Union Bargaining, Broadcasting Dramas & Player Departures: Welcome To The Welly Nix’s 2020 Offseason
Lol, remember a week ago when we were all relieved because at least the Wellington Phoenix wouldn’t have to go through a third consecutive squad rebuild? Such innocent days. It wasn’t such a shock that Gary Hooper has departed the club not to return next season, just as it wasn’t a shock (in fact it was pretty exciting) that Libby Cacace and Callum McCowatt had both already left. But when the captain of the team decides to leave having only signed a two-year extension back at the start of the year when he was talking about maybe retiring with the Phoenix... that was a bone-rattler.
Steven Taylor has been a brilliant player for the Welly Nix over the last two years, captaining them after Andy Durante left and absolutely dominating on the pitch. He’s a fan favourite and a hugely respected leader within the squad. There was no indication that he might be leaving... until he did. And although the press release didn’t specify a reason for his leaving at all it didn’t take too much Sherlock Holmes-ing to realise this was a financial drama. A drama which the entire league is grappling with at the moment and which could have much wider ramifications than old mate Stevie T.
Let’s break this down properly. When the A-League was in its covid-hiatus they got hauled into the principal’s office by Fox Sports who basically threatened to walk out of their broadcast deal entirely if they didn’t renegotiate things – which for a while there left the entire season in serious doubt. Obviously there were troubles with games being rescheduled (although they all got played in the end) that were directly related to the pandemic, though there was already simmering unease in that partnership.
Fox Sports have not been subtle about their frustrations with lacklustre viewing figures for A-League football. It’s also not their priority. They recently spent a heap of money on bringing in the Aussie cricket coverage and this year they also renegotiated their NRL and AFL broadcast deals. Not to mention that most broadcast outlets are having trouble with the modern media landscape, with job losses and pay-cuts a common occurrence. Football doesn’t get the viewership that those other sports do and safe to say that Foxtel are well aware of that and were willing to hold the A-League to ransom for it... with the pandemic a convenient impetus for problems that existed long before it.
I maintain that it was pretty scummy behaviour from Foxtel. Not much of a way to treat your corporate partners... but then the A-League and the FFA deserve plenty of blame in the matter too. For whatever reason they’ve been unable to capitalise on a huge grassroots football culture in Oz by converting the majority of those folks into engaged A-League fans. The audience is out there, there’s no reason the viewership should be so slim. Crowds were down even before the pandemic... and if you’re getting Welly Nix Metrics flashbacks from this then yeah, you’re not wrong. But then we already knew the Nix were getting scapegoated for that.
And then, typical of these vicious cycles, the lack of interest from the top down on the Fox Sports side definitely affects the product they put out there which only makes those ratings worse. If they don’t take it seriously, how do they expect fans to? Some of the Fox Sports coverage is really great, with some very talented people involved... but it’s undersold and undervalued.
Eventually the A-League and Fox Sports came to terms on a new deal that involved shifting the season to more of a winter calendar... and of course it also came with a huge slash in cash. Foxtel had been paying nearly AU$60m a year as part of a six-year contract. The new deal is only for next year (and the rest of last season) and is reportedly in the AU$32m range. A massive drop in funds, although keep in mind that most sports leagues have had to pull back on the financials lately. Also keep in mind that this is a natural risk when the A-League is so massively dependent on their singular broadcast deal for running costs. They’ve also lost major sponsor Hyundai. For some reason people seem to react to commercial growth like it’s some exponential thing, like broadcast deals are only gonna keep going up (just like people think they can keep exploiting the planet’s finite natural resources forever) – but safe to say 2020 has caught a few people out there.
With that all sorted the Aussie Footballers’ Union (Professional Footballers Australia) were able to negotiate a short term collective bargaining agreement in order to finish the season, a temporary CBA that expired the day after the grand final. And in case you weren’t already impressed by the selfless determination of the players thanks to the 80-day exile that the Welly Nix lads had to go through then chuck this into the mix: player salaries under the mini-CBA were down by as much as 80%.
Now the A-League and club owners are trying to negotiate a new CBA in which the latest proposal, which has been rejected, settled on up to 30% paycuts (decided on a player by player basis). Clearly there’s gonna be less money to go around... but players also don’t wanna be left copping the bulk of that sacrifice so this could yet get even more feisty before we get a resolution. There’s already talk of the FFA chief stepping in.
The first problem: renegotiating existing contracts is an absolute legal minefield. Top players already get exorbitant dollars compared to fringe squad members but their market value probably protects a lot of those wages - so will other players be expected to take bigger paycuts in order to retain the best players? When the bottom 40% of contracted A-League players earn less than the average Australian wage already? And what if a player is currently injured, suddenly they lose their professional lifeline? Not to mention how doing this on an individual basis could lead to jealousy and bias within the squad. Plus not agreeing to the pay-cut will probably, if/when a new CBA gets done, mean being released. It’s a nightmare situation.
