What’s going on with A-League crowds?
Roar Rookie
By Moonface, 6 Sep 2010 Moonface is a Roar Rookie
195 Have your say
Falling A-League attendances should be of great concern to the FFA after last weekend’s round pulled an average of just 7,000 fans to the five A-League games.
This week’s round wasn’t much better at around 7,500. While it’s still not the lowest A-League round average ever, which was about 6,500 in 2009, the signs are there that the A-League might need some assistance.
Even Sydney FC, the second highest crowd puller in the A-League’s history, although currently bottom of the table, attracted its lowest ever home crowd of 7,500. That figure is roughly 40 per cent down on last season’s average SFC attendance.
The A-League season average attendances are slowly declining and look like falling even lower than last season, which was the lowest yet.
The tragic irony is that season six of the A-League has clearly been the best so far and the most entertaining to watch.
The standard of play is the highest, Australia’s new coach has been watching with interest, three very talented new European coaches have joined us, high scoring games, some outstanding goals, a new team Melbourne Heart, have all added excitement and class and some stunning goals.
Then throw in a magnificent, purpose built new rectangular stadium in Melbourne, built to accommodate the growing crowds, and season six should be the FFA’s best ever.
But the crowds haven’t reflected this at the stadiums.
Despite a strong first few rounds that averaged higher than last year’s overall average, this season’s attendances are starting to drop markedly.
Some have suggested the reason for the declining attendances could be the novelty factor of the A-League wearing off, the declining interest in football and the Socceroos after their worse than expected performance in South Africa.
The FFA also seems preoccupied with the bids for the FIFA World Cup and its finances and resources are stretched.
A season proper average of 14,612 in season three was the best so far in the history of the A-League, built on slowly increasing crowds in season one (10,955) and season two (12,940).
Season four saw a drop-off with 12,180 the average. That drop-off headed dramatically lower in season five to hit the 9,500 mark and season six looks like drifting even lower.
No one really wants the A-League to die off like the old NSL did. The sport of football really needs a strong national competition to keep growing. The National Youth League and A-League proper is providing a wonderful nursery to develop our greatest football talent for home and overseas.
Even if people aren’t attending A-League games there are a lot of people who still like watching the A-League on Fox Sports. And the international coverage of the A-League has really taken off – last year the highlights package and final series were shown live in over 100 countries around the world.
Most people thought last year that Archie Fraser’s response was not satisfactory and really did nothing to stop the slide. Archie has subsequently stood down from his position as the Head of A-League Operations.
A more acceptable plan to turn things around is awaited from FFA CEO Ben Buckley and his new Head of A-League Operations Lyle O’Gorman.
Another season of lack of action on the FFA’s behalf will be another year closer to the death of the A-League.
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Mick said | September 6th 2010 @ 7:08am | Report comment
Wait for the ameteur & state league seasons to finish before starting the a-league & a bit of publicity so people would know when games are on would help, we have been over all these points before
mintox said | September 6th 2010 @ 3:30pm | Report comment
This weekend the Glory played a home game at 3pm, the same time that the teams of 8 divisions of Amateur Leagues in WA have a fixed kick-off time, not to mention the 100s of other teams that also play their games at 3pm.
It’s a major issue with our start of season overlapping not only with other sports finals but also our own State Leagues. I for one had to miss the game because I was coaching a team at 3pm but gave my members pass to someone else.
George said | September 13th 2010 @ 3:01pm | Report comment
Another shocker of a weekend on the crowds front.. wonder when the first domino (newcastle) will fall… i hear in good faith that it is seriously bleeding money……
Viv richards said | December 13th 2010 @ 4:27pm | Report comment
The ARL and AFL are long finished mate and we are still waiting for A-League crowds to grow. Maybe the novelty of the A-League has worn off and people realise it is basically just a crap competition. Sure people will come out in droves and watch a really big game of soccer such as the Socceroos in a World Cup Qualifier or a touring major international team, but why spend a lot of hard earned dollars to watch a bunch of third raters, who are often old and unfit, playing in near empty stadiums. Besides if your team discovers a young player who has the the potential to become a real star, then you know he will be off overseas by season’s end, not to be seen again for next 15 years before he comes back as an old unfit Marque player!
