There was another twist in the ongoing Wellington Phoenix license extension saga yesterday.
Outgoing FFA chairman Frank Lowy made the suggestion that in order to stay relevant and stay in the A-League, the Phoenix needed to represent the entire country - not just Wellington - and should therefore re-brand tobecome the New Zealand Phoenix.
Lowy's CEO David Gallop has spoken of the "metrics" which would make them sit up and take notice. Things like crowds, memberships and TV ratings.
Changing the name of the club to the New Zealand Phoenix won't help increase those things. What will is engagement; the Phoenix engaging with its community. And they've certainly done that in the last fortnight.
We heard yesterday that club memberships have reached record levels. Scarf Wellington has been massive with Phoenix scarves everywhere around the city. A very big crowd is expected on Friday night for the game against Adelaide.
People in Wellington and around the country have engaged with the club, because the reality is, the Wellington Phoenix does represent New Zealand. They are this country's professional football team, just as the Warriors and Breakers are our professional rugby league and basketball teams.
In the nine-year history of the Phoenix, I've never heard anyone say they won't go along to games because they're called the Wellington Phoenix. In fact, some of the biggest crowds the side has ever got have been for games outside the capital.
It's just the latest rather odd piece of messaging coming out of the FFA, an organisation that seems to be utterly confused about the reasons they don't want the Phoenix in the A-League and which has been put on the back foot by the enormous backlash on both sides of the Tasman in response to their attempts to kick them out.
It's almost as if they're making it up as they go along.