Radio falls silent on Mariners

For the first time in the eight year history of the Central Coast Mariners a competitive match played by the club will not be heard live on Coast-FM 963 with the local community broadcaster unable to agree terms with the World Sport Group (WSG) over broadcast rights to this year's Asian Champions League (ACL).
Late Friday (22nd February five days before the Mariners' first ACL match of 2013) that the station was informed that Singapore-based WSG required a fee of US$10,000 to broadcast the 6 group stage matches.
Coast-FM 963 is unable to match this fee so there will be no broadcast of Mariners games
Explaining the situation, Coast-FM Deputy Chairman Don Glover explained "a not-for-profit station like Coast-FM which relies on volunteers is about offering services to the community such as the Mariners broadcasts.
"We cannot afford to pay US$10,000 for rights to a competition that already costs the station money to broadcast.
"In the previous two editions of the ACL featuring the Mariners we have helped with flying commentators to China, Japan and South Korea, all at considerable cost to the station and the commentators personally.
"Our support of the Mariners is unwavering and it is unfortunate WSG, based in Singapore, cannot see that the Central Coast is not an Asian mega city. In previous ACL competitions we have been able to broadcast Mariners matches thanks to Football Federation Australia procuring the radio rights for Australia and allowing us to access them.
"This year with the Mariners the only Australian team in the competition I can only assume, like us, the FFA did not see the rights as presenting a good value proposition compared to the fee requested.
"In summary I think this is grossly unfair to the people of the Central Coast that a big business from Singapore denies the people of the Central Coast a service that our station provides with volunteer labour."
Coast-FM Chief Football Analyst Michael Kmet added "when I was told I felt immense disappointment for our listeners on the Central Coast. We have fans up and down the Central Coast many of them aging that don't always have access to subscription television. We know this as we receive emails and even letters from them and their family members thanking us for the coverage year in, year out. The entire commentary team does it for the love of the game and love of bringing the game to the people of the Central Coast.
"Every weekend during the A-League season we are either driving to a NSW venue or flying off to an interstate venue, we have done that for every competitive match the Mariners have played stretching back to the beginning of May 2005. Providing commentary at our own cost from venues in such places a Tianjin, China and Nagoya, Japan has been really special and it is shame we cannot continue to bring this coverage to the people of the Central Coast.
"We made a counter offer to allow the ACL sponsors to have as much sponsorship time during the broadcast as we can legally allow but it seems 'cash is king' for WSG."
Coast-FM will resume Mariners coverage on Saturday night when the Mariners host the Western Sydney Wanderers with coverage from 7pm on FM96.3.

http://www.coastfm.org.au/central-coast-mariners