Certified Legendary Thread China History in the Making

[El Zorro]

Yep people are so uneducated and just believe the drivel spouted by commentators with massively vested interests.
The disappointing part is when our own supporters. PAFC66 etc , spew the same rubbish.

I can see your problem there.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

The AFL must be the most crowd orgasm obsessed league in the world. When I watch other sports from around the world I don't hear much talk about crowds like I do with AFL.

Yes I have participated in the frenzy in past but I just can't get that excited about it anymore. I guess when the KPI''s for the AFL executives bonuses are heavily skewed towards crowd numbers then we are going to hear lots about crowds.

 

[OneGreatClub]

I can see your problem there.

Perhaps I was using the term a little too loosely in this instance

 

[Capital Power]

Do we/they wear clash in these fixtures normally? I needed the white shorts to be able to reliably separate them, and there were a few disposal errors where I'd swear our guys thought they were passing to a team mate.

If the game is that important, at least allow neutrals and potential new fans to tell the teams apart. Perhaps one-off designs for both teams?

 

[Far Kern]

RussellEbertHandball sorry if this information is already in here, does the China game cost the AFL anything? Does head office put in any of the funds?

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

RussellEbertHandball sorry if this information is already in here, does the China game cost the AFL anything? Does head office put in any of the funds?

Don't know for sure but I doubt they would pay for much.

The game is a JV between Port and the AFL. There is a budget to raise sponsorship funds and if there is a shortfall over expenses then Mr Gui underwrites that shortfall.

The AFL would get heavily involved with signing most of these sponsorship deals. Eg game day sponsor Kennedy who supplied the "cup we won."

So my guess is any of their expenses or specific things they want comes out of that pool of JV funds raised not from their general revenue pool.

There would be the odd thing that would be missed and the AFL might pay for some kids development stuff directly but in a budget of $4.5m I'd put it at less than $100k and probably less than $50k that would directly come from the AFL''s bank account.

 

[Duck Farmer]

The annual pile on about crowd numbers (as if that's the whole point of the excercise) is grating. This is where our so-called high profile Chairman needs to be coming out and ramming a forceful explanation down people's throats. Put the club's flag in the ground for once man.

DK: "It's not a bad crowd for a little, working class club from Alberton."

 

[raptalia]

I think the fullness of the stadium is a lesser issue.
Many of the stands are unusable due to the goals not being visible from them.
One of the sponsors put his patrons on a bus to the wrong place so they didn’t arrive until very late in the game.
The tents were where a lot of people were with the heat and refreshments offered.
A night game might work better.
It will take years to build any proper Chinese audience to this strange game. Auskick has only been in Southern China for a short time.
The game is part of the Aus festival there where Australian and Chinese business can mingle face to face. Thst is where we are trying to do business.
It is the Chinese in Australia the AFL
are chasing for membership.
The number of Port supporters going will decrease over the years. Many can hardly afford their yearly membership, never mind the cost of a trip to China.
Hell, people from Aus clubs won’t even travel interstate or across Melbourne to see a game. Check out crowd numbers of many games in our back yard.

The point I was making is that a good proportion of the tickets were supposed to have been given to Chinese nationals. Maybe the locals took them out of courtesy and had no intention of going or maybe that story was bullshit. The official attendance figure was 9,412 and that is down on both the preceding years.

 

[MrMeaner]

The annual pile on about crowd numbers (as if that's the whole point of the excercise) is grating. This is where our so-called high profile Chairman needs to be coming out and ramming a forceful explanation down people's throats. Put the club's flag in the ground for once man.

That would mean that Koch had suddenly become a good advocate for us. There is no evidence that this will ever happen.

 

[Doctor Feel]

I wouldn't trust him to say the right things anyway. He'll embarrass us somehow.

 

[chiwigi]

The point I was making is that a good proportion of the tickets were supposed to have been given to Chinese nationals. Maybe the locals took them out of courtesy and had no intention of going or maybe that story was ********. The official attendance figure was 9,412 and that is down on both the preceding years.

