What is the Australian media’s problem with football?
Roar Pro By roarlover34, 12 Apr 2012 roarlover34 is a Roar Pro
- Tagged:
- A-League, FFA, football, Nathan Tinkler, Newcastle Jets
126 Have your say
4,512 readsRelated coverage
Australian sport has long been touted as among the best in the world in terms of competition, variety and other factors.
Yet the actions of Nathan Tinkler are the last straw in a nation which is becoming disgracefully bigoted and competitive when sports clash with each other.
The hurtful actions of so many towards the game of football in this country is a complete disgrace, and appears to be a unified hate agenda by this nation’s media and high powered figures.
Over 700,000 people in Australia are registered players with FFA clubs and school teams. There would be many thousands more who simply play the game for fun with mates but aren’t registered players.
Australia played four matches at the World Cup in 2006 between the hours of 11pm and 5am. The Oztam viewing figures for these matches were 2.89 million, 2.06 million, 2.77 million and 2.83 million respectively.
No other sport in this country can possibly boast such figures at this time of night. Admittedly, the audience figures were down in comparison in 2010, but that was expected after Pim Verbeek alienated many Australian football fans with his boring anti-football tactics.
No other sport in this country will ever have 10,000 people cramming into the city to watch a match on the big screen in the hours around midnight. Football supporters have passion that is hard for any other sport to surpass.
The average A-League attendance for 2011/2012 was around 10,500. The average for the NRL was 17,235. This does not by any means display a lack of interest in football in this country. All A-League clubs are less than eight years old. They have no established history of supporters.
Unlike NRL clubs where there are generations of fans attending matches, the A-League currently has one generation of fans. There will undoubtably be a boost in crowds once the children of current fans start attending games and this will continue through generations.
Clearly Australians love, enjoy and care about football in this country, so why is there such little respect for the game? There are many occasions of late that lead this question.
Nathan Tinkler opted to purchase the Jets for 10 years after cutting his short-term license short and opting to extend his deal. He then earned the ire of the Jets fans by changing their team colours in his first season in charge and ignoring their pleas to keep their colours.
He claims expenses of 12 million on the Jets. So what? This man has spent over $200 million on horse races for no more than 10 million in revenue. That’s a loss of at least $180 million.
He claims that the A-League is not profitable. Well that’s hardly a surprise. If the NRL’s Titans can average 25,000 fans for their first couple of seasons and be over $25 million in debt, than what is he expecting from a club and league with less support?
The A-League expects losses of $25-27 million across the 10 teams this year. Adding the Titans $25 million to the picture, I can guarantee that the NRL cumulative loss would be far worse. Sadly Tinkler hasn’t realised that selling sport isn’t as easy as selling stuff out of the ground.
And regarding the license fee, how can Tinkler possibly expect the same cost for acquiring any A-League club? This is completely foolish of him. Does he think that it would cost the same to buy Manchester United’s licence compared to Blackburn Rovers?
Tinkler has made his two biggest negative announcements on the day of the A-League season launch and the A-League awards respectively. The timing of these suggests that this is not coincidence, but rather a deliberate ploy to cloud the positive headlines with negative ones.
As for the media, once again their blatant snubbing of football has left so many football fans speechless. There seems to be no consistency whatsoever as to how they deem a sport’s newsworthiness.
The A-League was not competing against any of the other codes this season, yet still failed to ever get a proper mention in sports newspapers or bulletins. Instead of the Melbourne Victory v Sydney FC opener which attracted 40,000 fans, many news outlets led with stories relating to cricket leading up a Test match. The Test match had average attendances across the days of under 10,000.
Golf received more sporting headlines than the A-League over the summer. Does golf have a 700,000 strong player base? No. If you were to ask 100 Australian kids who an Australian football player is, half would be able to name Tim Cahill or Harry Kewell. How many would be able to give you the name of an Australian golfer?
Yet suddenly, when a certain billionaire from the Gold Coast starts carrying on like a fruitcake, the media is all over it. Why?
Purely and simply, the media refuses to acknowledge football in this country unless there are negative headlines. Simply put, the Australian media hates football. Why this is the case, I cannot explain.
