https://www.news.com.au/sport/football/wellington-phoenix-aleague-club-haemorrhaging-money/news-story/c5c1935bb5b384464793d4a3df5bb655

Stopping propping up Newcastle will save some $$

Now the FFA cup name change makes sense.......

Feel sorry for them though, of all franchises they have had the short end of the stick for 2 seasons.... 

what a sell out, the NSL is turning in its grave..... you should be ashamed

Yeah they have and good on the fans for supporting them but they have no place in Australian football taking up a place that could go to a local team.

Only thing worse than them in the comp, besides no football pyramid obviously, are the clowns calling for Auckland to be added.

Maybe I’m wet around the ears but where in the article does it say nix out?

It doesn't. That's me saying boot them. (Already.)

Well, Nix are the hardest hit, going onto two years of this now.
It wouldn't surprise me if the owners had to sell up.

Hahahahah if the NSL was spinning any faster in it's grave it would generate electricity. hahahahahahahah

They can thank Ardern the Draconian Backward Moron for that. Hope they're proud. 

Are they really taking up the place of an Australian team though? The last 2 Australian teams that were added to the league have been embarrassing.

Tough situation. Maybe they can travel to regional areas around the country. Not ideal but bringing games to other regions rather than purely in Wollongong may help garner interest for one off matches. And corporate support for one match would be easier to attract than for a dozen matches.

Try Canberra, Bathurst, Tamworth, Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie, Lismore, Gold Coast, Townsville, Hobart, Darwin etc. 

They could have scheduled all Nix home games at the respective oppositions home ground. It would still technically be a home game for the Nix, so it would enable them to pocket some money from ticket sales which they wouldn't be doing now. Obviously they would have to sacrifice their home ground advantage, but they don't really have that now, so it would be a negligible sacrifice. '

Yeah those 2 teams they admitted are a joke but in answer to your question yes they are. Crowds aside that's 20 or so players from Australia not benefiting from a professional setup.

Have they been playing in Wollongong all this time? Why can't they just give the licence to the Wolves and move on?

Just assign the Wellington Phoenix Licence to Australia already.

Call it Wollongong Phoenix and let the current owners sell the Licence if they want to.

Why call it Wollongong Phoenix when the Wolves have been around for 40 years?

Nobody could have predicted how the future would turn out, but in hindsight it would have been ideal to bring Wollongong in back in 2020, put Wellington on hiatus and bring them back together with an expansion Canberra side whenever the border is definitely re-opened.

Not sure how long Melbourne City Soccer club have been around for but I played against them in the late 80s myself so they have been around for at least 30 years, why name a plastic foreign franchise Melbourne City? 
ANSWER:  As long as you pay enough you can f#ck anyone over for your own nefarious reasons.. Those poor bastards didn't even get to see any of the money, FFA just pimped them out...., scum.
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/sport/melbourne-city-denies-dispute-with-aleague-club-has-been-resolved/news-story/150c3a66dedee484ee69bceb1243bd2a

They can't afford to hire security for the stadium so they can raise the gate takings, they are going to fly around the country chasing WU from ground to ground???? Hahahahah NPL on planes......

I wonder how many WP players would be playing in the aleague if the club was no longer around? The assumption that they are or were taking Aleague places is ridiculous. The league had so many chances to use young Aussie product, through the NYL, yet tossed most of them to the kerb. The league is using young players because the cap has been reduced. If it hadn't been do you really think they would've been used as much?

Well this situation certainly hasn't helped Wollongong gain entry into the league anytime soon.

The stadium is obviously trying to gouge the Nix at every opportunity. Pretty shameful really.

This same fixture 3 years ago got 23k at Eden Park. Obviously Covid is at play massively but its really embarrassing where this has gotten to. 

The Nix should have sold the home game to MV and played it at AAMI park and taken the gate. Would have got 10k on the back of the FFA cup win.

If they moved it to AAMI Park and played it on a weekend they could have got 12k-15k. Who cares about home ground advantage, especially when the Glory are getting rinsed beyond belief. 

Their fans seem like nice chaps and chapettes who support their team well, but having said that, please, as a country we have provided enough charity to NZ - no more for football. Granted they attempted a payback by providing Rojas for MV but what have they done for any of us since then? Time to go guys. take a book for the quarantine back in NZ, tell Jacinta we said hi. Cheers 

Nix have brought a lot to the A-League and I feel sorry for them. Maybe Australian teams could try playing two seasons in Auckland and see what crowd they pull. 

I don’t know if this is a stupid question or not, but why didn’t Wellington look elsewhere for tonights game? Could they have done a double header in Newcastle last night for example? Or even played the game in Melbourne? The MacArthur game in Campbelltown the other day was actually a Nix home game.


I used to be in the “Nix Out” corner. Still not a massive supporter of them being in the league. But when I think about the NSD, for the life of me I don’t know how this country will find 30 financially viable professional clubs. We are not gonna find another 18 teams from the NPL, that’s for sure. We will struggle to find 7-8 NPL teams that will fit the necessary financial and stadia criteria. So with that in mind, we can’t let any of the current clubs folds or relocate.  


yep, agree. 

Good post.

The game should have been in Melbourne, with revenues going to WP. 

There's not a chance in the world there will be 30 financially viable professional clubs in Australia. Theres only about 4 now. 

For starters
https://www.ftbl.com.au/news/the-full-list-of-30-prospective-second-division-clubs-553308

Then look and read some very important points made re costs. infrastructures etcetc......and you reckon 7/8 Clubs at most let alone 18.
Look through the trees.
Most of the more viable ones have the grounds < might need a little updating ie lighting, accom 3k fans min, sure some will need to meet the criteria, normal.
Travel biggest expense - Clubs will chase sponsers etc......
Come on open your eyes.
http://www.australianfootballclubs.org.au/media-releases/national-second-division-affordable-and-feasible

As for the Nix current predicament, all I'm seeing is bad management between them and the APL regards this situation and worse whilst the comp is in full swing covid issues no excuse - goal posts shift were all used to this last 2yrs (specially business) other sports seem to have corrective actions in ready or more so find a way to keep the show going.
I'm sure the Nix knew for sometime the issues at hand re the ground, how come the Bulls earlier in the rounds could move a home game due to their pitch being unplayable to Newcastle in a blink of an eye, yet Nix have sat on their situation.
For all the big time AL/APL owners why is it our sport seem to have B grade ones.

APL need to find a buyer for Newcastle first



And CCM

and Adelaide
and Brisbane
and Perth

seriously they need to be kicked out for this - how do they cancel so late? fans had travelled from melbourne 

When are these clubs going to be able to operate on a fully professional basis?  By fully professional I mean professional on the field and off the field with everyone being paid a professional wage.

When winning A2 means the reward of promotion to A1