Stepping out of the Shadows
With the gloomy clouds of past New Zealand-based Hyundai A-League teams now a thing of the past, WELLINGTON PHOENIX are making strides forward… and the league’s taking notice
Wellington is known as the windy city. In fact, there-s a joke among local Wellingtonians that when you fly into the city the pilot comes in sideways before straightening out.
It seems apt, perhaps, that a bumpy arrival into the city has mirrored that of its football team in the Hyundai A-League. A disastrous first two years in the A-League for teams from the Tasman put the long-term future of a New Zealand franchise in jeopardy. When the New Zealand Knights folded at the end of the 2006/07 season and it appeared to be the end for NZ-based teams in the A-League. That was until Terry Serepisos stepped in.
The millionaire Kiwi property developer acquired the licence from FFA and his dream to revive New Zealand football was underway.
“For me, it was about giving something back to Wellington, because Wellington has been pretty good to me,” Serepisos tells AFW as we sit in his high-level office in downtown Wellington. “So I took a huge punt and millions of dollars, but for me it was all about the kids and growing the game that had been neglected in this country. It would have died if I didn-t come in and give it a new lifeline.”
Ambitious and driven, it took all of Serepisos- nous to get the club up and running in just under three months. “It took a lot of effort,” he says with a smile.
Starting over The previously failed franchises made things hard in the beginning and there was a lot of negativity externally around the club. Inside the club, however, it was about making a fresh start. “My biggest gripe has been we want respect for what we are, not what we have been, and hopefully this year we-ve made a bit of a statement and we-ll continue to build as a club and gain more respect,” says CEO Tony Pignata.
“My view has always been that the windscreen is so big and that-s why the rear view is so small - it-s not about looking behind, it-s about looking forward.”
And although those negative comparisons in the early stages might be categorised as “to be expected”, the club were confident in their own identity. “We made a conscious decision as a club to establish ourselves first and foremost as a Wellington club and try to encourage the rest of the country to embrace that and it-s starting to happen now,” media and communications manager John Mitchell explains.
Pignata agrees, saying the different approach this time round was key to achieving success.
“We didn-t really focus on what happened with the New Zealand Knights, it was dead and buried. We basically closed the book and didn-t even look at it,” he says. ”I wasn-t sure if New Zealand needed another team after the Knights, but from a commercial point of view and another market, New Zealand had to be part of the A-League and it was just a matter of getting the right city; Auckland had two goes at it and it didn-t work, so when Wellington came on it was a great move by the FFA.”
The knock-on effect of Phoenix-s presence in Wellington has also been keenly felt by the local community. “Wellington College has been steeped in rugby tradition for years and there are now more football clubs than there are rugby teams,” explains Mitchell. The college now boasts seven more football teams to before Phoenix-s arrival in the city. “It-s not going to be too far in the future that the game here starts reaping the benefits of this, as a lot people will be coming through,” Mitchell says.
It-s for this very reason Serepisos wanted Phoenix in Wellington and part of the Hyundai A-League. “What it-s done is inspire children to want to play the game,” he says. “This was an opportunity not just for New Zealand kids, but for Australian kids as well, as half our team is Australian! We want to give them people to aspire to be.”
Yet the main argument of an overseas-based team in an Australian league will never be far away, but Serepisos doesn-t see this as an issue.
“I-ve said this to the FFA: we-re a hop, skip and jump away - we-re an extension of Australia. It-s three hours to Sydney, whereas Perth is five hours from Sydney, we-re a connection to Australia.” His work hasn-t gone unnoticed on home shores though, and while Serepisos says he has people “coming up to me in the street every week thanking me” it-s he who feels gratitude, to FFA for taking a punt with Phoneix.
“It was something I had to really think about, it wasn-t something I took light-heartedly,” he explains. “You-re taking on a huge responsibility and the FFA had been burnt twice and weren-t going to just give out another licence, they had to do their homework and I thank them for taking a punt with me, because they had to take another chance.”
Make a mark
In stark contrast to next season-s new franchises, Gold Coast United and North Queensland Fury, who are enjoying a generous lead-in period to their maiden seasons in the A-League, Phoenix had a matter of weeks to go from nothing to a fully-operational outfit at the start of the 2007/08 season; a remarkable achievement.
