Hi Smithy,
Hello there, ha, I see you have offered up a straw man to knock down and thereby pontificate that an "argument" is silly.
Nice work.
But, okay, I'll bite. Yes, I do have a view on football statutes and rules.
Shocked, huh? Well, (lowers voice) I am subject to them and must work under them. Now, this may come as a surprise to a man of the bar such as yourself, but it is still possible to have a relationship to rules regulations without actually being a lawyer.
In the same way, I acknowledge it is completely possible for football supporters to have a view on the feasibility of travel costs without having to be the one shelling out for them (though it is always good to set out your relationship to an issue when offering advice).
Everyone is welcome to an opinion. But I'm most interested in informed opinions.
And I genuinely would like to hear the views of anyone with a regional league background on this travel feasibility question.
Despite your conclusion, Smithy, I haven't actually argued a proposition here at all yet (though admit I do have a teeny-weeny suspicion that some of the comments here may be a bit specious).
I am still trying to weigh up the merits in what is potentially an interesting discussion.
I regret I don't have enough breadth of knowledge or experience in competition realities down there to have a strong view either way, but as someone who battles with travel demands on a smaller scale up north, am certainly interested in the potential solutions being proferred.
I assume that it for Nelson is already a real challenge to fundraise every year beyond what is budgeted from grant funding, and the travel times to Christchurch would tend to conspire against regulart bus travel. So there are significant geographic drawbacks for a competition where you have a 50 per cent chance of drawing a pretty expensive away trip.
For club administrators it is not so much a Cup as a poisoned chalice. Indeed, the history of the Chatham Cup is littered with clubs who went bust.
But these things may be offset today in places such as Nelson, Gisborne, New Plymouth etc by other factors that I am unaware of, so would once again inquire as to whether anyone opining here speaks with any authority on these matters. (If you're just blowing smoke, that's fine too, of course.)
I do appreciate that from the late 60s to late 70s teams from Nelson competed in the CENTRAL league rather than South Island competitions, which gave them almost a unique status in dealing with issues of travel beyond any other centre, so they may well be better versed than others in how to meet this challenge.
Despite your dismissive lawyer-ly response Smithy, I remain interested in hearing from anyone here with admin experience offering a view on potential solutions, including you.
But put aside a full evening if you want to hear me ruminate on the merits of pro players.
Hope this helps.