What’s going on with A-League crowds?
Roar Guru By Moonface, 6 Sep 2010 Moonface is a Roar Guru
- Tagged:
- A-League, A-League crowds, FFA, football, Football Federation Australia, melbourne heart, Sydney FC
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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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September 6th 2010 @ 10:25am
O.T.T. said | September 6th 2010 @ 10:25am | Report comment
NBL clubs get bigger gates than some A-League sides.
September 6th 2010 @ 11:08am
Axel V said | September 6th 2010 @ 11:08am | Report comment
and some A-League clubs get far greater gates than all NBL sides combined, whats your point?
September 6th 2010 @ 10:51am
Working Class Rugger said | September 6th 2010 @ 10:51am | Report comment
Three issues appear to be really hurting the A-League at least in my opinion.
1. Poor (really poor) promotional work. Haven’t seen any real promotion of the League. Marketing really is key in our sports market. As a Rugby fan believe me when I say this. If you fail in this department it makes life very difficult. Look at both the NRL and AFL. Both are very good at this and therefore hold the largest shares in the market.
2. A percieved lack of quality. Not from the Soccer faithful but to the average punter. And believe me you need to attract the average punter. They may not have it as their first preference but having a quality competition is an attractive viewing proposition. I’m not saying the perception is deserved but it is out there. The A-League suffers from being effectively a second tier League. Everyone knows what the EPL is and could likely name a number of teams in it. The NRL and AFL both possess the pre-eminent League of their respective codes anywhere in the world (be it a far narrower spectrum but still). The A-League is a nice domestic league but its no EPL which is readily available for most sports fans.
3. Poor expansion decisions. Firstly, expanding to soon. Many may disagree but its an opinion I have heard alot of recently. The other major expansion issue is choosing the wrong areas. North Queensland and GC. Are they serious? Both the Rovers and Heart should have come in first well before either one of those teams. Wollongong, Canberra, another VIC team and then GC would have been the better order in which to grow.
The A-League is an unattractive product for the average punter. Soccer fans see its growing quality but to the average fans when faced with a selection between it, League and AFL the A-League is at the end of that list. Funnily enough (well maybe not that funny) it even has a competitor during its summer window to an extent which will likely only increase. The KFC Big Bash returned significantly higher ratings than the A-League last season and will be expanding next year. Many they think this won’t reflect on the A-League but believe me it will. Especially if mumurs that it could be moving to FTA are true.
September 6th 2010 @ 11:00am
David V. said | September 6th 2010 @ 11:00am | Report comment
I could argue that the A-League needed two teams in (definitely) Sydney and (maybe) Melbourne from the start.
The standard of the A-League is as good as it’s ever been. Whereas most leagues have plateaued or fluctuate, the A-League can only improve. Look at Scotland to see an example of a league and overall football quality and stature declining drastically within the last generation.
One think you can take into account is that many football fans here have been following their overseas clubs (England/Scotland/Spain/Italy/Germany/Greece/Argentina/wherever) for years and years, and it’s hard to shake off that habit. It’s hard for a newcomer like the A-League to break through in a time when there’s saturation coverage of all overseas leagues.
September 6th 2010 @ 11:12am
Fussball ist unser leben said | September 6th 2010 @ 11:12am | Report comment
WCR –
1. In relation to promoting the HAL, you do make a valid point. There is no dispute that the marketing of the A-League is nothing like the AFL in Victoria. However, in Victoria, the NRL’s marketing is no different to the HAL. And, no other national sports league (basketball, netball) has any stronger marketing. Based on my observations when I travel interstate, the AFL’s exposure in the QLD and NSW print media is non-existent.
2. I don’t agree that Football needs to attract the “average punter”. Simply, there are enough people who play or played football (indoor/outdoor), administer football matches & football clubs or simply love football to fill all our stadia. This is the fan the FFA needs to attract. We do not – and never will – need to attract the “tyre kickers”.
I agree that many football people still have a poor opinion about the standard of the HAL but this is changing. Last season only 2 out of 20 guys, with whom I play weekly social football, were HAL members. This year 7 out of 20 are members but we still need to convince the other 13 (and, none of these 13 attend any of the other sports – cricket, AFL, NRL or Union – yet, they all get up at 430 a.m. to watch their European team, Australian National Team, the UCL or World Cup).
