Fresh doubts over Brisbane Roar's future

Agreed. And if we all need to pay for our travel then sobeit. No issues with the concerts either providing they look after the pitch and work with Roar

Have a read of this one - aside from some nice comments from North there's seemingly validation that a club sale is close, and a statement that the QRU debt will be paid off tomorrow. http://m.heraldsun.com.au/sport/football/a-league-brisbane-roar-players-committed-to-club-despite-pay-crisis/story-fnk6pqhd-1227487525265

Wow, this post has it all: "conspiring and corrupt media cartels" "The style of discrimination has simply morphed from open hostility into a more subtle but equally vicious form..." " I feel bitter that the criminally corrupt media of this country has been allowed by successive greedy and gutless governments to freely conspire together to stop Football’s progress..." "once he exits the game, Football’s duped stakeholders unite and band together to begin a huge class action in the courts to go after this two faced charlatan and his personal assets" It's hard to know whether this is fair dinkum or whether it's someone having a bit of a laugh.

With the amount of $$$ it cost to build Suncorp and the maintenance required to keep it in good stead the facility would need upwards of $30m per annum. It was a rush job to build it and it has many faults which include the massive staff required on match days. This does not take into account the "free bus and train service", police presence and electricity used to light up the spectacle. If it were a fully commercial facility, and not one owned by the government, it would have gone into liquidation years ago. Lets face it all the codes that use Suncorp are already getting a deal that is well below sustainability for the stadium. That is why the government is allowing more concerts there in an attempt to recover some of the costs. One could argue that as a public facility it should not be held to account for it's own sustainability after all the theatres, performing arts complexes and the museums and libraries do not have to show their individual financial prowess.

That's a 10,000 seater stadium right? Not enough surely.

I think they need to change the paradigm; first off get a proper CEO in there, secondly invest in infrastructure that will generate non-footballing related revenues (and significant revenues in the $ millions), then get after costs - I can't believe Reds and Broncos are also paying $220k/match for Suncorp (if they are then we all need to band together to bring that down), then market the hell out of Roar particularly to the local football community where there is often a sense that Roar is Someone else's club and not "ours". It's not easy but achievable.

I agree. The uncertainty hurts the club and players. History seem to repeat itself at Roar. Who ever the new owner is, I hope they have deep, deep, deep pockets.

I have heard that too, it's pretty strong as a rumour around a couple of the clubs these last few weeks. The waiting game is not helping anything to be honest .... nor will local investors who can't afford to run what continues to be an unprofitable business (personally I prefer the rumour on 442's forum this weekend of some mystery oil sheik planning to buy Roar lol). Maybe Wednesday is D-Day??

Word is there is local consortium ready to take over the club. However they want all the creditors to paid by current owners before taking over so there is no movement (yet). At some point if the current owners don't fix the financial mess, FFA will step in and take the license back and give it to the the interested party for free. That means the 'new' owners will simply have to pay the creditors money owed which is cheaper than buying the club. It's a waiting game.

They lease it under a deed of grant, they don't own it.

They purchased the land.

If the new stadium gets built in Redcliffe the roar could play there as the rent would be cheaper and it would have a sick atmosphere

Indeed. 'Second rate country'?! Tom obviously isn't too concerned with winning friends & influencing people. In this second rate country at least. Using the word 'raped' to describe a petty grievance isn't helping either.

@Tom...and I thought I was pissed off at the state of administration of football here in Qld.

lol here too. Outside one match, all 'pretty much full' houses at Suncorp in ther past year have been 'soccer'. This idea that Australians love all sports and have a varied sports landscape is quite a furphy.

Thanks Tom, for that (seemingly) informed reply. I have been around too long to be bothered with the politics of all this but kind of figured there was an undercurrent like you talk about. I love the game and won't be deterred from watching. I can only hope there is a growing number like me.

