A Football-specific stadium has a playing surface that is shorter overall (no in-goal area) so the fans are approximately 5 metres behind the goalposts. This changes the sight lines at either end of the ground as it offers a better view of the goalmouth action for fans in the front rows. I have sat in the front row for the Socceroos qualifying game at Suncorp and due to the camber of the pitch you cannot see the byline over the fence. You need to be several rows back to get a clear view, which puts you a long way from the action.

Football requires a smooth surface as the ball spends most of its time on the ground and a predictable bounce and smooth roll is needed for high quality play. Ideally the surface is like a billiard table.

The grass is also cut shorter to facilitate this play which is something Rugby League and Union does not prefer as they want more traction on the surface which longer grass gives them. Rugby League and Union also churns up the surface during play which makes it less ideal for football- having an exclusive surface maintained to football’s specifications is something that is expected in all top level leagues. The MLS is one of the few leagues that also shares stadiums with other sports along with a couple of clubs in the UK in cities where rugby league is also popular.

Ballymore is under a 99 year Head lease of the QLD Rugby Union. Roar would be a sub-tenant at best. The QRU has no desire to see the Roar prosper and have continually put up obstacles to the Roar using the ground, to the point where they have never put forward terms that the Roar can accept.

Occasional games may work and they are less worried about women’s games as a competing use for their asset, but they don’t want the Roar in there selling out the stadium week in, week out.

An upgrade of Perry Park would be ideal as it is Brisbane’s traditional home of football and a ground share with the Strikers could be worked out. The Roar have been trying for years to work out something with the QRU, but it has never happened and isn’t likely to.

FIFA and the AFC (two of the largest sporting organisations in the world) and the FA. For the league winners to qualify for the AFC Champions League all matches in the competition have to be played on regulation pitches. Football pitches have different dimensions to Rugby League or Rugby Union pitches so not all stadiums are suitable.

He has a valid point- there are almost as many registered players in QLD as Victoria but QLD is regularly overlooked- when was the Last Socceroos game in QLD?

The problem with the Gold Coast (and this applies to the Sunshine Coast too) is that most of the people who live there are from somewhere else- the population of third generation ‘coasties’ is very small compared to the total population of the Gold Coast. Most people who live there have moved there from either greater Brisbane, the rest of Queensland, interstate or overseas, and brought their existing sporting allegiances with them.

If they are from elsewhere in Australia then they already have a club to follow and aren’t likely to switch to a new franchise. I’ve been living in the MacArthur region for the last five years but I don’t follow the Bulls (forever a Roar fan) and I see far more Sydney FC and WSW jerseys at Narellan than Bulls jerseys and far more Wests Tigers than the rest combined. There are however hoards of new families moving into the region and it’s the new kids who will run around at Leppington Tigers and other grassroots clubs that will be the Bulls future fans, if they can hang in there.

Any Gold Coast team is going to have to put up with small crowds for ten years at least before a new generation grows up in the area and adopts them. I see that being the only way expansion teams are going to survive- try and stay afloat long enough for a local fan base to build. They need to be able to wear losses for several years, the upside of all those people moving to the Coast is that there is a high proportion of young families among them who are potential future fans so the time is probably much better for a Coast team than when GCU went around last time.

Expanding the league to 16 teams with a 30 game regular season is the best way to eliminate inconsistencies in the draw. That is FIFA’s and AFC’s recommended structure as it meets the minimum game requirements for AFC Champions League and allows full divisibility for cup draws.
With a 16 team competition we could eliminate the finals and introduce a league cup with the new second division teams instead to increase interest before the existing participation agreements expire and pro-rel can happen.

They should use the intervening seasons to shuffle the season by limiting the off season to 10 weeks with the start date shifting forwards each season until it aligns with a winter season which also aligns with both the grassroots and the AFC season.

Their support collapsed 20 years ago- they were only drawing 2-3000 in the last seasons of the NSL. They’ve done little since to draw fans to their NPL games. Most people in Brisbane have forgotten about them.

I agree Mike. It may be a case that there is a hard floor under the A League for some years after the second division gets up and running. Perhaps the pyramid can be established from the second division down and once that is functioning and it is demonstrated that relegation isn’t bankrupting clubs and that the second division is viable as a professional league with adequate support and interest then the A League can be added to the mix.

Cheap streaming subscriptions easily watchable on devices will help get people interested. The A League won’t survive hiding behind the Fox Paywall as the demographic skews young and Foxtel’s price point is too high. Kayo’s all-in price for all sports only is also a bit high (but better than Foxtel Now for those who only want the football).

Getting more content (i.e. highlights, player/league info and news) into the free space is important too. An upgraded free to air deal with more games live/on replay will help lift the profile further. As will keeping ticket prices down at least until they start selling out games.

