A bad week that was actually good for the game

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By Davidde Corran, 3 Sep 2010 Davidde Corran is a Roar Expert

Tagged:: A-League, football, Newcastle Jets, Socceroos

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Has this been the first week where the A-League has overshadowed the build up to a Socceroos game? Unfortunately, though, at times over the last few days, I’ve found wading through the latest A-League news, opinion pieces and press releases a heavy task.

From the acrimony over last weekend’s contentious penalties through to the debate surrounding Gold Coast United reinstating their controversial crowd cap, it has all made for depressing reading.

The most alarming story for me this week was the news the Newcastle Jets players and staff weren’t paid last week and owner Con Constantine is struggling to meet his financial commitments.

A foundation club and former A-League premiership winner in grave financial trouble? This is the kind of story that can get even the biggest optimist down and make you wonder if the task facing the game is too much.

Yet, one look over the weekend’s A-League highlights, with the exception of those two penalty decisions of course, is invigorating viewing. Both Costa Barbarouses and Robbie Kruse scored goals of such quality, both in their application and build up play, that doubts begin to wade.

If we can ride out these early years of change, overcome the obstacles the game is both faced with and created for itself, then on the other side lies a final destination well worth striving for.

As we know, the challenges, from revolutionising the game at grassroots level to developing and maintaining a top class domestic competition, are enormous. Yet, I’d plead for optimism.

Things aren’t as bad as they could be.

I’m currently finishing up a three-week stint in the U.S. where I’ve been putting together stories on the Australians plying their trade over here and also the US World Cup bid team.

As always it’s been an illuminating trip, not just on the state of the game in America but also in comparing it to things back home.

First of all, with Central Coast Mariner’s withdrawal form the competition; the W-League may have received its first club casualty. Yet at least the W-League continues to hold its ground.

Things are so turbulent in the WPS here the future of the competition, at least as far as next season is concerned, is heavily in doubt.

While the women’s clubs are bleeding huge amounts of money, things are even worse in the now well-established MLS where annual club loses are in the millions of dollars.

I was skeptical a couple weeks ago when Danny Allsopp told me he thought the A-League was of a higher standard then the MLS. Yet after having attended a number of games since then, it’s clear to me the former Melbourne Victory striker is right.

This season, A-League games have regularly surpassed those of the MLS, a league that seems to be aiming to reach a level equal to that of the English Championship in both tactical and technical “sophistication”.

The US might have found more success then Australia over the last 20 years but I believe Australia is in a better position to develop into a football nation capable of winning the World Cup then America.

As US Soccer chief Sunil Gulati announced Bob Bradley’s contract extension as coach of the US men’s national team this week he spoke about the need to improve talent identification through to improving training and teaching techniques at the grassroots level. But what a task!

Don’t get me wrong, the game has come so far in the US it can be quite staggering at times (90,000 people to watch a Real Madrid friendly?!), but this country is so large and the football community so unwieldy, to develop a concrete and effective football system, from the grassroots on up, is almost impossible.

Meanwhile Australia’s size and economic strength is large enough to create a suitable talent pool but not so big that administrating the game becomes a logistical nightmare.

Quite simply, the task facing Gulati and US Soccer is even larger then Australia’s.

Back home mistakes continue to be made within the game, and these should be pointed out, discussed and then rectified I still hold out hope.

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The Crowd Says (26) | Page 2 of Comments

September 4th 2010 @ 3:45am
Giggsy said | September 4th 2010 @ 3:45am | Report comment

the A-League better than MLS? i am under no delusions about the level of MLS but that is simply preposterous, both on and off the pitch. remind me again where former top A-league players Fred and Allsopp are playing? MLS. and they are mediocre here at best.

this FIFA weekend there are over 30 MLS players away on international duty? how many A-leaguers?

if you are judging the quality of MLS by DC United (Allsopps club) then it is no wonder you’d be deluded enough to think the A-league is better. they’re terrible due in no small part to the fact that Allsopp cannot finish for shyte.