3. I agree that the Gold Coast was a poor choice for a club since I don’t think the GC has a “sport fan demographic”; however, I have no doubt NQF will succeed and attract 10k+ crowds.
It is season SIX of the A-Leagues and the product on the park is fantastic but crowds are relatively poor. I prefer this scenario than Season 3 when the product on the park was poor but crowds were excellent.
I reckon that “The product on the park” is a leading indicator of future crowds and numbers will improve accordingly.
September 6th 2010 @ 2:12pm
The Bush said | September 6th 2010 @ 2:12pm | Report comment
I think the ‘average punter’ is a fair comment. You talk about these thousands and thousands of football playing, administering etc people who would be enough to sustain the league. This is true, except most of these people are already fans of foreign teams and simply have no interest in the A-League.
Whilst the football playing population of Australia is diverse, whenever I’ve watched my room mate or best mate play in the local Brisbane leagues (Metro whatever) a surprisingly huge number of players are foreigners/new Australians. They already have teams and have no interest in the A-League.
Factor in also that football is played by huge numbers of children at school etc but come the weekend they trudge off with their parents to the AFL or NRL. It’s a safe game to play but not their true sport of choice. This is even true of adults who play football as it is a relatively non-violent sport, fulfilling a competative need, but not worth forking out dollars for on the weekend to attend.
The ‘average punter’ is the person who fills stadiums, they’re the ones who can still be won over and don’t have a team yet. They’re the ones who might pass on the tradition to their kids. They’re the fan the A-League needs.
September 6th 2010 @ 6:28pm
rovers2011 said | September 6th 2010 @ 6:28pm | Report comment
“most of these people are already fans of foreign teams and simply have no interest in the A-League.”
Not always true. I follow a couple of teams in Europe on and off and also the A-League.
The people with the locked in attachment to a Euro team to the exclusion of all else are often first or second gen migrants from that place. Over time people who are second gen or onward migrants will still love football and want a team to follow that is based on an emotional attachment to the place they live. And want to attend actual football games in a real life stadium !
I’m from a rugby league background family wise and am third gen migrant. So there’s another potential fanbase. Those who grew up on the rugby codes but found football through the national team. (As i had no natural NSL team to support being from the Former Euro-nationally divided NSL market of Sydney.)
September 6th 2010 @ 12:45pm
Danny_Mac said | September 6th 2010 @ 12:45pm | Report comment
I think that GCU was more about attracting Clive Palmer to the league, people like him (ie successful people) have never been associated with football in this country (except frank lowy). I think that the battle on the GC is more for the hearts and minds of the british ex-pat population, who will still follow thier “home” sides… once they realise that the A-League is worth watching, they’ll start to flow in.
The expansion is a bit of a Schrödinger’s cat puzzle. part of the drop off in season 4 was the fact that the season had become massively stale, the anticipation of the new clubs being added the following year was immense. Not expanding would have had a negative effect, IMO a much worse one at that.
I think that the expansion has led to more money being avaliable (over the league as a whole), and the addition of an international marquee players has been a big positive.
September 6th 2010 @ 2:48pm
Fez's are cool said | September 6th 2010 @ 2:48pm | Report comment
Gold Coast and North Queensland were fast tracked by FFA as they wanted A League clubs there for the FIFA World Cup bid. I think they knew the risks of pushing into regional areas too quickly, but thought the benefits to the bid would outweigh the potential negatives.
I think a better stratergy would have been outlining the A Leagues growth plans between 2008 and 2022 to FIFA and showing them how a world cup would kick start the following in smaller areas, but build a solid base in the densely populated SE Australia.
Currently the end goal is an Australian World Cup, and the A League has been used as a tool for that end, rather than built up for its own ends.
