While this upcoming A-League season promises to be the best yet, and crowds look likely to be given a huge boost, one club looks set to struggle in terms of attendences once again: Gold Coast United.
The expansion club has been a part of the A-League for the past two seasons, and despite finishing in the top four both times, and possessing a squad that contained Socceroos Jason Culina and Bruce Djite, the club attracted abysmal crowds – in their first season, they averaged 5000; last year they attracted just 3000 a game.
Clearly there is a problem. Gold Coast United needs revenue from tickets, but also needs to limit poor crowds for the sake of the league as a whole.
One very viable solution is to move Gold Coast home matches to other cities. GCU’s small band of fans will not be very happy with this, but the fact is, this move would benefit the league and the club in the long term.
The club has already started doing this. They ‘sold off’ their round six home match against Adelaide United, and so the fixture will now be played at Hindmarsh Stadium in Adelaide, with a cut of the ticket sales going to GCU.
Played in Adelaide, this match should draw upwards of 14,000 people – a much better outcome than an empty stadium in Gold Coast.
The other home match that will be played away from the Gold Coast is the club’s Round 17 match against Melbourne Victory (as part of the league-wide ‘Regional Round’), which will instead be played in Launceston, Tasmania.
These fixture changes are both positive ones, however more could and shoul be done.
The fixture against Melbourne in Launceston is a very good move because it should attract a large crowd- Harry Kewell will be playing, Melbourne is Tasmania’s ‘local’ A-League club and the region has never hosted a competitive professional football game – ever.
Despite the match being played midweek, it should draw upwards of 15,000 people, and could potentially hit the 20,000 capacity.
Gold Coast United will make good money from this match, will boost their crowd average and will promote the league at the same time.
It will also give an indication of the viability of having a Tasmanian club in the A-League into the future. So why not repeat this fixture?
In Round 21, Gold Coast host Melbourne Victory once again. Rather than play this match in front of 5000 people on the Gold Coast, I believe this game should be moved to Tasmania’s other major city, Hobart.
The Kewell factor, the novelty of an A-League match and the perfect Saturday evening timeslot would almost guarentee a sold-out, 16,000 person crowd at Bellerive Oval. For the same reasons as the match in Launceston, it makes perfect sense to relocate this game to Tasmania.
There are two other Gold Coast home matches that I think should also be moved.
Both are against close rival Brisbane Roar, one in Round 12 and the other in Round 25.
Brisbane, reigning A-League champions, should see high attendances throughout the season, certainly a good deal higher than Gold Coast.
I would advocate that both these matches be moved to Bribane’s Suncorp Stadium, or Ballymore Stadium (also in Brisbane) if Brisbane Roar don’t allow GCU to use their home ground.
Gold Coast fans would only have to endure an hour long car trip to get to the game. Again, this move would have financial benefits and would improve the league’s image in terms of attendances.
Yes, Gold Coast will only have nine real home matches. But the benefits of relocating the aforementioned games are numerable. The club will earn much more money in ticket sales than they would playing at home.
The crowd average will be greatly boosted, and the league’s image – as well as the club’s – will improve. The game will also be promoted in regions where there could well be an A-League club within the next decade. Sorry Gold Coast fans, but it is for the good of the game.
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