Blair
Well-Known Member
Mostly on jets but makes som great pionts n btw weres that mcaby or whoeva he is
Nathan Tinkler, the new man bankrolling the Newcastle Jets, weighs in at $610 million as top dog on the BRW Young Rich list.
He’s not quite nudging Clive Palmer, worth $3.92 billion, as the A-League’s richest club owner or major shareholder, but he storms in with a bullet at number three on debut on the list of nine league teams that are privately owned.
Here, just so you can stop wondering, is the list:
1. Clive Palmer (Gold Coast United): $3.92 billion.
2. Paul Ramsay (Sydney FC): $810 million.
3. Nathan Tinkler (Newcastle Jets): $610 million.
4. David Traktovenko (Sydney FC): $500 million.
5. Geoff Lord (Melbourne Victory): $125 million.
6. Terry Serepisos (Wellington Phoenix): $84 million.
7. Peter Sidwell (Melbourne Heart): $73 million.
8. Tony Sage (Perth Glory): $50 million.
9. Peter Turnbull (Central Coast Mariners): $50 million.
That’s a total of $6.22 billion – serious biccies backing a league that is still in its infancy. Even if the league loses around $15 million a year (the FFA’s estimate, not Con Constantine’s claim of $5 million per club) it’s a tiny sum, a pittance really, when measured against the mountain of wealth possessed by those who steer the clubs.
These boys could collectively own and bankroll the entire league for years to come without losing a moment’s sleep.
And they don’t include the lords of money involved in football from outside the league, like Frank Lowy ($5.04 billion) or Phillip Wolanski ($200 million).
Or the players. Four Socceroos or ex-Socceroos are included in BRW’s list of 100 young rich (Kewell, Viduka, Cahill, Schwarzer) with a combined wealth of $133 million. Each could afford to buy an A-League club several times over and keep it afloat for years to come.
I’m not sure if there is another sport in Australia which can boast of attracting such a collection of financial muscle.
My point being that maybe football, if it’s capable of attracting people of this kind of wealth and business calibre, should desist from being so jittery and insecure about its economic future, including that of the wobbly A-League.
These people may be novices at the unique craft of running football clubs, but when it comes to running businesses, stupid they are not.
The only problem is that the A-League club backers have gathered their millions by running businesses totally unrelated to football and to each of them football is a start-up business.
They are still learning and perhaps they should be given a bit of slack. A little patience might be in order.
A few tips for Nathan Tinkler
So far Nathan Tinkler is making all the right noises. And I don’t mean the back-page pin-up photos of the big guy, depicting him as a young miracle mogul who made a couple of hundred million bucks on his first real estate sale.
I mean the soothing sense of stability that his reserved presence has brought to the Newcastle Jets and, especially, his commitment to recruit support from the local community and share with them a sense of ownership of the club.
This has been brilliant, even if, as I suspect, Tinkler has been wised-up by Football Federation Australia to what his predecessor didn’t do.
The proof will be in the turnstile numbers when the Jets resume playing home matches on October 27. But it’s obvious that Tinkler, and executive chairman Ken Edwards, have committed the club to be genuinely of the local community.
The first step was to give the club something it never had under Constantine: a sense of long term stability. This came with Tinkler committing to owning the Jets licence through to 2020. No other club owner, to my knowledge, has made this level of commitment.
Then came the extension of coach Branko Culina’s contract for a further four years.
No longer will Newcastle be the constantly revolving door of come and go coaches and players it has been for the past five years.
Now comes the harder part of genuinely engaging with the community and giving the fans a sense of ownership and relevance, something to which Tinkler has zealously pledged himself in his first public statement after taking over:
"The Newcastle Jets is a club that is about to experience significant change. While success in football is measured by our on field success, we want to create a brand that is successful off the field as well.
"The key to this success will be focused upon our relationships with the people in our community.
"The Newcastle Jets are passionate about football and the football family, players and supporters. A family that is passionate about being successful - on and off the field.