September 6th 2010 @ 11:11am
B-man of sydney said | September 6th 2010 @ 11:11am | Report comment
I’m very sorry to say but the current a-league crowds are completly unsustainable. Many of you say who cares about the figures, its the product that is important but look at newcastle. A great club last season with poor crowd figures and now look very much likely the first mainland Australian club to fold in the A-League. As an avid supporter im in tears but this game is looking very shaky indeed. Out of the 11 teams 8 are in serious financial trouble and billionaires are not gonna be giving away money forever causes lets face it im sure thats not how they made there money!!!
i dont know what the a-league should do but they better think quick or clubs will keep bleeding money that they dont have
September 6th 2010 @ 11:12am
Working Class Rugger said | September 6th 2010 @ 11:12am | Report comment
David V
You’re last paragraph pretty much explains what I was (vaguely) alluding too when I brought up the EPL. The A-League has improved. I don’t get to see alot of it but the quality has certainly improved. However, due to the ease of access to the larger European Leagues alot of people tend to compare the two with the A-League coming off second best. It’s a challenge the FFA must address. The A-League has potential. It will never be a EPL or La Liga but it could develop into a strong League with a good following. Much of its current predictament can be directly linked to its administration. Something as a Rugby fan I can sympathise with. In its current state it will be difficult to see any real movement to the FTA platform (something both Soccer and Rugby desperately need) outside of SBS and with the recent expansion teams not yet providing any real return (growth TV ratings and crowds) the FFA will still be at the wrong end of the negotiations come the next deal.
Both Sydney and Melbourne could have supported two teams intially. Though in the spirit of equality it was good to see the League start as a one team/one city championship. However, as I said above establishing new teams in both cities would have been the far better option even if it took a couple of seasons longer.
September 6th 2010 @ 11:20am
David V. said | September 6th 2010 @ 11:20am | Report comment
I was against “one team per city” because it goes against what football is all about and what it needs- the sort of inante tribalism that makes the game appealing, the fact most major cities sustain two or more teams, etc.
September 6th 2010 @ 1:00pm
Danny_Mac said | September 6th 2010 @ 1:00pm | Report comment
There are only three leagues in the world that are of a “high standard”, EPL, La Liga and Seire A. the German league is excellent, and the French and Dutch are decent, but the reality is that outside of the “Big Three” every league IN THE WORLD is a feeder league. all that seperates the A-League from the top divisions in europe outside of the six mentioned are dollars and number of players (ie competition for places), and the latter is a function of the former. this is measured by the middle tier of “talent”. the very best footballers will play football, AFL-ers will play AFL, rugby leaguers will play rugby league etc, however it is the next best that football needs to conquer. at the moment, AFL NRL RU and Cricket are more appealling in terms of career prospects, but if Football can bump one or two, then we will get a bigger slice of the “next best” talent, meaning the game improves, standard increases.
I mean seriously, go and try and track a game from Scotland that doesn’t feature Rangers or Celtic (or even if they do), the standard is very poor, the A-league clubs would do well in Scotland. A-League clubs would hold their own in the Championship too, all that attracts players to those leagues is the money they can earn, its as simple as that… (maybe a little bit of ego stroking too)
September 6th 2010 @ 11:22am
Axel V said | September 6th 2010 @ 11:22am | Report comment
I don’t think anyone knows the exact reasons for the fall in crowds, could be a combination of everything.
One thing is certain, lack of advertising/exposure is not doing it any favours.
the thing about blaming the weather is that we’ve seen big crowds turn out in miserable conditions, we’ve seen big crowds during the AFL/NRL season, with the expception of Perth, there are major crowd drops across all the clubs, something has to be done.
The season is still very early and we could see a crowd recovery, but the financial situations for many clubs is not looking good at all, crowds are not the only thing, but they certainly contribute and make it look good on TV. Totally
empty stands are kinda depressing.
September 6th 2010 @ 2:56pm
Fez's are cool said | September 6th 2010 @ 2:56pm | Report comment
Plastic clubs in a plastic competition. People feel little loyalty to the clubs of the A League, and the clubs show little loyalty to the fans or players, being traded every year.
I tried really hard to get into the A League, going to Sydney games, watching on TV, but I felt no love for the team, and over time lost interest. I only have a finite amount of money to spend, and it will go towards St George, and other forms of entertainment (drinking, movies et cetera).