True Tah said | September 6th 2010 @ 7:43am | Report comment
Once the NRL season is over, then expect the crowds of Sydney FC to pick up a lot.
Mister Football said | September 6th 2010 @ 8:01am | Report comment
This is a post I put up on 442 the other day:
It’s a long season, plenty of time for crowds to pick up.
But there is one curious aspect about A-League crowds that I’d like to touch on.
Sydney wins championship after Season 1, crowds decline in Season 2; and things are going the same way after winning the double last season.
Jets win season 3, crowds decline in season 4.
Melbourne had a mixed bag in season 3 (after winning the double in season 2). Memberships basically doubled from 11,500 to 23,000, but I’m not sure whether average crowds increased (season 2 saw a few monster crowds at Etihad that have never been repeated).
MV crowds went down in season 5 after winning in season 4 (marginally).
Anyway – all this is very, very odd – it’s counter-intuitive and goes against all expectations. In all the other football codes in Australia, you will always see the exact opposite, that crowds go up the year after a premiership win – so why isn’t this happening in the A-League.
There are two theories, somewhat related:
1. being a youngish league, you don’t have that “rusted on” support, the emotional attachment isn’t there; and
2. all football clubs (even the Victorian AFL clubs) have to struggle with what is called a churn factor. No matter how successful you are, no matter how big your are, no matter what -you are guaranteed to lose 10% to 20% of all your members during the off-season, absolutely guarnateed, for a variety of reasons: lower earnings, changed interests, changed social circumstances, changed work, getting married, having kids, whatever. But, a club like Essendon can turn to a database of 500,000 supporters, and will give themselves a strong chance of replacing those members, with a mixture of newish ones, and those coming back to the club. But what is an A-League club going to do? The big city clubs might have a database of 50,000 names (maybe), the small town clubs will have a database of names much smaller. So the inevitable result is that it’s very, very hard work, especially in these early years, just keeping the same amount of members – very ,very hard work.
AndyRoo said | September 6th 2010 @ 8:54am | Report comment
I don’t think enough football people consider the churn factor enough. Until recently when some clubs brought in the free memberships for kids I really wondered how they would attract “new” fans without FTA. I guess Rugby Union could be a good example as a league only available on Foxtel but it’s recent years haven’t been great either and there coming from a much more established base. This year I remember the QLD Reds sometimes grabbing the back page on Saturday and Sunday in the one weekend. I saw a commercial (and a much better one than this years a league ones….the radio version of which is the worst sporting commercial ever) saying the NBL is back on FTA it will be interesting what effect that has for them.
The situation is different in places like Adelaide it seems as there fans say they get a decent go in the media and MV you occasionally see there personalities on other programs (Merrick on offsiders). But for Brisbane and Sydney I think the lack of Marketing/FTA hurts the most. Just look at the online version of the daily telegraph, it’s cut into sections League, AFL, Union…. Boxing, Tennis…… NO SOCCER!
Brisbane have had a little bit of success with Mat Mackay and Ange becoming better known but that’s really only filling the void left by Farina and Moore departing. You see the odd bit here and there with different players but it takes a lot of time to build up personalities without regular FTA. And without personalities or knowing who the players are then why would you go to a game to watch some 5 year old club against other teams full of players you don’t know?
I think in Regards to Sydney and Newcastle this might explain why they didn’t kick on crowd wise after winning the comp. Sydney got rid of their two biggest names in their Coach and Captain… Newcastle lost Carle I think , my memories a bit hazy as Newcastle are always losing players but the team then went on to finish last so they must have lost a few more.
Sydney didn’t learn their lesson, they lost Aloisi and Collosimo and to a lesser extent Bolton unnecessarily. Bringing in Reddy may have been a football decision but it’s not a good one for marketing because you have to start from scratch building name recognition.
I think they were always going to struggle to keep Collosimo but they could have easily held onto Aloisi …. Instead they let him go and then bring in some unknown Brazilian. It’s just replacing players for little reason which makes it hard for the casual fans to keep up. Also losing all the personalities from the team (they lost Corrica too) apart from Mcflyn and Brosque give plenty of fans in the west a reason to “wait for Rovers”. The irony being that Rovers are trying to get finance now and a healthy Sydney Fc would be great for them.
I would love too see the FFA work the salary cap/income system and such to advantage keeping your players or disadvantage poaching players from other A league sides.
