The Hyundai A-League was the last major sporting competition in Oceania to suspend it's season.
The Wellington Phoenix could be preparing for the greatest challenge of their history, in the wake of the Tuesday's suspension of the A League due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
That's saying something, given the franchise had to endure years of uncertainty over their A League licence, not helped by aconcerted bloc of stakeholders in Australia who constantly questioned the club's value and relevance.
The club also survived the dramas and chaos of the final months of the Terry Serepisos era in 2011, when the former owner's property portfolio collapsed, leading to his eventual bankruptcy.
They have come through some difficult times on the field, with five head coaches across a five-year span at one point, with the nadir being the dismal season under Darje Kalezic, when crowds nosedived.
But none of that compares to what might be coming, with the shutdown of the A League for an indefinite period, confirmed on Tuesday.
Just like the NRL, the potential loss of broadcasting revenue will hit clubs hard. There's still hopes that the competition may resume later in the year, but those will dwindle with every passing week.
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And the finals series, which is a huge money spinner for the league, is unlikely to go ahead, either way, and the Phoenix have already lost two home games, whatever unfolds.
A further complicating factor is the proposed new league, run by the clubs and divorced from Football Federation Australia
General manager David Dome is already working on "four or five contingency plans", based on "if this happens, we will do this".
It was too early to judge what the implications were going to be, but Dome agreed that the club's survival could be at stake, in a worst-case situation.
The Phoenix already runs at a deficit of $1 to $2 million every year. That amount is covered by the owners, but Dome was unsure if Welnix would be able to prop up the club, should the perfect storm play out over the coming months.
"I actually don't know," Dome told the Herald. "I'm not sure about what the quantum of the potential hole is going to be. If it is the maximum one…I don't know. Welnix are excellent, and they have supported this club through thick and thin and they have put a lot of money into this thing."
"But if the whole league was going to fall over then that number could be quite large...so I don't think it would be fair to ask Welnix to do that by themselves. [But] we will go down a number of pathways, and look to see what we can find."
Whatever unfolds, Dome is bracing for a serious hit.
"We might be in the same position as the NRL," said Dome. "No one really knows how this is going to play out, or if all clubs are going to survive."
With the squad's return to Wellington set to be completed on today, aside from several Australian players who have chosen to remain on the other side of the Tasman, Dome and his executive are fully focussed on several possible rescue strategies.
"We have already worked on a couple of plans but to be honest the bottom line implications of the league being postponed are still not well understood," said Dome. "We have a number of contingency plans, based on any number of scenarios playing out in the next three weeks, six weeks, two months, three months etc."
Dome also confirmed they are investigating their eligibility for a government subsidy, as part of the recently announced coronavirus support package.
"I don't know if we qualify for that, we are just working on that now," said Dome. "If we qualify we can at least retain some semblance of ongoing business."
They are also, like many other sporting bodies, working with Sport New Zealand to assess the impact on the overall sports sector.
Dome confirmed that all player contracting will be frozen. The club has 13 players signed beyond the end of the current contract period (May 30), but several prominent names, notably striker Gary Hooper are not.
"Contracting will be put on hold until we understand the financials," said Dome. "If the league does resume, we will make the choice to recontract the players that we want to, or just contract new players. There won't be a stipulation that you have to play with the same players to finish off the season…it couldn't work."
