Well done au. Would love to see other clubs follow suit but I suspect a key reason for AU's success is the stadium deal. This is a huge gorilla in the room for most a-league clubs and will continue to be an issue until they start taking a longer-term view to things. AU have shown that you don't necessarily need to play in a state of the art stadium but a football-specific one. Love the fact that whenever AU play at home you know the surface will be good and consequently can expect a good game. That is not always the case with multi-purpose stadia. This is the sort of good news story that needs to get out in the media.

Hindmarsh is a pearl of a football stadium, best football only stadium in Australia and boy does it show:) It needs a lick of paint though and AU would like the govt to fund an upgrade/increase of corporate facilities in the near term. Why does stadiums QLD charge so much for GCU and BRFC to use their particular stadiums? is it a case of treating them equally to the NRL clubs that cohabit the arenas? If so, then I guess we can't really complain if we're finally being treated as equals with RL teams, even if its killing the bottom line of the HAL teams..time to wheel in some better negotiators methinks.

Howdy barrel-boys and girls. I've wandered in here simply because the tumbleweeds seem to be a'blowin through this forum today, but I must agree that Hindmarsh is an impressive little stadium.

Shitty train system to get there mind you, but nice nonetheless. Hopefully when/if/by some miracle MES does get a promised upgrade from the government we'll have a second start to keep the noise in and provide a bit more cover. You've got a much better bar system too, so we'll take that and integrate it into the upgrade-that-will-never-happen too, thanks.

Pity we ain't travelling to you folks in round one, as has been tradition, but at least some of you will be able to bus it over to us instead ;)

Why train it when you can tram it for free?

dave:
I've never understood the people who claim Hindmarsh is difficult to get to. If you are over 90 or infirm then maybe, but there is both train(Bowden stn) and tram stops within 500m of the Manton Street gates...too easy. both tram & train depart from Adelaide Central station regularly. If you simply must drive and park, the ADL Entertainment Centre and its large car park is less than 100m from the same gates and if you must drive then I guess you must also pay the $8 for parking. Hindmarsh is the perfect little football stadium and thanks be to Adelaide City and West Adelaide who BS'd the then Liberal govt into upgrading it for the Olympics. It was a bit of a white elephant until the HAL came along, but now that United get 11k average crowds in a 16k stadium...it seems about right, except for the lack of corporate facilities, which is probably just a result of the lack of need for corporate facilities in the significantly less corporatist NSL. Not a slight on old soccer, its just that the HAL has more sponsorship opportunities and a larger market to present those to potential sponsors.

Is the tram a relatively new thing? I'm talking what, 2 years ago now.

Then again we did also have a guide of quesitonable knowledge :lol:

Yep tram is realatively new :)

A mate at work told me about this

Ex Adelaide United striker, Cristiano, joins White City for the rest of the season. He also joins the White City Small Sided Coaching panel.

10 games for $10,000 I think the deal is

Wonder if he is trying to keep fit hoping for another crack at the a-league or just getting what he can.

Anyone know what he's been upto since his time here?

I still blame Vidmar and think Cristiano was a scapegoat for a horrible season. No striker in the world would have scored that year. (but thats besides the point)

No idea what he's been doing. Might go and see how he does at that level. I'd be interested. Always thought he was a quality player misused by Vidmar playing a system which just didn't suit his strengths. I used to groan everytime a long ball was lobbed up to him. Didn't he end up in Cyprus or something after he was cut from AUFC?

mate just said he's been playing in malta

Ah, here we go :

PREMIER League soccer club White City Woodville has signed former Adelaide United striker Cristiano for the remainder of the season.

The 30-year-old Brazilian is waiting on an international clearance from former club, Malta’s Tarxien Rainbows, but could line up for the Warriors against Adelaide Cobras this week.

He will also coach the Warriors’ under-11 small-sided team, featuring his sons Matheus, eight, and Raphael, seven.

The signing boosts fifth-placed White City’s hopes of being promoted to the Super League for next season.

