TUFC Strategic Plan 1
Tasmanian United FC Update – 2 December 2011
In the last update I provided a summary of the Coffey Report and the response of the Tasmania United FC Taskforce to this report.
In that update I outlined how the Coffey Report was a valuable addition to the debate and provided plenty of good information to guide a future fully funded business case for a Tasmanian team in the Hyundai A-League.
However, I also discussed how the Report contained some recommendations that the Tasmania United FC Taskforce did not agree with. In particular, the merging of FFT and the Tasmanian A-League club was not supported, and neither was the idea of having the Tasmanian Government underwrite the club.
In this update and the next one I wanted to provide a quick snapshot of the Tasmania United FC Strategic Plan. This document was the result of a meeting that the TUFC Taskforce held soon after the release of the Coffey Report.
As you would expect there was a lot of energy and ideas that went into the development of the Strategic Plan. There was also some really good debates and questioning of what we are doing and why we are doing it.
The final document should be available on the website soon; but I wanted to take this opportunity to provide a quick snapshot of the Key Result Areas (KRA) and the Strategies that sit under each of those areas. These will be discussed in next week’s update.
Mission and Vision
But first I want to provide the key high level takeouts; being our vision and mission. These two concepts came out of the meeting, which was very well facilitated by Jason Garrett from KPMG, and form the “big picture”.
As a Taskforce our mission became very clear early on in the session:
To have a successful Tasmanian team in the A-League.
This mission implies that we can achieve two things: firstly, to gain a licence and be able to compete in the Hyundai A-League; and secondly, to be a successful team both on and off the pitch in order to be sustainable. The mission we agreed on would probably come as no great surprise to anyone that has followed our fortunes.
But it was the vision that we finally agreed on that I think many people will find interesting. At the end of the session we must have discussed this for well over half an hour; but we finally agreed on the following simple vision:
Tasmania United FC – a pathway to the world.
This sounds very grand and perhaps a little abstract; but let me explain our thinking.
There are at least three reasons why I think that this is the right vision for Tasmania United FC.
Firstly, this vision makes it clear that having a Tasmanian presence in the Hyundai A-League will connect Tasmania to the world. Our game is one of society’s great unifiers and, through playing in our national competition, more Australians and more people throughout the world can understand our state and what it has to offer.
Followers of the world game will have the opportunity to visit Tasmania (to watch Tasmania United FC play) and, perhaps more importantly, players of the world game from Australia and overseas will base themselves and build their football careers in Tasmania.
With the Hyundai A-League gaining a following in Asia, this will give our state better links with the most powerful emerging economic region in the world.
Secondly, a Tasmanian A-League team will provide Tasmanian businesses with the opportunity to create links in potential export markets.
Tasmanian products already have a strong reputation in mainland states and throughout Asia. A Tasmanian A-League team will enable businesses interested in these export markets to gain better access through sponsorship opportunities of Tasmania United FC.
Thirdly, a Tasmanian A-League team will give young Tasmanian footballers a clearer pathway to the very top of our game. At the moment young Tasmanian elite footballers must all leave if they want a career in the world game as a player or a coach.
A Tasmanian A-league team would allow those young players to see a clear pathway to a career in the game; one that they can pursue in Tasmania. While we wouldn’t want to stop our good young players seeking their fame and fortune outside Tasmania, a Tasmanian A-League team would give them the opportunity to play at an elite level right here and to learn from some of the best players and coaches available.
These are just three reasons; perhaps others can see more. The more I look at the final vision statement, the more I like it. This will be our opportunity to forge better links with the world through the ultimate unifying force, football.
I will focus on the detailed plan about how we will get there next week.
Yours in football,
Daniel Hanna
Chairman
Tasmania United FC
