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Treatment of fans a huge reason the A-League is struggling
The Crowd
Roar Guru
25th January, 2018
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The Crowd
Roar Guru
25th January, 2018
15
1039 Reads

From the failure of leadership at FFA headquarters to decreasing interest when it comes to attendance and ratings, the 2017-18 A-League season has been one to forget.

However, one of the issues riling up fans more than anything is the behaviour of stadium-supplied security.

One of football’s unique aspects is fans’ strong, passionate displays of support for their teams. However, within football organisational and stadium operator circles, this seems an anathema. Football fans to them are to be seen and not heard.

One of the reasons the A-League was founded was because of the violence in the stands of the NSL in the 1990s. While the history and passion of this period, when many clubs were aligned with specific nationalities and ethnicities, is the foundation for football culture in Australia, the professional game simply outgrew it.

Now, the FFA’s attitude to ban non-Australian flags may have made sense at the start of the A-League, but after 12 seasons, this ought to be relaxed. Most of the fans who bring non-Australian flags are doing so as a tribute to their favourite players from overseas.

The fact that the clubs were deliberately created as having no sectarian links is a sign that fans can coexist beyond ethnic loyalties. If anything, it has been a remarkable success. But it has to be questioned, with the game now entrenched in mainstream Australia, whether these regulations are a symptom of the FFA being elitist in dealing with the past, viewing it as something to be forgotten rather than celebrated.

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Then there is the attitude towards fans.

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Remember the ban list a few seasons ago? Remember the farcical lack of appeal avenues and flimsy evidence at the behest of the A-League’s private security contractor, Hatamoto?

Now, although there has been change to ban appeal procedures, Hatamoto’s continuing behaviour and relationship with the FFA is of great concern. All of this is borne out of fear, which may explain the FFA’s unwillingness to expand the league or think outside the box.

The toleration of the stadium-supplied security, likewise, is of great concern. Security overzealousness and unreasonableness is becoming a weekly fixture on some fan Facebook pages.

Returning to the flag issue, when the Barmy Army came to AAMI Park, security told them to take down their banners, as if they were some insurgent group hellbent on reclaiming the colonies for Britain.

Some argume this has been to protect sponsorship hoarding. But if the A-League is protecting sponsors at the expense of their fans, how can they increase the game’s popularity?

Then there was the issue of security having a go at children simply for leaning on the fence, getting a great view. All this was because one person made a complaint that they were ruining their personal view.

I do not know if this person knows, but kids like to watch the game from as close to the action as possible. It would be unfair for them to be seated further back, where their height (or lack thereof) means they struggle for a glimpse at the action.

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The response from Crowd Safety Patrons – blaming kids for being kids, while defending the rights of ‘paying’ customers – was disgraceful. It also highlights the problem of the clubs’ relationship with stadium operators.

The issue is that all of the stadiums used in the A-League are run by government organisations. They are run as corporate entities and, after observing the nature of the relationships between fans and operators, there is a deep divide between the two. Operators simply do not get the game, do not get want fans want, and charge through the nose just to make the venues profitable.

It would be easy to blame the clubs for this predicament, but there is an old saying from Thucydides – “The strong do what they can, and the weak do what they must to endure.”

Clubs have been let down by the A-League’s promotion and marketing department, and lack the financial backing from the FFA that the AFL gives its franchises (considering that grassroots and pathway fees are easily the most expensive, and the game is the most played, one has to ask where this money is going).

The clubs can only negotiate so much with the stadiums, and when the dust has settled, everything returns to the status quo. But that is not to say they can just do the same thing. To bring in fans, clubs need, like the FFA in general, to improve marketing and promoting the game.

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So, what is to be done?

For one, the FFA’s micromanaging must cease, preferably with an independently-run A-League. The professional game also needs to be run by football-minded administrators, not corporate CEOs shuffled from job to job.

We need people that know how to keep the spectators engaged and coming back for more, rather than running the game in the interest of corporate sponsors at the expense of fans.

Then there is the product the stadiums are providing. Supporter clubs across the country are let down by the way these operators have treated them, and the way they have backed the behaviour of overzealous security guards.

There are also the traditional complaints about food and drink prices. Clubs are hamstrung about these issues as they are a stadium responsibility. As sports venues are largely owned by state and local governments, there is a monopoly clubs have to deal with.

But there are a few things the clubs could do.

One, make the first few rows of the touch-line stands for kids. Two, tickets to two games of their choice for football participants, with discounts for all FFA-registered participants.

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Three, under 12s go free to all games, 12 to 18-year-olds for a gold coin donation. Clubs may baulk at the financial loss, but you’ve got to spend money to make money.

Fourth, matchday tickets should also get you a free burger, chips and 600ml drink of your choice.

Fifth, clubs need to also pressure operators to pull security into line – badly behaved guards can be just as bad for publicity as the occasional idiot in the crowd.

There is no reason the A-League can’t challenge other professional sports for dominance, but the game must maintain its trump card – passion. We cannot allow the game to be puritanised. Australian football fans have ambitious expectations for the game, but a strong A-League which puts bums on seats is the key.

Season 2018-19 needs to be the year the A-League changes for the better. Yes, the professional game has gone beyond ethnic loyalties, but the foundations laid by NSL clubs means fans have a passion for the game that is unmatched by any other sport in the country. This core cannot be expected to behave, as Roy Keane famously described, like prawn sandwich eaters.

Football is not some upper-middle-class hobby that popped up after the Socceroos beat Uruguay in 2005, it is built on the support and passion of generations.

Even with the advent of professionalism and the game becoming mainstream, the past cannot be forgotten.

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