Four Corners & Wavepool

[crabmeat thompson]

This natural foot slander must cease!

[Trev]

This natural foot slander must cease!

Don't worry about the goofy footers Braithy. They're a minority group and you know what they're like.

[crabmeat thompson]

Lets systematically ban them.

[eel]

And by Shocking Whore I didn't mean it in the literal sense of allowing old men to penetrate him for cash, more so allowing his name to have proverbial questionable deeds done to it for the right price.

In that way I stand by my comment. Apart from being the greatest surfer of all time, greatest sporting champion of all time & greatest surfing role model of all time, he has nothing going for him.

[Nick Carroll]

^^other than who knows what that you or I might not know about him, you know, how he looks after his family, the money he gives to fcuked up old surf stars in need of medical care, the little bunnies he probably cares for in his weeks off.

I reckon he has fcuk all to do with that deal on the Goldie and the people he's linked up with in that wave pool malarkey have fallen for a Fcukwit.

[aaronn]

^^other than who knows what that you or I might not know about him, you know, how he looks after his family, the money he gives to fcuked up old surf stars in need of medical care, the little bunnies he probably cares for in his weeks off.

I reckon he has fcuk all to do with that deal on the Goldie and the people he's linked up with in that wave pool malarkey have fallen for a Fcukwit.

English language version on way ?

[daryl]

Slaters wavepool partners have been conned to endorse a shonky real estate scam?

[eel]

Slaters wavepool partners have been conned to endorse a shonky real estate scam?

Exactly. And apparently he likes bunnies.

And no I don't believe he had any knowledge of who he was getting involved with anymore than Jamie Durie or Samantha Riley did. But the question is, should they? If the magnitude of this rort gets the full exposure it deserves. (Which is doubtful with footy season underway) then their names will be somewhat mud. When all they really did was except a cheque.

Apparently there was still a booth at the quikky pro pushing the idea to potential punters.

[el rancho]

LM Investment Management now in administration

[steve shearer]

I think they used to call it due diligence.

I asked the flunkies at the Maddison Estate Booth at QuikPro when the Wavepool would be built: they said contracts were expected to be signed this year with a start next year.
They'd obviously been briefed to say that.

This sits right up there with PowerBracelet or whatever that shonky thing was sponsoring Pro Surfing.

QLD has gone back to being a Paradise for the shonky developer.

[bombora]

Yep and soon there may be white shoes tramping all over Cape York.
Waiting for the first developer to take advantage of "relaxed" Cape York land clearing laws: "Yes of course it's a farm, it's just a farm with 120 "silos" which happen to have ducted air con, wrap around balconies and granite topped kitchens."

[steve shearer]

he rides a mini-mal, guarans.

[Nick Carroll]

^^other than who knows what that you or I might not know about him, you know, how he looks after his family, the money he gives to fcuked up old surf stars in need of medical care, the little bunnies he probably cares for in his weeks off.

I reckon he has fcuk all to do with that deal on the Goldie and the people he's linked up with in that wave pool malarkey have fallen for a Fcukwit.

English language version on way ?

you can fcuken talk.

amazing how these people jump in with bogus characters though is it not.

Jamie Durie, Sam Riley, and KS, all signed up as part of Peter Drake's shill. He must have given them a solid down payment.

It just goes to show: follow the money. Who's got it? Who hasn't? Who's pretending to?

After talking with ZoSea's ASP CEO elect guy today, I would reckon it will be interesting to follow the money there too.

Numbers numbers numbers. The WCT runs on numbers. $2.5 to $3 million total running costs per event. Yet next year, the current franchisees will slide back to a contribution of about $1 million per.

So ZoSea will have around $1.5 million per event (let's be generous) to make up in some way.

They will save a little bit on efficiencies gained from the centralised management of things like broadcast etc. But, let's be generous again, say they save $200,000 on that score.

Still $1.3 mill per event outstanding.

That is $13 million on a 10 event tour.

Anyone want to bet on their ability to find $13 million from a global naming rights sponsor for the ASP WCT? I mean, best of luck to all concerned, but nobody has even come close to that figure in the past.

Remember -- ZoSea now actually OWNS the ASP. I would love to see the guarantees advanced to the surfers and the current franchisees on this score. Does ZoSea have $13 million in the bank today? Just in case nobody bites for 2014?

[Lucky Al]

it's all enough to plunge a fan of pro surfing into the deepest despondency. i reckon i might hit the piss.

[alakaboo]

That is $13 million on a 10 event tour.

Isn't it a 12 event tour next year?

[godsavetheking]

Anyone want to bet on their ability to find $13 million from a global naming rights sponsor for the ASP WCT? I mean, best of luck to all concerned, but nobody has even come close to that figure in the past.

It's pretty unlikely isn't it. That's the sort of figure that top Premiership clubs get for shirt sponsorship, so I can't see anyone wanting to pay anywhere near that for the WCT.

Are webcast viewing figures high enough for pay per view to be worth doing?

[Nick Carroll]

They've ruled out pay per view. It sorta works against luring more viewers.

And nobody but the hard core pro surfing fan would pay online to watch it. Which, well let us extrapolate from the only real functioning Ppv operation in surfing, being Surfline.com's premium subscription, numbers there would be in the low 20,000s. And that's for the world's highest grade surf prediction systems. The numbers just aren't there.

ZoSea wants to step up the fan experience first, maybe when they have a bigger fan base they might charge for some sorta premium stuff, but it'd only ever be a little bit of icing, not the cake. And as mentioned they have specifically ruled it out ATM.

Anyway gonna be watching the money quite closely in coming months, or as closely as they'll let me. I tell you what, if the brands have to come back and foot the whole bill again, they will be PISSED OFF.

[Nick Carroll]

That is $13 million on a 10 event tour.

Isn't it a 12 event tour next year?

Experience shows that when it comes to WCT announcements, it is best to count the chickens in the roost, not the ones that may or may not show up.

Look I'm not all doom and gloom about the whole scenario, something had to shake up the sclerotic old ASP and there are some important things on the side of new growth, the US economy is regaining some of its confidence and one would not be totally shocked if the was a fair bit more money sloshing around the globe in 12 months time.

And there are some big pluses about pro surfing that old cynics on sites like RealSurf tend to brush off, it's global in location and population, it has a gleaming uber human at its head, there are the attractions of youth and charisma, the girls are great and are amazingly under-utilised. I bet there are quite a few VPs of marketing at various big corpos who've gazed at it in irritation, wanting a slice of it but unwilling to be involved because of the iron grip of the surf companies in the past.

But it's not gonna be easy and there's something about the current setup that makes me wonder how hard they'll fight to make it work. The ZoSea crew say they're using 2013 to take notes on what they need to do etc, but what they need more than that is momentum. And money. Yeah that thing.