Coast Football Ramble Podcast

[marinermick]

Regular events at the stadium particularly in the off season, and control over pre- and post-game entertainment, is a potential for huge revenue...in time.

Doubt it.

Another money pit like the CoE. Club shouldn’t be in the business of managing facilities. They don’t have the expertise and they will be distracted from their core business - something they have massively dropped the ball on the past five years.

 

[Ancient Mariner]

Even if any profits were going directly to the football club. It would be poor business to have the stadium as the same company.
Say, if the company holding management rights to the stadium is not a success and goes bankrupt it will not drag the Club with it.
There are other good and sensible reasons reasons why, if it goes through, it will be a seperate company.
No need for conspiracy theories.

 

[Ancient Mariner]

Mick just made another one while I was posting.

 

[Ancient Mariner]

I do not see the stadium rights as being a major solution to all our problems, however, like the COE was meant to be it will be a way to help consolidate the Mariners on the Central Coast.

 

[turbo]

Revenue for whom? MC would be an idiot to allow stadium rights to be held by the football club.
Will be another company and CCM will still be tennnts.
He may be a lot of things but he isnt an idiot

If the council do hand over the rights I would expect to see some contractual safeguards around the mariners remaining at the stadium (not to mention still existing) and ensuring the funds will go towards the club. Otherwise put it out to tender, no need to do any favours if it doesnt help secure the future of our regional team.

 

[pjennings]

Revenue for whom? MC would be an idiot to allow stadium rights to be held by the football club.
Will be another company and CCM will still be tennnts.
He may be a lot of things but he isnt an idiot

Shaun has said it will be the entity that holds the football license.

 

[neverwozza]

Shaun has said it will be the entity that holds the football license.

Which isn't necessarily the entity that runs the football club. Asset protection 101 - keep the entity that holds the asset/s separate from the entity that could get sued or become insolvent.

 

[jacobsfl]

My biggest concern is that when a player is enquired by the club to sign on, they'll see that we've finished outside the six for the past 5 seasons. Surely for a player that is moving to a new lifestyle and sometimes a new language, they'd want to be playing for a club that has been competitive in recent times?

I'm worried another batch of useless Visa players that nobody has heard of will come in and do nothing. The only reason we got Kim was that he had no other choice. Djuric has been massively disappointing because of his fitness, Kim is being played out of position because our centre-halves are dreadful, Jair is almost identical to Murray in the sense that he's more of a false nine, so that still doesn't make sense, and Jai Ingham gave up on us after a week. It's been another season of mediocrity in the Visa department. That said, it's light years better than the McCormack and Cisse situation last season.

That said, our scholarships look great. Nisbet is supposedly in the process of getting an extension, Miller has been impressive despite being played out of position, Silvera clearly has the talent and we're pumping out impressive results in the Y-League. I refuse to believe at this point that all hope is lost.

We do, however, need one or two heads in that boardroom that know what's going on in places like Belgium and France, where some of the best youngsters are being brewed. Theoretically, we should be able to hit up a club like Club Brugge and say "hey, can we have one of your kids on loan?"

Our recruitment is in a dire state, which is why I'd love to see a couple of people in the club allocated to scouting a country or two across 6 months to inform the club of possible Visa signings for next season.

And on that note, if we have ties with Sheffield United, Sao Paolo and Fererncvaros, use them! We saw two loans last season, so let's use our Sao Paolo connection, one of the biggest clubs in the most dominant country in South America, so surely we can have some way of luring in an 18yo wonderkid for 12 months on loan.

If we don't start using these connections we're going to lose them. And if we don't go back to building the club around our youth, we may lose the club altogether. I've been really displeased with how the club has been run of late as I feel Staj hasn't been given the players he needs to run the system he wants. He clearly wants this 5-3-2 to work, make it happen.

How much of a say does Staj have on signings?

 

[marinermick]

@Capn Gus Bloodbeard , are you going to contribute as to why you disagreed my post at the top of this page?

 

[Ironbark]

@Capn Gus Bloodbeard , are you going to contribute as to why you disagreed my post at the top of this page?

I will. Whilst I think you're right in essence any sensible organisation* would hire someone, or perhaps even a team, with the requisite skills and expertise to manage the stadium and maximise its value. You wouldn't just dump that massive and complex load on to the current staff.

* I make no argument that CCM is a sensible organisation

 

[turbo]

It’s not like Staj or the football department is going to be out there selling the ground in his spare time. They would utilise existing resources and supplement as needed. No doubt there are some hard working and talented people at the club who would relish the opportunity and step up.

I think it’s absolutely worth pursuing but if it doesn’t lead directly to more funding for the team it’s pointless.

 

[Capn Gus Bloodbeard]

@Capn Gus Bloodbeard , are you going to contribute as to why you disagreed my post at the top of this page?

