As the current season is drawing to a close with the final series still to play and lots of excitement to come in April, one shadow hangs over the A-League – Gold Coast United’s future and thus whether there’ll be nine or 10 teams next season.
Is it going to go back to a nine-team competition with a bye each week and a drop in attendances as a result? With less games to play and some teams’ supporters missing out on their team out on the park, it can’t be a good look for re-negotiating a new television deal.
To be fair to the FFA, it was left without choice of stripping Gold Coast United owner Clive Palmer of his club as his indiscretions were bringing the game into disrepute. Since he resisted all attempts to stop his statements, the FFA had to act to in order not to lose credibility as the ultimate guardian of the code in Australia.
However, by acting when they did, they got themselves into a bind even though they negotiated with the players and coach to complete the season. Here we are now with a season drawing to a close and another one beginning and we’re in a state of limbo.
Sure the FFA may be able to kick-start a new franchise in Western Sydney, but it’ll be touch and go. As seen previously when things went pear shaped, it’s not as easy as it should be. Once you go with it, better you don’t look back of what should have or could have been.
The FFA can’t afford another ill conceived franchise on shaky foundations. Whatever the FFA decides, time is of the essence. No 10th team can make the proper preparations to have a competitive team next year unless they start their set ups now.
Now I’m going to go out on a limb and try to demonstrate that a Western Sydney team is not a corollary to a Gold Coast demise. As a matter of fact, I’ll propose here that a Gold Coast franchise, if ran properly, should be easier to make a success than many of the existing teams in the competition now.
In order to argue this let me just say that had Palmer not just used one side of an equation of his sponsorship of the team, that is using it as a tax break, but the other side too, as a revenue raiser, he would have been successful both on the pitch and with attendances.
When he put his Minerology logo on the jerseys and around the stadium, he abandoned any serious thought of actually finding sponsors who may want to promote their goods and services.
Furthermore, when he closed down most of the stadium to save money, he damaged the brand for spectators and on TV broadcasts. How can the FFA get a good price on a new TV deal when it looks as they’re playing to an empty stadium?
In all likelihood a better deal will be available to hire Skilled Park for next year with the new government in Queensland, but quite apart from that seats in the stadium should be seen as assets to be traded off for sponsorships.
This idea could be used for any stadium in Australia but especially on the Gold Coast where interstate and overseas tourists are numbering many multiples of the local population, which is around 600,000.
If a team has hardcore support of, say, 5000 patrons, that leaves, in Skilled Park for instance, a surplus of 22,000 seats on game day. These seats have been paid for but are idle and even if given away, don’t represent any losses any more.
Use them as freebies by tourism operators who are in the “ticketing business”. For example, theme parks which number six or more and have single entrance tickets at around $60 could incorporate GCU vouchers as part of their admission fee for free entry to the home games.
The theme parks would be given the surplus seats as a value added items in their tickets as freebies. Of course they’d expect sponsorship dollars in return. As we know from the club opened the stadium for free and 12,000 showed up, people like to get something for nothing.
Tourists would come to our home games as part of their holiday experience and activity. Theme parks would get an increase of attendances too as now their tickets have more value. They’d also get extra crowds by being on TV, plus they could provide half time entertainment to publicise their shows.
The tourism industry bring in approximately $3.5 billion to the Gold Coast area. Interstate visitors, many from Sydney and Melbourne, are already football fans. Surely they’d come to see a game, especially free with free transport, too. Add to that overseas visitors, a bulk of whom from Asia where football has a monopoly of any ball game, and one can see bumper crowds at Gold Coast home games.
Obviously the voucher system I alluded to for theme parks could be used for tour operators, hotel chains etc and more related to tourism.
The problem until now with people connected to the Gold Coast team was that they only factored in the local fans who admittedly didn’t show in their many thousands at a lot of home games.
But using lateral thinking and the hordes of visitors on the Gold Coast at any one time, they should have been considered as potential attendees. So my template takes care of that.
But now I give you another idea to think about. The Asian professional leagues by and large are successful ones. People over there don’t have to compete with rugby and AFL, for example.