"The Jets are inclusive of Newcastle, the Hunter and Northern NSW. We are a community club and all are welcome whether it be as a member of the Squadron, a corporate member, a Northern NSW Federation registered player, a mum, a dad, a family or a visitor to our beautiful city."
Great words. Now for some deeds beyond the invitations.
Here are some suggestions, if I may be so bold, on how the fans and potential fans can be engaged in practical terms (which can apply to all other A-League clubs):
•Offer a 20 per cent share of club ownership to the members (in this case The Squadron). Place their elected representative on the board. This should be a licence requirement.
•Set up a board of directors that are broadly representative of the local business community.
•Make the fans the team’s 12th man. Surrender the number 12 shirt to the fans (this already happens at some clubs around the world) and print replica no.12 shirts with the fans’ collective name on the back (eg The Squadron). Give away the shirts to members and offer it at a heavy discount to non-members.
•Engage with lower tier, state league clubs in the region (including the so-called ‘ethnic’ clubs) through formal, corporate ties. Make them, their fans, their volunteer workers, their players feel wanted and important. Use them as feeder clubs in youth development.
•Establish some premises, like a licensed club, where fans have a sense of having their tribal turf, where they can gather pre-match, post-match and at any time of the week for a good chin wag about the team and have a drink together.
•Hire a genuine ‘big-name’ marquee player, of the Dwight Yorke, Juninho or Robbie Fowler calibre. This is not just to get better results or to put additional bums on seats but as another way of engaging the fans. Football fans have a voracious appetite for feeling pride in their club and the signing of star players is a wonderful source of pride. ("You may have Platini and Gullit but we have Maradona," the Napoli fans used to sing.) Just some ideas among many more that can act as a lubricant for building a large and expanding fan base, and a sense that the club is there for the community.
In any case, Tinkler and Edwards are evidently sweeping with a new broom.
By the time they finish, the Jets will not only be an authentic community club but they will have created some kind of revolution, a model which all other clubs in the A-League should emulate.
Nathan Tinkler, the new man bankrolling the Newcastle Jets, weighs in at $610 million as top dog on the BRW Young Rich list.
He’s not quite nudging Clive Palmer, worth $3.92 billion, as the A-League’s richest club owner or major shareholder, but he storms in with a bullet at number three on debut on the list of nine league teams that are privately owned.
Here, just so you can stop wondering, is the list:
1. Clive Palmer (Gold Coast United): $3.92 billion.
2. Paul Ramsay (Sydney FC): $810 million.
3. Nathan Tinkler (Newcastle Jets): $610 million.
4. David Traktovenko (Sydney FC): $500 million.
5. Geoff Lord (Melbourne Victory): $125 million.
6. Terry Serepisos (Wellington Phoenix): $84 million.
7. Peter Sidwell (Melbourne Heart): $73 million.
8. Tony Sage (Perth Glory): $50 million.
9. Peter Turnbull (Central Coast Mariners): $50 million.
That’s a total of $6.22 billion – serious biccies backing a league that is still in its infancy. Even if the league loses around $15 million a year (the FFA’s estimate, not Con Constantine’s claim of $5 million per club) it’s a tiny sum, a pittance really, when measured against the mountain of wealth possessed by those who steer the clubs.
These boys could collectively own and bankroll the entire league for years to come without losing a moment’s sleep.
And they don’t include the lords of money involved in football from outside the league, like Frank Lowy ($5.04 billion) or Phillip Wolanski ($200 million).
Or the players. Four Socceroos or ex-Socceroos are included in BRW’s list of 100 young rich (Kewell, Viduka, Cahill, Schwarzer) with a combined wealth of $133 million. Each could afford to buy an A-League club several times over and keep it afloat for years to come.
I’m not sure if there is another sport in Australia which can boast of attracting such a collection of financial muscle.
