February 2008 Cover Story

In just three short years the Central Coast Mariners have achieved a remarkable amount, none more so than their stunning Hyundai A-League 2007/2008 Premier's Plate.

Their success is not just about football though. It is about their business and the way in which they have presented that business to the community.
Other football codes were cordial to us and every so often even went so far as to dangle a carrot out in front of us. But they were not serious. They decided against the Central Coast. The Central Coast Mariners did not.
They have embraced the Coast. They have made this their home and they have included every corner from north to south and east to west.
But they haven’t stopped there. They have taken the game and the Central Coast name to virtually every capital city of Australia and to New Zealand. They have competed at the Hong Kong Sevens and John Aloisi’s signing was covered everywhere from Spain to Saratoga. This code of football is a world game and the Central Coast Mariners are taking us to parts of that world we could only dream of.
And now, as a direct result of the Mariners securing the Premier's Plate the Central Coast brand will be on display at Asia’s Premier Club competition in 2009. The Mariners are helping open doors and we need to be a partner with them in this journey.
Executive Chairman Lyall Gorman and CEO John McKay are the administrative leaders, Lawrie McKinna, Ian Ferguson and Alex Tobin are the team’s leaders and each and every one of them has a defined role that is producing results. Take a look at their membership base. Year 1 [600], year 2 [1,800] and this year they have broken the 3,000 membership barrier. On top of that they have broken crowd attendance records this year three times with a record crowd of 19,238 for the Mariners v Newcastle Jets game.
The Mariners are delivering on and off the field with the Daily Telegraph’s Tom Smithies commenting, following the game, “The people’s club have taken out the minor premiership as a sensational last round of the A-League season allowed the Mariners to prove that nice guys can come first”.
Gosford traders get behind Mariners
In the lead up to the Hyundai A-League finals retailers in the Gosford CBD have shown their support by dressing up their stores and having staff dressed in the Mariners colours. The Imperial Centre in particular got right into the swing of things with the majority of their traders participating.
Kerry Ruffels, General Manager of major sponsor, Business Central Coast, commented, “Why shouldn’t we? They are our team and they represent us against the might of big cities, states and a country. Just think about this for a minute. It is the Central Coast of NSW with a population of approximately 330,000 against the size and power of Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, the state of Queensland, the country of Wellington and our nearest rival, another of this state’s big cities in Newcastle.”

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