Melbourne Victory’s Archie Thompson (right) walks past as the Central Coast Mariners players celebrate winning round 1 of the 2009/10 A-League season in Melbourne, Thursday, Aug. 6, 2009. The Mariners beat Victory 2-0. AAP Image/Joe Castro
As a spectacle, Round 3 of the A-League left a lot to be desired. After the excitement of Round 2 and the Melbourne-Brisbane clash, it was confirmation that, despite the enormous strides, the league has a long development path still to trek, one that might be best if it’s played out on pay television.
Fans insist that for the A-League to break through the current public malaise, it needs to be on free to air.
Fair enough. Fox Sports is obviously limited in terms of its reach.
As a relatively new competition with new franchises still trying to win hearts and minds and build name recognition, free to air would afford the A-League a much wider reach.
As the Netball ANZ championship can attest, free to air coverage has its obvious benefits.
But how will the casual sporting fan react to the A-League, with its obvious and accepted deficiencies in style and play?
I do need to make the following clarification here: When I say casual sporting fans, I’m not talking about the sports fans that log onto The Roar daily and debate crowd figures, rather the fans that drop on the couch Friday night and want to be entertained to forget the drudgery of their working week.
The general perception of the A-League to these casual sporting fans is mixed.
They don’t particularly understand and appreciate the obvious and expected flaws of the A-League, especially when compared to other codes and overseas leagues.
Make no mistake; the A-League can be incredibly entertaining, and even these doubters would have been thoroughly entertained by the Melbourne V Brisbane clash from last weekend, but the overall depth and quality is still lacking and if this was exposed on free to air, it could damage the league and only foster these negative perceptions.
The advent of Fox Sports, and to a greater extent – due to its wider accessibility – ONE HD, is changing Australia’s sporting palette.
With Italian and German football now appearing on ONE HD, football is getting a greater run beyond the usual suspects of Fox Sports and SBS.
This all helps further educate the casual sports fans, which, in the most part, live on a diet of high scoring AFL and NRL, about the world game; a game that has only had brief flirtations with mainstream / commercial networks, often with mixed results.
The catch-22 for the A-League is the inconsistencies in its product would be further exposed in the mainstream on free to air, yet it needs free to air in the long run to help develop commercially so the knock on effect can help improve the on-field product.
Perhaps the fact that the next media deal is not up for grabs for a couple of years yet, is a good thing as it gives the A-League the necessary time to further develop.
This makes the next few years, when combined with the next stage of expansion, crucial to the leagues development.
The Holy Grail for the A-League is not free to air coverage just yet, rather genuine signs of on-field improvements.
melbvictory87
Guest
we should really show a best-of game. there have been some absolute stunners recently
melbvictory87
Guest
i definately agree on this one. i only watch the world cup, futbol mondial and the football feature dont do it for me. i already know the score o football feature and have little inclination to watch and mundial has no relevance to me whatsoever. they should show a-league game of the round of socceroos
melbvictory87
Guest
finally some1 i can relate to. ive just been saying this for the past 22 years of my life.
Ghost
Guest
Hoodooguru is spot on. We hare holding the A-League up to an impossible standard if we want each and every game to be at some magical FTA 'gold' level. Even with the benefit of manipulating fixtures for the key FTA slots for those codes, AFL and NRL both throw up a fair share of mismatches and low quality stuff. 40-0 grand final anyone? Not bagging those codes just for the sake of it but all I'm saying is we're talking a sporting league here and we don't know what's going to happen on the park until... well, the whistle/siren/hooter has sounded. I also agree by the way that salary cap is a key issue. And being pro-football but I think not unrealistic I also don't think all games (ie 5 this year, 6 next) should be FTA. My own preference in ther shorter term for A-League on FTA would be a Saturday night live game, and then Monday a 2.5hr A-League feature comprising 45mins bulletin / highlights package from the weekend, and then the game of the week played in its entirety afterwards (downside is delay of a couple of days, upside is that Monday is usually quiet for competing sports).
Chop
Roar Guru
'CCM only represent the worst of what happens when a team is encouraged to play into medicority' If by mediocrity you mean 2 grand final appearances in 4 years, then year the Mariners are mediocre as opposed to Perth, Wellington, Brisbane who all play sensational football and can't make a GF..... I know who'd I'd rather support....GO THE MARINERS
Gibbo
Guest
i get it for the football and naked wild on.
DiCanio
Guest
Outside of the top 6 or so leagues in the world I would say that the best aleauge games are good enough to mix it with the others, however there is too many times when whole rounds pass by without a memorable moment CCM only represent the worst of what happens when a team is encouraged to play into medicority (6 in the finals series, low salary cap, no relegation) Hopefully over the next few years the salary cap will increase and the 2-4 extra teams will present us with more impetus for teams to go for wins (ESPECIALLY ON YOUR HOME SOIL CCM) however the seemingly impossible task of introducing relegation is the real pot of gold to getting clubs and athletes to push themselves on the quality they deliver.
hoodooguru
Guest
This is cultural cringe at its worst. Every soccer league (and non-soccer code) has its good (more easily watchable for the casual observer) games and those that aren't so good. There are only 3 leagues in the world that are either EPL, La Liga and Serie A, and many more that aren't. The issue with A-League being shown on FTA isn't about quality (and I'm not conceding that the A-League is poor quality), it's about awareness. It's about the casual observer knowing when the A-League is on, who their local team is and how teams are doing.
