|
|
Falcons look for new way forward
By MICHAEL LYNCH
The Age
Wednesday 21 June 2000
The cash-strapped Gippsland Falcons, desperate to increase their low support base and widen their appeal in eastern Victoria, are considering radical initiatives, including a change of identity in the run-up to next season.
The Falcons, who have struggled to attract fans and build a strong club base during the team's eight years in the National Soccer League, are looking at a change in name and colors for season 2000-01.
It is also planning to try and woo fans not just from Gippsland but from Melbourne's outer eastern suburbs, reasoning that it would take soccer fans as long to drive from somewhere such as Cranbourne or Hallam to Morwell as it would to drive in the other direction towards the city, to Carlton's Olympic Park or South Melbourne's Bob Jane Stadium.
And with the increasing disillusionment with the way the AFL is perceived to be running football and the widespread disappointment at the closure of Waverley Park this year, the club has not given up hope that it may woo some disgruntled AFL fans in the outer eastern suburbs.
"We are looking at a name change as part of a complete restructuring of the way the whole entity runs," the club's chief executive, Peter Quirk, said yesterday.
"I just believe that the Falcons' brand name may have run its race," said Quirk, who said the financially troubled club now had the chance to try and reinvent itself.
It has paid back more than $100,000 it owed the local council,which has given it a further 10 years to pay back the balance of its $460,000 debt.
"The lifetime of the brand may have expired. The new company does not want to have the financial baggage of the past. It is something we are thinking about. We are talking to two new strip sponsors, so the colors are something we may also look at."
Quirk said the Morwell-based club would also try and develop links with communities such as Pakenham, Berwick and Narre Warren.
The Falcons do not have a large budget for players, so have to develop their own or pluck fresh talent from the lower leagues. They have not yet lost any required players from last year, although defender Dean Fak has been a target for the Melbourne Knights.
