Mixed report-card for Sydney's football fiesta

Sydney’s inaugural Festival of Football was certainly a worthwhile exercise from a footballing perspective, giving Vitezslav Lavicka, Dusan Bajevac, Sam Allardyce and Walter Smith some invaluable insight into how their respective squads are tracking ahead of the season proper.

But from a marketing and promotional perspective, it could have been much, much better.

From early in the piece, the organisers of the festival were out spruiking up the affordability of their ‘$29 for two games’ tickets.

On the surface it looked like a fair deal for a double-header, admittedly involving the middle tier of European football, teams more likely to be Europa Cup also-rans than champions of Europe.

But scratch beneath the surface and a more realistic picture emerges of the ticket price structure for this four-team pre-season tournament.

The reality is that the cheapest children tickets were also the same $29 tickets that adults were paying, for category D tickets in the respective corners of the Sydney Football Stadium, or behind the goals.

In this cheapest category, there was no discount for children, pensioners or concessions; just one price, regardless of age or circumstance.

For many, the incentive to sit at home and tune on Fox, or choose another option, was simply too great.

What’s worse is that there was no category D family tickets, perhaps an admission that the seats behind the goals are best kept for the supporters group, rather than younger children.

But it meant that those after a family ticket had to upgrade to category C, those bays in line with the bylines, where the individual tickets were $45 for adults and $29 for children. A family ticket there would set you back $120, hardly what you would call affordable family entertainment.

And that, of course, is before you factor in the add-ons, such as public transport or parking, a programme, and of course food and drink, the demand for which tends to multiply across two games.

It’s conceivable that a day out at the football could end up costing the family upwards of $250. Spare change for some, but very few.

Is it any wonder then that thousands of Sydney families choose the Aroma coffee festival at The Rocks on the first day of the four-team tournament?

Compare the Festival of Football prices, say, with the NRL in Sydney, where much advertising mileage is made out of the fact you can get a family ticket for $48.

Is it little wonder then, on Saturday evening, that Parramatta Stadium was a sell-out for the Eels’ clash with the Sydney Roosters, which attracted just short of 20,000.

Equally, there were 15,000 fans at Leichhardt Oval for the Tigers’ clash with the lowly Sharks, meaning at least a percentage of these 35,000 fans were out of the equation as potential Festival of Football customers.

While 15,000 were simultaneously at the SFS, you just wonder what a little more foresight might have achieved had the final matchday fixtures been scheduled for yesterday, where there was not a single League game in Sydney.

Again, with better prices, this might have been an opportunity to market to families via the notion of affordable entertainment.

Elsewhere, and especially given the torrential rain, there was a decent roll-up of 9,000 for Wednesday night’s mid-week double header. Given the success of the mid-week fixtures in the most recent A-League season, the attempt to attract the after-work market was a good one.

Here the promotional push should be less about the family and more about the after-work crowd, distinguishing between events within the event.

While ticket prices, seating arrangements and scheduling are obviously key factors in the success or otherwise of such a tournament, there were other elements that impacted it.

The choice of teams is one.

This obsession with all things English Premier League and all things British has become rather boring. It’s one thing to land a Manchester United, Liverpool or Arsenal, but how many people really want to go out and watch Fulham, or Blackburn, or Wolverhampton Wanders, or Glasgow Rangers?

To borrow a line from A-League season one, “not many, if any”.

With the greatest of respect to the wonderful Rangers supporters club, who at least showed up in force, Celtic’s 3-0 hiding at the hands of Braga of Portugal in the Champions League qualifiers last week showed where Scottish club football really is.

Meanwhile, Blackburn and the predictable aerial and muscle-up game of Allardyce isn’t exactly the type of the football that sells seats, Brett Emerton and all.

The thought of seeing Jason Roberts, Phil Jones and Steven N’Zonzi isn’t exactly going to get the turnstiles ticking.

How refreshing it was to see the least heralded of the visitors, AEK, dish up the best football, illuminating the tournament through entertainers like Nikos Liberopoulos, Iganccio Scocco and Pantelis Kafes.

If the obsession has to remain EPL, let’s hope that this next year the festival will feature one of the bigger clubs. If there’s no chance of a big-gun like Arsenal or Real Madrid coming out, focus on some of the better footballing sides from other leagues, like FC Twente, Ajax, Benfica, Atletico Madrid, Roma, Fiorentina, Marseille, Lyon or Bayern Munich.

Or how about a Galatasary or Panathinaikos, teams likely to appeal to larger audiences, generating some great atmospheres.

And when they’re here, promote them to death. Very few of the sports fans I spoke to in the lead-up to this tournament, or throughout the week, even knew it was on, let alone who was playing.

Keeping the official website up to date would have been a good starting point.

Another area that needs attention is the live broadcast in the host city. For decades cricket did a great job of building up its crowds by ensuring that the host city was blacked-out from live coverage.

These are all little things, but ultimately add up to much.

While crowds to the Everton, Boca Juniors and Festival of Football tours have been decent, what the real message out of this pre-season is that Australia’s football fans are weary, sick of having to pay exorbitant prices, well over the odds, for what are essentially training hit-outs.

It’s time for organisers and administers to listen to the fans, re-engage with them, and start offering affordable entertainment.

Twelve months from now the hope is we are talking exclusively about the football on display rather than the things that might have been done better.

One day we will learn.