Midweek round 19 a litmus test for the A-League

Columnist

By Adrian Musolino, 16 Dec 2009 Adrian Musolino is a Roar Expert

Tagged:: A-League, Central Coast Mariners, football, Sydney FC

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Melbourne Victory's Sebastian Ryall out runs Wellington Phoenix's Leo Bertos during the A-League pre-season final at Westpac Stadium in Wellington, New Zealand, Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2008. AAP Image/NZPA, Ross Setford

Round 19 of the A-League is upon us. Commencing tonight with a Queensland derby at Suncorp Stadium, and ending on Australia Day in Melbourne, the round spans just under six weeks – across 2009 and 2010 – with all fixtures played midweek. It’s the most important round of the A-League season.

Why?

It’ll test Australia’s true interest in midweek summer night fixtures over key summer dates, at a time when we cannot escape or ignore the ongoing crowd concerns.

The Round 19 fixtures are:
16 Dec – Brisbane Roar V North Queensland Fury
23 Dec – Sydney FC V Central Coast Mariners
13 Jan – Gold Coast United V Newcastle Jets
19 Jan – Adelaide United V Perth Glory
26 Jan – Melbourne Victory V Wellington Phoenix

First up, it’s Brisbane’s turn – possibly the worst time for the Roar to be hosting a midweek fixture; coming off the back of their lowest crowd of 5,801 who witnessed their loss to Adelaide United.

The Roar are in disarray, and even a local derby featuring Robbie Fowler is unlikely to sway a Brisbane that seems to have turned its back on the team. Avoiding a crowd lower than its new record must be the goal.

Sydney’s pre-Christmas Eve clash with the Central Coast should draw a decent crowd – Sydney fans having had a taste of the Asian Champions League midweek fixtures. Likewise for Adelaide fans.

Melbourne’s Australia Day fixture should be well attended, but it could have been even more of a spectacle had a more traditional rival been scheduled for that date.

I’ve often thought a rivalry round concept would work around a major holiday fixture, such as Australia Day, and a Sydney versus Melbourne clash – the hopeful Grand Finalists – would better utilize these holiday/summer dates.

With all these midweek matches, there is an element of the unexpected relating to crowds.

Midweek matches aren’t an Australian sporting tradition.

Our sporting psyche is built around weekends.

Australia’s response to midweek fixtures has been lukewarm, in both rescheduled A-League matches and Asian Champions League fixtures.

And even though summer fixtures in December-January have proven to be popular – and should be with the little opposition and school holidays – there is still an element of the unknown with these midweek fixtures, particularly because the poor promotion and marketing of the league makes it difficult for such fixtures, which deviate from the weekend norm, to gain much awareness and traction to the wider sporting fanbase.

It’s why traditional rivals and better fixtures need to be combined with these summer dates in order to maximize a time of the year when the A-League should be enjoying the benefits of the fine weather, school holidays and little sporting competition.

Midweek rounds could also be the ticket to condensing the season away from the AFL/NRL seasons, by squeezing in more than one midweek fixture in this summer period, in a similar way to how the EPL fits so many games into the Christmas and New Year period. It also provides an escape from the afternoon heat that can afflict A-League matches.

But first A-League fans need to show they’re committed to midweek summer fixtures.

How many truly knew of the peculiar round 19 of the A-League this season and why it’s so important? How many A-League fans knew to clear their Wednesday night schedules over the summer?

We’ll find out across the country over the course of the next six weeks.

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The Crowd Says (52) | Page 1 of Comments

Michael C said | December 16th 2009 @ 6:42am | Report comment

hmm……MVFC vs WPhx on Aust Day…..correct again….pretty unimaginative scheduling,……see other thread regarding ‘blockbusters’.

proposal :
MVFC host SFC on the Sunday before Melb Cup,
MVFC host AdeUtd Aust Day weekend,

fix them in……year on year.

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- AndyRoo said | December 16th 2009 @ 8:17am | Report comment
  
  That’s a pretty good suggestion.
  
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Punter said | December 16th 2009 @ 6:50am | Report comment

I’d have agree with both Adrian & Michael C here.
Great concept Australia Day game, but MVFC v WP? That should be the ANZAC day match in New Zealand if the A-League ever expands a longer timeframe we all want.

