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.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Tomorrow morning at 4:45 a.m., a football team from the City of Madrid will play a football team from the City of London ... and the match will be televised LIVE on the big screen in the centre of the City of Melbourne. I cannot recall any other contest between sporting clubs - that was NOT a Grand Final - being given such prominence. Further evidence of why Football can reasonably be considered to be the biggest game in Australia ...
MyLeftFoot
Roar Guru
Arch backs Durakovic as Victory coach: http://www.sportal.com.au/football-news-display/archie-backs-durakovic-116743
Mahony
Guest
Steve - to say that you represent the greatest hope for football would not be overstating it. You clearly love your AFL (and that's fine) but you have the ability to treat toe world game with a modicum of respect and even more impressively - get involved at the community level to 'get your fix. Well done - and at the risk of arrogance - welcome!
Mahony
Guest
I agree - and suspect they will replace Heart down the track......
Mahony
Guest
That is going to be sweet..... As someone whose NSL teams (Inter Monaro and Cosmos) came and went I never had a big, consistant side to follow in the top flight. Now I live in Melbourne I am going to get along to that great little stadium and take in the games with the family (glad it is still winter football). The A-League has lifted the standard in many ways for our game nationaly - but clubs like South's are now providing a great opportunity for people like me to reconnect with the game at the community level. I will ignore those who say I am not welcome and fling accusing generalisations - I love the game and South's offer the best way for me to enjoy it in the winter when the bogan ball usualy depresses me no end......
Mahony
Guest
That con't be right - they are the "real" football team in Melbourne. All the NSL (now VPL) team's fans know this.....
Mahony
Guest
Don't bother mate - their intention here is not to engage with the article.
MELBOURNE KNIGHTS
Guest
Hey Red or Dead Just be careful how you say follow the Heart. The word is out you guys in your office have boxes and boxes of unpaid invoices. So before you know it you to will have cashflow problems and become like north queensland fury and collapse in a few years...
asanchez
Roar Guru
I think what this article highlights is the positivity in football around victoria at the moment. As we all know, the average crowds are down, but with a second Melbourne team in the competition, and the league's first True Derby, we saw the 3 cracking matches that it produced this season. Moving forward, I can only see these 2 clubs pushing each other in every way, growing the pie, increasing memberships etc, and getting more football lovers going to games. Potentially next season we could have 30,000 A-League members in Melbourne or close to. The other real positive is the new Mirabella Cup, what a magnificent concept, and long overdue. Every country in the world has it own cup comp, and even though this is a state based one, perhaps a sign of things to come nationally. For a season that has only been talked about for the wrong reasons, when we really should be talking up the great football that was produced this year, and has improved every year.
Bondy
Guest
It's great to hear a positive story about football, i really like that element of the cup knockout and for what i believe bringing the likes of the Melbourne Knights and South Melbourne back into at least social interaction with the football family. I agree those Melbourne derbies were cracking games of football full of tension. I also noticed Melbourne was the highest rating state that watched the A League Grand Final again.
Marcel
Guest
Sydney publish their activities on their website....despite all the criticism of them not doing enough in the community they always seem to be pretty busy http://www.sydneyfc.com/default.aspx?s=upcomingevents
jamesb
Guest
Excellant work by the two melbourne sides, well done.
Con Stamocostas
Roar Pro
ahhh shucks some one has to keep the corporate rivalry going
Titus
Guest
Well, what I took from the article is that Victoria is moving to reconnect the top flight with the grass roots and is the first state federation to make this move. So Victoria is moving forward, this is how pace gathers. Personally I hope some of the other states can follow suit, we can't just leave it all up to the FFA and their limited resources. With the long off season I will be attending NSWPL games for the first time ever, I have decided to adopt Manly UTD as my team(was either them or APIA). I followed the NSL on Telly when I could, but becoming a Sydney FC member has introduced me to the pleasures of following a team. I am very grateful that I can do it all year round, that I can watch a professional league in Australia and that I can follow International leagues and our beloved National team.
Nathan
Guest
"you would think such a sporting sage, like you’ve called yourself, would have a better record at not putting his foot in his mouth" Why do you think he's called MyLeftFoot? It's the one in his mouth, of course! ;D
Sam el Perro
Guest
Haven't really missed the point here. Just pointing out that the headline ("gathering pace" -- present tense) and the opening paragraph (Melbourne's football attendances proportionate to the rest of the league in the most recent season) combine to purport to demonstrate some *current* trend. There is no such trend. Barring the first season, Melbourne's proportionate attendance has always bobbed around in the 20s (percentage-wise). Is this statistic was such a throwaway, why lead the article off with it in the first place?
Buddy
Roar Rookie
Your missing the point. Anyway, if you look deep enough those stats actually support me. In In the two season which Victory won the league the attendances were up above 25%. What a surprise? This league is attendances are driven by on field success, as in many other sports. If you take away the Hearts attendances for this season the Victory are down to 16% but this is miss leading because there is one extra side in the comp as compared to the previous season. Victory's attendances dropped by 60,000 but that could be on the back of a bad campaign where they finished 5th as well as fan protests, after two successful on-field seasons. The Heart brought 125,000 through the gates and along with the Victory's attendance helped set a state record for football attendances in the A-League of over 350,000 attendees. There is now doubt the hearts introduction will help football in the state short, medium and long term.
Roger
Roar Rookie
Interesting question Johny. Where did the fans go? I'm not sure that it is all that moronic to say however that Melbourne Heart did convert a fair chunk of the disenfranchised and disengaged (or whatever reason) Melbourne Victory fans. I know it’s not exactly a large sample size, but of the 6 Heart fans I know personally, every one of them used to support Victory (at some stage).
Stevo
Guest
Sam, I think you've (intentionally?) missed the point of the article. There are 20 paragraphs in the article and the reference to 25% occured in only the first. The story is about engagement with grassroots/state football community.
Johny
Guest
Take Melbourne Heart out of that equation and Victory are sitting at only 16%. Where did these fans go? Its not as big a drop as it seems as Victory lost 60,000 attendees over the course of the season. It would be moronic and arrogant to say half of the Heart's fan base is made up of ex-victory fans because over time we have seen table position play a huge role in attendances. 06/07 and 08/09 were the 2 most successful years for Victory and it shows with attendances, yet in a year were both Melbourne clubs under performed the Heart still brought in 124,725 people to AMII park, with a record total for Melbourne of over 350k total in a season which saw the leagues overall average drop by 15%. Analise the stats properly if you are going to make a statement like that.