Stay tuned for part two, and my discussion of Clive Palmer and the FFA.
- Explore:
- A-League, FFA, football, Nathan Tinkler, Newcastle Jets
April 12th 2012 @ 8:59am
daniel said | April 12th 2012 @ 8:59am | Report comment
I think you might have been watching a few too many episodes of the X-files of late. Media, like any normal business is run to make money. It will jump on any bandwagon if it thinks it will get a few dollars out of it. It will also not shoot itself in the foot in regards to existing contracts. Channel 7 has the tv rights to the majority of AFL games and will place an overwhelming focus on promoting the sport, thereby increasing the value of its asset. The same applies to channel 9 with the cricket. None of the commercial channels have any vested interest in football, and so cant really be expected to giving it more than a passing glance. SBS is different in that it targets the ethnic communities and isnt run for profit.
Back in Glory’s prime, the West Australian (local newspaper) used to include a 10 page football wrap every wednesday, but as Glory’s performance suffered and the crowds dropped, it found that it wasnt making any extra sales on the wrap and so dropped it. Now we just get one page per day if we’re lucky.
The only way to build the profile of the sport in this country is to turn up every week to support your club.
April 12th 2012 @ 10:03am
apaway said | April 12th 2012 @ 10:03am | Report comment
But Daniel, there used to be the notion of an “independent” media, and that no longer exists.
April 12th 2012 @ 9:33am
Guido said | April 12th 2012 @ 9:33am | Report comment
No, I think that this article has some very good points. As a follower of football in Asutralian for the past 20 years or so there is no doubt that there is bias in the media. Let’s take the example of when something negative happens in the AFL (could be about racism, or a player misbehaving. But I also remember the difficulties of the Sydney Swans and the Brisbane Bears when they were being established) the media doesn’t go ” oh my god the AFL shot itself in the foot, it’s all over how can a sport survive etc. The article point out that the difficulties are there, but there is always a thread of supporting the sport and a hope that it will be sorted out. With football the existence of the sport is put into question. After the 10000th headline of ‘soccer own goal’ ( can’t headline subs be a bit more original? ) there is no spirit of ‘hopefully the aleague/football will prosper) but that “it may falll all to pieces and frankly only a minority will care anyway”. Football, in the mainstream media is stil seen as an import, something that interest mainly migrants and something that is not as ‘Australian’ as AFL and NRL. Does reflect reality? No. But that doesn’t concern the mainstream media.
April 12th 2012 @ 9:33am
Guido said | April 12th 2012 @ 9:33am | Report comment
April 12th 2012 @ 9:38am
Crashy said | April 12th 2012 @ 9:38am | Report comment
Guido – I do agree that the AFL appears to have a very compliant media – I do find this a little strange considering the robust commentary the other 3 codes receive.
Maybe with the AFL setting up their own media unit, it enables them to continually tell us how entertaining and good the game is. ( even more than now).
Wish we could have a bit of that in rugby….
April 12th 2012 @ 9:42am
Bondy said | April 12th 2012 @ 9:42am | Report comment
I think one of the reasons the sports media in this country dislikes football is because they are all aligned to their T.V. F.T.A. sports like A.F.L. and N.R.L. and Cricket those sports have occupied the psyche of the free to air tv audience for over 35 years and all have gone unchallenged in the sporting landscape .
I keep saying here the media treat this sport like its exclusively for 5-7 year old kids though I would doubt anybody would disagree that T. Cahill has probably been on around $ 2 mill a season easy for the past decade ,you cant make $2 mill in some sports here.
April 12th 2012 @ 9:46am
The Cattery said | April 12th 2012 @ 9:46am | Report comment
The problem I have with this article is that it rightly mentions the harm that Palmer and Tinkler has done to the game, a lot of harm, but jumps from that to the media giving the game a hard time. Huh? Are we forgetting that the FFA, and the soccer fraternity, welcomed these two characters with open arms, absolutley welcomed them, in fact, Cockerill dedicated whole articles about how wonderful it was that the wealthiest men in Austalia were choosing to sink their millions into soccer.
