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When the A-League draw for 2011-12 became available, one of the new developments was the introduction of a ‘regional round’ for the league.
These would be five regular season A-League matches played in cities that don’t currently have an A-League team. The reasoning behind this, according to Ben Buckley, was to “bring football to the communities”.
He told us how there are many football fans across the country who don’t get to experience A-League football firsthand, and how the ‘regional round’ would rectify this.
The idea seemed a good one at the time, until the announcement of where these matches would be played: Morwell, Bathurst, Dunedin, Launceston and Campbelltown were the names read out by Ben Buckley.
Apart from Launceston and Dunedin, at the time I thought the choices very odd. Morwell has a population of just 13,000 – a little over the current A-League average attendance.
The decision to play a professional sports match in a town of such small population is just plain stupid. No wonder that match attracted less than 3000 people.
Meanwhile, Bathurst also has a very low population of 34,000. So simply based on where matches were being held, the inaugural regional round looked like it would be an abject failure in terms of attendance.
But to make matters even worse, the scheduling of these regional matches was very poor. Four of the five regional matches were set to be played midweek, a timeslot notorious for extremely low crowds.
One of these matches was played on Wednesday the 15th in Dunedin, between Brisbane Roar and Wellington Phoenix. The match was expected to draw up to 20,000 people, largely based on the fact that in the pre-season, the same teams faced off in Dunedin in front of a crowd of 15,000.
Despite this, a crowd of just 4,628 turned up on Wednesday night. The only reasonable explanation for this is the simple fact that while the pre-season match was played on a weekend, this game was a midweek fixture.
Considering this poor showing for a city of 130,000, I shudder to think what the crowd will be when Newcastle entertain Adelaide United in Bathurst on a Wednesday night this January.
When Sydney FC play Perth Glory in Campbelltown in the same month, they will probably also get a very small crowd, again due to poor scheduling – the match is being played at 5.30pm in the afternoon on a Wednesday.
Many Campbelltown residents work in the city and won’t make it home in time. Many regular Sydney fans (myself among them) who live and work in Sydney’s eastern corridor, won’t make it to the game in time either.
The only regional match that will get a reasonable attendance will probably be when Melbourne Victory play Gold Coast in Launceston. Other than that, this new initiative seems doomed to fail.
If a regional round is to be played at all, the key point should be to use the matches as ‘tests’ for future A-League expansion, gauging community interest and establishing an A-League presence in the region.
This time round, only Launceston fits that reasoning. So with this in mind, the regional matches should have been played in (along with Launceston): Auckland, Geelong, Wollongong and Canberra – and only then the regional round would have had some benefit.
What is the point of taking the A-League to towns like Morwell and Bathurst? All it does for the A-League is waste money and tarnish the image of the competition through tiny crowds.
The FFA need to seriously review the regional round if it is to be a part of the next A-League season.
For a start, they need to ensure it actually benefits the competition, by scheduling the matches in appropriate timeslots and taking games to cities with real A-League expansion prospects.
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