Monday 18 May 2009

We'll go to Townsville instead

According to NineMSN sports, Townsville's North Queensland Fury say that a proposed June match in Cairns against Gold Coast United, may not happen as the Cairns Regional Council doesn't agree on a cost-sharing arrangement.

"The match between the A-League's newcomers is expected to boast Fowler, Socceroos star Jason Culina and Michael Thwaite from Cairns," Fury coach Ian Ferguson says.

"We'll go to Townsville if an agreement can't be reached in Cairns."

You'd think after Council's backing of the Taipans, this would be a goer.

9 comments:

Bueller....bueller... said...

absolutely ridiculous -- Townsville is the same size as Cairns (perhaps smaller?) and the council can't be bothered to sort out an all-star friendly match when we have the crappy Taipans as our only national sports team. $250 a go for Val to get on air with Mackenzie, or put up the cash for a serious revenue raiser for the city - a no-brainer for this council unfortunately...

Tom Asquith said...

Enough of this belief that CRC should be expected to subsidise what is in effect a sports business. One million dollars exposed to the Taipans was a bad decision by CRC and ratepayer anger over that should be a wake-up call to Council. With rate rises of 8% muted, it's a very good time to focus on managing the city's core business.

Syd Walker said...

It's a shame that "Hell hath no Fury like a Sports Club scorned". Otherwise they could go there instead.

Anonymous said...

There is no way any Cr. should yield to such comments. I pity the ratepayers of Townsville (who already pay much more than we do in Cairns).

Unknown said...

Hear Hear Rob.

If sport fans are wanting sport teams to come here, they should be willing to pay the price to see them, at the gate rather than everyone have to pay more on rates.

I wonder how many people whining about the Taipans not being saved originally actually put their money where there mouths were when it came to the crunch.

If teams coming here isn't financially viable for them, then so be it - we shouldn't subsidise them to be in a market that obviously isn't worth them coming.

Tony Hillier said...

Even though I'm an avid sports fan (OK, rugger bugger), I have to confess that basketball leaves me cold. However, even viewed dispassionately Council's million dollar surety for the Taipans surely must be seriously re-examined in the light of the national authority's decision to press on with a 7-team competition devoid of sides from Melbourne and Sydney. That sounds like economic suicide to me.

The Essence of Good Taste said...

Not sure what the date is for this match, but I know for sure I will happily pay commercial prices for tickets and so will hundreds of other junior soccer players' parents. More kids play football (soccer) in Australia than ANY other sport, and then they move to those 'not quite football' codes as seniors. If exposing them to national standard games helps keep them in the world game, I'm all for it. Might even take the drive to TSV for the game if Cairns can't get its act together.

Steven said...

I'm off to Townsville in June anyway so hopefully I get to see one of my favourite players, Robbie Fowler.

I'd be prepared to pay $20 to go watch an exhibition match.

KitchenSlut said...

I haven't kept up with the NBL shennanigans but note Tony Hillier's comments and can only agree that the viability of a 7 team national NBL competition missing the major metropolitan areas is seriously suspect!? If our Council had been commercially savvy there should an 'outer' somewhere here? Rob Pyne, think you need to flesh out your thoughts here further that comment is too brief?

I also note the comments of Essence and jingoistic expectations in Australia that we can sustain so many sports at a global standard with a small fraction of the world's population! We can't! This is most prominent in men's sport and football codes where we seem to pretend we can be world's best at them all!

Tony's beloved Rugby maybe one taking the first hits here already methinks!?