The A-League’s annus horribilis

ItsCalledFootball These claims are not from the AFL, they are an indpendent market research firm. You will note that the NRL figures are almost as high as the AFL figures, so we can be be assured that the report is quite objective.

Twatter there are definitely thresholds to "exposure". The Akermanis exposure might have been acceptable (although,even then, I'm not 100% sure), but there ain't too many that would view the St Kilda exposure as acceptable.

Itscalledfootball Another way to look at the 14 mill average per club. Using round numbers to make the calc a bit simpler: 110 million viewers per season, and 22 rounds, translates to exactly 5 million viewers per round. 8 games per round, means 625,000 viewers per game, i.e. each club is getting those 625,000 viewers. Multiply that back out by 22 rounds, and that means each club is getting a touch over 14 million viewers per season (on average), as the report said.

I should add, it's precisely because of these sorts of figures that the AFL is pushing towards a $1 billion TV rights deal. On top of that, the media exposure means AFL clubs are excellent value for sponsors, even when AFL jumpers attract the largest sponsorship dollars, it still represents excellent value for money for the sponsors.

ItsCalledFootball this is an independent report prepared for the Advertising industry - it's not commissioned by the AFL. As you can see from the figures, the NRL is right up there with the AFL (as we would expect). Everything else is miles behind, also as we would expect, because the AFL and NRL is on free to air, and soccer and rugby aren't. It's because of these sorts of figures that AFL clubs attract massive sponsorship dollars, as much as all the other codes combined. The average figures per club are calculated as follows. AFL matches attract an annual TV audience of about 112 million per annum (that's all 185 games, and preseason games combined for the whole season). Divide 112 million by 16 and you get 7 million per team. But of course, everytime one team plays, the other team is also being viewed, so the figure becomes 14 million per team. That's an average: Collingwood gets 28 million on it's own,double the average.

Twatter Well this no excuses for Cronulla considering they have one of the highest junior rugby league base, and the Roosters well they have the lowest supporter base in Sydney but strangely are more popular away from NSW. Add Penrith to the list there the three lowest drawing Sydney teams of the NRL despite also having one of higher junior bases.

NF. Yes good point, but your leaving out The Roosters vs The Warriors or Cronulla vs Souths at the S.F.S. on a cold and miserable Saturday night aren't you.

Twatter I recall the Broncos having the highest attendance in the NRL and out-attending the Lions by a mile, the Cowboys & Titans are drawing well in QLD so to say noone shows up is far-fetched considering the increase of attendances as late so think before you speak next time. Sydney crowds are on the rise due too so don't jump to conclusions of a sport you know little about focus on football.

Realfootball. N.R.L is a television sport i could never understand how close it came in ratings to Aussie Rules infact it beats Aussie Rules on tv on cable as mentioned by Roy Masters in his column. But as i've noticed that with the A League in primarily A.F.L.states the attendances are far greater than supposed N.R.L states of N.S.W. and Q.L.D. Apart from the Swans and Lions people just dont turn up for sports in those states you have a look at the attendance figures of the N.R.L in June and July their round about 10.000. It's been turned into a T.V. sport, the rub is people won't show up for it at night in those states.

Titus . An interesting read in the S.M.H.. Im not having a go at you ,so buy going buy that example of Akermanis last year disloyalty to his teamates ,his club, and too the code the media attention around the level of distrust and deception at the time actually made a sponsor shine ( media exposure), it's a very strange business of pitching and marketing so Ben Cousins at West Coast made their sponsors (potentialy money) leaving them felling reassured about their product and exposure with his life, should i mention St Kilda. They must be very loyal business clients or incredibly niave.

Ummm sod off the lot of you saying FC will change names and suggesting a move to Belmore. FC are the established club, so the new boys can work around it. Frankly Homebush is a pretty well accepted border between east and west for most folk that I talk to. The clubs crowd averages haver been around the 12-18k mark and it is only this year they dropped below 10k on the back of lets face it a rubbish season! Maybe FC should just focus on the Eastern and innerwest reagion and leave the west to get a team together if they can find an honest business man to put a viable plan together and unite the fans of the old clubs so that the west can have its own team instead of whinging about FC. Or we could just try curing cure cancer...

I am surprised to see NRL so close to AFL, given the disparity in game attendances.

it's an interesting article that one you've linked to....I heard Eddie McGuire happily referencing it this morning on the radio......no surprise why. The for the comparisons - the avg viewers per club - you ought put the 4 codes in given you did on the avg spectators per club: SO, as the article states "On Australian Television" AFL 14.64 million viewers per club. NRL 13.81 million viewers per club. A-League soccer clubs average 1.5 million viewers per club, and SuperRugby clubs just 958,000. the reason I reckon you need these included is that along with the average spectators per club (per season), you need to factor in the number of games to achieve that. on the most recently complete HAL season, we're talking HAL - 30 games per club NRL - 24 games per club AFL - 22 games per club now, the RU in particular? is that Australian spectators? I'm not quite sure how to factor that one, and of course noting both the NRL and HAL have a slight potential variance due to a single NZ side in each. What's clear re the finances of SANZAR is that the Australian market in a tri-nations tournament such as the Super15s is only so relevant stand alone. Anyways, it's all a bit of apples vs oranges vs pears. And re all the Collingwood stuff in the article........it's kinda both impressive and scary at the same time!!!

Some NEWs to balance out all the negativity. http://www.smh.com.au/business/afls-success-in-black-and-white-20110308-1bmk6.html "A-League soccer clubs average 1.5 million viewers per season, and SuperRugby clubs just 958,000." "The A-League averaged 297,000 spectators per club, and the Super-15 competition 166,000." "The average NRL attendance was 436,000 spectators" "The AFL averaged 918,000 spectators per club last season" This was during a bad year for the league. The a-league is establishing itself but the potential is clearly there, most importantly the standard of play is heading in the right direction. Until we get on FTA it is pointless to make comparisons with AFL/League, but Super Rugby is a good comparison and we stack up allright. This is just the a-league, we still have the National team, both mens and womens, and participation numbers that are the envy of all the codes. The over emphasis on the negative is not helping, lets just get the foundations right and enjoy what we have and what we will have. For the love of the game.

Jamesb I've put in that figure because I honestly believe that is the sort of figure that the FFA will be looking for, its acheivable, and for our code, it would be more than enough! Good point about memberships, every team should be striving for minimum 5000. As of next season, just in Melbourne alone there will probably be around 25k a-league members. For me Ben Buckley has to go, being a CEO is as much a perception game as anything else. And as we all know, most football people aren't happy with him. The best 2 people for the job today, in my opinion are John O'Neil and Brendan Schwab. John was there at the start, helped invent the league, would know it inside out, and Brendan is the best administrator in our game today. He has been the chairman of the PFA for years, I'd love to see him take that next step. But I don't see it happening any time soon!

Asanchez , $250 million of 4-5 years would be fantastic. We are not after a billion tv deal. (although it would be nice) It gives the A_League a chance to become a viable comp, and also bring in better standard players. I think the next 5 or 6 years the A-League will consolidate with just 10 teams. Then expand I also think Ben Buckley, who comes from an AFL background should try to implement a membership drive, so that all clubs at least have 5000 members each, and therefore don't rely on private investors. The same thing if new clubs want to be in the A_league. I'd have a strict criteria in place that clubs coming in should have at least 5000 paid up members.

ICF - congrats on a well written article that avoided the temptation to throw barbs at other codes. Good stuff!! (esp re the 'perceived lack of supprt' line - that was good respectful and non-judgemental language). (just so you know that I'm not a negative nelly and appreciate good work).