- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Like a pair of modern day private investigators looking for the source of problems in marital bliss, falling A-League crowds and revenues are being investigated by a two man team headed up by Stinger and Cafu.
The FFA has been criticised recently over falling crowd attendances in the A-League and in response, CEO Ben Buckley moved decisively last month to appoint a two person task-force to address falling crowd numbers and revenues.
The task-force is composed of “former Gold Coast CEO” Stinger, who controversially resigned from Adelaide over a year ago, and “Melbourne robotics identity” Cafu.
It is understood that Stinger and Cafu will write their own terms of reference for the crowd review, and will engage consulting firm SD Consulting to assist with research and planning. The review is expected to be complete by the end of 2010.
Following an expensive, controversial and at times heated public campaign to get Australia’s bid books for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup Finals to FIFA’s headquarters in Zurich, the shift in focus this coming year will be very much back to the domestic scene and the A-League.
The FFA has budgeted over 50 per cent of its entire spend for the 2010/2011 financial year on the A-League compared to less than 40% last financial year.
The FFA also recently canvassed the eleven A-League clubs for suggestions and ideas about how to tackle the A-League’s growing pains. They then set up a conference with all major stakeholders to thrash out some of the ideas.
Ways to attract fans to games and boost revenues, the A-League’s competition format, a new FFA Cup and club financial sustainability were among topics explored in the strategic review, according to Football Federation Australia.
FFA chief executive Ben Buckley said the discussion points arose in consultation with the 11 clubs as a means for addressing ongoing challenges and opportunities for the fledgling competition.
“We consulted with each of the clubs in the lead-up to the meeting and the meeting provided the forum for collective discussion and review of the strategic issues that had been identified,” Buckley said.
“Coming out of the meeting is a range of options that we have all agreed are worth exploring as part of a strategic review process and business plan.”
“We’re only five years into building this competition into a strong domestic league,” Buckley said.
“We need to take stock of what has worked and what has not worked and if we need to a make changes to the model we will.”
One way or another the FFA’s bid to stage the FIFA World Cup finals will be over by the middle of December and around that time Stinger and Cafu will report back to the FFA on their suggestions for improving the A-League and getting the crowds and the revenues back up.
Are you the ultimate team manager? Pick your own superstar team and go head to head with other football fans for glory and cash prizes on Draftstars. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.