- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
When Perth Glory owner Tony Sage secured Chris Coyne, his third Socceroo of the pre-season, he was confident that the general Perth public would be right behind him. But it didn’t happen.
When Sage organised to bring two English Premier League sides to come to Perth, the best standard of football this State has seen in the past ten years, he’d been hopeful that Glory memberships would have been snapped up.
But it didn’t happen.
Late last week Sage revealed the latest Glory membership numbers. At this point last year 3,654 memberships had been sold.
Sage was hoping for 7,500 for this season. However, despite all the positive moves the club has made, only 2,936 had been sold.
Does this mean that Sage has wasted his money? Of course not.
It just proves what a lot of wise (and not so wise) people have been saying all along – four years of disappointing football on the pitch can’t be erased by three months of positive moves off the pitch.
Hopefully this is not construed as a dig at Sage, because it isn’t.
To the full-time Perth Glory supporters (not those who drift in and out), the current administration has been a breath of fresh air. Last week, the club held the first meeting of the Perth Glory Supporters Association.
Say those fourteen words two years ago, and you’d probably get some weird stares, if not a couple of frustrated chuckles.
Without Sage, Perth Glory would be up a well-known river without a paddle.
But unfortunately, Sage is fighting the current of another well-known river – the fickle public who crave results and nothing else.
There are those out there who still call this sport ‘sawkker’ and probably couldn’t name a professional player apart from David Beckham. They aren’t going to get all excited because Coyne, Sterjovski and Burns have returned to Australia.
But what about those who don’t develop an American accent when referring to football? The English ex-pats who packed the Shed to the rafters when the Glory were one of the best NSL teams?
These are the guys (and gals) who remember four years of disappointing results, years of the FFA running the club into the ground, the years of frustration and despair.
So what can the club do to regain the support of the Perth public?
Apart from all the good work the club is doing at the moment, the only solution is success on the pitch. The Glory need to become more successful in the A-League and they have to make it to the finals this year. When this happens, the crowds will return.
Which is what makes the Glory’s first few games all important.
It doesn’t help that a number of players have suffered injuries at the worst possible moments, the weeks leading up to the first game. It doesn’t help that the club have had less pre-season games then some of their other rivals.
It doesn’t help when, in another bit of FFA shenanigans, Perth will have to travel to go to Adelaide and Wellington in the first two rounds.
The pressure is on. The Glory have already spent a lot of money and will continue to spend more on wages.
Perth need a good start in order to create momentum for the rest of the season.
Are you the ultimate team manager? Pick your own superstar team and go head to head with other football fans for glory and cash prizes on Draftstars. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.