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Etihad Stadium witnessed one of the more surreal football matches staged in Australia last night. 34,068 people turned up to watch Melbourne Victory and a holidaying L.A Galaxy stroll around in a friendly match that most people in the football community, like myself, treated with indifference.
There were times last night where I closed my eyes and felt as if I was transported to a cricket match. The silence punctured by applause as if a boundary had been hit or a wicket taken; when in reality a chance had been created or a goal scored.
The stadium was re-configured to allow the spectators to ogle the ageing right footed sun god, David Beckham – half object of desire, half patron saint of hospital visits – at a closer distance.
The ends where Melbourne Victory’s most passionate fans stand up and sing themselves hoarse to support their team became areas of quiet worship. The silence disturbed by the occasional wolf-whistle whenever the deity was in the vicinity of the ball.
The promoter had deemed the ends verboten for active support. Instead, the promoter went for the expensive theatre going dollar. As a result Victory’s most passionate and active fans shunned the game. They were more concerned about saving their voices for Saturday night’s game against a badly malfunctioning Adelaide United.
The same can be said of Victory’s under fire manager, Mehmet Durakovic, who spared Harry Kewell from frolicking on the Etihad turf last night. Winning a friendly isn’t going to save his job but losing on Saturday could certainly hasten the end of it.
So, to sum it all up, the people who turned up last night got an eyeful of Beckham, an open game played at a languorous pace in a pretty sterile atmosphere. But, how many of them will come back to watch Melbourne Victory go around again in a meaningful A-League match?
According to Roy Morgan there are already 542 thousand people who call themselves Melbourne Victory supporters – a figure greater than most AFL clubs in Melbourne.
You can find the breakdown of supporters for each A-League club here.
The survey is very encouraging. Especially, if you consider the limited coverage the A-League receives in the mass media and, unlike the two big codes, lack of coverage on FTA.
The trick is to now turn passive support into committed support.
Melbourne Victory, for example, is already doing better than the Melbourne Storm. The rugby league club, who according to Roy Morgan has 300 thousand more supporters, struggles at the box office when compared to Melbourne Victory.
Go to any school in Victoria and every kid has an AFL team. Currently, the two Melbourne A-League teams would struggle to be supported by a third of the class room. There is room for growth.
One way this can be achieved is by increasing the number of women who support an A-League club. At the moment only 30% of A-League supporters are women. In the AFL half of the club supporters are women.
This is where an exercise like last night with Beckham and where Harry Kewell playing in the A-League can be a useful promotional vehicles. They break through barriers, take the sport off the back pages and give the AFL a run for their money in media space.
If that sends a few more mums and kids to an A-League game then it can’t be a bad thing.
Last night the cheapest adult ticket cost $60. This Saturday night a family of four can get in for less to watch Victory take Adelaide United.
This time they will get to see Harry Kewell run around and the kids will, unlike last night, will get a chance to bounce around and sing along to the chants created by the active supporters.
A family turning their passive support into committed support. This will be the how the A-League will be measured in the years to come and why the events of last night should not be completely disparaged.
Athas Zafiris is on Twitter @ArtSapphire
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