April 12th 2012 @ 9:57am
Happy Hooker said | April 12th 2012 @ 9:57am | Report comment
The media in this country are out to make money. Even if there was a “blatant snubbing of football”, why is there an obligation to cover it to your level of satisfaction? If it was in their interests to cover it (ie it was a money spinner) they would. The EPL gets extensive coverage here – perhaps that indicates the FFA has an inferior product.
April 12th 2012 @ 10:36am
Fussball ist unser leben said | April 12th 2012 @ 10:36am | Report comment
HH
In Melbourne, the EPL gets far more coverage than NRL & Super-whatever.
Using your reasoning, perhaps it indicates the NRL & ARU have an inferior product?
PS: In Melbourne, the HAL gets far more coverage – on internet media, radio, TV & print – than EPL.
April 12th 2012 @ 10:03am
Australian Rules said | April 12th 2012 @ 10:03am | Report comment
This is one of the most ridiculous articles I’ve read yet.
It’s spilt into 3 parts
- football is popular in Australia
- Nathan Tinkler has wronged the football community
- the media hates football.
What complete rubbish. Football is obviously an important part of the Australian sporting landscape and no-one with a brain would suggest otherwise. As for the fat miners, until very recently they were heralded by the football community (and League community for that matter) as being ideal investors and benefactors for the game. Their billions were paraded and held up as examples of what the game can attract. As for the media, there has been unprecedented media coverage of the A-league this season…both good and bad: the arrival of Harry and Emmo, Brisbane’s streak, CGU, W.Syd and then, sadly, the Jets. Of course exposure will peak for Socceroos events.
Sheesh. Get over it.
April 12th 2012 @ 1:00pm
Kasey said | April 12th 2012 @ 1:00pm | Report comment
ARThe difference is quite clearly highlighted, I thought you couldn’t possibly miss it. Its in the way the media treats issue in each game. A club in crisis in the AFL(eg: North) /NRL(eg: Titans) is hardly panic stations, merely another pothole that needs to be repaired in the road of each sport, the league is hardly going to disappear, but without fail as soon as there is a financial issue in football its stacks on the mill to board the “football is hopeless and the HAL is going to die” train. I’m astounded you cant see the blatant double standard at work here.
April 12th 2012 @ 1:22pm
Australian Rules said | April 12th 2012 @ 1:22pm | Report comment
Garbage.
The Titans (and its single owner) have been savaged by the media. Its debts levels are embarrassing and a genuine threat to its survival. The media has not missed this one bit (esp the NSW and QLD news outlets).
North might be one of the smaller, poorer AFL clubs, but it still has 30,000 paid up members and averaged 26,000 per game in 2011. It’s survival is guaranteed. It’s not in the same ball park as the Titans or CGU.
You say: “as soon as there is a financial issue in football its stacks on the mill to board the “football is hopeless and the HAL is going to die” train.”
…you describe it as “a financial issue”..? I think that’s putting it lightly Kasey.
CGU gone. Jets gone (for now at least). A rush job into W.Syd (where the FFA has guaranteed to prop up the team).
The media reports what is happening. Should they just ignore this stuff and focus on the positives?
I take no joy at all in football’s woes but to suggest it’s unfairly targetted is utter nonsense. It seems that some people just want positive stories only.
April 12th 2012 @ 2:07pm
Kasey said | April 12th 2012 @ 2:07pm | Report comment
I’m not saying they shouldn’t report the negative, just that they seem to take unnatural glee in reporting the ills of one code over another. The negatives of football are exaggerated and emphasised. For example, listing the loss of the NZ Knights as a negative rather than the major positive it delivered in the Wellington Phoenix. Actually giving credence to an idiot like Palmer and his half baked ideas on football when today it emerges that his company doesn’t even pay tax**. Its borne of a fact that almost nobody in media land is from a football background. As the media becomes less and less relevant to modern sports lovers, they willscream louder for attention, but the fact that I no longer bother to buy a newspaper(once was a2 a day man) shows that the market is changing and it looks like old media is losing and crying hard about it. Can’t say I’ll be sad to see a hacks like Rothfield and Wilson out of a job.