Going down the paywall route at the outset, whilst most likely a financial necessity at the outset was probably a strategic blunder when it came to embedding the League in the public consciousness- unless you are already a football fan why would you check out something that you could only access if you paid for it when there’s a world of free content out there? Some serious rethinking is needed to get the A League in front of as many eyeballs as possible.

The way to do this is to have strong teams that regularly reach the quarterfinals (at least) of the Asian Champions League, playing attractive football that draws eyeballs in these nations to the A League. If we can get our league to a level where our teams are significantly stronger than the other ASEAN leagues and we ensure there is live coverage into these markets backed up by marketing etc., there is real potential to gain significant followers in the ASEAN countries.

People in these countries are often well-disposed to Australia and may find Australian teams more palatable to back than sides from Japan or China for example (for historical/geopolitical reasons). Watching football in sports bars (and betting on the outcome) is popular in many of these places as well. Having A League games on the tv where the coverage can segue into the broadcast of the EPL and other top Euro leagues can benefit the A League as well as it becomes part of their regular football watching experience.

This is where the opportunity lies to build fan bases for A League clubs in other countries- live broadcasts in a favourable timezone.

Is hat per match/round? Is it an apples for apples comparison?

212 days is short for a top flight football season, most European seasons last 34-40 weeks (including cups and international windows) – 238 to 280 days. Getting more teams into the competition to get the number of games over 30 per season is necessary to get the players up to elite levels of match fitness where they can compete against the very top players in the knockout rounds of the Asian champions league and even the club World Cup.

Shorter seasons do Australian players no favours- we have one of the longest off seasons in world football.

Kazakhstan was part of the USSR football system and has a large Russian minority still, so they have a Russian football heritage that runs deep and has carried over post independence and into the Kazakh majority. Now they are economically recovering from the collapse of the Soviet Union, they are rising up the football ranks with their clubs doing well in European competition (better than Scotland), so it’s not surprising really.

Australia is angling to join the Suzuki Cup, the ASEAN regional tournament we at first disdained after joining the ASEAN sub confederation, but now realise that we need to compete in to avoid being left behind and better integrate into our region. This tournament provides regular competitive games and are well attended- they are a big deal in SE Asia and we need to be a part of it.

The ASEAN Football Federation has decided to vote as a bloc for Sheik Salman, meaning that Australia as an AFF member has to decide whether to hold their nose and go along with the regional consensus (with nations that do not necessarily share our values) or risk being on the outer and causing a loss of face with the other Federations whose tournament we are asking for permission to join.

It’s not a situation that has palatable options, so it looks like that they have chosen the former option in the longer term interests of the game in this country, at the cost of reputational damage. I don’t like it, but I understand why they did it and there’s probably an element of payback for making a fuss over Al Arabi.

If we want to be in Asia then we have to take the good with the bad. If we want to set agendas then we probably should return to Oceania. If we want to exert influence within the AFC we have to get inside the tent and learn how the place works and build trust and networks first- that will take years before we are fully accepted and we may be placed in many more such situations before we get to a position of influence.

The last tv deal with Foxtel has been a disappointment for the league and there have been problems with the preferential treatment Foxtel hs received right from the outset, that has made it unattractive for FTA and other platforms to want to invest in the A League in a meaningful way. This has limited the reach of the game and stymied it’s growth.

By looking for the one stop shop model that televises every game and granting exclusivity they have inadvertently limited the potential audience and lost the benefits of gaining wider exposure by partnering with a commercial FTA network with all its cross-promotional benefits that improve recognition for the clubs and the players and create interest. Remember that the other codes all had a FTA presence before extending to pay tv- Fox Sports limited reach has also limited the audience and now their business model is in decline the A League may be better off limiting their exposure to them.

The limitations of the current model are becoming apparent and a new approach is needed, with greater autonomy for the clubs and the league and consideration of getting rid of the salary cap, to allow clubs to invest more into their squads and put together teams that people want to come and watch. FTA, pay tv and streaming rights should all be sold separately, with only a limited number of games per round on FTA, with a focus on the away games of the bigger clubs, limiting live views of home games to pay tv/streaming. The current resale package that gives Fox Sports all the power should never have been entered into and hopefully the new board will have some better ideas about how to get more exposure for the league.

Further expansion is a must have to get at least one home game in every major city each week (second teams in Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide) plus looking at regional clubs accessible to these centres that can attract large away fan numbers on fame day too. The two new teams are a step in the right direction, but the league Ned’s to get up to 16 teams as soon as it can so there can be a full season with no third round, which kills interest.

