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The A-League has got off to a bad start in this year's AFC Champions League. The Newcastle Jets are already out and Victory lost…
There are 2 possible models for the A-League:
1. The A-League is an independent, franchise-based commercial entity run by business people for profit or prestige, and is only incidentally the top level of the huge organism that is Football in Australia.
OR
2. The A-League is the top level of the huge organism that is Australian football. It is administered directly or indirectly by the FFA, and is only incidentally a source of profit or prestige for club owners.
One of those models has strong organic roots – it is sustainable long-term and will always be well-placed to weather good times and bad times.
The other depends on luck and deep-pocketed individuals to survive hard times.
The problem for the APL is that the A-League was built on model 1 but needs to transition to model 2 to thrive and survive.
That’s a real conundrum and nothing in the articles over the last few days goes close to offering a solution.
APL's spin doctoring insults Australian football fans' intelligence - and might well be the last straw
I haven’t been to a league game in 35 years so I couldn’t compare. But I sit in the expensive seats at both grounds and Sydney is more Tesla/Merc and MacArthur more Hilux/Ram. Opinions are expressed more meatily at MacArthur too – definitely no laughing at the VAR outrages, which often happens at Sydney.
It's time the APL came clean on the state of the game in the A-Leagues
Sitting amongst MacArthur fans I heard more than a few cynical comments about Germain. Weird really, given how good he’s been most times I’ve watched MacArthur.
Germain’s assist was excellent. Although I’d give King more of the credit for passing straight to Germain when he had 5 or so teammates who were easier passing options.
It's time the APL came clean on the state of the game in the A-Leagues
It’s just rubbish – both had feet up going for the ball
The Roar's A-League Men tips and predictions: Round 25
They’re calling for a walk/off here
The Roar's A-League Men tips and predictions: Round 25
Contractual obligations?
Does the A-League have the clout to make a UK-bound event round work in season 2024/25?
Brilliant satire Stuart – up there with Swift’s ‘A Modest Proposal’.
Does the A-League have the clout to make a UK-bound event round work in season 2024/25?
Define pinnacle 13th. Are you saying people only want to watch Man City or Real Madrid? Or they only want to watch the EPL or La Liga?
If so, can you explain why millions watch all the other non-pinnacle teams and leagues around the world when they could just be streaming Pep’s boys once a week?
Forget those bringing down the game, what if we embraced the A-League and Australian football cups are actually half-full?
The MLS is going gangbusters. They have some innate advantages though – lots of big cities, good distribution of those cities across the whole country, large Hispanic population, untold riches, decade head-start, lots of people…
But…the USA has a population that’s 12 times ours while the MLS only has 2.5 times as many teams as the A-League. If we had the same population to team ratio in the A-League it would be a two team league!
So I’m guessing an MLS equivalent here would see Sydney FC vs Melbourne Victory home/away for 26 rounds.
In some ways I’m amazed the A-League does as well as it does – there’s lots of leagues around the world that do far worse than the A-League in a less competitive domestic environment.
Forget those bringing down the game, what if we embraced the A-League and Australian football cups are actually half-full?
Incremental pro-rel might work. Sometime though the struggling franchises have to be retired or relegated.
Forget those bringing down the game, what if we embraced the A-League and Australian football cups are actually half-full?
The A-League will struggle until it decides whether it is the top tier of Australian football or a commercial rival to other domestic sports leagues.
The A-League is currently a ring-fenced top tier and as a result is of little interest to a large swathe of Australian football participants and fans.
And on the other hand, currently too much money, media and culture is behind the AFL and NRL for the A-League to compete commercially.
The only real hope is organic growth from the bottom up with the A-League directly connected to the lower levels of football. That way more football fans/participants will feel real connections to the A-League, which should see a larger proportion of them supporting A-League clubs.
Forget those bringing down the game, what if we embraced the A-League and Australian football cups are actually half-full?
Crash test dummies
How can the APL convince casual fans the A-League Men is worth supporting?
Unlike you Marcel, I still get to 12 or 13 home games at SFC every season even though I live hundreds of kms from Sydney. I’ve been doing that for 14 years or so and can’t see myself stopping in the foreseeable future.
