Thanks for the last post it shows the actual problem.

Football is in a strange position, the most widely played game in Australia, the most number of players, the biggest world sport, but with little media and aside from SBS (read very small). There is no one in any mainstream media company be that, electronic , print , or phone company who could be remotely called a football person or knowledgeable football person. Yet today my belief is the Socceroos are Australia’s best sporting brand but still very little media knowledge about their history, the players history, etc, more would be known about a AFL club teams players than the Socceroos by most Melbourne media people..

The football market is huge, however scattered from casual players to hard core European followers who want / demand as standard well beyond where Australia will ever likely reach.

How you then bring all those people together or in football business language .. how do we connect to the football family.. It is perplexing when you marry the lack of knowledge by the media and its output to the potential audience who never hear the message.. Further I cannot see any change in the existing structure any time soon. Thus how do you grow a market from within against well entrenched well run competition without the same weapons i.e. media outlets and past history often media created.

It is a real challenge but there is a tipping point when something goes from being interesting and lets report the big ticket items, to when everything that happens is reported in detail and then analysised. My guess is Football if it continues its current growth and can survive the next four years will reach the tipping point within the next 10 years… At that point it will be interesting to see what happens… If & it is a big if, football can ever connect to it’s broader football family it has by far the biggest market of any of the codes .

Thus the big challenge is for football to reach the tipping point and why we need excellent management and leaders. In Obie One and Ben Buckley we have them but we are in for one hell of a fight over the next ten years and lots of hard slog.

I wish you would learn a bit of grammar and basic spelling.

“It is important to distinguish “their” from “there” and “they’re”. “Their” signifies ownership. “There” designates a place (cf. here). “They’re” means “they are”.”

A bit of attention in this regard would make your posts readable and more comprehensible.

And you don’t need to use an ellipsis (ie. …) everywhere unless you are indicating a lengthy pause (or omission). Use a comma or fullstop.

This is where I think you are wrong Kurt, I’m involved in Football in Sydney at the local level & there are alot of players, kids & adults, men & women, who enjoy football, are interested in European football & even the socceroos but have not been to an A-League match. Sure alot of it may be due to the quality but it’s also the lack of promotion from the media of the game.
If they can start tapping into this market, they will see huge growth. Plus the kids, the kids of today are more into football than kids have ever been in Australia, there is another growth.

Look at basketball during the height of the Michael Jordan era, the most famous sportman in Australia, everyone’s favourite, but how many people in Australia knew who Luc Longley was looked like even though he won 3 Championship rings alongside Jordan for Chicago Bulls or Andrew Gaze, Australia’s greatest basketballer. Why, yes neither were Michael Jordan, but also the lack of media attention.

I have often asked my wife why the US & England so dorminate the music industry when surely there are other talented musicians around the world, lack of attention from the English speaking media.

The FFA are very confident of finding new investors and are in talks with several potential suitors.

As for the investment by astute business people, I see this somewhat differently. I don’t think they are doing this because they see it as a sensible business propostion that will make them lots of money, but because they see it as a) a billionaire’s plaything (i.e. the Chelsea model), ; or b) a chance to put some money into a sport they love. Now I guess either way money is money and the exact motivation of the investor is irrelevant when you need cash to buy players and run a club, but I don’t think you can look at that clown who owns the GC team and previously thought it would be a super idea for Joh to be PM and think that he is doing this as anything other than a hobby. I’ve no doubt that if AFL clubs could be privately owned (remember they are all membership based and as such can’t be bought regardless of how much money is on the table) then quite a few rich business men would be queing up to buy them as status symbols and playthings, but speaking personally I very glad that’s not the case. My club (Hawthorn) is member based and still manages to turn a $4m + profit with cash in the bank and no debt which would potentially make it an attractive take over target but there is bugger all chance the members (all 50,000 of us now) would agree to such a takeover.

Adrain your article would be a bit better balanced if you discussed that the key backer has been badly hurt by the GFC and because of this wants out … FFA are very confident new buyers will be found in fact they have a number of offers and are doing the due diligence work to see if any stack up.. suggest you contact FFA and get a comment.

Kurt … you are so right … but if I where long term investor who would I invest in today’s recent king or NRL / RL / RU / 20 : 20 / or football … HMMMMMMMMm what products does the AFL have a 16 team growing to a 18 team domestic competition played over about 30 weeks … in the southern states in what marketers call the mature phase of the market cycle meaning near impossible to get more market share .. more than likely loose some market share … therefore a need to grow in new markets and fight a costly battle with existing codes in the NRL & RU also in the mature phase of their growth in these markets. Meaning in NSW & QLD the AFL is in a growth phase of market share… which they will get how much is yet to be seen. The hope is the growth in NSW & QLD is more than the loss in the Southern States … BTW I think it will..

I will let NRL & RU folk speak there bit .. but Football is awakening and has replaced its failed management practices for up to date and best practice (AFL copied) and is rolling out a 8 growing to 14 team domestic competition / 9 international teams / including World Cup and Asian Cup for the national men and women teams / Plays a major international club competition across Asia / in time a FA cup style competition… with an increasing economic base outside the media / has an ability to operate with a very small media deal / low operating cost (compared to other codes) The season will be 36 to 40 weeks for the domestic competition and year around for the national teams. Football is in what marketers call a growth phase meaning the market share will grow in all sectors …

Now here I can use some of my day to day work experience … a significance part of my practice (maybe 8% of revenue) involves business analysis and I can tell you any objective adviser would say short to medium term … invest in the AFL .. medium to long term invest in Football. How i define short 1 to 3 years … medium 3 to 8 years … long term over 8 years.

Kurt I have no doubt you think my analysis is crap … and I accept that … but don’t believe me … remember all A-League teams are backed by some of Australia’s most astute business people who see in a different way … they must also have crap advisers…

But in the end it will come down to the management teams running the four codes… all appear to be well managed now but footballs management team has many more products over a longer season to sell… and remember we have Frank Lowy setting this up … God I hope he does not croke it and can hang around for another five years he will build IMO the best management team of all the codes and that is why football will survive … BTW so will the AFL and in much the same manner it is today it also has a strong management team.

Roger Federer and now Rafael Nadal for tennis.

With football I’d say from a marketing perspective Cristiano Ronaldo but then again he’s more just a face you put onto the Manchester United machine. Kaka’ and Messi have appealing characteristics because of their obvious skills but also their attitudes are extremely commendable. It’s a shame in English speaking countries outside of Europe, they probably are not well known to the average person.

michael jordan was incredible for the sport… and US economy. Tiger at golf. Pele in the 70s for the cosmos… and viagra of course (not that he needs it you understand). I wonder if there are any players nowadays that could generate that kind of marketing power – well apart from the obvious Beckham who is at the end of his cycle i assume.

I wonder the actual impact Michael Jordan had on world basketball? I believe he created such an interest and hysteria that it helped generate a mass flowing of the game here. Now with ONEHD, the ability to watch NBA games on Free to air is there so maybe a general interest will start to flow again.

Maybe its an issue in Adelaide in that there just isnt the corporate $$$ to go around, compared to say Sydney or Melbourne. Sydney FC had nowhere near the success of Adelaide, yet did not have any issues with finding new backers or with finances.

whiskeymc, agree that the size of the market would prevent sports clubs operating in several sports, its just too small. Many European clubs have futbol as their dominant sport, but also dabble in other sports, basketball, water polo, volleyball, handball and maybe rugby, which leverage off the success of the clubs futbol team. Not too dissimilar to the US and the college setup, where the big sports of American football and basketball effectively fund all of the other athletic pursuits of various colleges.