In a number of cases these clubs in Asia with plenty of money buy foreign players for their rosters. Matt Simon of Central Coast Mariners was a case in point. Josh Kennedy is another of many.
A lot of these imports are Aussies and many more will ply their trade in overseas teams on our doorsteps.
Why wouldn’t it be a viable option for one of these cashed up clubs to buy into GCU and thereby have access to their players for loan periods, off-season stints and exchange deals?
Why not if part/full owners these clubs could have their good players play in Australia in a Gold Coast team, thereby guaranteeing a connection for traveling fans? Another way to have more people in the stadium, surely.
Furthermore, there are immigration benefits to potential owner/investors which could sway them. When and if GCU manages to play in the Asian Champions League, they’ll reap more benefits. The permutations of benefits are limitless.
I think by now most of you get my drift. The Gold Coast being in a unique position in a tourist mecca should consider not just the locals but the many visitors as part of their attendances.
It’s eminently doable and the FFA should consider it as a strong argument for maintaining the franchise. Even if the FFA has to temporarily stand good for any potential shortfalls they should underwrite it because it’s potentially a good business but was mismanaged by the previous owner.
Keep the franchise, follow my template and you can’t go wrong.
Kevin
Guest
Tom1 I suggested life time membership as it seems hideous to think that 2000 people maintain a clubs existence.. Those in the know, will agree that the gate makes up SFA of the running budget.. Move to a better stadium deal or move stadium , investors who today put up 2 k get in free for life, incentive is there The trouble is that the coast really doesn't have a stadium such as Marconi, ashfield, many , warringah etc as a step down ...
Tom1
Roar Rookie
I do support them but more importantly I support the code.My article was written from strictly a business view though. As a business model as outlined it is a viable enterprise. Customers will come when a product is well presented,attractive and promoted. This was lacking when Palmer had it. I've lived here on the Gold Coast for the past 2 years and I find a lot of residents here are migrants from other states and NZ.The demographics for potential fans is no different from the rest of the country. The tourists angle is the key to this business called GCU. 850000 overseas visitors and 3.5 million interstate visitors a year and I'm talking about overnight stays if you add to this daytrippers it's 10 million! Upwards of $4billion is spent by them. No other city in Australia is so dependent on tourism as its main source of revenue.This must be part of a business plan for the Gold Coast franchise.Do I care what is the make up of those punters who seat on the bleachers at Skilled Park? Not really, we have a hard core of 2000 and as indicated by earlier attendences a possible 5000 if nurtured,the rest can be temporary visitors on the Gold Coast. When you watch the game on Foxtel you're not going to analyse who is what among the crowd. With the Commonwealth Games coming to the Gold Coast the code will get a high profile promotion which will be a boost for the rest of the teams in the comp too.The Gold Coast can be awarded a major international sporting event yet not worthy of an A League team? Kevin's suggestion is not bad either.We may want to tweak the exact figure on a lifetime membership but the proposal is in the right direction.I believe a community model is beig worked on right this minute.
hunter sports
Guest
this article is so biased. you only want to save gold coast united because you support them, not because they deserve to be there.
wilson
Guest
i'd rather they invest a solid $10m in canberra then waste money trying to fund a dead cause. lets face it, the gold coast public dont want a team and theyve shown this with their feet. GCU gives the a-league bad press and i dont want this embarasment to go on for another year.
The Cattery
Roar Guru
People have to understand that accepting a 50/50 bet on an ongoing Gold Coast presence carries enormous risk, one of which might be keeping a second Sydney team out for up to five years. It might actually be worth the risk of reducing to 9 teams for one season if there is certainty of a West sydney team the following season - these are the things that the FFA will need to weigh up - but having a half decent Gold Coast bid is actually only part of the equation, and in truth, it might well be a tiny part of the equation.