The second problem: this kinda defeats the purpose of the salary cap. Similar to what we see in nations like England, Spain, Italy, Germany & France where the top clubs are on a financial level that nobody else can compete with... Sydney FC and the two Melbourne clubs have the money to handle this and have already promised to keep the pay-cheques coming for their players regardless of what happens with the CBA. But the other nine clubs don’t have that luxury and that will almost surely add to the on-field disparity between those two financial tiers even after the salary cap is inevitably lowered.
The third problem: it’s not just about the players already under contract, this is gonna wreak havoc with the ability to sign new players too – especially import players. Which in turn damages the quality of the football for what might be the most crucial season in the history of the competition.
The fourth problem: if you’re a professional footballer you don’t only get paid while the season is ongoing. You’re getting paid all year and right now there’s no active CBA with negotiations proving tricky. The privileged triumvirate of SFC/MVC/MCY are paying their dudes based on existing contracts because they can afford to uphold them. But the rest of the clubs are having to improvise and you fear what’ll happen with those Nix blokes if this impasse drags on. Thank Christ for that Cacace money at least, aye?
Righto, so what does all this mean specifically for the Wellington Phoenix? They have 12 players under contract for next season, two of them imports. A further 10 players who featured in matchday squads last season are off contract or have left already. Plus there are two academy players (Zac Jones & Sam Sutton) who were also in the first team picture at the end of things. They have zero central defenders on the books right now... but it’d be stupid to go around re-signing players until the new CBA has been agreed so don’t expect any positive squad news until that happens.
Will Ulises Davila and David Ball be back? That’s a personal decision on each of their parts, though I wouldn’t rule it out because Stevie T’s situation had a few more wrinkles to it. Specifically that he’s 34 years old and nearing the end of his career which means that sitting around for months of indecisive updates on when the next season might happen is time he can’t get back. Word is, not only did Taylor take a pay-cut like everyone else for the restart but he apparently went above and beyond and sacrificed more money so that it could be spread out further in the squad. Remarkable leadership from that guy. But when the Indian Super League steps in with a guaranteed offer and the promise of actual football relatively soon then you’d be a brave person to turn it down in Taylor’s situation. I’m actually kinda proud of the club and Ufuk Talay’s position in understanding that and allowing him to leave with no hassle – as a figure like Stevie T deserves. Davila and Ball are at different stages of their careers though. These are all unique circumstances. However if the ISL could stop jacking Phoenix players, that’d be greatly appreciated. Or, alternatively, y’all can have Stevie T and Super Hooper and we get Roy Krishna back. Deal?
I wrote in that Offseason Primer that I reckoned we’d see a drop in import slots next season. Sounds like I didn’t go far enough as there’s talk of reducing the minimum squad size too, possibly as low as 18 players. How they implement that will be fleshed out in whatever CBA they end up with... if it’s an optional thing then that’s dangerous if Sydney FC can still have 23 fully contracted pros while teams like the Phoenix are dealing with barely enough to fill out a matchday squad plus academy fellas. But it makes sense to lower the squad size in some way when that’ll take entire salaries off the books.
If academy talent does end up being a prerequisite for staying competitive next season, well... the Phoenix have had more success than most with their player pathways lately. Sarpreet Singh and Liberato Cacace fly off to brighter horizons and up step Ben Waine and Sam Sutton. You already know there’s more where they came from too – Kurtis Mogg, Alex Paulsen, Finn Surman, Henry Hamilton, and Ben Old (as well as Ben Waine, Sam Sutton, and fellow grad Willem Ebbinge) were all named in an NZ U20s identification camp to take place in a week or two. As long as they can afford to keep the lights on, which unfortunately is a thing we’ve gotta acknowledge in these times, then the academy is going to serve up quality players and there could just be a few extra opportunities coming their way next season too.
Not to mention that the kiwi Premiership’s got no shortage of hungry players on the come-up who are easily worth at least a look at. Given their CB deficiencies at the moment, about the first thing I’d be doing once the CBA is sorted is signing at least one of Adam Mitchell and Fox Slotemaker. If the import kitty is gonna be limited then perhaps this is the year to see what Tommy Semmy can do at a higher level? Not to mention dudes like Jack-Henry Sinclair, Mario Ilic, Myer Bevan, Cam Howieson, Sam Burfoot, Dane Schnell, Brock Messenger, Taylor Schrijvers, Sean Liddicoat, Clayton Lewis, Andy Bevin... and various other Premmy Files All Stars. At this stage we don’t even know if playing home games will even be possible or if they’ll have to base themselves out of Australia all over again but guys like that will be much cheaper and much more able/willing to go through those sacrifices if indeed they come to pass.
Other than that it’s all fine and dandy like sour candy.
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