Is Perth Glory’s New Ownership Continuing Where The Old Left Off?

For Perth Glory fans the A-League has been a tough ride.

Having been the leading side in the last years of the National Soccer League, at the end one of only two full time professional clubs, and arguably one of the best run, the dawn of the new league came with huge expectations. Expectations that have been hard to meet.

The new A-League was to be a Franchise-based league. Owners of the competing teams would pay a fee to own a license to have a team in the competition. This we were advised was the way to go. This was going to give the league security and guarantee its longevity. This and a salary cap.

As always there were those who questioned these decisions, but the game had respected leaders who had come from Rugby Union and were the pillars of industry, and so there was faith that they would do the right thing. That they had done their research and that football would finally achieve its potential.

Twenty years on and with the league having expanded from eight teams to 13, and a number of clubs having gone through a number of owners both good and bad hindsight would say that maybe the Franchise model was not the best for the game. Those who said that Australia was not big enough to sustain such a model must be smiling knowingly. Certainly the joint marketing you see from Franchised businesses is lacking, along with many other benefits that owners of a franchise business have when they buy into such a system.

The question many will ask today is why would anyone buy an A- League Franchise?

Ego would be one reason. As forrner Perth Glory joint-owner John Spence so aptly put it, owning an A-league club was “a billionaires club for millionaires.”

The FA when it was running the A-League and now the other A-League owners, have historically failed to do their due diligence as to whether those they hand the licence to are in a financial position to own that licence and are fit and proper individuals to be given such a licence. There is nothing new in this. The English Leagues are blighted by the same problem and some clubs with over 100 years of history are facing the possibility of extinction.

The truth is Australian football having shut down and rebooted should not find itself in this this position. The foundations for a long and fruitful future should have been laid. Instead, looking back it would appear that there was no long term plan, as the mistakes of the NSL were repeated with the A-League. Could this be because the same individual was driving both in the early days? The man heralded as being the saviour of football, businessman Frank Lowy. One felt that he was determined to prove that his idea of how the NSL should have worked was going to be justified through the A-League.

Yet just as in 1974 when the Socceroos qualified for the FIFA World Cup there was no plan as to how to capitalise on this upsurge of interest when they finally qualified again in 2006. The A-League had launched in 2004. Here was a golden opportunity that was missed.

Some would argue that as 2024 comes to a close that little has been done to capitalise on the upsurge in the Women’s game following the successful hosting of the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2023. We have heard of the money generated, and various percentage increases but what has actually been done to strengthen that side of the game and secure its future? Percentages are always a dangerous thing to quote, as if you are starting from a low base a small increase bee produced as being huge when promoted as a percentage.

When the NSL started to stutter the answer was to sign big name players from overseas clubs to boost crowd numbers at games. Was not the Marquee player as part of a A-League clubs a similar plan? How many of these players actually delivered where it mattered, on the pitch? How many were well past their best when they arrived in Australia? How many saw an increase in attendances for one game before they dropped away again when fans realised that they were not the players they used to be? (History Repeating with the A League & Recycling Players and Ideas – A Bad Pathway)

The best marquee players have tended to be those from overseas who were not big names, the likes of Besart Berisha, Thomas Broich, Diego Castro and Adrian Mierzejewski.

One of the problems with the NSL which was repeated in the A-League was that they tried to expand too quickly.

The Youth League was a good new innovation. When one looks back at those who played in the Youth League a large number went on to have a career in the A-League, and some have had lengthy careers that included Socceroos caps. Sadly, as the A-league itself expanded so too did the Youth League and the club’s owners did not see the benefit in the investment, all they saw was an additional cost. The league was revamped into a conference style competition, which failed to pique the interest, and when Covid came along was scrapped.

Now the next generation of players is supposed to come through the NPL. However, coaches will often bemoan the fact that the step up from here is too great, and it will take time to get a player ready for the A-League.