But they made an impression early, taking on the ambitious project of an exhibition match with David Beckham-s LA Galaxy. Attracting the biggest sports star on the planet to New Zealand was a fantastic coup by Serepisos and it-s a moment of which both he and his team are proud. “It was such a huge achievement,” Serepisos says.
“It certainly wasn-t half-hearted and it shows much effort went into it.”
For Pignata too, the staging of a match of the magnitude really sent out the right message about the club.
“It was phenomenal and really put our club on the map, not only here in New Zealand and Australia but globally as well. It helped in attracting players, it showed that we can put together a big event and even play good football. Players have said that they-ve come to the Phoenix because they know things are going to improve. Players talk, so we make sure we do everything professionally and to the best of our abilities.”
Although the team won many fans in the 2007/08 season, the history books show Phoenix finished bottom of the table, but it remains in perspective with how quickly everything was put together behind the scenes. “We had a good season in year one, but we finished last and that was three years in a row (for New Zealand teams), so that bugged us,” Pignata says. “Given that we had pulled everything together in such a short space of time we did very well.”
For Phoenix, the difference between season one and two on the pitch has been significant. Many commentators were surprised by their top-four challenge this season, but their owner is not one of them.
“I-m not surprised, because I-m an ambitious person,” he says. “The fact we-re edging out of top four in the second year is a big achievement in itself,” Serepisos says.
“Next year we-ll be out to go for the title, whether we-ll do it or not I don-t know but we-re going to give it a good shot.”
The Flip side
Off the field, all A-League clubs have been feeling the pinch as the global economic climate makes revenue dollars difficult, and at the Phoenix it-s no different. Serepisos remains calm, though. “Yeah I-m a little disappointed on that side of life, but I-m comfortable with where we are at the moment,” he assures us. “But I didn-t go into this to make money,” he jokes. “It has potential to make a profit in the third year, but it wasn-t a vehicle to make money, there were a lot of other reasons as to why I got into it.”
But money matters aren-t the only concerning factor away from the pitch. Comments made by AFC chief Mohammed Bin Hammam, who claims Phoenix should be booted out of the A-League by 2011 because they-re a foreign club, brought into question the long-term future of the club. Since, the matter remains unresolved - though FIFA president Sepp Blatter seems to think it-s not an issue for the AFC to dispute and FFA remain committed to supporting Phoenix and their inclusion in the league. It did, however, put Phoenix in the spotlight for perhaps the wrong reasons.
“I didn-t panic,” Serepisos says of the breaking news in November. “I-ve poured a lot of money in and I think the FFA respect what we-ve done and the achievements we-ve made and it-s up to them to support it. They-ve reconfirmed that they support us being here, so I-m just going with that.”
“It was a bit of a shock to be honest, I didn-t see that coming,” is Pignata-s assessment of the claims. “Things have improved recently with Mr Blatter-s comments, which was refreshing to hear, but we still want the AFC to be satisfied with us still being in the league.
“Terry is in here for the long haul. I-m pretty confident that Phoenix will be around for a long time. If we are ever terminated from the A-League it will kill football here in New Zealand and that-s not what we want. It-s crucial we stay in the A-League to have that future for football.”
But the owner-s sights are already fixed on his next challenge. While he-s rumoured to be interested in building the tallest building in Wellington, his lofty ambitions stretch to Phoenix as well. “It would be great to win the championship next year, or the year after, so we-re setting our goals for that and to keep growing the club with the players,” he admits.
“And we want to try and introduce a youth team and then expand the club, but that can-t happen in one or two years, it takes time to do that. The main thing is to focus on expanding.”
The team is making positive noises on and off the field, but those behind the scenes are aiming for those noises to grow louder, rather than fade away. “We-re happy with where we-re at right now; we-ve made some giant leaps and it-s about continuing that and not sitting back. Our aim is to keep improving,” Pignata says. “We-re just on the edge there, on the cusp of big things. We-re proud of what we-ve done this year and now we-ll build for next year.”
Next season will be landmark for the A-League with the first expansion taking place, something that is needed. But it also needs its sole New Zealand team to fire and there-s a growing feeling Phoenix are on the verge of something big. It-s an exciting chapter for the club after a tumultuous past.
As AFW left Wellington-s headquarters, the wind in the city had died down, hopefully a good sign for the future awaiting its team.