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Far from this article intending to dissect and discuss A-League crowds, it instead deals with an even more important issue for Version 5 of the A-League: the next five months.
Let’s talk in a simple manner.
AFL and Rugby League in Australia remain the most prominent and popular sports of all the major codes, simply because more people go to games, more people watch those games on TV, and Australians have had more than a century of support in relation to these games.
While the A-League and football in Australia is in the best shape it ever has been, the last week of crowd complaints and begrudging articles would have many believe otherwise.
Despite some mediocre crowd attendances for the A-League in the past few weeks, obvious factors come into play.
First of all, the A-League spread its wings in the pre-season and began Version 5 of the League in August. An early start to the season, combined with an extra weekend game and a bigger season, could mean only one thing: crowd attendances would drop.
Despite lower crowd averages, the FFA should be reasonably happy at this stage of the Australian football season, considering both the AFL and NRL were (and still are) in their Grand Final stage.
The FFA must now latch onto the AFL and NRL free weekends in this country in the coming months and generate the biggest season of football in Australia they are so desperate to achieve.
Crowds around the nation will be low with the AFL and NRL in competition and now is the time for the FFA to boost popularity and offer an alternative option for a sporting spectacle. There is nothing wrong with the standard of the A-League, just the atmosphere.
The next few months will give us all a look at the stability of the A-League, for if it cannot boost crowd attendances and media awareness in the time of NRL and AFL free weekends and the Socceroos final two home games for the year in a couple of weeks time, the Australian domestic competition will continue to have its critics.
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