I might be slightly weird but I find being at an A-League game far more entertaining than watching pinnacle teams like Man City on the tele. It’s hard to explain why though, so I’ll leave that for now.
I will say though, that even though I am a rusted-on, I have similar gripes. For example:
1. The scheduling drives me crazy – it often has me coming and going from Sydney 3 times in 3 or 4 weeks and then not at all for weeks on end. As I have said many times on here, home/away/home/away/home/away…just do that please.
2. The draw is weirdly amateurish e.g. Sydney had played Victory three times almost three months before they played Newcastle a second time.
3. Incomprehensible ticket sales. I have a season membership but if a friend or family member wants to to join me at a game I’m boogered if I can work out how to buy decent tickets for us even though the upper tier seats are usually near-empty.
4. Protracted VAR delays are a blight on the game. It might be correlation as opposed to causation but A-League crowds began their steady decline around 2017 when the VAR was introduced. 3 or 4 minute VAR delays are an atmosphere killer. If a couple of guys watching slo-mo replays can’t spot a clear and obvious error in less than 15 seconds then there wasn’t a clear and obvious error. Part of the promise of the VAR was a reduction in disputes about referee’s decisions – I reckon it’s worse now than pre-VAR.
How can the APL convince casual fans the A-League Men is worth supporting?
Yes, we are lovely
How can the APL convince casual fans the A-League Men is worth supporting?
Silly me…I should have looked in the crime tab
How can the APL convince casual fans the A-League Men is worth supporting?
Would I lie to you, Football Fan? Turns out, I would.
But I was stunned that 26,000 people turning up to a local event drew not a word of comment from our own ABC.
Meanwhile, Wrexham scored its own story at the ABC and they are on the other side of the world and only draw about 10,000 to their games. And they are pretty ordinary too, by some accounts.
How can the APL convince casual fans the A-League Men is worth supporting?
The judge’s summary was magic: ‘Having escaped the lion’s den, Mr Lehrmann made the mistake of going back for his hat’
How can the APL convince casual fans the A-League Men is worth supporting?
It’s Scout’s gratuitous contempt for women’s football (sport?) that’s unnerving.
How can the APL convince casual fans the A-League Men is worth supporting?
WSW vs SFC drew 61,000 in 2016 without a del Piero or similar in sight.
How can the APL convince casual fans the A-League Men is worth supporting?
Lying is too harsh a word. I’d prefer to call it ‘cultural verisimilitude’, or as Wikipedia defines it, ‘plausibility of the fictional work within the cultural and/or historical context of the real world, outside of the work’.
How can the APL convince casual fans the A-League Men is worth supporting?
The Sydney derby had a big crowd that created a great atmosphere. It was a good game too, and it would have been a goal-fest if either side had a decent striker.
How can the APL convince casual fans the A-League Men is worth supporting?
Really! I can’t believe I’d do that
How can the APL convince casual fans the A-League Men is worth supporting?
Was it you I spoke to Tuffy?
How can the APL convince casual fans the A-League Men is worth supporting?
I understand what you are saying Waz, but it’s telling that when the NSL disappeared the A-League immediately took its place. I guess what I’m saying is there will always be a national Football league; or putting that less categorically, it’s unlikely that there ever won’t be a national Football league.
Football is the biggest international sport, it’s the biggest participation sport in Oz, it’s probably the most watched sport in Oz (if you include viewers of o/s leagues). A national league is an indispensable stepping stone for the all the Football talent we produce prior to them heading overseas and/or joining the national team.
We can’t not have a national league – we just need to work out how to run one without all the existential angst that infects the current version.
When I say there are 2 possible models, I don’t discount there being a hybrid version of those 2 models, something touched on by Lionheart in a comment the other day. That is, there must be some way of honouring the commitments of the current franchise teams but also gradually opening up the A-League to other teams.
I’m more prepared than most to cut the administrators some slack in terms of trying things that might not work. For example, KeepUp was a justifiable approach to addressing the appalling media blackout on domestic Football in this country. It was worth a try, but admittedly, it went on way too long and cost way too much for what it did.
APL's spin doctoring insults Australian football fans' intelligence - and might well be the last straw