Kaptain Kouta wrote:
I got a phone call this morning from Ian Coutts, and while I still think the Club could have done something more, he did explain the position of the club and some of the difficulties.
I have softened my somewhat belligerent stance which Cazzesman upbraided me for the other day, probably rightly, but I still feel fairly justified for having, and expressing those opinions.
He also agreed that the information given to me yesterday which made me so angry wasn't correct.
Over our conversation of almost 20 minutes, we discussed many things about interstate trips and opportunities to interact with supporters. Some of which are below. They aren't in chronological order of the discussion, I'm trying to distill our fairly wide-ranging chat into some salient points.
Some of the difficulties which prevent puff-piece stories being written about players visiting local clubs are things like the attitude of the press towards the club, and that if they don't offer up Judd as one of those players, then the press isn't interested. Judd has expressed his desire NOT to be seen as the sole face of the club, and the club has also tried to put the message out that CFC doesn't stand for the Chris Football Club. I said that I was sick seeing so-called football journalists put ridiculous puff-pieces into the papers on an almost daily basis about Essendon*, pieces which were little more than fawning schoolboy fan writing writ large, and would like to see more positive press about our club.
If anything is arranged, they need to be central, not just to Sydney, but to where the team is staying, as after a match, it's not the best to have players being bussed across Sydney for an hour or more.
He doesn't think there's an official affiliation with the Campbelltown football club. If that's the case, I did express that it's a shame, not just because that's my local team, but there was one only a few years back, IIRC, as I'm sure I got a letter from the club a few seasons back talking about it.
He said that fans everywhere, even Melbourne just want to meet and mingle with the players. That's just not possible, and the club is trying to increase social media and other technological opportunities to allow fans to interact with players.
That led me to express how utterly revolting the Telstra based club site is, and ask why is it not possible to have Optus replace that as part of their sponsorship. He said that the clubs receive not only the website, but $500000 as part of the deal. Even Essendon* has come on board apparently. And if we went it alone with Optus, not only would the club forgo the cash, but then have to build the site, write the articles etc.
I suggested a few opportunities which may be able to be exploited in the future, and asked that he keep my contact details, as I would be happy to help out with my professional skills where I could, and I'm sure there were many other Sydney based fans who would do the same.
I said that Sydney offered opportunities which Adelaide and Perth couldn't even begin to offer. I did say that of course I was saying this in a biased way, as I live here, not in SA or WA, but I still hold some of those things to be true. Those things include that the sheer population and geographical spread of Sydney means that there is simply a much bigger market to look at here. Sydney also offers the opportunity that as so-called Rugby League territory, potential supporters here aren't already aligned to a local or Victorian AFL club the way they mostly are in Adelaide and Perth. Also that the Swans are seen as a club for the North and East, and people outside Sydney don't appreciate how long it can take and how much it can cost to travel across the greater metro area here, and as such there's a big market of people who could easily be found to want a club which more represents them.
He accepted my point about the way Sydney supporters are treated as poor cousins to WA and SA supporters, and I related to him my talk with Sticks last March, and the point that there may be a certain amount of "build it and they will come" factor to the percentage of members to supporters in places like Perth, given they regularly get 2 matches a year to Sydney's average of one every 2 years.
Our conversation was cordial, and I thanked Ian for his time, and I hope that he keeps some of my feedback in mind when interstate trips are arranged into the future.
I do accept many of the things he had to say, and would like to think that the club is going to be somewhat more proactive about opportunities which are presented by hopefully playing more in Sydney, as will probably happen into the future with the introduction of GWS next year.
If there's anything I've missed, I'll add it later.
Big credit to you for taking the caustically delivered advice to call the club, and well done on and make the most of it by getting onto Coutts
Nice to hear that Coutts is happy to communicate with members too. I'll give him bonus points if he was aware enough of TC to know this was a good opportunity to broadcast a message of pro-activity by proxy.
Yes, and given that KK is interstate, it's nice of Coutts to communicate directly with a country member.
Login
Register
FAQ