Danny_Mac said | September 6th 2010 @ 12:26pm | Report comment
you touch on some interesting ideas… and it is nice to hear a view that isn’t just “Blame the FFA”!
I think that MVFC are unique, in that Melbourne is a sports city, the landscape has embraced both the Victory and the Storm, and there has been a lot of excitement down there about the Heart. Whilst this doesn’t always translate into “bums on seats”, there is growing coverage of non-AFL in the media, and the state government forked out $275m on a state of the art rectangular stadium.
I think that future-proofing (Geez, i sound like a politician) your squad plays a big role in ongoing success. So far the Victory have done very well in this regard, never at any stage has there been the “mass exodus” that you feel has happened at Newcastle or (especially) Sydney. However if you look at the Victory squad from season one, it is very different, but the squad has evovled, if the victory had have lost Muscat, Thompson, Fred and Theoklitos after season 2, perhaps the club would look very different now.
AndyRoo said | September 6th 2010 @ 12:32pm | Report comment
“future-proofing your squad plays a big role in ongoing success”
I think you nailed it with this sentence. Sydney and Newcastle seem to be boom bust while MV have built a sustainable squad.
By the time Muscatt moves on Leijer will be a well known personality and capable of filling the void.
Luke W said | September 6th 2010 @ 9:08am | Report comment
“So the inevitable result is that it’s very, very hard work, especially in these early years, just keeping the same amount of members – very ,very hard work.”
Work that the FFA is not putting in. Promotion of this season has been atrocious. And in my experience, the clubs aren’t much better. I was a Jets member last season who hasn’t renewed this season. I didn’t see the point. All a membership meant was cheaper tickets. I got no opportunity be involved with the club whatsoever. I attended most matches, but even game days were boring. No pre-match entertainment, expensive food and beer, and last season every match was a Sunday afternoon in the scorching Newcastle sun without a Western Grandstand to at least provide shade and block the glare.
All in all, the decline in crowds was inevitable. FFA have put way to much time, money and effort into the WC bid, and as a result the A-League is dying. I really hope we can turn it around, but the damage may have been done for some clubs.
Mister Football said | September 6th 2010 @ 8:35am | Report comment
Another worry for the FFA is that they’d be wondering where the pick up post WC is?
Happy Hooker said | September 6th 2010 @ 9:05am | Report comment
Let’s face it – its a dud product
Luke W said | September 6th 2010 @ 9:09am | Report comment
Not true. The product is fantastic. It really is. As a football fan, the standard I have seen in the A-League this season is probably getting up there with the second-tier of the big European leagues, and matching the first tier of the smaller leagues.
Fussball ist unser leben said | September 6th 2010 @ 9:13am | Report comment
Happy Hooker – how many HAL games have you attended in the past 6 seasons or is your comment just based purely on ignorance … and an attempt to annoy Football fans?
Fussball ist unser leben said | September 6th 2010 @ 9:12am | Report comment
Let’s not get hysterical about the crowds. We’ve played 5 rounds of football and 8 out of 11 clubs have only had 2 home games!
Let’s also acknowledge crowd numbers are up 41% at Perth Glory & 24% up at Newcastle; Brisbane, Nix & CCM are up marginally.
GCU, NQF & Melbourne Heart have been operating for less than 24 months, so let’s not even review their figures.
Yes, it’s disappointing to see crowd numbers are down 20+% for AUFC, MVFC & SFC and I have no answer to the AUFC & SFC numbers.
In relation to MVFC – we’ve only played NQF & CCM at home and I’d expect 25k+ crowds against AUFC, Melbourne Heart & SFC, which would push up MVFC’s average to last year’s levels.
AndyRoo said | September 6th 2010 @ 9:19am | Report comment
I have pretty much written of GCU. Their dead man walking as at the end of the season they either dissapear or get new owners.
They are going to be an awful black eye for crowds and it’s really up to MV (once the afl season finishes) with their new stadium to try and get big numbers to make up for it.
Australian Football said | September 6th 2010 @ 9:45am | Report comment
AndyRoo,
you really should not concern yourself about GCU’s woes, with too many negative comments about them––they will hang on until the next Fox TV deal––Clive will back the team until then. So in the mean time; I would concentrate on your own Brisbane Roar falling supporter base.