Thats what the A League is competing for, and right now they aren’t offering that excitement. Sure, the quality has improved, but people don’t give a rats. Build a solid culture first.
September 6th 2010 @ 6:38pm
rovers2011 said | September 6th 2010 @ 6:38pm | Report comment
Well its an improvements in all ways from the NSL for me, which had Plastic versions of European countries making up the Sydney and Melbourne clubs.
So if you enjoy football and want a professional competition to follow here its what we have. The alternative is purely experiencing it from afar in Europe. I’d rather have both myself.
September 6th 2010 @ 11:25am
Art Sapphire said | September 6th 2010 @ 11:25am | Report comment
Another pointless crowd discussion.
By the end of the season half the teams will have recorded an increase in attendances from the previous season.
The other half will record the same or decreases due to factors like lack of team form.
Is it too much too ask that this topic not be revisited for the next 3 months.
September 6th 2010 @ 11:33am
Axel V said | September 6th 2010 @ 11:33am | Report comment
Melbourne Heart to get 2500 in their next homegame!
September 6th 2010 @ 11:51am
Art Sapphire said | September 6th 2010 @ 11:51am | Report comment
Axel V – Heart will get a better attendance than they did on Saturday when they play Phoenix in a fortnight.
Weather would have put quite a few people off from attending on Saturday.
The match preview in Saturday’s Age did not even tell you what time the game was starting.
The Age has really dropped the ball when it comes to coverage this season.
Anyway, it was the core support that turned up on Saturday and everyone went home with a smile on their face as Heart became the first Melbourne team to record a victory at AAMI Park.
I wonder when Victory will record there first win at AAMI Park.
As you know, A-League season won’t really kick off in Melbourne until Oct 2
September 6th 2010 @ 12:15pm
FKCZ said | September 6th 2010 @ 12:15pm | Report comment
” wonder when Victory will record there first win at AAMI Park.”
On Sept 12
September 6th 2010 @ 12:26pm
Art Sapphire said | September 6th 2010 @ 12:26pm | Report comment
Should be a great game against AngeP’s Roar, FKCZ
Return of “Theo” back to Melbourne. Better hope he does not keep another clean sheet.
September 6th 2010 @ 2:12pm
Axel V said | September 6th 2010 @ 2:12pm | Report comment
Argh, i miss Theo, most under rated outside of melbourne and best keeper this league has ever had
He helped us win 4 tropheys, so he’ll always be a legend to MVFC!
September 6th 2010 @ 12:19pm
Australian Football said | September 6th 2010 @ 12:19pm | Report comment
Art,
You can put that stuff up down to the ex Central Coast Manglers/Divers CEO Lyall Gorman; and to think I wrote an article about Archie Frazer “time is up”… Gawd, Lyall Gorman Head of Hyundai A-League makes Archie look like a mastermind––lookout for my next one on “Lyall the Cheap-skate on football promotion”
September 7th 2010 @ 6:27pm
Don said | September 7th 2010 @ 6:27pm | Report comment
Agreed. Is Michael Lynch on permanent holiday? The Age didn’t even mention the Socceroos game tomorrow.
September 6th 2010 @ 11:29am
keeper13 said | September 6th 2010 @ 11:29am | Report comment
Fix up the scheduling :
the comment ‘didn’t know the game was on’ is heard consistently !
isn’t that marketing 101 surely ?
Matches seem to be all over the place and different times..surely by now FFA / FOX would know which day/ timeslots work best for which clubs..
reality is also the local mainstream media is and will remain inherently hostile and under total control by AFL/NRL mates club..
So pre-match coverage or buildup to match day is non-existent ..
any coverage is focused on post match and negative pieces only..
as for the Terror not having a Football/ soccer only link on its website…
did you really expect anything better from that excerable redneck suburban rag in ..ahem ”global city’ sydney in 2010.?
wouldn’t want any of the 100000 sockah playing kiddies , 70000 to socceroos versus china or 80000 that attended sydney fc v galaxy match possibly switching their alliance from ‘parra’ to ‘tha sockah , socceroos or asian aspirant sydney fc..
