Suburbs to challenge neutral venue idea
Nelson Suburbs may have to sacrifice home games against Football South opposition if they qualify for the proposed South Island League, a move operations manager Gary Hinks says would take the excitement away from supporters of the game in Nelson.
Under Mainland Football’s first competition structure draft, which was sent to out to clubs on Monday, all games between Suburbs and the three participating Football South teams will be played at neutral venues in Christchurch in order to reduce travel costs.
The South Island League will see the top five qualifiers from the Mainland Premier League and the top three qualifiers from the Southern Premier League contest one full round consisting of seven games per team.
Should Suburbs qualify for the inaugural competition, Nelson supporters could be robbed of the unique chance to watch their team take on Football South sides on home turf.
But, after throwing his support behind the new competition in May, Hinks said he planned to challenge Mainland Football on the issue.
‘‘The situation we are not fond of is that the home games against Football South opponents are played in Christchurch, the main reason being it’s just going to be like a normal Mainland Premier League competition if we, and the public, don’t get to see the Football South teams,’’ said Hinks, who has already raised his concerns with Mainland Football chief executive Julian Bowden.
‘‘The problem I understand is that us going to Dunedin or them coming here is that there would have to be an overnight stay, which obviously adds more cost.’’
Through funding, sponsorship and direct investment from the two federations of between 25-50 per cent, Mainland Football’s early estimate is that each participating club will have to fork out between $2000-$5000 to enter the competition.
Using a cost equalisation model, they would all pay the same entry fee to cover the cost of facility hire, travels and referees.
Hinks said that initial estimate was considerably cheaper than what Suburbs currently pay for one full Mainland Premier League round of seven games, which is understood to be close to $16,000.
He suggested increasing the entry fee ‘‘slightly’’ to allow Suburbs to play their one or two allocated home games against Football South opposition in Nelson.
‘‘Julian understood completely our point of view and said it’s only a proposal and only a first draft and he welcomed our feedback.
‘‘We need to let them go away and do their costings again because obviously they would need to factor in the two Dunedin teams to here or us down to Dunedin twice, and two nights of accommodation.’’
That issue aside, Hinks said he was pleased to see the South Island League take another step towards reality.
‘‘Hats off to the CEOs of Mainland Football and Football South who have started the ball rolling and kept rolling this time. There has been talk about it [before] but it hasn’t come to fruition, much to a number of clubs’ sadness.
‘‘I know there are some clubs that are less enthusiastic and say ‘look, we just can’t afford the extra money’ but the opportunity is there for everyone and if you want to have a crack at a team from Dunedin then you have to finish in the top five.’’
Under the proposed format, the three MPL teams not competing in the South Island League would join the teams from the second-tier Canterbury Championship and play another full round.
The top three from this competition would rejoin the MPL for the following season if the South Island League retained the same format.