Will football overtake other Australian codes?

Absolutely - while Australia has been world champions of several things, we tend to do well in and support only the games that we play (which sounds cyclical, and is, but is a self perpetuating phenomenon!). The only two global sports are athletics and soccer, and we suck at both of those. As tennis has become more and more global in recent years the amount of Australians at the top level has decreased. We have at certain times been world champs at several sports, but in most we dont have many competitors: swimming (from around 5 nations, realistically), Rugby League (three nations), Union (around 5 nations), Cricket (eight nations).

There is no doubt what you say is true. But then you could put up a fairly good argument that NRL, AFL & even cricket, we are the best because of the lack of competition anywhere else. Similiarly how Australia easily tops the Commonwealth games & don't dominate in the Olypmics.

I think its not only the biff factor, but a big reason why soccer wont be the most popular is that Australians like to watch and support something that is an example of the highest level of the game. A reason that NRL, AFL and Cricket are so popular is that Australia is dominant, and the local leagues are the best examples of the sport anywhere in the world. I think thats why we support RU and Soccer only at a national level - And more people would casually follow the Premier League than the A league. Probably a large reason for the decline in basketball's popularity.

I'm impressed pippy boy.

David Norm is a strict educationalist, so I will correct you before he does so in his inimitable way: These are the facts.

Ok This is the FACTS!!! The HAL is of a fairly poor standard atm so u can argue it needs time i dont think the HAL will ever be massive i reckon it will prob end up at around an average crowds of 15000-30000 between all clus once full up and running. The socceroos however are already more popular in my opinion then any other international team Most of there matches are on Cable TV or really l8 at night and u can ask almost any lover of sport and they will be able to tell u who we playedlast who we play next and that we are in the world cup. Everyone follows the socceroos as long as they continue to qualify for th world cup there popularity will grow the whole world competes in Football 'soccer' n takes it very seriously Aussie want to be part of that. If the socceroos were on Free to Air like the Aus vs Urg game was the whole country would watch selling the socceroos our to foxtell was the FFA stupidest move but the HAL will prob never get bigger then AFL n NRL unless the stardard raise to a ponit were teams like Arsenal chelsea ect are getting player directly from the HAL

Michael, the MLB is a totally different sport and in a league of its own with popularity and finances and as such is hard to compare to Aus. One average starting player for an MLB team would earn more than an A-League clubs salary cap so $25 Million is spare change. It is posible that football in Aus will get outside investment. Clubs across the world are changing their financial structures. There are teams popping up all over Brazil with the sole aim of identifying and selling talent. There are clubs in some of the "lesser" European leagues that are starting to get the backing of some of the Russian Oligarch's who see these clubs with large domestic fan-bases and proud histories as "ideal" investments. What is to say Australia can't become a type of "glamour league"? A plaything for the rich who come here to live comfortably? Just look at Australia as a country - Standard of living is exceptional, climate is great, english is the main language, currency and economics are preferrable to the rich. It has the prerequisites to allow Australia to attract investors for the game.

That alert never seems to work against you.

oh, oh - victim card alert - victim card alert - victim card alert....

I don't really care if AFl/NRL stays as major sports. What Football fans want is fair coverage, not repeatedly being treated by the AFL/NRL and their media cronies as the enemy and as 2nd-class citizens, and with some equivalent of media coverage. And let us have the World Cup. That's it.

Apologies for simplifying this but i've always believed that soccer was never close to being the dominent sport in Australia, US, Canada, & New Zealand because those coutries for whatever reason much preferred full contact or collision sports - NRL & AFL, NFL, NHL, and Rugby. Junior participation numbers for soccer in Australia is far higher than other codes but a lot of this is due to the 'soccer mum' influence. When Aussies get into their teenage or adult years they migrate to the footy codes that have the biff.

Then Chris should do the right think and turn her into an Eels supporter.

I suspect its because they have a nice colour scheme more than anything.

Were the 70s and 80s glory days?? I thought the then VFL nearly went broke in the mid 80s.

Actually, I'm aware of at least one Brazilian born player in the AFL today. Here's his wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_O%27Brien It opens: "Heritier "Harry" O'Brien (born 15 November 1986) is an Australian rules footballer in the Australian Football League He was born to a Brazilian mother and a Congolese father in Rio de Janeiro, and moved to Western Australia when he was 3 years old.[1] However he was raised by his Australian stepfather and was 19 years old when he found out about his biological father.[2] He supported the Essendon Bombers as a child, with his family owning a pet dog named Sheedy after the long-time Essendon coach, Kevin Sheedy. " Only in Australia would you find a kid born in Rio, to a Congalese father, who named his dog Sheeds, and took to aussie rules. How can anyone not love the diversity of Australia? We just keep offering these rare gems to the rest of the world.

no doubt but... in Sydney?

Baby Boomers.. control all the money and can't get enough of AFL because they remember the glory days of the 70's, 80's

From memory basketball shot itself in the foot when it decided to revoke franchise licences and hand them over to other 'markets' that had greater (economic) potential. Basketball since then has been dying a slow death. FFA take note of that - taking 'franchise' literally is never a good thing. Football presence is part marketing, part community involvement (by the clubs and by the people). There is little advertising of HAL right now compared to other codes. Perhaps FFA isn't as flushed with money for advertising space for greater newspaper/media presence. They could certainly do better and will need to for people to 'think' more about the HAL and football, and think more of attending. Maybe football doesn't need to be No. 1, just a very close second. Too early to tell. Need another 10 to 15 years to gauge that. FFA have a lot of work to do.

I agree that football will never 'take over' AFL and NRL, but who says that it has to? Football will continue to grow and become stronger, and I see no reason why we can't have strong support for one more football code in a great sporting nation like Australia. Also, I'll echo others sentiments - I'm not sure that I agree with the 'tone' of this article.

why? If the Socceroos are such a major player domestically, then, having 1 or 2 games a year in any given city is sure to be a sell out.....surely? The 3 WC qualifiers drew 165K to a combination of ANZ twice and MCG.....that's 247K capacity. So, running about 67% for those big 3 games. Tri-Nations Wallabies were more squished, ANZ drew 80K, Subi 36K and Suncrop 47K, so, 164K into 181K capacity - so running around 90% for those big 3 games. TN Wallabies tickets look a bit hotter than WC Qualifier Socceroos? AFL finals had 7 matches at the MCG for 532K from 700K capacity, so running around 76%. Now, for the 'big 3' games, AFL prelims and GF with 300K capacity drew 265K. About 88% NRL big 3 SoO drew 184K to venues with capacity of 192,500 so near enough to 95%. These are some of the benchmarks year on year. The Socceroos are in a crowded market. btw - the other 2 Socceroos matches drew 61K to stadia with 101,800 capacity. So, about 60%. (obviously hurt by the low figure at Etihad as the Netherlands game did okay at SFS). So - the total figures, AFL finals, 9 matches, capacity 793,500, att 625K, 79% to capacity. the others 15 matches as above, capacity 932,300, att 700K, 75% to capacity. For what it matters.