______
AF
Realfootball said | September 6th 2010 @ 10:01am | Report comment
AF, they might hang on, but they are a dead albatross cursing the whole of A-League. And I say this as an inaugural member of the club.
Australian Football said | September 6th 2010 @ 11:32am | Report comment
RealFootball,
I wouldn’t be so sure of that we do have a hard core of 4k. The GC is virgin territory and never had any sort of professional football before. Yes it is going to take time and Clive will make sure it will work once the initial shook of the cap is over and the bay behind the goal will be back. It remains a bit of cat and mouse game with the Qld. Gov, FFA, and Skill Stadium, but it will survive. You won’t be missed we shall carry on… The Roar has not broken any attendance records either…
Realfootball said | September 6th 2010 @ 12:43pm | Report comment
Sorry, AF, but any supporter will be missed by GCU. Nothing less than a new owner and a new coach will bring me back.
The problem is that the whole enterprise has no soul, and the team plays like it. Bleiberg is a complete and utter fraud, a clueless lightweight. And as for Palmer, well remember Jo for PM? I do. That says it all about Palmer, really.
JamesP said | September 6th 2010 @ 6:10pm | Report comment
AF you are delusional. CGU does not need to “hang on” until the next Fox TV deal. There’s is not a problem related to lack of money. This team is pocket change to Clive. Do you honestly think once a new tv deal comes in that crowds will flock to the GCU????
You are confusing this with a club that has financial difficulty (e.g. Newcaste Jets, or say Port Adelaide in the AFL)
GCU do not have a financial issue – they have a massive image problem which will only be solved once the fat man moves on.
Australian Football said | September 6th 2010 @ 7:56pm | Report comment
JamesP,
of course money is not the problem for Clive, but he will most likely exit when the new Fox TV deal comes on board and when the club can survive without his money and without Clive. But I won’t be any happier or sadder if he leaves or stays. He has started something worthwhile up here on the Gold Coast for the kids—a pathway to international football; a stepping stone to the Australian National Football team playing on the biggest stage of all—where more than 208 nations set out for the holy grail in the biggest football tournament in the world—the Football World Cup. And for that I salute Clive. I don’t expect an AFL advocate to see the big picture here, in what he is trying to do, or has done for his community so far..
JamesP said | September 6th 2010 @ 10:02pm | Report comment
Let me say this AF: as an AFL advocate, I sincerly hope Clive Palmer hangs around for a very, very long time.
http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/palmer-tips-gc17-to-fail/story-e6frep5o-1225698913158
http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2008/10/14/17419_gold-coast-top-story.html
Everything he does and says is wrong.
AF, I would be interested to hear your views on comparisons between the Suns and United, in terms of engaging the community…
Do yourself a favour – http://www.goldcoastfc.com.au/news-and-media/news/the-spirit-of-the-coast/page-2/
Fussball ist unser leben said | September 7th 2010 @ 7:14am | Report comment
JamesP offered this sage analysis: “Everything he (Clive Palmer) does and says is wrong.”
I can only assume JamesP does not make himself acquainted with news about business & commerce in this country?
The 1st two “web-search” snippets about this “loser” Clive Palmer who is always wrong:
1. Clive Palmer is Australia’s 5th richest man with his personal wealth valued b/w $3-6 BILLION.
2. In February this year, Clive Palmer secured Australia’s biggest export mining contract, worth $60 billion for a 20-year sales agreement with one of China’s largest power companies, China Power International Development, the flagship company of China Power Investment Corp.
PS: In case you’re wondering, Frank Lowy – another football person – who is also Chairman of the FFA was ranked #1 on the BRW list of “richest Australians”.
Australian Football said | September 7th 2010 @ 8:08am | Report comment
Fussball,
nice reply and yes you are correct in all you say…
JamesP,
AFL has had two teams on the Gold Coast; the Suns will be the third. Now this is a Rugby League town and Football will survive in it. The Suns have yet to make their debut in the AFL with Karmichael Hunt (ex Rugby League player) as the pending captain: lol: that my boy says it all. Who btw is going to play in a brand new stadium, a gift by the Queensland tax payer to the turn on $126m from Anna Bligh and for that she is going to pay dearly at the next election. Her popularity since then has plummeted to zero and she will be out the door for building the white elephant for a team who will only make a half a dozen appearances at Carrara a year.
