A-League needs a good plan for longevity

Playing at a smaller stadium wont help if they don't control the revenue from it. A-league clubs need to own the stadium.

Agreed, I think that A-League clubs should do much more in the local football community. Turning up to schools and shopping centres promotes the game to the non converted. They need to put the effort into ready made football fans, showing up at football clubs in their state to run coaching clinics. GIving junior players free entry to games, trying to attract the casual fans with those one or two big games a year just like Adelaide do. Or quite simply, use locally produced players, you'd be surprised at the interest you get from local fans when they see a local boy playing in the team.

Another thing to do is to look at the reasons as to why Adelaide's crowds are so consistent. Many of the reasons stated for poor crowds elsewhere have been mitigated through various initiatives and programmes. I don't deny though that Hindmarsh is probably the perfect stadium for a club like Adelaide with Adelaide Oval being available for one or two big games a year that are marketed to a far broader audience.

I still believe that each team can move from the monstrosity stadiums they play in now (which is completely unsustainable) to smaller "boutique" stadiums. Each team next season will play 27 games; 9 teams x 3 times. 13 or 14 of those games will be played at their home ground. Some teams are paying $200k per game just to use the huge stadium, and why? Because the smaller stadiums don't meet Foxtel's standards (and whatever additional reason). You may laugh, but listen to this: - Melbourne Heart move their home ground to Lakeside Oval (South Melbourne's home ground). South Melbourne play during the AFL season so the only time there may be a potential clash is during the end of the A-League season and the start of the VPL season. The refurbished Lakeside Oval will have improved television towers to also accommodate Athletics Australia. Melbourne Heart can still play around 5 home games at AAMI Park to avoid clashing with South and for big crowd-drawing Derbies. You must also think of the potential benefit of Heart signing up some old South Melbourne fans who are still sitting on the A-league fence. - Sydney FC move to Belmore (Sydney Olympic's home ground). If Sydney Olympic need to refurbish their stadium a little to accommodate Sydney FC and improve viewing/television streaming then so be it. They can charge SFC $50k a game, which will be great for financing those upgrades. Belmore is only just south of Sydney CBD and it's close to a train station and public transport. Bigger games (Sydney Derby, Victory game, etc) can be played at Sydney Football Stadium similar to how Victory play (their bigger) 5 home games at Etihad. Like Heart playing at Lakeside Oval, you have to think of the benefit of Sydney FC signing up some old Sydney Olympic fans who are too stubborn to jump on the A-League wave. - Western Sydney play out of Parramatta Stadium. I don't think they'd need much to gain the support of the west, but if need be, play 2 games at Sydney United's home ground and 2 games at Marconi's home ground. Again, the potential benefits of this is to get all those "old soccer" fans following the "new football" team in town. - Perth Glory is already planning to move from NIB to the WA State's hockey centre. - Brisbane need to move to a smaller stadium. I don't know much about Ballymore, but if it's good enough for Rugby Union, it's good enough for Football. They too can play their bigger games and local Derby with GCU at Suncorp Stadium. Basically, all these stadiums and current home ground owners of my proposed stadiums could do with a financial injection and a stadium 'rejuvenation'/upgrade. Why not spend some money to be able to accommodate an A-League side? It's a win-win situation for both A-League sides, local teams and the FFA. That's how these teams can become financially sound, not by shortening the season and continue to live in the shadow of the AFL and NRL.

I enjoyed the article BB, some good ideas there. "What I left out in my article is the need for junior football players to be given a season general admission pass to lure more families to the games." The Mariners are already doing this, some other A-league clubs probably are as well.

I admire your well intentioned article but like the FFA, you need to dig deeper into why crowds have been falling before coming up with ideas to fix the league. There were certainly some very impressive crowd figures in the early seasons but the biggest problem was that this drew on a big proportion of casual sports viewers and general football fans (as opposed to fans of A-League clubs). The FFA has erred in trying to chase up the casual sports fan, they are, as the name suggests, casual. Happy to turn up when things are exciting (like the Grand Final) but likely to desert the team when things go bad. What the A-League has failed to do is capture the general football fan, people who have grown up on a diet of international football have only a fleeting interest in the A-League. They are a tough market to crack as they know the difference between good and bad and are unlikely to shell out money for some of the rubbish that has been served up over the course of the A-League. I agree that the A-League stretched itself too thin, not in the case of too many teams as some would suppose, it's not like North Queenslands existence was stealing fans from Brisbane or the Gold Coast. More to the point, with so many teams to look after, the FFA was fighting a losing battle to consolidate all the teams at the same time. It should have consolidated first and then expanded. And starting the season later is a no-brainer, even the most dyed in the wool football fans like myself get distracted by the AFL/NRL seasons. I find it hard to entice friends down to the first A-League game of the season when they're still worrying about whether their AFL team is going to make the finals. Have a BIG opening weekend with all the big games on the first weekend and capture the attention of the media in the AFL/NRL post season. At the same time, for those die hards who want football early August-October should be the time where we start pre-season friendlies between A-League Clubs, or between A-League and State Representative teams and we could even start the FFA Cup in this period where State League teams are at their peak and the A-League teams may be more vulnerable and I'm sure local fans would flock to see A-League clubs coming to take on a local team (i'd love to see Brisbane come and take on one of the Big WA teams). One thing I disagree on is luring big name players just because they are a big name. If they are a big name they need to prove that they can still play. The likes of Sterjovski and Burns have been abject failures for Glory. Rizzo, Moore, Foxe and Tiatto hardly set the world alight in their local stints. But on the other side of the coin, we've been priveleged to see the likes of Muscat (at times), Skoko and Corica play out their careers in the A-League. The big name signing doesn't always work because they are on the wane and unless they've developed into a canny older player who relies on their skill and guile they often flatter to deceive. Fowler for example drew huge crowds initially who then realised that he was well past his best and it was almost like seeing a completely different player. Every fan of Glory I see, I ask "would you sign him if his name wasn't Robbie Fowler?" and most would not.