and off the pitch there is simply no comparison. by 2012 there will be 19 teams all but 3 of which will play in revenue controlled and/or soccer specific stadiums. right now Seattle Sounders have 32K season ticket holders and get 36K fans per game, every game, rain or shine and will likely have total revenues exceeding $40M (including a $5M kit sponsorship).

the myth that MLS clubs are “losing millions” is just that, a myth. one perpetuated by the owners of the league during a somewhat acrimonious collective bargaining with the player’s union before the season. the truth is that while a few individual clubs may lose money each season most break even a good number make healthy profits. the league itself rakes in obscene amounts of cash thru expansion fees, revenue sharing of ticket revenue, national sponsorships ($25M a year from Adidas alone) and the most important SUM which is a nice little “side business” of the league that makes money from all sorts of soccer related marketing areas including Mexico friendlies held on US soil that get 80K fans to each game. that money is technically “off” the MLS books but all of the investors in MLS (each “owner” of an MLS club is in actuality an “investor” in MLS that is granted the “license” to “operate” the MLS franchise or team) is also an investor in SUM and thus make a portion of the profits from that business too. on top of that almost every MLS owner also used their MLS “franchise” as a bargaining tool to get a stadium built at which they hold dozens and dozens of non soccer events each year making giant profits that are also “off” the MLS books but very much due to their MLS team.

only the Melbourne Victory would even rate in the top half of MLS franchises in terms of fan support and off field financial strength. on the pitch i’d say maybe 3-4 teams would be competitive with the upper half of MLS teams.

Reply
- September 6th 2010 @ 5:17pm
  Art Sapphire said | September 6th 2010 @ 5:17pm | Report comment
  
  giggsy – Allsopp was not a top rated Victory player. Victory fans never rated him.
  Unlike, Thompson who is a top rated Victory player.
  Carlos Hernandez is also another top rated Victory player.
  
  What was that about getting a clue
  
  Reply
September 4th 2010 @ 7:25am
The Special One said | September 4th 2010 @ 7:25am | Report comment

Giggsy well said.

Im a big fan of MLS as they are doing things in a smart financially viable way. Unlike the a-league which is effectively broke. MLS is miles ahead of the a-league off the pitch.

On the field its closer but MLS will always get the bigger names. Since the introduction of Thierry henry and rafa marquez New york are playing the best soccer ive seen in MLS for a long time.

Reply
September 4th 2010 @ 8:16am
Andyroo said | September 4th 2010 @ 8:16am | Report comment

I think this article has obviously gone international…… we will have some A league vs MLS tournament by the end of next week at this rate.

Reply
- September 4th 2010 @ 8:35am
  Jeff from Seattle said | September 4th 2010 @ 8:35am | Report comment
  
  Yes, it got linked on dunord.blogspot.com which is a great American soccer news aggregator site.
  
  Reply
- September 4th 2010 @ 10:25am
  Rageman said | September 4th 2010 @ 10:25am | Report comment
  
  Actually Andy, I wish that the Pan Pacific Championship could have continued. I thought that it was an interesting tournament.
  
  I honestly feel that this was a fluff piece aimed at those fence sitters/people that haven’t decided that the A-league is worth their time. I also feel that this was written to possibly soften the blow when the US and England get awarded the next two World Cups. To be honest, I would rather that the USA get snubbed in favor of Australia. I’ve visited this place before . . . I want to see footy take off in the USA and in Australia and I honestly believe that football as a whole needs Australia to improve more than FIFA needs the USA to improve. It’s already taking off here and is getting more popular every year. The World Cup would be big for either country but bigger for Australia
  
  Reply
September 5th 2010 @ 1:58am
edwin said | September 5th 2010 @ 1:58am | Report comment

Man the guy who wrote this article was on the wrong track. Did he even bother to look for facts or he just took the word of his buddy Allsopp. Reading these comments alot of you guys are confused. Here are some facts MLS cap is 2.55 mil will rise to 2.68 mill 2011 and 5% rise each year there after till 2014. MLS has alot of ways that they pay for players without counted it against the cap i.e allocation money which is an “UNKNOWN” amount that every club has to pay down a players salary it can be traded for, or given to the worst team (DC UNITED ALLSOPP) and given to new expansion teams. MLS also pays the up and coming youth stars generation addidas and youth contacts which don’t count in that nefarious 2.55 mil cap.