Then there is the question as to whether the A-League in trying to become an acceptable competition on the global football landscape started paying wages that the clubs simply could not afford? There is a validity to this argument, however it was a real conundrum for the powers that be. They needed to pay attractive salaries to bring in good players, but could they afford those salaries at the time, or now? After all football is a business, and like all businesses it is important that you have more money coming in than going out.

One feels that with the birth of the A-League those working at Football Australia or the Football Federation of Australia immediately thought that they were competing with the big Australian sports, AFL, Cricket and Rugby Union to a lesser extent. It has been alleged with hindsight that they too spent more than they could afford to try and match these sports, rather than building the game on sure foundations.

Perth Glory looked to be on strong foundations when the A-League commenced. Niok Tana who had been a driving force behind the club in the NSL was still in charge. Again hindsight would say that he made an error appointing former Liverpool player Steve McMahon as inaugural coach, and by Christmas in season one McMahon was gone. Alan Vest took over, and to many this was the turning point.

Tana, handed back his licence to the FFA after one season and they took over the club, and installed their own CEO. Rather than keep on Alan Vest who had resurrected the club that first season and taken it to the edge of the finals, a man who had a history with the club, the FFA wanted their own people in charge.

Ron Smith was appointed coach and his remit was to build a side over the next few seasons. He was to sign some of Australia’s best young talent and bring them through to make Perth competitive. He was doing this but saw his team decimated at times when these same young players were selected for youth internationals. There was no postponing of fixtures due to having players on national duty, and the side dropped points in the league because of this. So the FFA was hurting the club that they were trying to sell.

Then the FFA found new owners in Tony Sage, Brett Mckeon, and John Spence, Smith’s remit changed. Now it was about instant success. They wanted the team playing in finals. It was not until Dave Mitchell was in charge that the club made the finals for the first time in the 2009/10 season, a wait of five seasons for a team that had won the last two NSL Championships. Their first Grand Final came two seasons later in 2011/12 when Ian Ferguson was at the helm.

Tony Sage became the sole owner of the club and it was clear that he was using it to assist in his business interests. That is fair enough when one considers that most A-League clubs only ever make a loss. Sage wanted the club playing in the Asian Champions League, because that was where he would reap rewards for his investment and his business interests. He was impatient. The club broke the salary cap, and were disqualified from the finals series. They made the Grand Final again when Tony Popovic was head coach, but once again fell at the final hurdle.

During Sage’s tenure coaches and CEO’s came and went very quickly. Nine coaches were employed in 16 years. All would state how hard it was to entice players across to Perth. Now with a new owner at the club they too are finding this is an issue.

Some have said that it is the club’s reputation of the past where players went unpaid for periods of time. When there was an uneven number of teams in the league, Glory frequently had more away games than home, and some players claimed that was an issue, along with the travel to away games. However, there was a time when most players if they were from the East coast would opt to stay there. Only those who could not get a contract with an East coast team would sign for Perth as a last resort.

So at this stage despite much fanfare that the club has new owners it would appear that very little has changed.

The new owners were very fortunate that the franchise fee to own an A-League club was waived, as they were seen to be saving and established club from possible extinction. The fee now is $20million, so this was a big saving.

It was therefore disappointing to hear that they were then trying to avoid paying out Alen Stajcic’s contract when they advised him, despite the outstanding job he had done keeping the club competitive under extremely difficult circumstances, that he was not part of their plans moving forward. Incredibly they instead opted for a coach untried at this level. A coach who was described by a former manager as having “an opinion about everything.”

Just last week it was announced that the Perth Glory is as of next season to call the Perth suburb of Mirrabooka ‘home.’ This will be a “new, fully integrated training and administration base for its staff and players.”

Interestingly this was a priority for the club back in 2016. (Long Term Vision Linked to Long Term Employment)

It was revealed that the City of Stirling Council voted to approve a five-year lease for Perth Glory to use part of Stirling Leisure – Mirrabooka as its administrative headquarters, with part of the adjacent Mirrabooka Regional Open Space to be used as its training facility.

