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While we may have seen a decline in attendances across the board in the most recent A-League season, the two Melbourne clubs have managed to take a major share of the market across the country, with over 25 per cent (or 353,190) of the A-League attendees flooding through the gates of either AMMI Park and Etihad Stadium.
The state of football in Victoria, and in particularly Melbourne, is stronger than we may suspect, on all fronts, from the grassroots all the way up to the top.
Melbourne Heart’s inception into the A-League has done more good than most would care to think.
Just last week, Melbourne Victory announced a partnership with Football Federation Victoria (FFV) and Sports Education and Development Australia (SEDA).
This was seen by many as a means to bridge the gap with the broader community and youth, something the Heart had already managed to do while it was still in its infancy.
“We are thrilled about the opportunity to work with FFV and SEDA enabling us to not only have greater access and a stronger presence with these key groups, but to also help foster the growth of football in this state,” said Melbourne Victory’s Managing Director, Richard Wilson.
On top of this, Melbourne Heart has announced a six-game ‘Westpac community football festival’ in the lead-up to the 2011/12 A-League season, which will engage with regions all over the state.
This will also include open training sessions, junior clinics, and player meeting opportunities.
There has also been the introduction of the FFV Cup, which will be known as the Mirabella Cup, after a 10-year naming rights deal was struck in early February.
This competition is the only one of its kind running in Australia at the moment. It is open to all Victorian football clubs from Melbourne Heart and Melbourne Victory right down to the amateurs.
The format allows for some of the smallest clubs in the state to potentially be paired up with the semi-professionals from the State League One (SL1) and the Victorian Premier League (VPL) which includes two of Australia’s most successful clubs of all time, the Melbourne Knights and South Melbourne and if they are good enough to survive until the final eight, a date with the A-League giants could be on the cards.
The Mirabella Cup along with the other foundations being laid has seen some of the old rivalries in Melbourne and greater Victoria re-ignited and in recent weeks we have seen a considerable jump in attendances at local football.
This may also have something to do with the introduction of the Heart.
The club has brought back some fans who had vowed never to follow Australian football again after the demise of the National Soccer League (NSL), almost seven years ago to the day.
After years of ‘top-flight’ neglect and diminishing crowds at state football, these fans needed an outlet and slowly but surely have come back to the game they love.
The added incentive of the A-Leagues first local derby has been an evident hit, with an average of over 27,000 people, in three of the most electric and action packed games of the season.
In the current off-season, plenty of these fans are still looking for a football fix and many have gone back to watch the clubs they followed in the top tier of Australian football all those years ago, which can only be a good thing for football in general.
Football in Victoria is on the right track, but the job is by no means finished.
We have a lot of work to do, and we must continue to engage with the broader community, in particularly the youth in whom our futures and visions lie.
If the right steps are put in place, we will really start to see the world game reach the heights that it can in this state and hopefully the rest of Australia.
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