**http://www.smh.com.au/business/magnates-company-paid-no-tax-20120411-1wsl2.html
April 12th 2012 @ 3:25pm
JamesP said | April 12th 2012 @ 3:25pm | Report comment
@ Kasey – My AFL club (Melbourne) has copped it thanks very much. It is in crisis, and we’ve had the whole Aaron Davey/Jason Mifsud thing (which of course came hot on the heels of another negative story that being Matt Rendell)
Sorry, you are totally wrong on this one. The Melbourne media give it to the AFL plenty.
April 12th 2012 @ 3:31pm
Kasey said | April 12th 2012 @ 3:31pm | Report comment
James, you miss my point. I have seen the way the MelbourneMedia ‘goes after’ an AFL club when their players or admins screw up. What I am saying is that only with football is the very existance of the sport called into question when an issue arises in our game. The fact that football has been played here for 100 years despite any negative issues is always glossed over in order to paint the image of a game lurching from crisis to crisis and never being stable That image suits the tabloid media and does a disservice to football. Football is not trouble free, but the fact that it survives and continues year after year no matter what mud is thrown at it is never acknowleged.
April 12th 2012 @ 3:34pm
Alistair Hogg said | April 12th 2012 @ 3:34pm | Report comment
Hang on a second…
The “very existence of the sport” has been called into question because two clubs have perished in the past 12 months and another is on the brink of collapse. How on earth do you expert that to be reported?
April 12th 2012 @ 3:59pm
Fussball ist unser leben said | April 12th 2012 @ 3:59pm | Report comment
Alistair Hogg
What you need to understand is that, unlike the other professional football leagues in Australia – particularly NRL & AFL – the HAL is just 1 small piece of the Australian football landscape.
There are about 10 National Football teams for the best men & women in Australia; there are grassroots football clubs in every suburb & every town around Australia, there are futsal tournaments held every night of the week, etc.
If the HAL fell over today, football would continue to be played in greater numbers than any other team sport.
But, if AFL or NRL fell over today … that would be “GAME OVER” – figuratively & literally- for those sports in Australia.
April 12th 2012 @ 6:24pm
The_Wookie said | April 12th 2012 @ 6:24pm | Report comment
cause the state leagues would just go to hell with them…sure
April 12th 2012 @ 10:20am
Bondy said | April 12th 2012 @ 10:20am | Report comment
The headline suggest’s, Australias Media Problem with Football, if you check the sports highlight video on this very page the host confirms in his report the Knights are safe “dont worry” it’s only an A League club thats just fallen over “check it and see” it’s excactly what the author has written about theres more concern for the Knights than up to 60 people now looking for another form of employement . I think that video says it all really .
April 12th 2012 @ 11:29am
The Cattery said | April 12th 2012 @ 11:29am | Report comment
In fairness, as soon as one team goes (doesn’t matter which) supporters from the other will rightly want to know whether theirs is next. He may say, don’t worry, it’s only the other, but I’m not sure anyone can take too much heart out of that, in all likelihood, the other is at risk as well (but probably has a better chance of getting fully resurrected, even if it does happen).
April 12th 2012 @ 12:03pm
Bondy said | April 12th 2012 @ 12:03pm | Report comment
TC.
Is Fox Footy affecting gates ‘live’ at the A.F.L. or will it .
April 12th 2012 @ 4:02pm
The Cattery said | April 12th 2012 @ 4:02pm | Report comment
I don’t know, I haven’t noticed.
Personally, I long for the day when these constant comparisons can be put on the backburner.
I put up a post elsewhere about how I used to enjoy watching Williamstown games in the old VFA as a young man, many moons ago, being able to walk to the ground, stand on the terraces with only a few thousand people (mostly drunken blokes), and not really worry too much about why there were only 3,000 there. It just didn’t matter.
Now we all have the habit of looking at the attendance figures before we look at anything else – it’s unhealthy, it’s a modern thing, and I want to put an end to it because it ain’t that important – a VFA club like Williamstown is nearly 140 years old, a club can survive with small attendances, it’s a matter of learning to live within your means.
April 12th 2012 @ 10:26am
John Abbadon said | April 12th 2012 @ 10:26am | Report comment
Clap, Clap, Clap..well said!