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Mariners' predicament represents new era of A-League expansion

Roar Rookie
24th November, 2014
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The Mariners are getting used to playing in front of half-empty stadiums. (photo: Peter McAlpine)
Roar Rookie
24th November, 2014
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The A-League’s tenth season has started rather uncharacteristically, with a distinct gap between the top four and bottom six consolidating as the season unfolds.

The current top four were part of season one and are each from different capital cities: Perth, Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney.

The unpredictable nature of the A-League means it could well be argued that it is as much a coincidence that there aren’t any non-capital city startup clubs that have yet posed as a serious threat, as it is that we find the current Asian club champions struggling desperately to register their first win.

But it goes deeper than just being an anomaly, and there are teams which are simply unsustainable.

The Central Coast Mariners are the club in mind when I question whether or not the A-League can have 10 profitable and prosperous teams as a base from which to expand. Given that neither Frank Lowy nor David Gallop have shied away from the question of expansion in recent interviews – with Lowy making it clear that it isn’t a matter of if but when the A-League will add two more teams to the competition – the league’s equality will become harder to maintain.

Gallop has explained that the markets for the new teams will be based largely on the size of the pool of football lovers in that area, or as he put it in a recent issue of FourFourTwo Australia, “We need to fish where the fish are.”

While this makes sense, it goes against the model that established the first eight A-League clubs. In the new model, a club like the Mariners may never have been established.

In the same interview, Gallop said that “expansion should only occur in markets where the population is in the millions, not hundreds of thousands.” The population of Gosford City Council’s shire is just under 170,000. It seems now that if you were to suggest a regional community with a population of that size as a place for the next A-League club to Gallop, he would laugh at you for even considering it. As Andy Harper once said, “There’s no point being a stable club if you’re stabilising duds.”

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On the field the Mariners have been one of the league’s most consistent clubs. Four grand final appearances for one championship and two premierships speaks for itself, while players have been able to head overseas or become internationally capped in the nurturing environment of the community-based club. Mat Ryan, Alex Wilkinson, Trent Sainsbury, Michael Beauchamp, Mile Jedinak, Mustafa Amini, Tom Rogic, Oliver Bozanic and Bernie Ibini are all beneficiaries of the system, proving that the Mariners have defied the odds to maintain their standing in most Australian football fans’ eyes as a strong, stable club.

At Central Coast Stadium the Mariners have won close enough to 50 per cent of their games, which is a formidable record, but it’s off the field where their problems appear to lie.

The Mariners’ home-game crowds are what worries me the most. The club’s most successful years have yielded the following averages:
2007-08: Premiers and grand final Runners-up – 13,318 average
2010-11: Regular season and grand final Runners-up – 8,540 average
2011-12: Premiers – 9,505 average
2012-13: Regular season Runners-up and Champions – 10,018 average

When you consider that the highest home attendance in the championship-winning season came courtesy of a 6,000 boost from the travelling Wanderers fans, the figures aren’t pretty.

The club has always been unlikely, hard-working and plucky. But what happens if they miss the finals this season, and the next? Central Coast have been blessed with the leadership of players like Jedinak, Wilkinson and John Hutchinson, as well as the promise and services of the aforementioned youngsters, but when their fortunes change I’m afraid the club will struggle to rebound.

So far this season they have shown contentment for draws and brave defeats, but for this club survival depends on winning.

The Mariners’ situation reaffirms the A-League’s confidence in the new model for constructing a club, because the league can’t afford to have such constant uncertainty hinder clubs from being able to flourish.

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