These seemingly never ending financial disasters have been caused by the FFA leadership gifting away the games TV rights to our media enemies for far less than their true value, thus defrauding Football and depriving the sport of critical funding needed for growth. The critical underfunding of the sport over the past 10 years has rapidly overwhelmed the multicultural game's ability to survive let alone thrive at a time when rival mono-cultural sports with far less universal appeal, continue to be showered in unimaginable riches from conspiring and corrupt media cartels who treat the laws of the land outlawing this practice with utter contempt by simply ignoring them......................................in pretty much the same way that our lowlife parliamentarians simply ignore the rules surrounding travel entitlements and arrogantly gorge themselves on the public tit while treating the voting taxpayers with the same arrogant contempt that the media barons do. As ex FFA Board member and former WC goalkeeper Jack Reilly said recently, the current FFA Chair has done an absolutely brilliant job as Chairman of Westfields but has been an absolute dud as Chairman of the FFA and Football's impending financial collapse will become the soon to be ex-Chairman's true legacy to the game. In a late 2005 essay in the now defunct Bulletin magazine, following the Socceroos qualification for the WC finals in Germany, now Fairfax journalist John Birmingham gleefully articulated what he saw as the insurmountable obstacle that the openly hostile media posed to Football's future, when he opined that despite all the goodwill and undoubted high level of public support for the game in Australia, soccer would never achieve success in Australia because of the huge financial interests that the powerful media cartel had in rival sports and how this fact had caused the same media cartel's to join forces to stop Football's progress and bring it down at any cost. By fair means or foul! At about the same time, the then FFA CEO John O'Neill, also alluded to the depth of the problem when he stated his shock at the level of resentment and hostility he encountered from the commercial media when he came into contact with them as the game's Chief Executive. This issue isn't new and has been the biggest problem confronting Football's progress in Australia for decades but the FFA leadership has refused to show any real leadership in addressing it since it's reorganisation 12 years ago, preferring to assert that blatant discrimination against the game in the media and government is either non-existent or totally overstated despite the weight of evidence proving it to be an undeniable fact. Obstinately pursuing an 'olive branch' approach to try and build friendships within the commercial media industry is a strategy that history has shown to be a total failure for the game, with no discernible abatement in the level of discrimination to be seen. The style of discrimination has simply morphed from open hostility into a more subtle but equally vicious form similar to the tried and tested formats often used by the commercial media barons and their government lackeys when they are seeking to begin yet another orchestrated campaign demonising some marginalised group or other, in the community that they desperately wish to persecute! Rather than accept the reality of Football's predicament and tread the courageous path by taking head on this awful media cartel and calling them out by exposing them to the harsh glare and the wrath of public scrutiny and opinion for their vile and never ending anti-Football crusade, the FFA leadership cowers in fear before the very same media mafia and docilely complies with every demand from Football's eternal enemies whose sole objective is the total ruination of the game in Australia in order to protect it's rivals from competition! What a total sell out! The FFA Chairman sacrificed the best interests of the game 10 years ago, when he threw it and its all it's stakeholders under a bus in order to curry personal favour with the most infamous and ruthless of the media barons, one notorious for using blackmail, bribery, phone hacking and other nefarious business tactics to get his way, in exchange for Westfields receiving an easy time in the media with only minimal scrutiny of it's own dodgy and highly questionable business practises ever being reported or commented upon. And just like the Emperor Nero during the great fire that destroyed Rome in 64AD, the FFA Emperor has stood idlely by ever since, rarely lifting a finger to intervene, just watching Football's slow moving train wreck unfold before his eyes, while calculating the best and least conspicuous moment to make his exit before the inevitable catastrophe happens and the finger pointing of blame is directed at him. Like tens of thousands of disenfranchised supporters, I feel bitter that the criminally corrupt media of this country has been allowed by successive greedy and gutless governments to freely conspire together to stop Football's progress and the role of the equally greedy and gutless FFA leadership in this conspiracy has been deplorable. My fervent hope is that once he exits the game, Football's duped stakeholders unite and band together to begin a huge class action in the courts to go after this two faced charlatan and his personal assets to recover the hundreds of millions of dollars that he has cost the sport over the last 10 years of his disastrous leadership!

No. When you have a debt you pay it or make arrangements to pay it. It is the same for individuals, businesses, corporationsand governments. The Melbourne Rebels were a case in point; they were losing money and were sold to the private sector. The first thing the new owners did was move their feeder team's home games from Aami Park to less expensive regional grounds. Incidentally AAMI Park was built with state government funds and is used by Rugby Union, Rugby League, Soccer and the Afl- the Demons administration is based there.

Reading an ABC Grandstand report on this, the QRU has come out swinging with some pretty harsh words condemning the Bakries. That surprised me not just because of the pending court hearing but also as words among the fellow sports community. And it's all based on media reports. Courier Mail reports that Fong said this, QRU boss responds through the media with very harsh words and criticism of Bakeries. It all looks very ludicrous to me, and very petty. The Bakrie silence is probably a major factor in the debtors anger. ABC reports bills are also unpaid to CBus stadium, plus the laundry contractors. Today's signing of Steadfast as sponsors somehow seems at odds with the media reports. I believe Roar can be very big in Brisbane, but it needs smart management. The main issue is News Limited and its Courier Mail; they own Brisbane's news, and they also own the Broncos, so get a good PR strategy that doesn't need the Courier Mail. More broadly too, Australia's media is Syd/Mel centric so another obstacle for the PR staff, but not insurmountable. The stadium's an issue, but a bonus too if you can lift attendance, which you can. Some advertising goes a long way, as we saw on the only one occasion when Roar advertised a mid week MV game last year and got over 10K. It does work, and given the extra burden of the stadium cost here, beg the FFA to chip in (both NRL and AFL advertise a lot). And sell the team - hell, we have 5 women in the young Matildas, we had 7/8 in the Matildas world cup squad, we have had more success than the Broncos (3 in 10 v 4 in 30), we have some of the best players in the League, we play an attractive style, we have an exciting young team, many locals, won more fair play season awards than all the other clubs combined, etc etc. The Bakries, and the Coffee Club before them, and the FFA in their dealings to sell our club and promote the game in QLD,have been lazy and missing. Surely any owner would know this and do these things. Surely?

Exactly. Lots of hot air being expended over nothing really. But the bit about "The report also claimed an earlier move to sell the club for $18 million to a separate cartel based out of Italy and Germany had collapsed." You've got to be joking Bakries surely !!!!!!! Which club apart from maybe MVFC would fetch $18m ???????????????????????? LOLz