Big club friendlies a huge fillip for A-League
Columnist
By Adrian Musolino, 6 May 2009 Adrian Musolino is a Roar Expert
- Tagged:
- A-League, Celtic, football, Fulham, Mark Schwarzer
Celtic's Scott McDonald scores the winning goal during the UEFA Champions League Group D match at Celtic Park, Glasgow Wednesday Oct 3, 2007. Celtic won 2-1. AP Photo/ Andrew Milligan
With Mark Schwarzer and his Fulham side, Celtic and Wolves, all confirmed for pre-season matches against A-League teams, and rumours of a possible visit by the majestic Barcelona, local clubs need to take advantage of these possibilities as a powerful way to launch the season and draw in new fans.
With the A-League season now intruding even further into the AFL and NRL seasons, gaining much in the way media attention and traction, especially from an apathetic casual sporting fan, is going to be difficult.
Remember, too, that the FFA only has once every four years to use the springboard of the Socceroos and the World Cup to launch a season.
These friendlies against foreign opposition are the best way to spread the A-League gospel, encouraging fans to get out and support their teams early in the campaign with the added motivator of seeing clubs and players familiar to us on television.
It will certainly be more enticing to fans and the media than the rudimentary pre-season competition that has been done away with, or friendlies against state league opposition.
In terms of pure marketability and commercial potential, the benefits of big name friendlies far outweigh the other options.
It will also entice fans that follow the EPL but look down at the A-League to the friendlies and hopefully assist in bridging that gap by showcasing what the A-League has to offer.
Even if the attention is focused on Schwarzer and company, the tangible and intangible benefits for the A-League clubs are there, increasing brand awareness, generating publicity and giving fans extra reasons to get to games.
The pre-season tour is now an established part of many European sides’ schedule and takes them to the USA, where Chelsea, AC Milan and Inter will be heading in July, Africa, or, most commonly, Asia, a popular haunt for Manchester United.
Australia doesn’t yet have the economic pulling power of the USA and the like, but as the A-League grows and the economic strength of Australian football increases, it could become a genuine alternative.
You wouldn’t mind betting, either, that for players and officials, Sydney and Melbourne is a more enticing getaway than Arlington, Texas or Foxborough, Massachusetts, with its population of just over 16,000.
There is also the benefit of being exposed to the greats of the game. These tours are valuable for our football culture as well as its economy.
Hopefully a successful tour for the likes of Fulham will entice more European clubs in the future and we may see them become a common occurrence.
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- Explore:
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Tom said | May 6th 2009 @ 8:07am | Report comment
I agree that friendlies by European clubs could and should be important PR exercises, Adrian.
Unfortunately I suspect they’ll be treated as cash cows, milking EPL fans with exorbitant ticket prices to watch second string versions of their teams.
Maybe this time round the clubs could offer tickets at regular season prices and try to generate some decent sized crowds. Particularly important for MV and Etihad Stadium. The place has a pretty average atmosphere when <20k rock up.
NUFCMVFC said | May 6th 2009 @ 8:59am | Report comment
I think they are good, the Juve match was a good exercise for Melbourne and the game here, even if it did end up being a bit of a reserve side, and the Galaxy?Beckham game was good for Sydney and got FTA coverage
I don’t mind it being something of a Cash Cow either for local clubs, they need the money, but they also need to generate money to ensure it is attractive to keep on bringing the teams out here, from what I recall Juve got $1million out of the game.
One problem for the A League is that while there is a big football community, there are also a fair amount of ‘EPL snobs’, so this is a good way of getting these people out to the Stadiums in the first place, getting a sense of what getting out to an A League game would involve.
Another problem is that it is an opportunity to get Football and A League teams on to FTA and circumnavigate, of course they have to bid and I’d accept Pay TV coverage over no coverage at all but Football was able to get on Prime Time television witth he Beckham game, and you’d expect there’d be reasonable TV audiences for games involving not only EPL or popular SPL teams, but also including Top Socceroo players
Midfielder said | May 6th 2009 @ 9:17am | Report comment
To me it is clever.. they will be played in those times of the year when football struggles to get media in the AFL / NRL seasons … always good to have a profile lifter at those times..
