palmer for it after he has spent $18m supporting grass roots football with its 8k+ Football players and on GCU.

I think the point is that the Socceroos were paying a game in Melbourne, which doesn't really happen all that often, and no one knew about it. This is what annoys me the most about the FFA. Forget about GCU for a second. I lived in Brisbane from the inception of the A-League and being a keen sports fan, went along to the Roar games. However, if you weren't an avid follower, you wouldn't have known there was a game on. As friends have advised, this was the case even when the Roar were in the midst of The Streak. Nowehre near enough work was being done in that regard. You may say it was Brisbane (or then Queensland's) responsibility to advertise but they were on the bones of their backsides being rorted by the stadium deal that needed 20k attendances to break even, which needed much more advertising to achieve. Someone at the FFA could have noticed this and leant a hand surely? For the improvement of the league? The same thing yesterday. Ludicrous timing. I even responded to a Buckley tweet about all this GCU mess halfway through the first half of the game last night! Put it this way, the average AFL fan in Melbourne last night would have had no idea the Socceroos were in town. There was ZERO build up, advertising (apart from outside AAMI), billboards, tv ads, anything. However I'm pretty sure the average AFL fan in Melbourne would have known that GCU had been kicked out of the League. Is that really the way the FFA want it? Seems farcical to me. Then we had a pretty entertaining display of football last night but all the talk was about GCU/Palmer/FFA. Just beggars belief at times and I think people are getting pretty sick of all the blaming. We cop it from the politicians and now we're copping it from football which is meant to be an escape from all that tripe. Sometimes I wonder if the FFA are actually out to better the game, or have people on the ground who give a hoot. End rant