The A-League Is Shut Down

And you've got people in rugby league demanding that the NRL open their books because they want to know where all the money went. They were completely oblivious to how precarious the house of cards was.

13 hours ago, Carns said:

Too soon, surely? As much as I hope and expect them to pick it up, surely a lot more negotiating involved than that?

Optus announced marble racing, not many people were laughing on the timeline

Fax foxtel and knew this was going to happen deliberately pulling the deal without the pay leaving clubs in the bankruptcy area and should be the death of a league and will be a chance to start again and possibly including npl teams, might be a good idea to start a nsw competition for now if the npl doesn't recover and in the future look at a national competition when finances improve. 

55 minutes ago, Burgerman said:

Fax foxtel and knew this was going to happen deliberately pulling the deal without the pay leaving clubs in the bankruptcy area and should be the death of a league

It should be noted, that until the FFA/AL announce that the league is over & can’t be played, Fox can’t rip up the contract. That announcement might come later in the months of May or June.

I don’t blame fox for with holding payment. If the football might not be played, why should they pay? They’ve got their own issues with viability with losing subscribers & cutting costs to stay afloat, this was all before c19 hit & they’ve got no sport to show.

There's a difference between witholding a payment until the league resumes and using it as an excuse to exit the broadcast contract.

2 hours ago, Prydzopolis said:

It should be noted, that until the FFA/AL announce that the league is over & can’t be played, Fox can’t rip up the contract. That announcement might come later in the months of May or June.

I don’t blame fox for with holding payment. If the football might not be played, why should they pay? They’ve got their own issues with viability with losing subscribers & cutting costs to stay afloat, this was all before c19 hit & they’ve got no sport to show.

Normally I'd agree, although they're still charging their subscribers for a sports package when there's no sport being played, so their argument is a little hard to swallow.

Football will survive, the old NSL "efniks" have survived multiple disasters, including the formation of the A League. I'm not so sure the A League or many of its franchises will.

Standing down all your staff is particuarly ****, we lashed more on Pio's wages than we probably pay the entier admin staff.

6 minutes ago, StringerBellend said:

Football will survive, the old NSL "efniks" have survived multiple disasters, including the formation of the A League. I'm not so sure the A League or many of its franchises will.

Standing down all your staff is particuarly ****, we lashed more on Pio's wages than we probably pay the entier admin staff.

But what else can clubs do?

They have no income atm . Comparing to Pio's wages is a stupid analogy. 

3 minutes ago, Wanderboy said:

But what else can clubs do?

They have no income atm . Comparing to Pio's wages is a stupid analogy. 

A business that can afford to pay over a $700k a season for a Guy to mostly not play can afford to cover the wages of low paid admin staff for a few months.

2 minutes ago, StringerBellend said:

A business that can afford to pay over a $700k a season for a Guy to mostly not play can afford to cover the wages of low paid admin staff for a few months.

 

Yes, they probably can, but beyond that?

This isn't the EPL. It's not the NFL.

When all this is over, I hope there is still a Western Sydney Wanderers to support at Bankwest. I hope there is still an A-League to go and watch.

We're not just talking about how deep Lederer's pockets are, we are talking about the A-League and the whole sport in this country.

Just look at the NRL and AFL and how much they are struggling to deal with this, and how they have been begging for funds.

Beyond that, the ARU are a complete basket case as well. 

9 minutes ago, StringerBellend said:

A business that can afford to pay over a $700k a season for a Guy to mostly not play can afford to cover the wages of low paid admin staff for a few months.

But right now the business couldn't afford a $700k flop because they have no income.

4 minutes ago, Wanderboy said:

Yes, they probably can, but beyond that?

This isn't the EPL. It's not the NFL.

When all this is over, I hope there is still a Western Sydney Wanderers to support at Bankwest. I hope there is still an A-League to go and watch.

We're not just talking about how deep Lederer's pockets are, we are talking about the A-League and the whole sport in this country.

Just look at the NRL and AFL and how much they are struggling to deal with this, and how they have been begging for funds.

Beyond that, the ARU are a complete basket case as well. 

I’d have hoped a community club would do more to support their staff, right now we are in with Roar, Mariners and Jets let’s see what the other clubs do (sydney, Victory etc)

As for the sport in this country It will survive the old effnik teams have survived, and will survive

I hope we survive, and the A League too

13 minutes ago, StringerBellend said:

I’d have hoped a community club would do more to support their staff, right now we are in with Roar, Mariners and Jets let’s see what the other clubs do (sydney, Victory etc)

As for the sport in this country It will survive the old effnik teams have survived, and will survive

I hope we survive, and the A League too

 

I liked your post but I'm not sure you understand how serious this situation is after your comments.

It's not just about Lederer and his apparently deep pockets to pay staff.

It's about the sport as a whole. And not just our sport. It's about sport all over the world.

You said it yourself. We are a community club. A community club doesn't have endless funds to pay staff when there is no income and in reality, they'd be paying staff to do what? Nothing?

