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High ticket prices, half full stadia. Welcome to another A-League pre-season, where loyal fans are gouged senseless by ‘music promoters’ and the Euro-snobs crawl out of the woodwork to attend their solitary club game for the year.
The A-League’s new ‘fan-made’ advertising campaign focuses on active support, but you wouldn’t have experienced much of that last Saturday night when Sydney FC took on Everton at ANZ Stadium, with stadium officials banning just about everything used to create the very same kind of atmosphere that Football Federation Australia are trying to advertise.
Forget the vuvezela – the killjoys running these pre-season ‘events’ would rather have you sit down, shut up and leave your megaphones, drums and football-related chants at home – even if stadium security staff deserve to bear much of the blame.
But what else should we expect from Sam Righi, a music promoter who helped bring such talent as Nickleback, the Goo Goo Dolls and Simple Plan to our shores?
The bloke should be forced to listen to Miley Cyrus records on endless repeat for committing crimes against music, but instead we let him handle the supposedly prestigious tour of what one might politely call “the fourth best club outside England’s top four.”
And what do we get? Rip-off ticket prices, inappropriate venues and the absence of star players.
I’m all for friendlies against high-profile opposition – that’s precisely why I think the Sydney Festival of Football is such a fantastic idea – but it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that if your original ticket prices are between $50 – $140, plenty of fans will simply stay at home.
No wonder Righi and his Big Deal touring company were eventually forced to slash ticket prices to just $20 for the cheapest seats, after it became apparent that the so-called Premier League ‘powerhouses’ Everton were in danger of playing in front of three men and a dog.
How much longer do we have to sit back and suffer the FFA’s complicity in allowing tour promoters with zero interest in football to rip off genuine fans?
Will Righi and his cohorts offer refunds to the genuine supporters who coughed up the outrageous $50 asking price for the worst seats in the house, only to discover that the same tickets were later sold for less than half that price?
Of course not.
That more than 40,000 fans turned out at ANZ Stadium in Sydney, and just under 20,000 turned up at Etihad Stadium for Melbourne Heart’s midweek clash with the Merseysiders, is testament to the fact that there is a market for these kinds of friendlies.
But it’s a market that is being robbed blind, and playing the games at such oversized venues suggests that those who promote the tours are either hopelessly optimistic or incredibly stupid.
At least the A-League clubs involved aren’t forced to wear the cost of organising the Everton tour – indeed, they’ll receive an appearance fee for their troubles – and one can hardly begrudge them the early season hit-out and a free shot at publicity.
However, unless some of the bandwagon fans no doubt bored senseless by these glorified training sessions are converted into dedicated A-League supporters, the whole exercise appears to be a waste of time.
Had the matches played so far taken place at the normal home grounds of Sydney FC and Melbourne Heart, we would have seen near-capacity crowds turn out.
Instead, those fans who make the effort are treated to the sight of Diniyar Bilyaletdinov firing the ball over the crossbar and into an empty Row G.
I won’t be attending Brisbane Roar’s clash with Everton at Suncorp Stadium tomorrow night – I’m still trying to get over the dizzying high of seeing Fulham on Australian soil last season – but I wish those who attend all the very best.
But when it comes to watching some meaningful football, the new A-League season can’t kick off soon enough.