September 6th 2010 @ 11:36am
Midfielder said | September 6th 2010 @ 11:36am | Report comment
Economics at it’s basic level discusses the Scarcity of Resources and therefore everything from a person an entity to a nation needs to determine what is most important as all needs cannot be meet.
Under JON stewardship, the A-League resources were spent on promotion. BB to date has moved the spend from promotion to development of juniors and national standards.
There is no doubt of the need to protect our best juniors nor the national training programs currently operating. Everyone is in favour of these things but they do come at a cost and the cost to date is the promotion budget and a recent cost cutting excise at FFA head office that resulted in a number of people leaving and in time I guess a reduction in things FFA has done in the past.
Life is never easy when you operate on a 17 million budget and receive little free promotion by the mainstream media. BB has had to make some difficult calls and the football media has run a powerful agenda on technical issue for quite a while now. The same media are also of the expectation that technical issues solve all other problems… Looking at the crowds it is obvious they don’t.
So my question is aimed at the FFA… and in particular at BB… During JON stewardship it was very common to see JON in the media making statements talking up the league… much like AD in the AFL & DG in the NRL. … BB appears in the media rarely and only to put out a bush fire… My impression is he is caught in a paralysis of fear coming from FFA … scared of saying something wrong more than saying things.
I think BB needs to get out more and talk to the faithful … also FFA need to look at their budget priorities in that all things are not solved by improving technical deficiencies.
Also the it must be said that the league is only two good MV matches away from a 10 K average and when the other codes finish their seasons and the weather warms up a tad the crowds will increase.
The problem child is the Fold Coast and it appears Fat Tony is hopeless at running a Football team and will exit my guess at season’s end or Football needs a change in ownership at the club.
It’s not all doom and gloom yet … however Footballs needs desperately strong management and secondly needs to communicate it’s messages to the Faithful… and as the saying goes … reports of my death have been greatly …. you get the idea
September 6th 2010 @ 2:53pm
Rellum said | September 6th 2010 @ 2:53pm | Report comment
I will add my name to the list of people looking for Ben Buckley and Frank Lowey to show themselves and address these problems and show some leadership, I am not holding my breath though. Personally I think Ben Buckley has alot to answer for. His tenure in charge of the game is this country has seen the A-League go backwards. Crowds are tumbling, the League has had zero promotion, the TV advertising campaign has gone from occasionally appearing on TV, too commercials on the internet that take a good five minutes of googling to find.
Another thing I see as a great problem with the marketing of the game, the mass of registered players the game enjoys and how everyone thinks they will be the reason the A-League will be a success in this country. But has there ever been any research done into whether these players have any interest in supporting the game in this country apart from their registration fees(lots whinge at that as well). I have been a registered player for the entire length of the leagues existence and not once have I been asked to even fill out a questionnaire about why I do or don’t support the league. I am the only player in my team who has any interest in the league, and that is because I talk to them about it. Maybe this is Ben’s great marketing strategy, word of mouth? The great untapped market of football supporter in this country has been completely ignored by the FFA and only clubs like the Mariners have made any real effort to rectify this. How hard is it to mail out an electronic questionnaire asking what it would take to get this great army of football people to attend A-League games? Have the FFA done anything to get informed about the attitudes to the league from the grass roots players, not just the kids? Why do we not offer membership discounts to registered players so they don’t feel like they are being slugged twice to prop up the game.
If anything has been done please tell us Ben, show us what you are doing.
September 6th 2010 @ 9:56pm
Glen said | September 6th 2010 @ 9:56pm | Report comment
For the billionth time….alot as in “alot of the time…” is NOT a word.!!!! A (space) LOT is the correct usage.
ARRRGGGHHHHH!
And BTW.. Looser is something is something not tight. LOSER is somebody who follows Aussie Rules.
Here endeth the lesson.
September 6th 2010 @ 10:04pm
berra boy said | September 6th 2010 @ 10:04pm | Report comment
really – you’re editing other people’s grammar – that’ll save the a-league
Eye on the ball Glen…
September 6th 2010 @ 11:57am
Australian Football said | September 6th 2010 @ 11:57am | Report comment
“The problem child is the Fold Coast and it appears Fat Tony is hopeless at running a Football team and will exit my guess at season’s end or Football needs a change in ownership at the club.”