Let me know when the Galahs play the Irish up here I would love to know about it when it happens.
JamesP said | September 7th 2010 @ 9:46am | Report comment
Fussball, you can harp on about Clive’s business interests (which involves digging up all the precious natural resources of our country) all you like. When it comes to sport – he has no idea. All he has is a sack full of money. Of course we know that he and Frank have money – but they sure as hell did not make their fortune in sport. The facts are that both men are bleeding money thanks to the A-league
AF – keep thiniking that Clive is the godfather. I will repeat what I have already said….as an AFL advocate, I hope he never leaves Gold Coast United….watch them fail
Mister Football said | September 7th 2010 @ 9:52am | Report comment
The Suns have two great friends on the Gold Coast: Fos and Clive – they can’t fail.
With the Carrara re-development, my understanding is that the State Govt has put in $60 mill to own an asset worth $120 mill. The AFL will rent that asset back off the State govt at market rates, and has also guaranteed all future maintenance costs, despite the fact that the stadium is available for cricket during the Summer.
On top of that, the club itself will generate $30 mill+ in revenue per annum.
I’m curious to know if there are better examples of a State Government getting a better return than that for spending a measly $60 million on sporting infrastrucutre?
If there is – I’m all ears!!
(actaully, there might be one example, the NSW Govt spending a measly $40 mill on the redevelopment of the showgrounds)
State Governments all over Australian want the AFL on board for a variety of infrastructure re-developments because:
1. the AFL contributes millions in its own right (crucially, without taking an ownership stake)
2. covers the cost of all future maintenace
3. generates the income to pay for building the infrastructure
4. generates a high amount of economic activity surrounding the infrastructure that helps the local economy (AFL clubs are big businesses in their own right)
5. the stadium can be used by other sports in the off-season.
It’s win win for all concerned.
Australian Football said | September 7th 2010 @ 10:31am | Report comment
JamesP, I will let you on a little secret—I do hope Clive supports the GCU Football Club to the day the iron ore runs out. This will guarantee Football on the GC forever…
Fussball ist unser leben said | September 7th 2010 @ 10:41am | Report comment
MF
The A-League has Clive Palmer on the Gold Coast ….
… the AFL had Christopher Skase. I know where the smart money would go!
You expect the Suns to generate $30 mill+ in revenue per annum – can you kindly share how this revenue will be generated?
This year’s membership for the Suns was priced at $45 per adult and $25 per child and they managed to only sign 8k members (albeit competing in “second tier Aussie Rules competition”).
So membership revenue in 2010 would have been around 300k (assuming 2 Adult members per 1 child member).
The Suns are predicting a membership of 15k in 2011. If we assume Adult Membership is priced at $170 and kids: $85 it equates to Membership revenue of $2.1m.
… now we need to find $27.9m more – I guess you’ve got to hope the Gold Coast crowd loves to lose money on Poker Machines??!
PS: Just to give you some idea Geelong FC won the GF in 2007 and its total revenue that year was $33m. And, you are suggesting The Suns will have a similar revenue in 2011? Let’s see in 12 months …
BigAl said | September 7th 2010 @ 11:37am | Report comment
AF . . . please explain ???
. . . what are the 2 other AFL teams on the GC besides The Suns ?
. . . since when has Karmichael Hunt been ‘pending’ captain of the Suns ??
Realfootball said | September 7th 2010 @ 1:33pm | Report comment
fussball, my friend:
“2. In February this year, Clive Palmer secured Australia’s biggest export mining contract, worth $60 billion for a 20-year sales agreement with one of China’s largest power companies, China Power International Development, the flagship company of China Power Investment Corp.”
You should do some research. Palmer’s credibility in business has been questioned before and there are very serious questions about his alleged 60 billion deal. The SMH, I think it was, did a whole feature article on Palmer’s claim.
oikee said | September 6th 2010 @ 9:28am | Report comment
I agree, i dont know what all the fuss is about. Penrith running second, crowd this week-end, 11 thousand, cowboys, 11 thousand,.
Parramatta, who attracted a 75 thousand last year, went out with their Captian playing his final game, 12 thousand.