Completely reasonable request.
I would probably think that managing a stadium would be more in line with MC's expertise than a football team. Not that he has any experience doing such, but I'd hazard a guess that his existing business skills would be more easily transferable - and IF they do it well, I would think it certainly could provide an income source for the club - which we desperately need.
I get that the shambles of the CoE should give cause for concern - and in this day and age there's no excuse for having a poor or mismanaged CoE. That was supposed to be our 'competitive advantage' and I think we were the first with one, but a few other clubs have them now and I'm going to assume they're all doing it better.
I'd expect it would be set up as a separate business and should be run by completely different staff.
Having said that, the biggest cause for concern I have here is that Anton said we haven't had a proper board in a long time.
That's seriously worrying. If we don't have proper leadership and governance, then the fact that the club has lost its way and its identity would have been inevitable.
As I said before, we've never needed proper leadership more - if we don't have an effective board and/or proper structures in place, that needs to be our highest priority. Organisations can't run effectively without effective governance - and we all know how many things our club has done that has been a shambles.
And if the 'club' is looking to multiple the complexity of their business dealings - which this will - then effective governance is crucial.

So I think it's a great idea, and will benefit the ratepayers and Gosford city as well - but it needs to be done well.

And that means they can't keep running a mickey mouse organisation.

 

[FFC Mariner]

Completely reasonable request.
I would probably think that managing a stadium would be more in line with MC's expertise than a football team. Not that he has any experience doing such, but I'd hazard a guess that his existing business skills would be more easily transferable - and IF they do it well, I would think it certainly could provide an income source for the club - which we desperately need.
I get that the shambles of the CoE should give cause for concern - and in this day and age there's no excuse for having a poor or mismanaged CoE. That was supposed to be our 'competitive advantage' and I think we were the first with one, but a few other clubs have them now and I'm going to assume they're all doing it better.
I'd expect it would be set up as a separate business and should be run by completely different staff.
Having said that, the biggest cause for concern I have here is that Anton said we haven't had a proper board in a long time.
That's seriously worrying. If we don't have proper leadership and governance, then the fact that the club has lost its way and its identity would have been inevitable.
As I said before, we've never needed proper leadership more - if we don't have an effective board and/or proper structures in place, that needs to be our highest priority. Organisations can't run effectively without effective governance - and we all know how many things our club has done that has been a shambles.
And if the 'club' is looking to multiple the complexity of their business dealings - which this will - then effective governance is crucial.

So I think it's a great idea, and will benefit the ratepayers and Gosford city as well - but it needs to be done well.

And that means they can't keep running a mickey mouse organisation.

He was never interested in the fooball side of the CoE - he got gifted public land by the old Wyong council and did a commercial development (the majority of which he has sold already)
There is no more money to be made so he has moved on to the next public asset he can suck $$ out of.

 

[Capn Gus Bloodbeard]

He was never interested in the fooball side of the CoE - he got gifted public land by the old Wyong council and did a commercial development (the majority of which he has sold already)
There is no more money to be made so he has moved on to the next public asset he can suck $$ out of.

Yep.
Bit frustrating to hear Anton still talk about the hopes and dreams of hotels and such there.

 

[marinermick]

It is laughable to suggest that Mike would hire someone capable to run the stadium for him. Nothing in his history suggests this would be the case. Even if it did it would not make a difference.

I worked in facilities management and was part of the project committee that built the Newcastle University sport and rec centre. We were privy to extensive research and operating budgets for many sporting facilities around the country, including stadiums, indoor sports centres, sport and rec facilities and integrated gymnasiums. Less than five percent made profits with many subsidised by councils and governments. There is a reason our council wants to unload it.

I posted similar comments on here about the CoE years ago and was hounded down.

I am happy to stand by my comments and yet to hear any proper argument to suggest this would be a cash cow.

 

[Capn Gus Bloodbeard]

Interesting.
Is that 5% even with subsidies, do you recall?

 

[Ironbark]

I worked in facilities management and was part of the project committee that built the Newcastle University sport and rec centre. We were privy to extensive research and operating budgets for many sporting facilities around the country, including stadiums, indoor sports centres, sport and rec facilities and integrated gymnasiums. Less than five percent made profits with many subsidised by councils and governments. There is a reason our council wants to unload it.

I posted similar comments on here about the CoE years ago and was hounded down.

I am happy to stand by my comments and yet to hear any proper argument to suggest this would be a cash cow.

Let me counter this by saying I have no personal or professional experience in this area and bow to your superior understanding of the topic.

On the surface to a layman it looks/ed like hope for the future, but if what you're saying is true then there is even less hope we'll get out of this quagmire anytime soon, if at all.

 

[Ozhammer]

Laughable. Other clubs use scholarships to spend beyond the cap and we use ours to just make the floor.

Scholarships sit outside the cap as a separate spend.

Edit: Just realised that Shaun had already responded on this but I could further add my understanding that Anton bankrolls the scholarship spend.

 

[Ozhammer]

Whilst the rest of the pod was entertaining as usual, the only thing I took out of Anton’s interview was the appointment of the Sporting Director (whom I suspect Anton is bankrolling).

The fact that there were seemingly restrictions on what could be asked is disappointing, as there are surely some hard questions that fans deserve answers to? I was a bit behind the eight ball with my forum reading this week due to work but I would really have liked to hear why CCM was so inactive in the January window, particularly when compared to other clubs and given the team’s position on the table.

 

[FFC Mariner]

The thing I find sickenng is how anyone can shave every morning and loo

Yep.
Bit frustrating to hear Anton still talk about the hopes and dreams of hotels and such there.

We can always announce the hotel for the 3rd time