Kevin
Guest
Is 2000 bucks from 2000 people that hard find? Put it in account , show it to Buckley and tell him to find the extra 1, The team keeps going, the 2000 buys tranferable lifetime membership, with next to free entry into the ground, If 2000 turn up now, then it might as well be free entry into the ground as it pays for bugger all.. The merkins selling a hotdog at 8 dollars can bugger off, and it can be byo and alcohol free if need be For bigger games they can revisit the idea At least they keep this miserable side and a 10 team league
Qantas supports Australian Football
Guest
Good work Tom1---thank God we have a positive article for a change on GCU FC and not one of the many negative ones I have to challenge each time. Why it is important to keep a GCU FC in our region---well we have a lot of talented youngsters here who need a club to aspire too... 9k in fact, who would dream of becoming a professional footballer where they were born and bred. Queensland needs two professional football teams not one for the 60k junior football players we have in Queensland... Good work Tom1---I hope Ben Buckley is reading this article of yours now he has written one himself on the Roar's sports website for an answer---what do we do with the GCU FC franchise..?
ItsCalledFootball
Roar Guru
Interesting dilemma facing the FFA. They have made it clear that they want 10 teams next season and no bye, but who do they choose - GCU, West Sydney or Canberra. If they are not acceptable then its a 9 team comp. The GCU alternative sounds like a good proposition, but the FFA are asking for $5M financial guarantees which are not forthcoming.
Tom1
Roar Rookie
I agree with your last sentence and that's why Western Sydney is a natural choice.However GC is like a satellite city of Brisbane and thus it qualifies for a second team and derby.To drive to and from Robina to Brisbane is probably quicker and easier than from Western Sydney to Moore Park. I've done both and speaking from experience. The market research is not just about populations but grassroots, economic factors and sponsorship opportunities. As I pointed out in the article sponsorships opportunities-wise the GC is second to none. The fact that it hasn't been sourced because a billionaire put up all the money was a big mistake but it can be rectified. Sponsorship is simply a business tool to increase revenue and high profile. How much coal did the paying public buy seeing "Minerology" on front of their eyes? Zilch, so it was not doing the job it was designed for. There are plenty of goods and services which can be promoted on the GC which are all consumer items.Call it discriminotory spending. Sell more TVs,put up "Sony" as another team or spruick Westpac as a bank of choice. In the Gold Coast sell tourism services. It's not rocket science, really.
The Cattery
Roar Guru
But it's a big jump from that to saying they will travel to the Gold Coast to watch A-League games.
The Cattery
Roar Guru
How do you know they did any market research? The thing is that from the inception of the A-League, each of the respective clubs that entered that first season had five year exclusivity agreements (the one town, one team policy). In that context, if you want a new team to come into the comp inside the five years, as happened with Townsville and the Gold Coast, then you are stuck with about five choices at the very most. As it happened, the FFA had bids from those two cities (and not from the others), and they got the go ahead - it was as simple as that. Mind you, with the Gold Coast being the 6th largest city in Australia, not a lot of market research is needed in working where to go next outside of the five largest capital cities (especially when the 3rd largest city is an hour down the road). Nor is any market research needed to understand that absolutely nothing would be better than having second teams in the two largest cities.
SportsFanGC
Roar Guru
With a by-law saying that there must be x amount of teams from a certain state in the top league thats not really true promotion and relegation then is it? For example if both Vic clubs get relegated and there are two Queensland clubs getting promoted, does that mean that one QLD club will miss out so that we keep a VIC club in the top level? With regard to conferences - they could happen one day far into the future. For exampe a Western Conference is a little bare at the moment with only Adelaide and Perth representing, and adding teams from the other cities to "fill" this conference is also rubbish. With regard to the salary cap I'm suggesting that it needs to be raised competition wide, but the issue I suppose from that perspective is that smaller markets may not have enough cash to fund the marquee players and an increase in cap at the same time. We have essentially two very big cities - Melbourne and Sydney, three smaller cites - Brisbane, Perth Adelaide and 4 small cities - Gold Coast, Newcastle, Canberra and Wollongong and our total population is somewhere around 22-24 million. London as a city has nearly half the AUS population in the one urban centre, not to mention that the UK total pop is about 60 million + and its jammed into an area the size of Victoria, the travel costs are much, much smaller than here. No one denies the popularity of soccer world wide, but as I have stated in the past our country and the evolution of the A-League into the future is much more similar to the MLS than to anything in Europe, Asia and South America.