20,000 locals are worthless compared to one Gui Guojie , the reality is that we are aiming at the Gui Guojie's not the Zhang Wei's.

 

[1954]

The annual pile on about crowd numbers (as if that's the whole point of the excercise) is grating. This is where our so-called high profile Chairman needs to be coming out and ramming a forceful explanation down people's throats. Put the club's flag in the ground for once man.

I would be very happy to be proven wrong, but I doubt the Kochmeister has it in him to, as you say `put the club's flag in the ground!'

 

[Lockhart Road]

My read is that the kochmeister’s hypemeister has been burnt to a cinder in the toastmeister.

 

[manureid]

My read is that the kochmeister’s hypemeister has been burnt to a cinder in the toastmeister.

He is running out of words to adequately describe how much smallaer and more working class we are compared to everyone else.

 

[Enviable Tradition]

Official crowd: 7581 at Giants Stadium


(I bet our game had a bigger TV audience too)

Yep. He could even get in a dig at GC at the same time.

On SM-G960F using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Powerstufff]

What was with the commentators saying Port will be rotated out of playing in China and St Kilda will have a true home game where they make the money......

There isn't money to make in the standard sense. It costs us to play this game and run the Aussie Rules development program in Shanghai. Supposedly it gives us the chance to attract sponsors, and Mr Gui underwrites our losses where what we make from sponsorship doesn't cover the cost.

 

[bomberclifford]

The annual pile on about crowd numbers (as if that's the whole point of the excercise) is grating. This is where our so-called high profile Chairman needs to be coming out and ramming a forceful explanation down people's throats. Put the club's flag in the ground for once man.

Yep, and don't lie or fudge it.

Koch has lived in La La Land for too long and doesn't seem to realise that in the real world, people can read his insincerity a mile off.

 

[Powerstufff]

So my 3rd visit and I'll keep coming.
There were a lot more people there this year even though we have said from scratch that the games were sold out. The 9,500 claimed figure is believable. It was pretty hot and bright sunshine so all those with access to the shaded hospitality areas stayed in them.
Great actually seeing a decent contingent of opposition supporters for the first time. And despite all the sneering there were a lot of Chinese there actually watching the game. When I say a lot I mean they were noticeable for the first time as spectators just sitting sprinkled around, not groups of puzzled schoolkids bussed in.

 

[Lockhart Road]

There isn't money to make in the standard sense. It costs us to play this game and run the Aussie Rules development program in Shanghai. Supposedly it gives us the chance to attract sponsors, and Mr Gui underwrites our losses where what we make from sponsorship doesn't cover the cost.

There is a lot of money to be made by us in the standard sense, or any other sense.

We have become wholly reliant on Gui and find ourselves in the position of being terrified that he is snuggling deeper and deeper into the arms of the AFL.

He’s a Socialist with Shanghai characteristics. In other words, he’s a capitalist.

The Club was warned.

 

[Powerstufff]

Now we're past setup issues the problem is Jingwan Stadium is an awful venue. No shade. No toilets*. The wrong shape, so that even the increasingly clever setup of temporary seating exaggerates the appearance of emptiness.
Then there's the operation on the day. A Saints' supporter I spoke to was really taken aback at long lineups for water. And that you couldn't get a beer unless you'd paid for one of the $200+ tickets. He said he and his brother were enjoying Shanghai but once at Jingwan was enough. I felt like the grizzled old soldier talking to the new recruit when I said it was streets ahead of the 1st year.
There have to be better venues available and I know it will cost more but Jingwan itself will knock this game over.

* portaloos in use but they start closing them off in the 3rd quarter for cleaning transporting away.

 

[GremioPower]

There is a lot of money to be made by us in the standard sense, or any other sense.

We have become wholly reliant on Gui and find ourselves in the position of being terrified that he is snuggling deeper and deeper into the arms of the AFL.

He’s a Socialist with Shanghai characteristics. In other words, he’s a capitalist.

The Club was warned.

Still, he fooled me with tie, scarf, and being present with children in our victory song. And he would fool me every time...

