The Central Coast Mariners need to relocate

By sassy, 11 Mar 2014 The Crowd is a Roar Guru

The Central Coast Mariners need to relocate

Every time I watch a football match in Gosford I cringe.

Yes, the crowds are consistent, but what I really worry about is all the money the Central Coast Mariners are losing to rent.

A crowd of 9000 in a town of 300,000 is reasonable, but I hate to know how much money is going down the toilet, resulting in the Mariners’ shoe-string budget.

I have heard that for the Mariners to “break even” they need to attract 14,000 fans to Bluetongue Stadium – a feat they have only managed once this season.

They are in a lot of trouble financially.

They couldn’t even get a sponsor for their first Asian Champions League match in Korea.

How do they avoid the same troubles in future years?

The answer, is selling home games.

The Mariners have already taken a step in the right direction by having talks with Sydney’s Brookvale Oval for a one-off match next season, where they need to get about 4000 fans to break even.

Yet they have already missed an opportunity by having their ACL home games in Gosford.

In my opinion, they should have sold their home games to ether northern Sydney or Wollongong, opening the Mariners up to a new supporter base in either region.

So what would happen if the Mariners sell some home games to Sydney?

I think that Gosford Council would wise up and lower their rent to keep their only national sporting side in Gosford.

The fans would start to come to more games to show their support, and the club would get more members from untouched areas.

Heck, if the matches they sell to north Sydney are against Sydney teams, then big crowds could be expected.

I think three games is the magic number of games to sell, leaving Bluetongue Stadium with ten games.

They will be able to remain a Gosford side, but they could also pull a profit – something that will never happen if they continue to play all their games in Gosford.

http://www.theroar.com.au/2014/03/11/the-central-coast-mariners-need-to-relocate/

The Roar write dribble. Wouldn't even listen to them.

Some roar articles just plain suck. The mariners can't move I think the longer they are there the more people will come. Look at the support they got at their championship parade. The rent at blue tongue def needs to lower. 9000 is decent and they will grow slowly but I'd hate to see them leave the central coast I think they have cemented themselves quite well there and it's a good little town to attract euro players with the beach/lifestyle.

Seriously Joffa? We have the admins posting troll pieces now?
The guy doesn't even know what it takes to break even... Neither do I, but hey... That's why I'm not writing a piece on it on a sports page.

No.

IIRC, I saw on another article that bluetongue rent is like $10,000 per game which is already the lowest in the league by a fair bit. Since they are losing millions, cutting the rent in half would be solving the problem the same way as only eating 7 slices of pizza instead of 8 is a solution to lose weight.

The mariners have very cheap ticket prices compared to the rest of the league which doesn't help since they have the second lowest average crowds.

The fact they can't get a sponsorship for ACL is a worrying sign too.

Nobody wants them to move, but perhaps a few games in North Sydney (where 25% of their fans are from apparently) would be ok.

Edited by tbitm: 11/3/2014 07:30:00 PM

Central Coast Mariners

7,899
9,828
12,738
10,465
7,426
7,713
9,607
9,921
9,246

I don't know about 14,000 to break even, but CCM attendances seem very good and very consistent and with the salary cap now covered CCM should be viable on the Central Coast....which doesn't mean they cant move a 2-3 games if it is to their advantage.

No. They simply have less of a base and are more open to outside factors as far as attendances are concerned as a result. A crowd of 5-6k at Bluetongue is simply not a problem.

And this is why I don't come here much anymore and rarely post. A mod has been replaced by a spambot in his regular duties so he posts troll articles and creates polls around them just to feel relevant.

Sums up Joffa.

-PB

Sorry Joffa, the tribe has spoken.

Nope

A 'No' uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a 'Yes' merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble.

Just play the games out of Woy Woy Oval ffs, :lol:

The A-league needs to learn that there are small teams especially if they are not from massive City's but that does not mean they should just move or fold. I think if promotion and relegation come in teams will either be backed financially or not as most football clubs in the world run at a loss or go to a division where they ca break even. For CCM to be profitable they will most likely need to sell players for significant fees but with the A-league as it is that is not going to happen or they need a lot more revenue from Sponsors/TV/ACL as they are unlikely to ever have massive attendances.

Looking at football in Europe you have teams like Villareal who most people would say are way bigger than any A-league team but they average 17k at home this season and are from a city of 51k. Football is for everyone but the way we are obsessed with attendances it seems like we want to to get it so only 6 cities can host teams.

It sounds like a piece being written on behalf of North Sydney or Brookvale . Manly are complaining about raised rent at broovale Oval, but that would be cheap compared to North Sydney Oval its an oval gifted to cricket who probably pay next to nothing for it, if the mariners want to play there they will force them to pay a fortune for drop in pitches to let cricket continue their free ride at the joint.
What the Mariners need is to ask for more government grants for the Center of Excellence. If they are stupid enough to help out the upgrades of North Sydney or Brookvale Oval, they will firstly find the minute after an upgrade is granted, the cost of playing there will rise dramatically , their help in securing the funding will be forgotten, and that chances to get more government money for the Center of Excellence will be met with oh we upgraded North Sydney or Brookvale oval for you.

I am not sure if this is still the case but up until 2-3 years ago the Mariners and Victory were the only A-League clubs turning a profit.

This. Football for everyone.

I don't see a problem with shifting a couple games a year to North Sydney. If it improves their bottom line, while keeping a large majority of games on the Central Coast, what's the problem?

:lol: I genuinely hate the criticism Joffa cops on here (from the people who aren't trolling).

I'd like to see CCM relocate purely because I'd like to see the butthurt of it happening from the fans. Charlesworth has wanted to relocate the team from the moment he set foot in the place.

No relocation, but I dont see the harm in playing a couple of games in North Sydney. I remember a few years ago we had to play 2 games in effing Canberra. At least these will be an hour down the road

Out of curiosity, how many home fans do you think would travel that hour down the road?

From a Jerks perspective, they barely travel an hour up the road for our games as-is. Cue the "shit ground, shit fans, shit city" but we cop EXACTLY the same stuff as you do when travelling.

Joffa, why would you post such a troll piece? Just bored?

I've locked your threads before... :-k

Aren't we considered travelling gypsies?

:lol:

+1

Just whingers, keep up the good work Joffa

Edited by clinton: 12/3/2014 08:10:59 AM

Seriously, the Mariners could do worse to invest in Woy Woy Oval.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/central-coast/gosford-council-calls-on-governments-to-cough-up-funding-for-woy-woy-oval-upgrade/story-fngr8h0p-1226693384164

Take some of their smaller games there, be a decent boost for the Woy Woy/Umina economy.

Move them down to the South Coast. 8-[

=d>

Very well said, folks complain about europe not being *equal* enough. But at least they are representative of all population centres and region sizes.

Id rather have an unequal league that includes areas like the central coast, as opposed to the current strayan level playing field approach....which is only viable for large population catchments for the most part.

The parameters around the league need to change to make not only CC viable, but other areas like it.