My point being that maybe football, if it’s capable of attracting people of this kind of wealth and business calibre, should desist from being so jittery and insecure about its economic future, including that of the wobbly A-League.
These people may be novices at the unique craft of running football clubs, but when it comes to running businesses, stupid they are not.
The only problem is that the A-League club backers have gathered their millions by running businesses totally unrelated to football and to each of them football is a start-up business.
They are still learning and perhaps they should be given a bit of slack. A little patience might be in order.
A few tips for Nathan Tinkler
So far Nathan Tinkler is making all the right noises. And I don’t mean the back-page pin-up photos of the big guy, depicting him as a young miracle mogul who made a couple of hundred million bucks on his first real estate sale.
I mean the soothing sense of stability that his reserved presence has brought to the Newcastle Jets and, especially, his commitment to recruit support from the local community and share with them a sense of ownership of the club.
This has been brilliant, even if, as I suspect, Tinkler has been wised-up by Football Federation Australia to what his predecessor didn’t do.
The proof will be in the turnstile numbers when the Jets resume playing home matches on October 27. But it’s obvious that Tinkler, and executive chairman Ken Edwards, have committed the club to be genuinely of the local community.
The first step was to give the club something it never had under Constantine: a sense of long term stability. This came with Tinkler committing to owning the Jets licence through to 2020. No other club owner, to my knowledge, has made this level of commitment.
Then came the extension of coach Branko Culina’s contract for a further four years.
No longer will Newcastle be the constantly revolving door of come and go coaches and players it has been for the past five years.
Now comes the harder part of genuinely engaging with the community and giving the fans a sense of ownership and relevance, something to which Tinkler has zealously pledged himself in his first public statement after taking over:
"The Newcastle Jets is a club that is about to experience significant change. While success in football is measured by our on field success, we want to create a brand that is successful off the field as well.
"The key to this success will be focused upon our relationships with the people in our community.
"The Newcastle Jets are passionate about football and the football family, players and supporters. A family that is passionate about being successful - on and off the field.
"The Jets are inclusive of Newcastle, the Hunter and Northern NSW. We are a community club and all are welcome whether it be as a member of the Squadron, a corporate member, a Northern NSW Federation registered player, a mum, a dad, a family or a visitor to our beautiful city."
Great words. Now for some deeds beyond the invitations.
Here are some suggestions, if I may be so bold, on how the fans and potential fans can be engaged in practical terms (which can apply to all other A-League clubs):
•Offer a 20 per cent share of club ownership to the members (in this case The Squadron). Place their elected representative on the board. This should be a licence requirement.
•Set up a board of directors that are broadly representative of the local business community.
•Make the fans the team’s 12th man. Surrender the number 12 shirt to the fans (this already happens at some clubs around the world) and print replica no.12 shirts with the fans’ collective name on the back (eg The Squadron). Give away the shirts to members and offer it at a heavy discount to non-members.
•Engage with lower tier, state league clubs in the region (including the so-called ‘ethnic’ clubs) through formal, corporate ties. Make them, their fans, their volunteer workers, their players feel wanted and important. Use them as feeder clubs in youth development.
•Establish some premises, like a licensed club, where fans have a sense of having their tribal turf, where they can gather pre-match, post-match and at any time of the week for a good chin wag about the team and have a drink together.
•Hire a genuine ‘big-name’ marquee player, of the Dwight Yorke, Juninho or Robbie Fowler calibre. This is not just to get better results or to put additional bums on seats but as another way of engaging the fans. Football fans have a voracious appetite for feeling pride in their club and the signing of star players is a wonderful source of pride. ("You may have Platini and Gullit but we have Maradona," the Napoli fans used to sing.) Just some ideas among many more that can act as a lubricant for building a large and expanding fan base, and a sense that the club is there for the community.
In any case, Tinkler and Edwards are evidently sweeping with a new broom.
By the time they finish, the Jets will not only be an authentic community club but they will have created some kind of revolution, a model which all other clubs in the A-League should emulate.
