Courtesy of 
http://tinyurl.com/3gsc6bf
Former CEO of the Wellington Phoenix FC Tony Pignata
"Meanwhile, former Phoenix CEO Tony Pignata is positive about the Phoenix's future but hopes the new owners don't fall into the trap of running the Wellington club strictly as a business.
He is also concerned about the lack of football knowledge within the 'Phoenix Seven', saying there needs to be someone near the top with a good grasp of the sport.
The group of seven Wellington business people - now known as the Welnix Ltd consortium - were unveiled on Friday as the new holders of the Phoenix licence after former owner Terry Serepisos was forced to give up control.
The consortium is headed by Kiwibank chairman Rob Morrison and includes Morgan, Lloyd Morrison, Campbell Gower, James Brow, Henry Tait and Lib Petagna.
The decision has brought closure and clarity on one level but Pignata is warning of some obvious pitfalls. Club CEO for the first three seasons, he says corporate minds don't always meld into matters of sport.
"They need someone at the top who has a good football knowledge and some sort of understanding of the game," says Pignata. "If not, they need to allow someone to come into the club to help in that area. Despite what people say, running a football club is totally different to running a business.
"From a commercial point of view, it can be similar in terms of dollars and cents but it becomes totally different when it comes to recruiting players and everything from the football ground up.
"There is a lot of emotion in the club; everything depends on those three points each week and it affects the mood of the fans, the media and club. It is how you deal with that that makes a successful club and the owners have to realise that as well."
The group, who have made a five-year commitment to the FFA, emphasised on Friday they would be looking for the club to make money and this was not a "charity move". Pignata agrees with this goal but says the football needs to come first.
"I hope they have a good understanding of what it takes to run a football club and they will know you are not going to make money out of it from day one; it is an investment and ultimately in years to come, they can start breaking even.
"They just need to make sure they get the right elements in their boardroom that want to focus on football and winning games. If they do that, everything else will take care of itself; sponsors will come, fans will flock, members will come and the club will move forward."
The acid test will come when big decisions need to be made around retention, recruitment and future planning, and he hopes the group can maintain a unified, clear direction, even when the going gets tough.
"It is critical that they move forward in one unified approach," says Pignata. "Everyone who sits around the table needs to have one common goal going forward.
"If they start having their own separate ideas on how the club should run from a player recruitment point of view and staffing, it will fall over. I am pretty sure that won't happen - they would have had a lot of discussions prior to this and it would have been a massive decision for them."
This is my Opinion...
Unlike businesses in other industries, professional football teams in a given football league both compete against and cooperate with each other (or so they should). The success of a league, is to some extent, affected by the degree of an uncertainty or outcome of its contests and its seasonal competitions, or stated differently, by the degree of balance among its teams.
Professional football club businesses also differ from other business industries (as has been the case of former NIX club owner Terry Serepisos), by the degree of 'Public Exposure' they garner.
The weekly A-League results are reported upon extensively by the media in print, audio and also video as are other club related issues, some positive and some quite the opposite and usually discussed widely and passionately by fans in media comments and via blogs as well.
"former Phoenix CEO Tony Pignata is positive about the Phoenix's future but hopes the new owners don't fall into the trap of running the Wellington club strictly as a business."
Professional Football Club Owners' are not ordinary businessmen/women. Initially, profit in itself is not the owners primary motivation. Any man/woman or men/women with the resources to acquire a major football club can certainly find ways to make better dollar- for- dollar investments. His/her payoff is in terms of 'Social Prestiege'...A person who runs a $100m a year business is usually anonymous to the general public; a man/woman that owns a football club that grosses for example $5m a year is a celebrity and with that comes the images the comments that are repeatedly published in newspapers both in print and online in every corner of his/her community. It does'nt mean that the club does not seek profits but the main driving force or key driver that can be identified in terms of football, is a popular and successful winning team. It is this motivation in my opinion that leads to important variations from normal business behaviour.