Realfootball
Guest
The A-League is the only reason I get Foxtel too. Wouldn't subscribe otherwise. So I guess it working for them.
AndyRoo
Roar Guru
Think about what he said mate and the context. He was not having a go at the EPL he was highlighting that SKY owns most of the broadcast rights so just being on FTA or Pay TV has no baring of quality. But as to your comment Fabergas, Torres and Drogba are much better advertisements for the EPL. In regards to Rooney, Lampard and Gerrard I would prefer Culina, Aloisi and Smeltz. There not as good, but I don’t really care anymore about some hard working poms playing for a bunch of teams I don’t suport.
Freud of Football
Roar Guru
What a rubbish comment. The EPL is so good that people will always pay to watch it, the stations can name their price, people will always pay for the product. It's got nothing to do with it being a low quality league. Give me Gerrard, Lampard and Rooney any day over Culina, Aloisi and Smeltz
agga78
Guest
To answer the question in the article, Yes the A league product is very much good enough for FTA, For 4 years I would say no but this year I can see a standard of football which is 100 times better than the previous seasons mainly Gold Coast (that Brisbane v Gold Coast game was a fantastic game of football, fast crsip passing and great goals. But other games have been entertaining with great Goals, ENTERTAINING is the general rule for most A league games, to football people who have a great knowledge of the game they will tell you it is not technically great and the space in midfield sometimes is disgraceful, and missed passes which people rightfully cristised, but the games are in the most part ENTERTAINING. I believe the standard of the A league is on a par or even better than the other football codes in this country already, others may say that the NRL and AFL get the best atheletes in Australia which is true but the A league gets not only great Australian Atheletes but some great ones from Costa Rica, Thailand, Holland, Ivory Coast, Brazil, Italy etc all countries with far larger pools of talent to choose from than half of Australia which makes for a good standard. Even though by the next TV deal the standard of the league would of doubled, it's highly doubtful FTA networks will take on live A league matches perhaps a Highlights show but thats about it, for reasons such as vested interests NRL and AFL, can't rock the boat. But if we WIN the world cup bid the game will change forever.
Davo
Guest
I love watching the A-League every weekend, it's the only reason I Foxtel. So it would be a great deal cheaper for me if it was on free-to-air. I find it to be a acceptable standard. I watch the NRL as well, and just for the record, over the course of a weekend there are always games that don't live up to any heights. So why single the A-League out?
Robbos
Guest
All the above I totally agree with. $5 million salary cap based of course more money coming into the game via next TV deal, Aussie marquee, Int'l marquee, Asian marquee & youth marquee. Imagine the side GC under Palmer will have.
Mr
Guest
Add an Asian marquee, as well as an International (also could be Asian), and junior marquee makes 4 outside the salary cap.
Realfootball
Guest
Yep, sounds good to me. I think there is a real danger of the League getting bogged down in a nowhereland of mediocrity. The FFA has to be proactive in the next 2 years. The clubs have to be able to spend more on players. I can't understand why they haven't adopted the excellent idea, raised many times, of an Aussie marquee and an international marquee.
Mr
Guest
Bargaining on TV rights deals is different to the Anti-Siphoning List. I believe that World Cup Finals, Asian Cup Finals, and any Australian HAL team succeeding beyond the ACL First Round (ie. Rd16/QF/SF/Final) should be on the ASL. Also if a FFA Cup competition is announced, the SFs & Final of said competition should be on the ASL per other countries around the world. In the short term, the HAL finals series (SFs & FInal) should be on the ASL.
Art Sapphire
Guest
Can you imagine writing all this waffle about the quality of matches if say the salary cap was 5 million. This is why the FFA needs to distribute as much money as possible to the clubs from the TV next deal, because the only way to boost attendances and ratings is to improve the quality on offer. If the AFL are aiming for 1 billion for a 5 year deal then the FFA should be at least be aiming for 300 million over 5 years (that's for everything, Socceroos, A-League etc. etc) 60 million a year - 12 clubs - give them half the money - 2.5 million each for salary payments. The clubs can raise the rest themselves. Bingo - 5 million cap = decent football on the pitch, better players, bigger crowds, better ratings.
MVDave
Roar Rookie
Euro snob...obviously MV v BR wasnt one of the 4, nor NQ v SFC, nor GCU v NQ, nor BR v GCU, nor AU v GCU which were all excellent games for different reasons. Socceroos hold pay tv records and rated through the roof during WC 2006. As part of the bargaining process FFA should ensure Socceroos rights are tied to a FTA component for HAL which may be a highlights show and 1 x match of the round. One HD seems the perfect fit at this stage.
AndyRoo
Roar Guru
Fair call on those games, I quite like watching Adelaide but not sure how others would view them. And I wasn't sure what to do with such a one sided game but I guess all non Fury fans would have enjoyed Smeltz getting 4. It's CC mariners style, I dont hate them as much as Pip but there pressing means neither team really sparkles so there never great games.