Cristiano scored 15 goals in 61 games for United from 2008-10.

Read next week’s Weekly Times Messenger for the full story with Cristiano.

http://weekly-times-messenger.whereilive.com.au/sport/story/cristiano-signs-with-white-city/

Edited by davide82: 15/6/2011 05:27:26 PM

Yeah, I posted it here after Val's rumour last week. It was then confirmed on the FFSA website.

Was hoping to catch him at the White City away match at Cobras, but his ITC papers hadn't arrived yet. So hopefully he'll be available next round.

Cristiano & Frank Marafioti ( ex Adelaide Comets striker ) are signing on for White city ( should see them this week ).

If your mate is right and it's only til the end of this season I can't see the point. They'll be facing City , Metro, Blue Eagles et al without him - they'll be easybeats imo with their current roster.

Cristiano was in Malaysia as far as I know.

@Dave: The free tram is only recent ( about Sept last year I thik ) and there was also a rumour that the NRL want to put a team in Adelaide, so they'll manage to screw the surface @ the Marsh. Not much money in an Adelaide NRL team as shown by their last venture ( the Rams ) about 10 years ago, so I can't see why they'd bother.


Edited by redcup: 15/6/2011 10:05:35 PM

Cristiano will be gold for White City - I am impressed at what they are forking out for him though! I would not mind Cristiano fitting back into AUFC as a third striker to go along with Bruce and SVD...

Where has Paul Reid disappeared to?

actually redcup the rams had good crowds int he first 2 seasons nearly 20 thousand plus the 3rd season it went down hill because people got over seeing them beaten by 20 points each game but were still getting about 10 thousand plus to each game

that is why they want to try it again here the reason why the rams and the perth team folded was not so much because of themselves it was a NQF type of thing where the nrl cut them out of it because of the state the nrl was at the time sorta like the ffa is in now

im not sure would not be surprised if you hear... Reid signs for wellington soon though lol

This is my memory of the Rams too, they were sacrificed as a cost saving measure for the league as a whole - plus they were badly uncompetitive.

Loved how these NRL bigheads said how rams crowds were low as such. HMMMM only 8000 to see South Sydney rabbitohs versus Gold Coast Titans at ANZ stadium last night.

Anyway can now book my flights, accommodation and car hire for Perth now as I have the day off work Monday. Round one here we come.

Cristiano did play for White City and was red-carded in 2nd half ( Enfield d White City 3-2 )
Marifiotti played for Comets and scored twice against my former team ( which was bad luck for us )

@ liverpoolfan, thanks mate, don't know much about the Rams.
I don't bother with NRL or AFL - it's not that I hate these codes just couldn't care less is all.


Edited by redcup: 19/6/2011 02:19:50 PM

He scored in his first game too. Good job Cristiano! haha

dodgy pitch postpones 1st reds friendly

Oh well, we'll still have the perennial trial against Galaxy next week. :p

Have the club even announced the friendlies yet? The only mention I've heard of them is from AdelaideNow.

So fellow Reds, it's been a long time coming but the 'official' fans committee finally met with Matt Rossi for the first time last night. A range of things were discussed, some of which I can tell you about and some of which I can't - yet.

At this point it's fair to say that (as you've probably figured out!) things are moving pretty slowly at the club and that big news is hard to come by. The over-riding factor in all things is that money is tight this year with the club really working to make sure that it's viable this season - and for many more. The owners and the new regime are, without doubt, absolutely focused on making sure that Adelaide United survives longterm.

