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Ben Warren of the Kangaroos during the AFL Round 01 match between Port Adelaide Power and the North Melbourne Kangaroos at AAMI Stadium, Adelaide.
For all sporting administrators, one of the greatest challenges they face is the search to increase crowds at their matches. Even in a high crowd-drawing competition such as the AFL, particular teams struggle to attract crowds, even to their home matches.
Some of Australia’s other major codes, such as the NRL and A-League, often attract crowds of less than 10,000, reducing atmosphere and revenue. The obvious consideration is the overall quality of the product, and this has been one long-standing criticism of the A-League and its predecessor, the NSL.
For the NRL, however, it is the strongest (or certainly equal strongest) domestic rugby league competition in the world, yet the majority of crowd numbers fail to reflect this.
Marketing and promotion is the other key factor, and this is where the A-League has fallen down; a lack of real creativity exists with its marketing, with hardly any mainstream advertising and somewhat bewildering promotion.
For example, an advertising van emblazoned with the basic slogan “Your team. Playing the world’s biggest game” and details of the Glory’s upcoming fixture was seen in Perth.
Very simple promotion, but it’s something, right? Not when this van is parked outside the stadium in the hour before kick-off. I may not be an expert in marketing, but I’d guess most of the people seeing the van at this time would be already going to the game.
Would it not be better served roaming the city streets, where volumes of people will see the message, rather than being a pretty picture for those already attending the match?
Every code has its own interests in mind, and understandably so, but I believe by working together, through some creative marketing and fixturing, there is a way of promoting every code together.
This is a two part plan, the first part involves uniting all the major sporting teams from a particular city.
Could you imagine if every competition worked together so that all the teams from, say, Brisbane travelled to Melbourne on a particular weekend?
Supporters would be encouraged to travel down (also boosting Australia’s economy) and could take in a number of different sports in the one weekend.
The Melbourne Victory would play the Brisbane Roar in the A-League on the Friday night, the Melbourne Storm could play the Brisbane Broncos in the NRL on a Saturday evening and any of the Melbourne AFL teams could play the Brisbane Lions on Saturday or Sunday afternoon.
Brisbane’s lack of an NBL basketball team would make the addition of that sport unattainable, but the introduction of Melbourne’s new Super 15 rugby team means the Queensland Reds could also travel down that weekend. Admittedly there is not a massive window where all the season overlap, but at least three of the aforementioned events could easily happen.
By scheduling these matches so nothing would clash, supporters would be able to take in as many different sports as possible during a weekend, and potentially become ‘hooked’ on a new one.
Codes such as the A-League would benefit, as a new market is opened up, and despite the oft-quoted ‘AFL vs football rivalry’, it would enable the domestic league to grow.
While it may not be the number one priority for all sporting fans, football is extremely popular worldwide, and most Australians would admit some interest. The A-League can benefit from this, by working alongside other codes, rather than competing for supporters.
The overall “city in another city” proposal is something that could only work maybe once or twice a season, with all Brisbane teams travelling to Melbourne at one point, and possibly vice versa, with another city such as Perth doing the same at another time.
It would certainly require a high degree of flexibility from fixture makers, and perhaps an independent governing body to intervene, but if clashes were avoided, even supporters from the host city would benefit.
By marketing this as a unique “city vs city” rivalry with an “us and them” mentality, and through other incentives such as an all-encompassing weekend ticket, fans would be able to support their local team in any sport, and boost the overall health of all competitions.
Even if such a scenario did not occur, another way of benefiting all codes would be to limit the number of fixture clashes that occur on a particular weekend. In a city such as Melbourne, which is a hotbed of sporting activity, this presents challenges, although certainly not insurmountable ones.
During a recent trip, I had an interest in attending a Melbourne Storm match. Having never attended an NRL match before, the code stood to gain extra money through my admission, however a clash with an AFL fixture already booked meant the NRL missed out.
While all codes aim to maximise prime-time viewing, if the NRL match had been an hour later, myself – and potentially many other supporters – would have been able to do both.
Melbourne sporting weekends are popular with people throughout the country, and I am sure many would be keen to take in a different sport if the fixturing allowed it.
Another example of poor planning was back in August 2009 when Perth hosted two football matches on a particular weekend; the West Coast Eagles vs Richmond and Perth Glory vs Melbourne Victory. They clashed on a Friday night.
The A-League match in particular would have benefited greatly from being played at any of the numerous other times it could have been held.
Nothing is impossible, and by marketing sports as a combined package, and putting the interests of the broader spectator base into their minds, governing bodies can ensure their own sport grows in popularity, and also the overall health of sport in Australia is improved.
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