 

[Ishikawa]

I am not sure where I read it but I know I read that the game was a sell out with almost half the seats bought by the Chinese. If that is the case where was the crowd? We went with a Victorian club to boost the crowd numbers but it did not work.

I appreciate the need to promote business ties with the Chinese market but the game is also supposed to promote Aussie Rules among the Chinese population. If that is the case the stadium needs to be full. Maybe this will happen but this is year three and the masses are not exactly flocking through the turnstiles.

Nice to win and win well but from the perspective of promoting the game that was another disappointment. I noted that when the camera panned to Gillion and Kochie nether smiling, in fact they were both sitting expressionless like garden gnomes.

That is a ludicrously naive and shallow comment.

St Kilda were here because the Victorian government want in on this. The fact that the game went ahead among all the iciness politically last year was eye opening for our local pollies.

 

[Lockhart Road]

Still, he fooled me with tie, scarf, and being present with children in our victory song. And he would fool me every time...

Gui is brilliant at what he does and at being who he is. I admire him. I want him to be around and to support PAFC more and more long after I am gone.
It’s not a case of being ‘fooled’ by him. His ultimate objectives have to be recognised and catered to. The Club knows what those objectives are, they’ve been told often enough. They just don’t want to hear it.
Rucci called it the CEO’s ‘Confucius’ moment when Gui told him early last year that Gui’s vision for AFL in Shanghai extends way beyond PAFC. Of course it does. It always did.
Why was the CEO surprised? He’d been told earlier, had been warned what to look out for, had been advised there are land mines on both sides of the track in Shanghai.
This was just another example of the Club’s greenhorn blindness, deafness and stubbornness that drove me nuts ... not a long drive, I’ll admit.

 

[GremioPower]

Gui is brilliant at what he does and at who he is. I admire him. I want him to be around and to support PAFC more and more long after I am gone.
It’s not a case of being ‘fooled’ by him. His ultimate objectives have to be recognised and catered to. The Club knows what those objectives are, they’ve been told often enough. They just don’t want to hear it.
Rucci called it the CEO’s ‘Confucius’ moment when Gui told him early last year that Gui’s vision for AFL in Shanghai extends way beyond PAFC. Of course it does. It always did.
Why was the CEO surprised? He’d been told earlier, had been warned what to look out for, had been advised there are land mines on both sides of the track in Shanghai.
This was just another example of the Club’s greenhorn blindness, deafness and stubbornness that drove me nuts ... not a long drive, I’ll admit.

"Gui’s vision for AFL in Shanghai extends way beyond PAFC. Of course it does."

OUR own vision of footy in Shanghai should extend beyond ourselves. The whole enterprise is ridiculously meaningless otherwise.

----
"not a long drive, I’ll admit."

Madness is key to preserve our sanity.

 

[Lockhart Road]

"Gui’s vision for AFL in Shanghai extends way beyond PAFC. Of course it does."

OUR own vision of footy in Shanghai should extend beyond ourselves. The whole enterprise is ridiculously meaningless otherwise.

----
"not a long drive, I’ll admit."

Madness is key to preserve our sanity.

‘Our own vision of footy in Shanghai should extend beyond ourselves.’

Correct. But you have to secure your own position financially first, before you can go out and about winning hearts and minds, and when you do there has got to be a formula followed that makes the philanthropy profitable, too.

Our priority from the start of the China Strategy has been the future financial security of the Club.

Our aim was to keep the AFL at arm’s length until we deemed the time was right to bring them in. When Gui fell from heaven it was appropriate to bring in Gill McLachlan in April 2016 in Shanghai to assist and broaden our sales pitch to commercial partners, not to bring it to a sudden vulnerable stop.

Our leadership strayed from the original sensible logical basic path the moment the PAFC board forced it to give up on momentum because it was costing too much, more than they were expecting, and the revenue was not meeting targets, by a long way, because the structure was not put in place to secure the revenue ... because structure needs time to function and costs money ...

Classic Catch 22.