Yawn..Z..Z..Z the Central Coast Manglers/Divers home games have only been a touch better then the GCU.. I think they will die before the GCU.. So much for their Football academy… Oh that’s right it’s SBS’s fault… Where is Julia..?
September 6th 2010 @ 12:51pm
Realfootball said | September 6th 2010 @ 12:51pm | Report comment
Try a lot better than GCU. 3600 and that was highly likely higher than the true figure.
September 6th 2010 @ 2:23pm
Australian Football said | September 6th 2010 @ 2:23pm | Report comment
6k plus first home game, GCU’s second was a protest crowd turn-out… CCM’s 6k against the MV was very poor so the clubs with 5 years start—not so impressive is it..
September 6th 2010 @ 2:34pm
Realfootball said | September 6th 2010 @ 2:34pm | Report comment
Yes, and I was there, and well over two thirds of those fans were Roar fans, AF.
You know how it was that day as well as I do. How can you quote that 6 k figure with a straight typeface?
AF, I wanted that club to succeed as much as anyone. I bought a membership, went to all the games. The club, under this owner and this coach, are an irredeemable basket case.
September 6th 2010 @ 4:05pm
Australian Football said | September 6th 2010 @ 4:05pm | Report comment
http://www.a-league.com.au/default.aspx?s=hal_newsdisplay&id=34573&pageid=2773
You flatter the Roar too much RF more gold then orange shirts but all are welcome.
September 6th 2010 @ 4:35pm
Realfootball said | September 6th 2010 @ 4:35pm | Report comment
Not sure what the link was about AF, but there were most certainly not more gold than orange shirts there. I wish there had been, but there weren’t. And there were nearly enough of either. I had hoped for about 10k.
September 6th 2010 @ 5:05pm
Australian Football said | September 6th 2010 @ 5:05pm | Report comment
Well I don’t know where you were sitting but the north end was very much gold and the south end orange—the link was to confirm atten. fig at 6,394.. Titans played Friday night at Skilled Stadium and the Ecka was on in Brissie. I hoped for more as well it was poor timing.
September 6th 2010 @ 2:48pm
Midfielder said | September 6th 2010 @ 2:48pm | Report comment
AF
The near 7 K that turned up in the rain and wind was not that bad…. Also we had our own little proterst about a player where photo and video evidence clearly shows his trailing leg icomes in contact with the SFC keeper whoes motion was going forward … not allowed to defend himself even when their is clear evidence and professional folk in balace type things writing details reports about the contact… My guess is even Fozzie will be on our side with this one…
I hold no fears for my little club… I also hope your Fold Coast remain in the comp…
September 6th 2010 @ 2:35pm
Australian Football said | September 6th 2010 @ 2:35pm | Report comment
btw I was there at the match and the western stand was fairly packed so the figure was about right or more in my opinion..
September 6th 2010 @ 1:47pm
Midfielder said | September 6th 2010 @ 1:47pm | Report comment
AF
I hope you are right about the Fold and they do survive … as to the Mariners Center of Excellence it is coming along have no fear the first football fields are in place and plans have been approved for the rest…it mat take a little longer but … we have a club (buy meals, beer etc), the first four fields are complete … plans are in and approved… the land is in our name… so it may take another 4 years to complete being a tad slower than we all wanted but such is life…
As to SBS if you realy think they did not carry on like a bunch of spoilt school girls who were told they could not go to the dance from Hal 2 to Hal 5 then we see things very differently …. BTW I have already written two postives about the new SBS getting back to what it was good at… so I am not as I always said anti SBS .. just wanted the positives to come out as well… that is happening now…
As to Julia … she looks like winning and if that is the case the COE is finished a bit quicker …
September 6th 2010 @ 12:21pm
con said | September 6th 2010 @ 12:21pm | Report comment
how about get rid of home end memberships. thats the real problem and only an idiot cant see that. im a die hard football fan and that puts me off sooooooo much. ive been a member for 5 years and i dont know if i will renew again only because of this braindead policy