The lease, once finalised, will have an option of a further five years, and will be funded through a sponsorship agreement negotiated by the City and the club. As some ratepayers have stated it will be interesting to see how that sponsorship deal looks, as the Glory play their games in the City of Vincent.They hope that Councillors and City of Stirling employees will not be benefitting personally with a box at home games.

The Council also announced that it has allocated $700,000 of ratepayers money to the project in its 2024/25 annual budget, and two of the soccer pitches at Mirrabooka Regional Open Space are to be upgraded to A-League standard.

In addition to this investment from the City of Stirling it was announced that the State Government has committed $1.2 million towards facility upgrades to establish Perth Glory’s new home in Mirrabooka.

It is understandable that this announcement has had many sports fans, including football fans, scratching their heads.

First up as part of the business plan for the State Football centre – now named the Sam Kerr Football Centre – Perth Glory was to be housed in the office space and paying rent. This venue rose from a $15m budget to $42million in a matter of years and one wonders why like Netball, Basketball, and Rugby the state’s national representative team is not housed in the same building as the game’s administrators?

Secondly, Perth Glory FC is a private business. The A-League licence being handed over to the Pelligra Group, who were waived the standard licence fee. The Pelligra Group is a building company that boasts that it “operates at the forefront of the development and construction industry.” Why are a City council and the State Government paying for such a development? Surely if the new owners want a stand-alone facility they should purchase the land and build it themselves? What other businesses would receive such support?

When these owners decide to leave Perth Glory will the value of this facility be taken out of the sale price and value returned to rate and tax payers in Western Australia and the City of Stirling?

This has understandably brought into question how much the new owners are in fact prepared to invest into the club. It was announced at the press conference revealing the new owners that the State Government was going to help fund Perth Glory going to the Country areas to promote football and the club; Something that they already pay Football West to do. So what are the new owners going to actually spend money on trying to restore the club to its former successful past?

The one area that the FA and it would appear that the new owners have failed to realise is that to suceed in football across the world it is vital that you own your own stadium. If you are paying to use the venue you play your home games at you are always going to struggle to break even.

Mining entrepreneur Andrew Forrest realised this when he saved the Western Force from bankruptcy and bought the rugby club. That is why he looked at the possible purchase of Perth Glory in order to then be able to leverage the stadium away from being run by the government’s Venues West.

This was one of the key reasons why Perth Glory was successful in the NSL, Nick Tana bought the lease for the ground. One feels that until that happens again no matter who owns the A-League licence they are never going to be able to make the club run profitably. Surely this should have been a priority rather than a training facility?

As for winning the fans over the new owners still have a great deal of work to do. Still without a win in the opening three matches and the feeling that the new owners are expecting the State to shell out money to meet its requirements rather than the Franchise owners themselves is beginning to feel like deja vu.

It is one thing to have good intentions, but in sport actions speak louder than intentions.

To be fair to the new owners having the revenue from television cut would have been a serious blow, but that aside one feels that it is going to be a very hard slog to get the club close to being back to the same levels as before the A- League commenced.

The bitter pill for Perth Glory fans is that the Perth Glory was used as an example of what could be achieved if a club was run properly when the A-League was set up. Yet the League itself and the owners of the franchise have failed to build on those solid foundations. Some will argue that it would appear that the owners underestimate the cost of running the club, especially when they have to hire the match day venue, while the A League owners and in the past the FA do not wish to acknowledge the very unique issues the club faces being on the other side of the nation.

During the past owner’s reign the club has become renowned for putting its hand out asking the state government for money, when as a private concern it should have been self-sufficient. With the new owners only eight months into their tenure and already doing the same some fans are asking whether they are simply witnessing the rearranging of the deckchairs on the Titanic. Only time will tell.

Many fans would like to see the club stop putting its hand out and see the owners show that they have the wherewithal to carry the club forward and restore it to the standards of the past.