Phoenix fears: Can club survive suspension of season?
Wellington Phoenix boss David Dome has admitted that he’s unsure about the club’s ability to survive the coronavirus pandemic which forced the A-League to be suspended.
With most players and staff now home in New Zealand after setting up camp in New South Wales, the club will focus on the financial implications of the pandemic which has forced all sport in Australasia to be shut down in some form — the last of which was the A-League on Tuesday afternoon.
Dome said the FFA’s decision to suspend the league was the right one, something that the players and the support staff agreed with.
“In the end it was the best possible solution given everything that was happening,” Dome told Radio Sport.
“Did we want to finish out the season? 100 per cent we wanted to finish out the season but it became more and more clear that that was not going to happen.”
However, the financial implications of the pandemic on the club are not as clear cut.
“Look we don’t know. And that’s the truth,” Dome said when asked about the financial impact of the stop of play on the club and its future.
“There are a lot of packages that the Government is talking about — government subsidies to try and keep organisations going . . . we have to look at that.
“There’s no doubt it will put a strain on the finances. We don’t know what it’s going to mean. There still is the chance that we can play out the season at some stage in the future.
“We don’t know what that looks like yet. But it’s still an option.
“There’s no doubt that over the next week or so, now that the players are on their way home again, the priority is to work out what this means for us as a club.
“Can we sustain this, not playing, can we sustain the uncertainty around all of this? That’s certainly the hardest work that’s got to start now.”
Some players in other sports, including All Blacks hooker Dane Coles, have said that they’re prepared to take pay cuts in order to help soften the blow of the pandemic on sporting organisations.
Dome said those measures haven’t been looked at yet but admitted that everything, including pay cuts for players, are on the table in these desperate times.
“We haven’t looked into that yet,” he said. “But I think inevitably every business in New Zealand is going to be looking at what they need to do to keep going. So it’s probably on the cards.
“We won’t do anything without consultation with the players themselves of course and with the Professional Football Association (PFA).
“There’s a week of work to be done in that space yet. We need to really get a handle on where we are on the bottom line. We kind of know what we have to do, what our costs are each month, what’s going out.
“But until we understand what the potential support is from the Government, the potential support from our other key partners, then it’s hard to know. But, to be honest with you, all these things are on the table.”