Tom1
Roar Rookie
We're partially on the same page.I didn't say we should have relegation at this stage but sometime in the future. In the unlikely event that both Victorian teams would be relegated it could be a by-law that other teams from that state have to take their place. It's a matter of how you set this up within your rules. The other option would be of having two conferences divided into Eastern and Western ones and that would reduce travel and expenses. This is a good option because it's unreasonable to travel back and forth from Perth to Wellington for instance. If the state leagues were more integrated with the A league they could enter a state select 11 from their comps which play in a different season(winter). The salary cap is a different issue. We could have an exciting competition at this salary level because star players with inflated salaries don't always deliver. Berisha delivers and he came from a lower German division. With regard to population, our big cities have large populations rivalling many British cities and they have many teams in different leagues. I know that association football is second nature to them but that's what we have to aim for here. Otherwise we'll always be also rans in regard to other codes. Our code has world wide appeal and we don't milk that enough.
PeterK
Guest
Where and how do good ideas make their way to the minds of FFA? Is there a spot on the FFA website for suggestions?
SportsFanGC
Roar Guru
Tom1, promotion and relegation will not happen in our lifetime in the A-League. Why? Geography, Money and Population. You have to think in a congested sports market like Australia there is not a finite amount of sponsorship dollars, no sponsor is going to want to sponsor an A-League team that drops into the second tier. What happens if both Melbourne clubs are relegated in the same season - are you suggesting that it is viable to have a top tier with no Melbourne club represented? The TV executives would lose it. Put this in the fantasy basket and leave it there. We need to stop looking to places like Europe and Japan for what structure our league is going to take and focus greater energy on the MLS in the USA. That league faces similar issues to AUS (highly competitive sports market with other dominant established codes well ahead with TV ratings, sponsors and salaries paid to players) and is a far better example to look at for ideas on what to do with the A-League. What we should be focusing on (and I have said this multiple times) is forming a strong A-League which has somewhere between 12-14 teams. Once this is bedded down and the teams are running in a sustainable manner the next thing to do is lift the salary cap. There is no point just adding more teams or a second division, make the incentive greater for the players to play in AUS.
Tim
Guest
When initially the FFA did their market research and decided that the Gold Coast was a viable franchise it must have been a convincing argument. The tourism angle must have been part of that.I can't see how that changed now. They should revisit and activate it. Why doesn't the FFA believe this now? I think they picked the wrong owner at the start and were bedazzled by his billions. Now go back to the original study and follow the obvious. Tourist city, potential customers,right marketing. I agree with the article.
Nathan of Perth
Guest
That would affect round aggregate but not affect season aggregate nor per-match average, though.
Tom1
Roar Rookie
If a nine team competition attendences will drop because of less games. Home games of other teams against GCU with thousands of people. A ten game competition is a minimum must.However the FFA should look at this as a potential 14 team competition.Then we'll have a viable season. A 10 team competition is too short and the break is too long so continuity for the code is missing. Out of sight= out of mind. After a 14 team competition the next aim should be for 18 teams with relegation but it'd need a second tier league. Similar to the J League. It's time to bring in the State leagues initially via an FA Cup knock out competition. The code in Australia is somewhat fractured. It need not be. There are tens of thousands of fans who attend state league matches and not A League. Marketing on multiple levels with combined tickets to your 2 favourite clubs in each competition could help more participation.
Daniel
Guest
With the bye each week, the fans that would have gone to those games say if GCU were to play at Melbourne, there will no be a bye, therefore less around 9000 supporters weekly.
Sports Freak
Roar Pro
"Is it going to go back to a nine-team competition with a bye each week and a drop in attendances as a result? With less games to play and some teams’ supporters missing out on their team out on the park, it can’t be a good look for re-negotiating a new television deal." Why will the attendances drop next season? What was the GCU average attendance, 2000 or under? It's not going to have a big impact. And if Western Sydney do come in, they will average more than 2000 people a game in attendance. Easily