Any where around 10 thousand is a good crowd for rugby league. Yes i know we get some big crowds, but i no longer care if we get 2 dogs and a cat to the games. As long as its played on t/v. I am not watching crowds, i am watching the game.
The super league in England has 3 to 5 thousand crowds every week, no one is worried to much, the game goes on regardless.
Fussball ist unser leben said | September 6th 2010 @ 10:39am | Report comment
Well said oikee! As a football fan I go to watch the product on the park – end of story.
Everything else – the fanfare before the game & at half time is of ZERO interest and the number of fans sitting with me in the stands is not relevant either.
It seems fans of rival sports get awfully excited every Monday about “how big was the attendance”?
As a football fan, there’s so much to discuss about the actual game:
a) how did the players perform technically
b) how did the managers perform tactically
c) who are the developing stars of the future
and, even …
d) did the match officials get it right most of the time.
The characteristics of the crowd – numbers, behaviour, etc. are irrelevant.
I guess, it’s only when you have a poor product on the park – and the game is over with an hour to play – that people then get excited about their “big crowd numbers”?
punter said | September 6th 2010 @ 11:28am | Report comment
Well said Oikee, I follow football & the A-League & my my club Sydney FC. The crowd attendances means little in this respect. I was obseessed with the crowd numbers early on in the A-League, now I just care about how I feel.
Fez's are cool said | September 6th 2010 @ 2:37pm | Report comment
“Any where around 10 thousand is a good crowd for rugby league”
No its not. The game has moved on. Maybe a couple of 9-12k crowds per club is acceptable, but with the average attendence now concistently around 16-17k, you will see its the same 3-4 clubs that are getting poor results.
Some are acceptable because they bring in alternate revenue through national exposure (eg Canberra, North Queenland and Melbourne (who averaged 14k in 2010)), but for Sydney clubs they must be pushing their averages above 15k. Yes, Cronulla, Manly and Penrith, I am looking at you.
Fussball ist unser leben said | September 6th 2010 @ 7:24pm | Report comment
FAC – you’ve overlooked Manly & Newcastle. 2010 average crowds for Manly is 13.8k and Newcastle is 14.8k.
In fact, 50% of the NRL clubs have a home crowd average in 2010 less than 15k and, let’s not forget, the majority of NRL teams are over 100 years old, whereas 27% of A-Leauge clubs are less than 18 months old!
There’s nothing wrong with the NRL crowds numbers overall. Growth has been steady at 2.3% per annum for the past 22 years, which is a bit higher growth rate than the increase in the Australian population.
AFL crowds, in the last 22 years, have grown at a marginally higher rate increasing by 2.8% p.a.
Sources:
NRL: http://stats.rleague.com/rl/rl_index.html
AFL: http://stats.rleague.com/afl/crowds/summary.html
Fez's are cool said | September 7th 2010 @ 9:50am | Report comment
The majority of NRL clubs aren’t over 100 years old. 2 are, and a 3rd is a joint venture.
The majority are less than 23 years old – StGI, Wests, Melbourne, North Qld, Brisbane, Gold Coast, New Zealand, Newcastle.
If you don’t count StGI or Wests as new, you go back to 1982 to find the Raiders, and 1967 to find Cronulla and Penrith. Not 100 years.
The NRL has 3-4 problem clubs with attendences, Penrith, Cronulla, Canberra and Manly.
The problems with each is more due to demographics than any other concideration. Penrith and Cronulla are areas with families tied to other clubs, and have been relatively unsuccessful, or have brand issues. (Hence Blacktown talk. Very clever of A League and AFL to push at the crack between Penrith and Parramatta)
Canberra has a young educated population from all over Australia, and despite 350k people, I don’t think any football code there will get great crowds. The Raiders are doing Ok all things concidered. Bruce is horrible in winter too.
If you re-read my post, note I point out the poor performance of Manly. They have a very crapy stadium, but its a niche market (as is Cronulla), its not easy to get to Manly, and the people there are parochial.
As for the rest;
Newcastle are a special case as EnergyAustralia is a construction site. They normally average around 17-18k, but haven’t done so over the last few years because of their stadium.
If they were winning, North Qld would be getting around 18k average
The Storm’s average has gone up by 3k this year. They will eventually be a super club like the Broncos.