I could of course be completely and utterly...'Off the Ball'
http://tinyurl.com/3gsc6bf
Former CEO of the Wellington Phoenix FC Tony Pignata
"Meanwhile, former Phoenix CEO Tony Pignata is positive about the Phoenix's future but hopes the new owners don't fall into the trap of running the Wellington club strictly as a business.
He is also concerned about the lack of football knowledge within the 'Phoenix Seven', saying there needs to be someone near the top with a good grasp of the sport.
The group of seven Wellington business people - now known as the Welnix Ltd consortium - were unveiled on Friday as the new holders of the Phoenix licence after former owner Terry Serepisos was forced to give up control.
The consortium is headed by Kiwibank chairman Rob Morrison and includes Morgan, Lloyd Morrison, Campbell Gower, James Brow, Henry Tait and Lib Petagna.
The decision has brought closure and clarity on one level but Pignata is warning of some obvious pitfalls. Club CEO for the first three seasons, he says corporate minds don't always meld into matters of sport.
"They need someone at the top who has a good football knowledge and some sort of understanding of the game," says Pignata. "If not, they need to allow someone to come into the club to help in that area. Despite what people say, running a football club is totally different to running a business.
"From a commercial point of view, it can be similar in terms of dollars and cents but it becomes totally different when it comes to recruiting players and everything from the football ground up.
"There is a lot of emotion in the club; everything depends on those three points each week and it affects the mood of the fans, the media and club. It is how you deal with that that makes a successful club and the owners have to realise that as well."
The group, who have made a five-year commitment to the FFA, emphasised on Friday they would be looking for the club to make money and this was not a "charity move". Pignata agrees with this goal but says the football needs to come first.
"I hope they have a good understanding of what it takes to run a football club and they will know you are not going to make money out of it from day one; it is an investment and ultimately in years to come, they can start breaking even.
"They just need to make sure they get the right elements in their boardroom that want to focus on football and winning games. If they do that, everything else will take care of itself; sponsors will come, fans will flock, members will come and the club will move forward."
The acid test will come when big decisions need to be made around retention, recruitment and future planning, and he hopes the group can maintain a unified, clear direction, even when the going gets tough.
"It is critical that they move forward in one unified approach," says Pignata. "Everyone who sits around the table needs to have one common goal going forward.
"If they start having their own separate ideas on how the club should run from a player recruitment point of view and staffing, it will fall over. I am pretty sure that won't happen - they would have had a lot of discussions prior to this and it would have been a massive decision for them."
This is my Opinion...
Unlike businesses in other industries, professional football teams in a given football league both compete against and cooperate with each other (or so they should). The success of a league, is to some extent, affected by the degree of an uncertainty or outcome of its contests and its seasonal competitions, or stated differently, by the degree of balance among its teams.
Professional football club businesses also differ from other business industries (as has been the case of former NIX club owner Terry Serepisos), by the degree of 'Public Exposure' they garner.
The weekly A-League results are reported upon extensively by the media in print, audio and also video as are other club related issues, some positive and some quite the opposite and usually discussed widely and passionately by fans in media comments and via blogs as well.
"former Phoenix CEO Tony Pignata is positive about the Phoenix's future but hopes the new owners don't fall into the trap of running the Wellington club strictly as a business."
Professional Football Club Owners' are not ordinary businessmen/women. Initially, profit in itself is not the owners primary motivation. Any man/woman or men/women with the resources to acquire a major football club can certainly find ways to make better dollar- for- dollar investments. His/her payoff is in terms of 'Social Prestiege'...A person who runs a $100m a year business is usually anonymous to the general public; a man/woman that owns a football club that grosses for example $5m a year is a celebrity and with that comes the images the comments that are repeatedly published in newspapers both in print and online in every corner of his/her community. It does'nt mean that the club does not seek profits but the main driving force or key driver that can be identified in terms of football, is a popular and successful winning team. It is this motivation in my opinion that leads to important variations from normal business behaviour.
I could of course be completely and utterly...'Off the Ball'
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