You tell me. What do you expect the club to do, when there are no games, no income, no guarantee when the competition will re-start, or more pertinently, no guarantee there will even be a competition to return to, considering Fox Sports are looking at cutting funding?

If you were Lederer...…?

1 hour ago, Wanderboy said:

I liked your post but I'm not sure you understand how serious this situation is after your comments.

It's not just about Lederer and his apparently deep pockets to pay staff.

It's about the sport as a whole. And not just our sport. It's about sport all over the world.

You said it yourself. We are a community club. A community club doesn't have endless funds to pay staff when there is no income and in reality, they'd be paying staff to do what? Nothing?

 

You tell me. What do you expect the club to do, when there are no games, no income, no guarantee when the competition will re-start, or more pertinently, no guarantee there will even be a competition to return to, considering Fox Sports are looking at cutting funding?

If you were Lederer...…?

I've seen the enormous financial losses in the sector I work in, which will have impacts to peoples work, and all the little business going under. It's huge the effects will be long lasting. Will the A League survive? No idea, I don't think it will be in the same form, how big a change remains to be seen. As for the sport, Soccer will survive, even if the A League doesn't.

What would I do if I was Lederer? Not going to pretend I have the answer but I'd hope the club would be

- Try and negotiate pay cuts with players, in particularly the ones on big $ (as the NRL are)
- Reduce the days / hours of admin staff encourage leave taking

- Ensure that we are taking advantage of Jobkeeper focusing on the low paid admin staff and players..

-  Be lobbying the FFA to step up and show some leadership

I'd have hoped we  we would  be one of the later clubs to hit the stand down staff button, not straight in after the mariners.

Anyhow lets see what the "big" clubs do 

Yes the clubs income has been massively hit but like all companies that's for the owners and the senior leadership to deal with, not for the admin staff manning the phones or the player on a youth contract

16 minutes ago, StringerBellend said:

I've seen the enormous financial losses in the sector I work in, which will have impacts to peoples work, and all the little business going under. It's huge the effects will be long lasting. Will the A League survive? No idea, I don't think it will be in the same form, how big a change remains to be seen. As for the sport, Soccer will survive, even if the A League doesn't.

What would I do if I was Lederer? Not going to pretend I have the answer but I'd hope the club would be

- Try and negotiate pay cuts with players, in particularly the ones on big $ (as the NRL are)
- Reduce the days / hours of admin staff encourage leave taking

- Ensure that we are taking advantage of Jobkeeper focusing on the low paid admin staff and players..

-  Be lobbying the FFA to step up and show some leadership

I'd have hoped we  we would  be one of the later clubs to hit the stand down staff button, not straight in after the mariners.

Anyhow lets see what the "big" clubs do 

Yes the clubs income has been massively hit but like all companies that's for the owners and the senior leadership to deal with, not for the admin staff manning the phones or the player on a youth contract

Finally you have stated what you were thinking.

That makes more sense.

5 hours ago, Wanderboy said:

I liked your post but I'm not sure you understand how serious this situation is after your comments.

It's not just about Lederer and his apparently deep pockets to pay staff.

It's about the sport as a whole. And not just our sport. It's about sport all over the world.

You said it yourself. We are a community club. A community club doesn't have endless funds to pay staff when there is no income and in reality, they'd be paying staff to do what? Nothing?

 

You tell me. What do you expect the club to do, when there are no games, no income, no guarantee when the competition will re-start, or more pertinently, no guarantee there will even be a competition to return to, considering Fox Sports are looking at cutting funding?

If you were Lederer...…?

Well said and is what I was thinking as Lederer will no longer be a billionaire after this and with other clubs and nrl/afl doing similar it was on the cards, just dirty about the foxtel and this virus probably set football back 5 years. 

However it is an opportunity to start a new league with surviving clubs, nsl, npl state leagues to rebuild together and have a relegation 2tier competition and no more buying licences. 

Just feel for all the youth players that will probably have to walk away from the game as finances will be tough for everyday people let alone low paid footballers, would be nice to start a go fund me page for struggling wsw and a league players to keep these players involved somehow. 

Y’know, for years sports all around the world have been subject to shithouse decisions by administrators who were looking at the dollars first and sport second.

One example - though there are many better ones in the world of sport - is the expansion of the league. While fans wanted to see it go to an area with a true football culture, they picked the two teams basically because of Fox. And now Fox have no money to give them. So we’re left with two lemons.
 

I would love it if we ended up with a sport and clubs - and sports worldwide actually - that could stand on their own two feet based off tickets and merch sales, and all tv rights went straight to grassroots. Pay the players what the fans are willing to pay to come and watch them. 
 

I’m sure it won’t happen, and the players will kick up a stink, but I reckon if you did the research you’d find people liked their sport much better back in the day when the players all weren’t egotistical millionaires.

tldr: Let it burn!

The idea that our club should be safe because of Lederer isn't really correct.  A more correct statement is that the club's ability to cover losses ceases as soon as one of the part owners can't afford to pay his share.  Lederer may if he has spare money decide to take over any shortfall in order to protect his investment but we can't expect that.