Then you have the Warriors, who are doing ok in NZ. And thats it. Everyone else is getting over 16k average.
BigAl said | September 7th 2010 @ 3:26pm | Report comment
Fuss – for someone who is not ‘ . . .excited about their “big crowd numbers”?’
– you certainly have a fascination with them !!!
Realfootball said | September 6th 2010 @ 9:59am | Report comment
This isn’t about FTA. This is about the FFA and Ben Buckley. The lack of promotion and advertising for 2 seasons now can only be described as commercial negligence. Buckley is failing; all the signs are that, like Verbeek, he is a career assistant who has failed to step up. There is a complete vacuum of leadership and direction within FFA.
The World Cup bid is coming perilously close to destroying our hard won domestic league. In my view it is an utter folly, with Buckley playing Pancho Villa to Frank Lowy’s Don Quixote as they charge the windmill. I can’t believe for a moment that we will win the bid. Did we need to win it? No, absolutely not. What we needed FFA to do was consolidate the A-League. Instead, they have wasted the momentum of season’s 1 to 3.
chocolatecoatedballs said | September 9th 2010 @ 7:12am | Report comment
could not have said it better myself.
Epic_Eddie said | September 6th 2010 @ 10:01am | Report comment
The promotion and advertising of the a-league and my club melbourne victory has been an absolute disgrace for the last 2 years, on numerous occassions i have asked why certain football friends of mine who are melbourne victory fans why they didn’t go to the game and the response was the sheer majoirty of them didn’t even know the game was on..you can’t just expect people to know when the games are on, you have to advertise extensively to remind people and fans when the game is and where the game is on..this can be achieved easily by promoting the games vigorously on public free to air television like they did in the early years of the a-league and as a result this saw people become interested in the league furthermore resulting in good consistent growing crowds over the first 3-4 seasons of the a-league..
David V. said | September 6th 2010 @ 10:16am | Report comment
The A-League has problems like the NSL does, but a different set of problems. However, both leagues struggled or struggle to captivate a “wider audience”.
In most countries, you will always find unpleasant and unsavoury elements among football supporters but they represent but a minority of the vast numbers of football supporters and you can always ignore them. In Australia, the “dickhead” element, in my experience, seems to make up a disproportioante element of the support at many A-League clubs, basically a platform for teens/adolescents to flaunt their inflated egos. Potential fans are thus driven away and there’s less of everything for everyone.
AndyRoo said | September 6th 2010 @ 10:28am | Report comment
David, on the internet I would agree with you. But in the stadium?
Perhaps Melbourne Victory is different (I wouln’t know) but Brisbane crowds are nothing like what you are describing. It’s very close to being a ****head free zone.
Realfootball said | September 6th 2010 @ 10:41am | Report comment
Agree. Brisbane crowds are a terrific mix, and the atmosphere is first rate.
David V. said | September 6th 2010 @ 10:52am | Report comment
Maybe the Internet tends to distort things, but sadly in these times it’s easy for people to get first impressions from that. But football fans need to acknowledge the problem and take steps to address it. The game needs to be seen as socially responsible and welcoming.
Ben of Phnom Penh said | September 6th 2010 @ 11:03am | Report comment
I’m not sure if the monitoring of social intercourse on the internet is something that needs to be addressed, David V. As long as discourse falls within the laws of the country there is little that can, or should, be done. Users have to take some resposibility to engage with sites which meet their expectations and avoid others.
The main thing is the atmosphere at the grounds which is within in the mandate of the FFA and the clubs. This is also the first point of contact for many potential fans, not so much internet forums which tend to be perused once interest has been attained.
David V. said | September 6th 2010 @ 1:18pm | Report comment
I guess I didn’t take into account the fact that we’ve brought up in this country the very worst of the worst generation of people. Is this really the ideal target market to stroke egos?
Art Sapphire said | September 6th 2010 @ 1:22pm | Report comment
LOL – coming from our own Victor Meldrew
Realfootball said | September 6th 2010 @ 2:41pm | Report comment
Whoa – where did that come from?
ac said | September 6th 2010 @ 10:24am | Report comment
I think it has a lot of competition NRL and AFL. Both these codes are doing very well and the A League doesnt feature in the avaerage persons calculations. Its a shame i am a advocate for all codes to do well.