Football’s growth leaves Perth, Adelaide behind
Roar Guru By Towser, 22 Jul 2009 The Crowd is a Roar Guru
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Post-Lowy, Australian football has slowly started to get its act together. But its momentum appears to be leaving Perth and Adelaide behind, particularly regarding international football.
In this country, unlike older countries like England, the focus nationally is not concentrated in the capital. So in England, Wembley is, if you like, the stadium of national focus.
It represents England and all that is English, despite massive regional differences in accent and culture throughout the nation.
Not so here with Canberra.
So in my book, to become a true “national” sport in Australia, you have to spread yourself around the states. Here are some statistics regarding Socceroo matches since the World cup qualifier 2005:
Sydney eight matches / average 51,315
Melbourne four matches / average 72,560
Brisbane three matches / average 43,505
Canberra one match / attendance 20,032
Some of the matches were friendlies, some World Cup or Asian Cup qualifiers.
It doesn’t matter really.
The point of the exercise is to show that, with no matches in either city, Perth and Adelaide are missing out on football’s momentum.
Clearly Melbourne and Sydney are doing okay, but so is Brisbane. In fact, Brisbane has come from a position of almost no history of substantial crowds to a decent position post-Lowy. I believe its because it has joined in football’s momentum.
This issue with Perth and Adelaide is an Achilles heel for the FFA in spreading football throughout the country and making it a true national sport.
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July 22nd 2009 @ 10:11am
Koala Bear said | July 22nd 2009 @ 10:11am | Report comment
DogsOfWar wrote: Yep, agree. Build decent rectangular stadiums, and not only will you pull International Fixtures for football (soccer), I would think there is a much higher likelihood of League and Union bringing big matches that way as well.
Precisely … A win, win, win, for all three rectangle codes…
~~~~~~~
KB
July 22nd 2009 @ 10:16am
Pippinu said | July 22nd 2009 @ 10:16am | Report comment
I’m sure Kaz can tell us all what kind of presence the rectangle codes have in Adelaide.
July 22nd 2009 @ 10:28am
True Tah said | July 22nd 2009 @ 10:28am | Report comment
Towser
in Perth specifically, I know that the Western Force have been quite vocal in the redevelopment of Members Equity to accommodate bigger crowds and they are in the same boat as the Perth Glory. To put it bluntly, the Force are sick of playing at a ground unsuitable for viewing rugby, and it will hurt their crowds.
Whilst futbol internationals are not held regularly in Perth, the ARU generally stages a match against the Springboks there every year, and it usually gets capacity crowds, using that as an example, I think the Socceroos would get capacity crowds too. On this basis, there is a pretty good argument for Perth to have a 30-35K rectangular stadium.
Unfortunately the argument for Adelaide is weaker, as Adelaide United is alone in flying the flag for the rectangular codes, and as Kaz said, they drew less than 10k for their semi final.
July 22nd 2009 @ 10:33am
Towser said | July 22nd 2009 @ 10:33am | Report comment
Accept all the historical arguments about Australia thats why I mentioned Wembley ,England, Canberra.
Accept the bit about the A-League & Sydney. But thats not what I’m looking at. Perhaps I should clarify that its partly to do with using the popularity of the Socceroos as a tool for footballs momentum.
Still havent seen a satisfactory answer as to why the FFA have neglected these two cities. Not one International is not acceptable in this country if you want to be a “National” sport. To build momentum in Australia you have to be seen in all states on a regular basis.
Kazama I can quote similar stats for Brisbane prior to 2005 regarding crowds for International matches. Abysmal comes to mind,but also lack of them comes to mind. Were they abysmal because nobody cared, or were they abysmal because football had been so out of sight out of mind locally that nobody cared ?
Before 2005 a bit of both. After 2005 the dynamics changed. World Cup qualification & participation in the finals increased profile. Joining Asia allowed that increased profile to be capitalized on by those cities/states that wished to do so. Did the governments in WA & SA wish to do so? It is fact that Qld did & although its a way to go football is being “Seen” in Brisbane with crowds unheard of in the 30 years I’ve lived here. Before that it was worse according to locals.
So if Brisbane/Qld had sat on their backside would we have deservedly been left out in the cold for the Socceroos matches or the Celtic match. Yes we would. So I dont buy the we deserve it line. You make your own luck oppurtunities in this world. IF however the FFA have deliberately avoided AAMI & publicly stated so ,because it is inadequate then it is obviously a more complicated argument . That is lack of a suitable stadium according to the FFA, not slackness on behalf of the SA government events dept is to blame.