The fact that all rebooted leagues around the world struggle in their teens is another factor, the MLS, J League and K Leagues all went through similar phases at this point in their history, before coming good around the 20 year mark. The challenge is in this difficult phase for those in charge not to stuff things up and cripple the game going forward.

WSW is based a long way from Campbelltown and are geographically closer to SFC than the new side. I would have to travel near two hours by public transport to get to a match Parramatta and many people living in SW Sydney would have even longer travel times. Wanderers training ground is even further away in Rooty Hill, so there’s not a lot of connection to this area, which has always had its own identity anyway.

It’s also got bus interchange facilities and is on a high frequency route that directly accesses the SE Busway. As for entertainment, isn’t that the football itself?

I want it too, and I do live in the area. Parramatta is too far away and there’s nothing else happening in this part of the world during the summer months.

I’d happily make them my second team (after the Roar) to get a regular live football fix, seeing that I no longer live in Brisbane and I cannot bring myself to support either the Wanderers or Sydney FC.

Remember Queensland had a recession in 2014 and it’s taken time for the economy and the government’s budget to recover from the mess that the Newman government left behind. For a few years there wasn’t money to splash around on other events when there was a commonwealth game to put on.

Maybe going forward there’s a bit more to go around on getting big fakes to Brisbane as things seem to be picking up now.

You would instead want the board to provide a framework for a strategy to be developed that can eventually get us to that point, so that everyone is working to a common purpose and to a long term vision. Maybe we will get to a 60 team three tier competition- it may take 30 or more years, but we have to know where we are going.

This was the model proposed by the Crawford Report. After all the fur flying around, last night I decided to read the FIFA statutes and some critical things appeared, especially that promotion and relegation is embedded in the statutes and it is expected that the league will have this structure. Although it is not possible to implement it immediately, the new A League needs to have a roadmap as to how it can get there, to keep not only the local stakeholders informed, but the AFC and FIFA as well.

The era of Australian exceptionalism for football will need to end and we will need to show how we fit with the global model. This includes constituting the FFA as an Association and not a corporation, so that it properly fits the definition of a member association of the AFC and FIFA and is set up as a not for profit organisation.

The one thing that counts against Ipswich is population catchment- there are only 200,000 people in Ipswich City, and although it is growing fast, in 15-20 years it will still only be the size of the Central Coast. Although given the area’s football history it would be nice to see them get up, my head says a City is a more logical choice. Ipswich would make a great second division side.

I think Brisbane City will get one. Brisbane is the third largest market in Australia and Fox Sports will want two games a week from this market. Plus it gives the Not Roar will have someone to follow. With the Roar moving their training base out to Logan, having Newmarket-based City playing out of Ballymore will start to trigger Brisbane’s natural rivalry- north/south.

It’s not about that, so much as the demographic reality of Australia today. The average age of the first generation European migrants who founded and supported the “ethnic” clubs is between 65 and 75. They are literally dying out, as their grandkids aren’t so invested in the clubs as the previous generation.

After the post WW2 recovery completed in Europe, emigration from the continent decreased rapidly as conditions improved at home. Then when the EU formed and the Schengen Agreement for movement within its borders, out migration from the EU almost ceased. We haven’t had strong European migration since the early 1990’s.

Those NSL clubs that had depended on the stream of fresh arrivals from the old country, found their supply cut off, and started to decline first the Hungarian and Jewish backed teams, whose main immigration phase was in the 1940’s and 1950’s, then the Dutch and Italian backed clubs whose population base mainly arrived in the 1950’s and early 1960’s, then the Greek clubs whose main migration wave was on the 1960’s and finally thise clubs from the nations that made up the former Yugoslavia.

These days there are more people in Australia born in Asia than Europe and of the non-British/Irish ancestry groups of European backgrounds, only the Italian and Greek communities of Sydney and Melbourne are large enough to back a fully professional football team at the A League stanards. Even then, the level of resources they would have wouldn’t be able to match the bigger A-League clubs and it wiuld beg the question ad to whether it would be worthwhile including them at the expense of a team from a place like Wollongong or Geelong that would be able to draw from a similar sized base without being tied to a particular ethnicity.

First step is to get to 14 teams, stablise, then expand again, say to 16 teams, over the course of two-three broadcast contract cycles, then see if 18 or 20 teams is possible. It may take 20 years to get to this point. 16 clubs is FIFA’s preferred model as it gives 30 league games, is fully divisible for cup competition and leaves enough possible gaps for cup rounds and international windows.

The travel issue is why clustering of teams is so important as it means that a greater portion of the additional away games are within a two hour bus journey from their base, keeing costs down. Look to the EPL and Bundesliga for examples. The EPL has clusters of teams around London, the midlands, Lancashire etc, and in the Bundesliga around the Rhine/Ruhr and Bavaria.