1. The leagues are comparable in aspects but MLS is head and shoulders a better league with more depth on the field. Off the field the gap widens its not really comparable and im a fan of the a leauge I DVR every A-LEAGUE,J LEAUGE game and highlight show off directv all the time. As far as on the field product I give a slight nod to J league only for technical ability it seems just a tad bit higher but that is the only department. Then MLS followed by a distant A-LEAGUE. I like A-Leauge because it reminds me of a young MLS but you guys dso have a ways to go.

2. This guy who wrote this article is rubbish and if he reads this and doesn’t like my post than fix your JOURNALISM. Now here are facts in these links since he can provide you that service if they don;t work google the info off the links provide below then you’ll get the picture.

http://grant-wahl-soccer.si.com/2010/08/20/mls-player-salaries-crunching-the-numbers/?xid=cnnbin&hpt=Sbin

http://www.mlsplayers.org/salary_info.html

MLS Team Salaries 2010 (Includes the exact ammounts)

1. New York: $15,666,639
2. Los Angeles: $10,978,593
3. Chicago: $5,559,103
4. Toronto: $5,214,381
5. Seattle: $3,118,103
6. New England: $2,983,032
7. Dallas: $2,924,318
8. Kansas City: $2,905,107
9. Philadelphia: $2,886,399
10. D.C. United: $2,881,530
11. Columbus: $2,808,203
12. Colorado: $2,710,113
13. Salt Lake: $2,645,721
14. Houston: $2,565,875
15. San Jose: $2,518,590
16. Chivas USA: $2,477,548

Reply
- Roar Guru
  
  September 6th 2010 @ 4:45pm
  AndyRoo said | September 6th 2010 @ 4:45pm | Report comment
  
  Cheers Edwin
  
  I don’t know if you have a similar problem than we do here but last year we sort of suffered with the huge disparity of our best players vs our worst ones. Their would be a big difference in standard between some team mates.
  We have a fairly generous min wage (about 68-70k) but if a kid from the NYL team (basically the reserve league) gets called up he could be on 7k playing next to a marquee on 600k. Though normally the kids go allright.
  
  I think the key for both leagues improving on the field is improving the next generation of players. We have a natioanal technical program in it’s early stages and a national youth league and you guys have the home grown rule and that huge accademy system (I can’t remember it’s name but accademies everywhere) which should make a big difference.
  
  Both need a lot more licensed youth coaches (enough so every decent kid gets access to them regardless of circumstances).
  
  Reply
September 5th 2010 @ 2:20am
Phil McCracken said | September 5th 2010 @ 2:20am | Report comment

Hard for me to say which league has a better quality of play, but if MLS were so inferior, why is Alsopp’s performance down so far from his career averages? Granted, he’s on the worst MLS team, but he’s been pretty poor himself.

Reply
- Roar Guru
  
  September 6th 2010 @ 4:18pm
  AndyRoo said | September 6th 2010 @ 4:18pm | Report comment
  
  Well he is 32 now and he did well when Melbourne were doing well but he struggled in his first year there when Melbourne didn’t do so well (3 goals in 20 games).
  
  Meanwhile Shane Smeltz came from a couple of divisions lower and scored bucket loads (would have been a much better bet for MLS). Very unusual to play out the prime of your career in Australia like he did since he did ok in lower tier English football when he was younger.
  
  Fred only played 17 games in the A league (4 goals) but he was very popular…but then the early days of the a league the league was fairly um “agricultural”…… still is on occasions.
  
  Reply