Emerton comes home, but I'd rather have Harry

Australia’s Harry Kewell, right, scores as Iraq’s player Basem Abbas, left closes in during their AFC Asian Cup quarterfinal soccer match at Al Sadd Stadium, in Doha, Qatar, Saturday Jan. 22, 2011. Australia beat Iraq 1-0. (AP Photo/Tara Todras-Whitehill)

So Sydney FC have their marquee man in Brett Emerton. But I think they got the wrong one.

After the news a fortnight ago that Harry Kewell had ‘come home’ to join the Melbourne Victory (by the way, that’s a ridiculous statement – he’s from Smithfield. It would be like saying David Beckham had ‘come home’ if he signed for Sunderland or Stoke), their arch-rivals Sydney FC have announced the signing of Australian and Blackburn hero, Emerton.

From a footballing standpoint, it’s a great piece of business.

From a marketing perspective, I can’t help but wish things were the other way around. Emerton is officially a Sydney F.C player and although I’m 100% sure he’ll be a better performer in the A-League than Melbourne-bound Kewell, there’s no way it will be as good for the game in New South Wales.

The Victory have the most fans and the best crowd average in the league – which isn’t surprising.

The simple truth is that Melbourne sports fans are better at supporting their teams than their Sydney counterparts. You only have to cast a glance at the AFL’s attendances in comparison with the NRL and you’ll agree. And, that margin becomes even greater if you take out the Brisbane Broncos.

The Gold Coast Suns have a higher average than every Sydney based NRL team bar one (The Bulldogs) and although I’m sure the fanfare will die down a bit after the novelty of having an AFL team wears off for Gold Coast sports fans, the point is still valid.

But back to the Kewell/Emerton signings – I’ve been to two games of football in my life that have been sell-outs. The first was the Uruguay game in 2005, and fair enough. It was the single most important sporting event in the history of this country.

And what was the second?

When David Beckham came to Australia in 2007, and captained his L.A Galaxy in a friendly against Sydney. There were over 80,000 people there that night…it was ridiculous. Most of them had never been to a Sydney game before and haven’t been since.

For some clarity, F.C’s crowd average that year was 16,373. You do the math.

This just reinforces what we already know – this town is a sucker for a winner, or a celebrity. That’s why we see NRL team’s crowds fluctuate by thousands on a yearly basis depending on how that team is going in any particular season (I maintain the worst bandwagon this country has ever seen will rear its ugly head should my Rabbitohs ever pull off a finals run) and as for the Swans?

Their average this year is a full 10,000 lower than the year they won the flag. Sadly, in the case of Sydney F.C, even being a winner isn’t enough. They’ve never cracked a crowd average higher than in the inaugural A-League season, despite winning the Premiership twice in that time.

So we’ve established that a successful team isn’t going to entice people to the SFS in the summer months.

But we also know that seeing a celebrity definitely would…and here’s why I would rather have Harry Kewell playing for Sydney – The Victory are going to get great crowds anyway; yes, Kewell will bump the membership and attendances up a bit but there’s no chance of them not averaging better crowds than everybody else (with the possible exception of the Roar).

I am aware that there was a significant dip in their crowds last year, but that was always expected with the arrival of a second team in their city. The same thing would happen to the Broncos.

As much as it pains me to say, I’m fairly confident that the Melbourne sporting public would identify Brett Emerton for the great player he is, and he would provide a significant drawcard for the Victory.

This isn’t the case in Sydney because, sadly, our public just doesn’t love sport as much.

Brett Emerton isn’t going to help our crowds to any great exten. He will help our team, he’s one of my favourite players, and hopefully he can replace Terry McFlynn as captain shortly after arrival and we can finally show him the door.

(I can’t write a Sydney F.C article and not trash McFlynn, but thank god we offloaded Byun Sung-Hwan. He’s your problem now, Newcastle!) but if they’d signed Harry, I’d happily put money on beating that record crowd average of 16,710.

Hopefully Emerton gives the crowds a boost – the standard of football across the league was at an all-time high last year but the attendances hit a record low.

Work that out, because I can’t.

Are we all so stuck up that we can’t support local football? Hundreds of my friends support a team in England, despite not being English and probably not being able to point out where ‘their’ Liverpool/Manchester etc is on a map.

But ask them if they support a football team in their home country and they scoff, as though it’s beneath them…and Harry Kewell would’ve helped Sydney take a massive step towards integrating the Eurosnobs into the A-League.

There are definitely football fans out there.

We just have to coax them out of their English Premier League rabbit holes. It can be done. I still remember a Cove banner I saw that night at ANZ Stadium against the Galaxy; ’70,000 people – We Play Every Week’. So poignant. So horribly accurate.

Hopefully I’ll see you all at the SFS at least once this year.