July 22nd 2009 @ 10:38am
mahony said | July 22nd 2009 @ 10:38am | Report comment
Win the WC2022 bid, build the stadiums in Adelaide / Perth and Hobart and then take the games from Sydney who are clearly are not ‘stepping up’ given their population base.
July 22nd 2009 @ 10:43am
Working Class Rugger said | July 22nd 2009 @ 10:43am | Report comment
In terms of stadia, talking from my experience here in WA. Perth is going to be left for dead in every other football code but AFL. True Tah has pointed out about the Force’s push for greater capacity at Member’s equity. But they need the WA government support to do so. The problem is the WA govt aren’t interested. The only proposal they are looking at with any interest is an expansion to Subiaco so it can host WC matches if Australia gets either the 2018 or 2022. well that’s how they are justifying it.
July 22nd 2009 @ 10:46am
Kazama said | July 22nd 2009 @ 10:46am | Report comment
I’d say apart from the Wallabies, not many here care a great deal about league or union. It certainly isn’t as obvious as football, where I see plenty of kits (european or AU) worn around town. I’ve see a few people with Rabbitohs hats and shirts, and down at Glenelg there are a few people who wear Wests Tigers gear (Glenelg are the Tigers for those who don’t follow SANFL), but that’s about it. Occasionally you’ll meet someone who barracks for an NRL side, but it is pretty rare and most of the time they’ve moved here from the eastern states.
A mate of mine has Brumbies membership, but he’s the only person I know who actually supports a Super 14 side.
If you go to a sports shop here, you could probably get a Wallabies top but that’s about it as far as merch goes for League / Union, which suggests there isn’t a market for it. In most decent sports shops here you can get gear for any AFL team, so it’s not as if they won’t sell NRL / S14 gear just because we don’t have a team here.
Or let me put it another way – from where I am sitting now, I would only have to walk about 300 metres or so to get a Turkish national football team shirt, whereas I’d probably have to catch a plane and go to Melbourne to get an NRL or S14 shirt.
July 22nd 2009 @ 10:51am
The Bear said | July 22nd 2009 @ 10:51am | Report comment
Mahony, spot on. This should get the Western Force and the ARU on side quicksmart. Adelaide will be the great beneficiary too, one would imagine with an upgrade to FIFA regs at the very least. Oh, we can only hope that Perth’s new Rectangular stadium is not aligned/unshaded as the current paddock is… the afternoon sun/shadow situation drives me bonkers on the tele.
July 22nd 2009 @ 10:56am
Ben of Phnom Penh said | July 22nd 2009 @ 10:56am | Report comment
I believe Adelaide was to host the Asian Cup Qualifier for 2011 against Lebanon however it was canceled due to the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict. The FFA promised Adelaide a replacement game however this seems to have gone by the wayside. Perhaps another Asian Cup qualifier is on the cards.
My main worry is Perth. Whilst it is difficult it is much easier for people from Adelaide to reach a game in Melbourne than it is for fans in Perth to reach any of the Eastern states. I’m sure that a full international in Perth would bring all sorts of people to the ground.
July 22nd 2009 @ 11:03am
Towser said | July 22nd 2009 @ 11:03am | Report comment
Pippinu & true Tah raise the sort of points I am seeking. I bow to their greater knowledge on the areas they mentioned.
Both are indicating that Perth & Adelaide could have had matches. If The Wallabies can play at Subiaco yearly why not the Socceroos. In fact the have done so against Indonesia I believe in a friendly in recent times. Matches have also been held at AAMI stadium. If as Pippinu says the Socceroos can play at the MCG & the dome why not AAMI. Surely it would have been worth the FFA’s while to see whether a WC or AC qualifier or major friendly( Argentina type team) would pull a crowd.
If it didnt then Kazamas argument about we dont deserve it bears some merit. If this is the case why bother with them when considering WC matches if we ever hold the Cup in Australia. If it did all the more reason for starting to push for a decent rectangular stadium. In Brisbane Suncorp had 48000 for a friendly in 2006 after the World Cup. How do we know that the same match would not have pulled a good crowd in Perth or Adelaide. If it did arguments like we dont deserve it wouldnt exist & the FFA may have been encouraged to hold more Socceroo matches there.