A-League needs to scrap midweek games

Art, Just curious, was that meant to "FFA" or "FFS" at the end of your post?

It's common knowledge. I've heard Buckley and Gorman mention it before.

How are you privy to the details of this deal?

TV deal with Fox stipulates that the season has to end before the NRL and AFL seasons start so can't have finals in April. Next season is the last season of the current deal.

Having the Victory and Hellas play each other in the cup mid week would generate a decent crowd. But - with a cup format, are you able to pick and choose who plays each other??

If their bringin in the cup next season they should leave that free for the mid week slot. And we can see Melbourne Victory play South Melbourne at Bob Jane or Hear play melbourne knights at Sunshine. Sydney FC v Syndey Olympic at Belmore would also be fantastic. I don't know FFA's obsession with condensing the season. Have it run from October or late September to April. The start of the Winter season codes is not going to affect the attendence of the final series because the momentum will be with us. And Fuss's suggestion of each team plaing each other four times is brilliant as their are more games played which means morre professionalism. And hopefully more local players playing for Australia,

Whether you like mid-week games or not they will be there next season because the TV deal with Fox Sports stipulates that A-League season must end in early March to avoid conflict with NRL and AFL seasons. Next season is the last season on the current deal so perhaps it won't be a problem for season 8. The A-League will run from October to early March next season. I think that's about 22 weeks. There might be some FIFA international dates in there so that probably drops it to 20 weeks. Assuming a 10-team 27-round competition plus 4 weeks for the finals and unknown number of weeks for the FFA Cup (no contract on the FFA Cup so it can run after March) means that you have to have mid-week games. Even without the FFA Cup the 6 weeks of school holidays in December and January, where mid-weeks games are a decent option, the FFA won't be enough to schedule all the fixtures into the period. Bottom line being that mid-week games that are not there during schools holidays will be there next season. Not rocket science but not child's play either.

While the facilities to play regional games exist in North Queensland, it is the upgrade to telecast standards that holds expansion back. The Fury would have got their core 4k to Tuesday's Roar match (if not more) had the game be played in Townsville. Instead, the game was moved to a facility that ticked all the boxes for FOX but was an embarrassing flop for the FFA with Fury fans unable to make the two-day drive to Brisbane. Unless the FFA lobby government for its own piece of the pie (in the same way NRL and AFL pressure local governments to improve their facilities) then football will remain marginalised. Disappointing considering more people play football (soccer) than any other football code.

The Fury already covers an area from Mackay to Cairns and is in negotiations to also play games in Darwin. No need to head further south. In saying this, the travel distance required for supporters means mid-week games will never take-off. Further, schedueling games on the Wednesday of the school exam week defies logic if we are trying to encourage families with children to the games.

Completely agree Art! Like you say, try to cram them into the holiday period if possible - but at least with all games of a "midweek round" happeneing at once it can actually start to get some traction - when its midweek round you know your team will be playing and you might look it up and see, rather than scattered games on a wednesday on occasion. You are also keeping up to date with the other scores before and after your teams game. It wont be so isolated. I do believe in midweek games, I think that over time people will get more used to it. Having the games on is more important that bumber crowds for those games I think, but theres certainly better ways of doing it, and playing games over tuesday/wednesday and even monday or thursday where applicable would work much better. The only issue would be whether the aleague can take up so much TV time during those periods.

Midweek games need to be restricted to school holidays or to regional centres where the general population has a better than even chance of getting to the game on time. Perhaps clubs could develop regional academies and take a "Home" game to a regional centre midweek, if the facilities are available

Or as has also been suggested (back,but not as major owner) a QLD super club,playing say 9 games at Suncorp & 3 each at Skilled & Dairy Farmers. That way the QLD government still gets some usage of their stadiums. Could even get more usage by setting up big screens at say Suncorp,Skilled when playing at Dairy Farmers & vice versa & allowing a reduced stadium rent for these televised matches. In turn the Roar can charge a nominal general admission entry fee say $10 adults & $5 child. Many ways to skin a cat.

I hope you are all wrong about your dreams of a 10 team comp as the Fury have proven their supporter base far-exceeds other clubs (Gold Coast) and is located in the fastest developing area of Austalia so to see it removed would be tragic for football across the country. The Fury deserve the right to see their community ownership model tried. Considering Clive Palmer makes his money from the north, maybe he should remain loyal to those that make his money for him and sell the Gold Coast licence back to the FFA and purchase the Fury's? Solve two problems at once.

I find midweek games to be fantastic and would be happy if MVFC only played games on Fri night, Saturday night and Midweek. All MVFC fans I know hate Sunday matches but, perhaps, Sunday matches are better accepted in other cities - e.g. Newcastle & Gosford? If we have a 10-team competition in 2011/12 I would like to see: a) each team play the other 4 times = 36 matches and no unfairness since each team plays the other twice at home b) the competition opens on Friday, 7 October 2011 and the home & away season lasts 26 weeks(*) to the end of March c) the finals are played in April, with the Grand Final on the last Saturday in April each season. d) 10 rounds are midweek rounds and played during consecutive weeks - mainly in December, Jan & Feb on Tue & Wed (obviously there will be 2 games in different time zones on one of these day) e) every team plays at home on alternative week-ends, which means there is a game in Melbourne every week-end for 6 months each year * I haven't factored in FIFA international dates.

The games in hand thing makes doesn't bother me to be honest. I like the extra scenarios "if this team wins all there games in hand" etc But a one off Wednesday game is just too easy to miss. Sometimes you even forget you should be looking to see if there is a game on. At least with a full round there will be the normal previews and such to give you a heads up.

Solution 1 - 3 midweek games in different time zones - Wellington, Sydney, Perth. Solution 2. If overlap is unavoidable. Fox can show games on different channels or if they want to use one channel they can use Viewer's choice. There is always a way.

If multiple games aren't possible on one week night, then look to stretch a round over a two week period, rather than the current situation where a round was stretched over a 5 or 6 week period.

If the FFA are looking to both condense the season AND add a cup comp, then it is impossible to do away with mid week fixtures. I agree with Art that one problem has been the stretching out of rounds - it's quite frustrating to look at a table and see that every team has played a differnet amount of games, sometimes by a big margin (there should never be more than a difference of one game played). The problem with having, say, three mid-week games on the one night are the current broadcast righs - Fox probably doesn't allow a situation where three games are played at once (or close enough to it).

Finally some common sense! Although it is the FFA we're talking about here.

Have a few midweek rounds over the holiday period. If there are 10 clubs next season. 27 rounds of 5 matches. 3 of which are midweek rounds - for example 3 games on Tuesday and 2 games on Wednesday to complete a full round. This way we do not have the stupid situation where one club has played 3 or 4 more games than another club. Problem solved. It's not rocket science, FFA!