14 minutes ago, Flytox said:

 Lederer may if he has spare money decide to take over any shortfall in order to protect his investment but we can't expect that.

Then what should we expect from Lederer? Should he walk away or should he as the majority owner carry the Club thru the next 6 months or so? He should tell Members what he is prepared to do or not to do.

ps. Spare money is relative, is it not?

14 hours ago, Davo said:

But right now the business couldn't afford a $700k flop because they have no income.

The business has had 2 large "flops" very recently.  Playing the derby behind closed doors cost it say $500k in gate money and now $900k from Fox.  Add this to the usual annual loss and the situation isn't rosy.

3 minutes ago, Ossified said:

Then what should we expect from Lederer? Should he walk away or should he as the majority owner carry the Club thru the next 6 months or so? He should tell Members what he is prepared to do or not to do.

ps. Spare money is relative, is it not?

We should expect that Lederer does what is right for the business.  Stopping it going under so that at an appropriate time it can rise again to serve the western Sydney football community is a good start.

5 minutes ago, Flytox said:

The business has had 2 large "flops" very recently.  Playing the derby behind closed doors cost it say $500k in gate money and now $900k from Fox.  Add this to the usual annual loss and the situation isn't rosy.

This sort of ties into what @btron3000 was alluding to earlier where the admins and club owners of all codes see it as a business not a sport. The CEO of the AFL came out at the beginning of this and said wtte "we will do everything to protect the Afl 'industry'. Industry not sport. Telling.

Makes you wonder where all the multi-billionairs-millionaires from big business who are happy to accept free corporate tickets and hospitality from clubs and sport admins when times are good but suddenly disappear when the shyte hits the fan and they may be asked to help out. 

I know times are tough and all of us are under financial strain,stress and worry about the future.....the owners of our club would be no different .... but it begs the question what disaster management plans did they ( admin/owners ) have in place.....if any.?

Eddie's getting a bit testy (I'm sure most league, AFL and A-league clubs are all feeling a bit the same). McGuire is still a dickhead.

Club owners discussing a shortened 11 game season next year between Jan and April so we don't clash with NRL and AFL who are likely to extend their seasons.

This pisses me off so much

2 minutes ago, wswnick said:

Club owners discussing a shortened 11 game season next year between Jan and April so we don't clash with NRL and AFL who are likely to extend their seasons.

This pisses me off so much

And the players are having a sook because the clubs are discussing cutting the salary cap in half.

They must be expecting Foxtel to ditch the league entirely because there's no way they'd cut the league in half if they were still under the Foxtel broadcast contract.

23 minutes ago, wswnick said:

Club owners discussing a shortened 11 game season next year between Jan and April so we don't clash with NRL and AFL who are likely to extend their seasons.

This pisses me off so much

Ground availability would be a major issue for Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Newcastle teams at least. Glory, Mariners, Adelaide would be fine. Not sure on the Nux. And this also depends on the new deal and whether clubs can even afford to operate at expensive state owned stadiums.

3 hours ago, sonar said:

This sort of ties into what @btron3000 was alluding to earlier where the admins and club owners of all codes see it as a business not a sport. The CEO of the AFL came out at the beginning of this and said wtte "we will do everything to protect the Afl 'industry'. Industry not sport. Telling.

Makes you wonder where all the multi-billionairs-millionaires from big business who are happy to accept free corporate tickets and hospitality from clubs and sport admins when times are good but suddenly disappear when the shyte hits the fan and they may be asked to help out. 

I know times are tough and all of us are under financial strain,stress and worry about the future.....the owners of our club would be no different .... but it begs the question what disaster management plans did they ( admin/owners ) have in place.....if any.?

This maybe sport willl go back to the people out of this. That said, I don't see it for the big leagues.. it might actually accelerate the move away.

Will this accelerate the move to a European "Super" League for the worldwide telly clappers to watch Bareclona v Madrid v Liverpool on repeat?

However for Australia I can see it being a move back to the old NSL efnik days.. the Apia's, Marconi's will survive this as they are reall football clubs with a focus on football and community, the Brisbane Roars owned by some overseas group that don't give a toss will go.

Interesting to see where we end up. 

Lets say the Fox money goes... is our club up to keeep going? 

Maybe footy will go back to being played in right size subrurban grounds, with a licensed club connected.

I sound like a #againstmodernfootball NSL tragic (and I'm not) but who knows? That said I won't miss the ANZ, experience with the KISS FM sponsored stadium kiss cam and all the other bollocks. Happy to go back to a bunch of old effniks yelling "shoot farkin"

1 hour ago, Carns said:

Ground availability would be a major issue for Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Newcastle teams at least. Glory, Mariners, Adelaide would be fine. Not sure on the Nux. And this also depends on the new deal and whether clubs can even afford to operate at expensive state owned stadiums.

There are loads of grounds if they drop the stupid big stadium thing.. (see above rant). Loads of grounds in sydney that the NRL don't use much.. Leichhardt has about 2 games of NRL on it a year and that's before you look at using NSL team grounds.. 

Play a game at Lambert park