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Dave said | December 16th 2009 @ 7:04am | Report comment

Sort out the crap a-league website so dates of games are not all over they placer and the crowds will go as people actually know when the game is on. Look at the fixtures list and would not even know SFC were playing Victory

http://www.a-league.com.au/default.aspx?s=aleague_fixtures

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- K B said | December 16th 2009 @ 9:11am | Report comment
  
  Dave,
  I agree, someone at FFA has gone to sleep on the job … Archie Fraser is a dope we are now at round 20 not 19 … c’mon Archie lift your game…
  
  Reply
  - jimbo said | December 16th 2009 @ 11:36am | Report comment
    
    KB,
    agree that Archie’s performance has been very disappointing this year after all the hype surrounding his appointment. He’s the head of A-League Operations so he shouldn’t have been distracted by the WC bid.
    
    He did a much better job at St Kilda.
    Maybe he’s an AFL plant and is deliberately doing a bad job for Satan Demetriou’s benefit.
    
    Reply
MV Dave said | December 16th 2009 @ 7:05am | Report comment

Will look forward to MCs crowd stats after this one. Fair chance that the Roar will break another record tonight.

Midweek over the summer school holiday period is the only way to expand the competition so the FFA and the clubs have to make it work and some suggestions that may help;

1. special pricing for these fixtures eg a mate gets in for free with a full priced entry ticket punter
2. Kids under 16 free or gold coin entry with full priced entry ticket adult
3. no liveTV telecast in the home teams city
4. FFA edict that the home team must win
5. more advertising of the games on FTA/Newspapers
6. special promotions to local sports and in particular football clubs with cheap ticket deals…
7. MV ran a special deal with local University for one game and had all the students sitting together which worked well as they filled up one bay…should do more of this ie why not pensioners, armed forces personnel, emergency services etc and make a themed night
8. Around Christmas supporters dressed in santa outfits get in for half price etc

There are lots of ideas and l hope clubs and the FFA have come together to put some into action.

BTW re no 4 attendances arent helped when home teams constantly lose and play poorly…ok perhaps the edict should be the home team have to score at least 1 goal …there is no substitute for teams playing well at home and this is the most important promo!

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Brett McKay said | December 16th 2009 @ 7:27am | Report comment

How many people today will read Adrian’s piece and then quickly rush to put tips in, including games six weeks down the track??

Be interesting to see how these midweek games go. Syd-CC next week should be OK, and obviously Australia Day too (despite the Phoenix being involved), but I do wonder if tonight’s game might have done better if it was next week when more people have finished up work for the break??

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Billo said | December 16th 2009 @ 7:34am | Report comment

I don’t know why crowds are such an important discussion point – we never read about crowds in Sheffield Shield cricket, for example.
There are teams in England in the lower leagues that have been established more than 100 years that would welcome some of the crowds drawn by A-league clubs this year.
The A-League’s problem, perhaps, is that it got off to a great start, in terms of crowds, but then lost the sense that it was fashionable to be seen at A-League games, so we are now seeing the ‘true’ supporters who have stuck with their teams.
The best thing the clubs can do is get their heads down and concentrate on winning new fans slowly.
The A-League is in probably the world’s most competitive sporting marketplace, and I think it is doing better than some people would admit.

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- Jeb said | December 16th 2009 @ 9:39am | Report comment
  
  “I think it is doing better than some people would admit”.
  
  I wish I could think the same Billo, but I reckon in brisbane the roar couldn’t be doing any worse. Expect the players to outnumber the spectators tonight at suncorp.
  
  It’s hard to see the crowd situation turning around in the near future. I think the low crowds are going to be chronic for a long time – not something that a few wins or cheaper tickets will solve. The only answer in my opinion is time. Time for people to forget the great support they showed the team over the first three seasons to only be rewarded with crap football and many, many frustrating home losses.
  
  Re the question of crowds – totally agree that too much emphasis is placed on crowds to gauge the sports popularity. Nothing could be more uncorrelated. But for the teams to be financially viable they need to meet their benchmarks and my understanding it that the qld teams aren’t doing this.
  
  Reply
  - Jeb said | December 17th 2009 @ 8:05am | Report comment
    
    I was wrong. 11K crowd
    
    Reply
Chuq said | December 16th 2009 @ 7:35am | Report comment

It’s clear FFA went for (who they would have expected to be) the five highest drawing teams for the home teams for round 19. Oh dear. Brisbane, Gold Coast didn’t really work out that way

Obviously this would mean Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide all having home games, meaning none of the big “rivalries”

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Pat said | December 16th 2009 @ 8:31am | Report comment

They should knock at least 10 bucks off the ticket price for mid-week games and market that.

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Marshall said | December 16th 2009 @ 8:44am | Report comment

I didn’t even know there was a game tonight. Without marketing such fixtures have little chance of succeeding

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Gweeds said | December 16th 2009 @ 9:15am | Report comment

Methinks the FFA is putting all their eggs into the World Cup bid this season.

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