I don’t actually see anything attractive about a team with very little support doing better than a team with more support because they have found investors that will likely never get their money back.

I am more in the Dogz camp for sure. Sustainability is key and in most cases in the A league that means getting a good stadium deal. Manage to get crowds like MV and you reach that point where you are an attractive summer tennant.

The question therefore is how do you ensure that the right type of business is engaged, particularly in the context of Asia. In the past, and hopefully all of next year, the A-League has been shown on Australia Network and clubs are seen on a multitude of channels when playing in the ACL. This provides far greater scope for exposure in the region than a domestic audience alone affords. It is important that clubs align themselves with businesses that benefit from this exposure to achieve greater synergies. Someone who has cash and loves football too often shall not suffice.

But – this is the big but – they invariably are owned by wealthy people who are happy to fund the inevitable operating loss that occurs each year.

I just can’t believe that that can be in anyway sustainable over the long term.

Surely the lesson for Australian clubs is not to go down that route, rather than embracing it.

Surely two different clubs like the Victory and the Mariners are showing how to thrive in the A-League?

Does the furniture company finance the club at a significant loss? Are the crowd numbers not so important when they have sponsorships and TV deals that dwarf the crowd revenue in comparison?

Smart of them to have a Socceroo that may(or may not) sky rocket in value after the World Cup, perhaps the A-League could take a more professional approach when scouting for under rated players, develope them and sell them for much higher as another source of club income.

Clubs like Arsenal, Ajax and PSV buy gifted players for peanuts, (e.g less than 5 million AUD) and end up selling them for 50 million plus (or at any profit)! Of course the scale of finance down here is completely different, but the same rule could apply for buying somone for $100,000 and selling them for $500,000. Is it true that Beijing get paid 10x more than the A-League salary cap?

if so, then I think the HAl has that already but with the added bonus of better crowds and a better TV deal, without inflated wages. Not saying we cant learn form other clubs, and i think we shld always be looking to improve, but what we can learn, and are getting better at, is to leverage transfer $ back into the game and try and develop grass root and community ties.

if SFC and NQ both lost about 5-6M this season, and had succesful seasons despite their varying positions on the table etc, you need to keep the sponsors happy.

I think making the ACL is considered the best part of the A-League and what binds it together… why Fat Tony (Clive Palmer) runs the Fold Coast… and why gov pits in so much money…