whiskeymac said | May 6th 2009 @ 9:19am | Report comment
in comparison some past fixtures, such as the Beckham- LA Galaxies game in Sydney – didnt do that much in the medium to long term to boost the sport. Even though the HAL numbers dropped for a myriad of reasons – and although any media attention is better than none- would it not be fair to say arent these events also only ever going to be short term gains? (even though in my example there is the argument that LA galaxy was more of a Beckhamania event and people went to see the celeb and not the game? – did the Juve game in melbourne have an lasting effects other than sourcing a goalie for Gold Coast?)
in saying that, and as posted on a similar blog across yonder, the excitement the smaller EPL clubs are generating, even if short term, is palpable to those that follow the game. Hopefully the games are televised and the media talks them up, because it would be a shame if the opportunity for this promotion is lost. the games need more than a few bloggers and back page stories buried in the media tofill the stadia for games involving Wolves and other lesser known teams.
Adrian do you know how much money this will this generate for the game? are the euro clubs asking for so much that all we get is the experience and exposure (at least that’s something). the privilege of playing would be nice if the HAl made some profit too.
Art Sapphire said | May 6th 2009 @ 9:30am | Report comment
Adrian you forgot to mention that Wolves will be using Perth as a base for their preparations.
This could be something that other EPL clubs might think about doing in the future.
From: http://sportal.com.au/Football-news-display/glory-to-play-epl-teams-69786
“Wolves, they’re going to be here for 10 days,” Mitchell said, saying the club will arrive in Australia on July 4.
“I know Mick personally and I said, ‘look it’s a great place to come, you don’t want to be flying all over the place, just base yourself here’.”
“It’s a wonderful city, we’ve got wonderful facilities that what we still can improve in the future, but it’s great for the city and great for the tourism of Perth.”
Mining magnate Sage has underwritten all the matches although he is hopeful the Western Australian government will lend some support as the fixtures will be a huge boost for WA tourism during winter.
“We’ve had 400 emails from Wolves fans in England that want to come out,” Sage said
Tom – Juventus came to Melbourne and got 43k at Etihad. They played a second string team because it was played at at the end of the European season, May. The wrong time to play a friendly. These upcoming friendlies are more meaningful and should feature pretty strong squads as it forms part of everyones pre-season program.
The Victory fans will turn up to watch the game and I expect a similar crowd to turn up for the Fulham game.
Finally, I am getting fed up with whinging EPL fans in Australia Get out and spend some money supporting A-League teams or don’t you want a strong vibrant competition in the country you live in.
Tom said | May 6th 2009 @ 9:46am | Report comment
Agree with all of that Art Sapphire.
I just have a bit of a concern that people who might go to these games will get turned off the high ticket prices they usually charge, particularly families with kids.
It becomes a problem if people start associating soccer = rip off.
But I am in favour of these tours, and I am in favour of clubs using them to make some money. I just think there’s a balance to be struck in terms of pricing that usually gets ignored.
Art Sapphire said | May 6th 2009 @ 9:59am | Report comment
Tom – the EPL is a rip off. What do you think EPL clubs charge their own fans to see games?
Or don’t these EPL fans realise that when they watch the games on their telly from halfway across the world.
These friendly games will cost less to attend than an average EPL game.
Tom said | May 6th 2009 @ 10:20am | Report comment
Well, obviously football is at a different stage of development here than in the UK.
I would have thought that went without saying.
whiskeymac said | May 6th 2009 @ 10:58am | Report comment
Yes, even the fans in the UK are being out priced but there’s a difference in having regular, meaningful games costing , say 30pounds or 60bux, between two EPL teams and a friendly game which is essentially meaningless (and thats not to say I wont happily watch it and encourage others to do the same) with only one EPL team (or whoever the drawcard is). If the idea is to promote the game to the locals then the price should not be prohibitive. I am not sure Tony Sage can only bank on 400 wolve’s fans to underwrite his game.
Millster said | May 6th 2009 @ 11:02am | Report comment
I’m happy for you all to call me cash cow from now on. In fact I am already practising being on all fours and going moo. Such is my delight at the honour and privilege of seeing such class of talent on our shores, and playing our own domestic clubs. Bring it on, this is wonderful for our game.
I just hope that someone with brains makes sure that – even if its only for 15 minutes or so – the likes of Henry, Messi, Aussie Macca, Schwartz et al don’t just play under the floodlights but a few hours before have a short time to drop into some junior comp on a local or school park in some suburb, and really give those kids and all others who find out on TV and inte papers a bit of a dream come true.