So, what little bits of news can I tell you?
1. There will be three levels of seating at Hindmarsh this year. Red will now be the north and south ends and the eastern stand will be 'blue' seating. Still unreserved. And gold for the young and rich!
2. The club is working with the Red Army to ensure that 'active' support is catered for as well as possible.
3. Ticket prices are going to be pretty stable I'm told. The big difference will be that we will now be able to buy a season ticket without membership.
4. Membership will be a separate option and the club plans to allow members voting rights on a 'members board' of some sort. Ideas are not finalised yet but the whole idea is to get members more involved than before in talking about the direction of the club. It's part of really positive push to make sure that more fans are part of what goes on. My feeling is that the new ownership really wants AU to be accessible.
5. The final design for the jersey for this season is still not formalized but a few options are being made up as we speak and we should see the final decision within a month.
6. Our media man is in Mexico, asked by the FFA to go and help cover the U17 World Cup. Nice gig, eh? But that means AU isn't really present in the press at the moment, hence the sometimes unconfirmed reports of trial matches that we're hearing. The full pre-season trial game roster is still a work-in-progress.

That's about it folks. There's more but it'll come out soon. The first meeting was pretty much a 'getting to know you' session with a report on where things are. You can be assured that we asked some fairly pointed question and that Matt did his best to answer. The reality is that a lot of stuff is simply not finalised or decided at this stage. And of course they're not going to tell us everything we want to know. It's a business too.

What is clear is that the Reds are walking the fine line of trying to run a successful club while trying to be financially responsible. It's not about saving money. It's about being sensible and ensuring that we are here in ten years. There may be decisions that some fans will be annoyed about but - in my humble opinion - this is going to be a year to hang tough with the club as it gets the money stuff sorted.

There's a great chance that we're going to be highly competitive on the field but that's going to depend on making sure we don't go broke.

I left the meeting feeling very up about the Reds again.

Feel free to leave comments here that I can take to the next meeting. But keep them short and (relatively) realistic. The club has started to make sure that the fans have a voice - let's use it well.

Thanks for the update, Stephen.
In regards to the Eastern stand being 'blue' seating, does that mean it's going to cost more than it did to sit there last year as general admission?

I don't know the details, SS. With the finances the way they are I doubt there will be cheaper tickets. I sit in the new 'blue' area with my family so I'm hoping the change won't be much change. Mind you, I still think the eastern stand is the best place to be. Except when it rains!

My first thought reading that was, bloody fantastic!

OK after that initial rush of blood thanks to the wonderful news that we have a ownership focused on the success of the club and a definitive move towards the club actually being a club - the concept of membership being different to ticketed for example I will throw my initial reactions to you.

Having another tier of ticketing is frustrating though keeping it un allocated seating is not. The extra cost of policing this concept I think may make it less desirable, however it will increase the number of people at each end of the ground. I hope that the home end will become exactly that and will not be allocated as general admission but as active support (standing room only).

What is being done to further connect the club to the grass roots and is there any way that we can tell the FFA to get stuffed with regard to our academy not being able to take part in state competitions. The sooner we can stop the academy being a fee for service and it to be part of the basis of our club the better off we will be.

Thanks for the update Stephen.



I'm not excited by this. I'm s-excited by it!

Oh, and also even with our media man being away with the FFA I note we are still getting good coverage by Val - I assume we have improved our relationship with the 'tiser again.

Some more thoughts.

Active support needs to be given similar levels of support as they receive in the MLS, we are a similar market in that active support is generally a foreign concept to Australians. The better that the Red Army can be allowed to be with regard to tifos and displays the more invovled the rest of the crowd will get. Frankly it would be a dream come true to have the 'marsh a sea of active Reds support, doing 4 stand tifos and the chants coming from every side.

With that there has got to be some way of getting the Red Army chants diseminated to the rest of the crowd, there is nothing more brilliant than the whole of the 'marsh calling together to get the boys over the line.

Thanks for the update, I have a question in regards to club infrastructure.

Was much mentioned in regards to stadium upgrades, potential club rooms, a club pub and this sort of capper. Would love to know fro two reasons, one I love the club and would love to use these sort of facilities in an effort to contribute financially to the club by eating and drinking at Adelaide united pub. Secondly because Im an architect and if the club was looking at this sort of thing I’d love to be involved and put forward my company to offer service 

Cheers