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Sydney FC have been the best team in the A-League all season, so why do they continue to play in front of such small crowds?
The Sky Blues’ routine 2-0 win over Adelaide United on Friday night was notable for stretching their unbeaten run to 16 games.
But it also generated plenty of conjecture over the attendance in the stands, with only 11,225 fans turning out at Allianz Stadium for the visit of the defending champions.
It prompted Sydney FC chief executive Tony Pignata to tweet: “Very disappointing crowd. I know the Derby sucked the market but still to get 11k is not good (when) we are undefeated”.
Agree. Very disappointing crowd. I know the Derby sucked the market but still to get 11k is not good n we are undefeated https://t.co/q3qR8jPMMy
— Tony Pignata (@tpignata9) January 20, 2017
What is it about Sydney in particular that makes it so difficult to draw a crowd?
Part of the problem, it must be acknowledged, is that getting to Moore Park is difficult at the best of times – whether you’re driving or using public transport.
And the proposed multi-million dollar refurbishment of Allianz Stadium will amount to little if accessibility isn’t improved at the same time.
Yet there are some other extenuating circumstances that perhaps deserve some discussion.
Sydney may be a city of nearly five million inhabitants, but it’s also one of the most expensive places to live on the planet.
And that’s a problem when we’re asking fans to shell out not only to attend fixtures, but also for broadcasting subscriptions to watch their football on.
Pignata himself was involved in a minor brouhaha on the eve of the Sydney derby when FourFourTwo ran a story based on his tongue-in-cheek quip about the cost of derby tickets.
When asked by a Wanderers fan why a derby ticket cost more than $52 including fees, Pignata joked that he should increase ticket prices even further.
“Have you seen prices for sports events in the US? We should up it,” Pignata tweeted.
He later claimed that his comments were only banter and that FourFourTwo had taken them out of context, but I just wonder if the crux of the point was lost amid the online commotion.
Because if casual sports fans are paying higher prices to attend premium A-League fixtures – and derby attendances suggest they are – then how realistic is it to expect those same fans to shell out again for the next home game?
In other words, is it really much of a surprise when the highs of a derby are followed by a low for the next relatively ho-hum A-League encounter?
There’s also the fact that so much of the marketing seems to be preaching to the converted, with most of it beamed directly to supporters already sitting inside an A-League stadium.
Even when there’s a decent story to help sell the competition, our clubs have a history of shooting themselves in the foot, such as Western Sydney’s inexplicable decision to prevent Vedran Janjetovic from speaking to the press following last week’s derby draw.
And having just spent a strange week in Melbourne as a fan at the Australian Open – a tournament that goes out of its way to look after players, broadcasters and sponsors, but one which seems to consider paying spectators an afterthought – I’m aware that a lot of these issues aren’t unique to the A-League.
The question is what to do about it?
With most clubs possessing minuscule marketing budgets, it’s no surprise to see so many using social media to push their messaging. But is it getting out to the right audience?
We also need expansion to happen sooner rather than later, since it’s clear supporters are growing increasingly weary of watching the same fixtures year after year.
Scheduling Sydney FC games on a Friday night doesn’t help either, even if the fixtures understandably need to be shared around.
But the players themselves are doing their part. Surely they deserve to be enjoyed by a larger audience?