Agree The issue is can a club afford to play games and stsdiums and loose money and go broke.... or is it better to play less games when you have the market to yourself and make money... I fully understand the football issue of 30 to 40 weeks ... but in doing so if it send the clubs broke and does not get a FTA deal then what purpose does it serve..... Maybe the time has come to use whatever political influence we can muster and get SFC out of it's Aussie Stadium deal.... and the Roar out of Suncorp & the Gold Coast out of their stadium... and play at smaller affordable stadiums ... Hopefully FFA and the studies they have done will help for Hal 7 and beyond.... but the foundation must be to ensure the A-League clubs do not go broke otherwise all other planning is useless...

good point. Fox can show all the codes but FTA cant (or wont). Am not sure the season length is the main basis in any "survive to grow" argument: number of teams maybe; remaining on fox maybe. The best part of the HAL this season - on field improvements - is attributable to the players getting more game time. the product is improving because of the length of the season as much as anything else.

i disagree - there arent too many genuine stars that wld come or we can afford, espec when the genuinely good ones (Yorke and Fowler aside) are normally headed for the MLS (Henry) or Middle Eastern superannuation fields. Can the clubs afford the inflated demands of injury prone names? Loan deals or guest stints sounds like a NSL initiative (Ian Rush) which is all short term with no lasting impact. However, altho i disagree it dosnt mean i dont see where you are coming from. Bums on seats is the need; i just think getting knackered players over here because they were good 5+ years ago isn to the right strategy. the FFA cup is interesting to extend the season - 6 months is too short for a season. the lay off is a killer for fans and players alike. the clubs in essence are only generating interest/ income (or losing it i guess) for half the year.

Further to my above post.. We want FTA TV .... OK when will it be run... do we think any commercial network will choose Football over the AFL or NRL... so if we want FTA TV ... which we all do... we have to accept it will be shown when the NRL & AFL are not playing... To do otherwise is to say give me a round sqaure ... its never gonna happen...

Good article and some interesting ideas... I think there is a Catch 22 issue... Football needs to run over 30 to 40 weeks ... in Australia outside the window between the start and end of the the AFL & NRL seasons it is very hard to get any kinda meaningful media... So how important is the media in all this .... me think a very important part... Football can get by with limited media coverage as it does now in the window... but It is very hard when other codes are in your face all day so to speak... The next issue is paying the bills... the 780 million or 180 odd per year media deal + sponsors of the AFL & the annual 100 million doll;are + sponsors of the NRL ... also add to the issue of making money.. Football 17 million + run 9 national teams... so to compare what football does to the NRL & AFL is foolish...like to people actually expect Football to match the AFL & NRL promotioms budgets... From my stance the A-League needs to be able to run and not bleed to death ... if that means 24 games then that is what it has to be.... otherwise the whole thing falls over and you get no football... How you grow the media income... the media in general is a vexed question ... however sending clubs broke on an doctrianarie based on an idealoogical that we must 30 to 40 weeks is arrogant and simply a refusal to accept were we find ourselves... first and formost we must survive to grow...

shorter seasons are not the answer in the medium or long term - in fact i think they hinder thegame and the players development. we have to wait 6 months in the off season now until the next HAL game. That is far too long. How does a short season fit in with your proposed Cup comp. Do they run side by side and congest the fixture list, or do they run at differen times in which case wldnt one or both fall foul of the dreaded code(s) finals. "Teams should look to continue to lure big name players to play out the twilight of their careers in Australia." - Urgh. No. We want players like Broich, henrique, Hernandez not a fat and useless, and ultimatley over priced, player like Jardel, Romario etc. There are some "names" that combine star appeal and on field success - fowler (inaugrual season) and yorke; arguably jeffers (although how many wld consider him a star is debatable) - but these are short term "lifts" suitable to a beckham style boost in numbers only.

we need more games not less, anything less than 30 really is unacceptable. shortening the season will simply result in a lower ranking for the a league compared with other leagues.