A-League prosperity needs clubs to offer more than just football

Sorry Phil, I misunderstood your point. Regarding Sydney’s problems..I feel they are multifaceted. It’s simplistic to expect every person interested in football in Sydney to immediately form an attachment with SFC. For starters, the SFS is not immediately adjacent to a train station (the preferred method of PT in the harbour city) then you have the geographic spread of Sydney itself Moore Park isn’t the easiest to transit to from points west of Five Dock, where over half of Sydney’s 4.5 million people live. The final factor is that for many years Sydney was the heart and soul of the NSL. One cannot expect an Olympic or a Marconi fan to up and quit following his/her team for the Sky Blues especially when those teams are still in the football game (NSWPL). In Adelaide, perhaps due to the dynamics of a smaller city, it is expected that if you’re a football fan, you should be supporting the Reds and for the most part I find that to be true. Adelaide is also easier to get around in my experience of both cities. It sounds counter intuitive, but I believe a 2d Sydney team will be good for SFC. It will force people to choose sides, Sydney 2 or SFC? It will force the SFC Front Office to really be excellent in its dealings with the football public. The effects of having a HAL game in the city each week as well as 3 blockbuster Sydney derbies to really grab headlines shouldn’t be undervalued. It will really really help if the 2nd Sydney team is done well and makes the most of its potential to be a team with a support base rivalling MVC.

Kasey I agree, all I need is the game itself to be entertained but the newcomers need something extra. The problem with our game is there are not enough goals to keep the newcomers interested and that's why we need some pre-match and half time entertainment. Look at SFC, in a town of five million their only attracting crowds of barely 10,000 which is an absolute discrace.

Another fantastic article Beau. Totally agree teams need to have a point of difference to involve their fans. After all the hard work to get a great competion set up the a league clubs need to build on it. Jindy

Phil, the football itself is the entertainment. What do you expect exactly? Fans like me hate the canned music piped over the tannoy at FFAs insistence, we' d much prefer to have no music at all leaving the focus on the fans in pre-game as we try to build the atmosphere in the stadiums.

as per the Cattery. The AFL invests heavily in building infrastructure. There are very, very few (if any) 100% Govt funded projects. They instead will be Public/Private funding mixes. Look at Metricon Stadium (Cararra oval). State Govt (QLD) put in about $60 mill or so, Feds put in funds, Gold Coast City Council put in funds and the AFL put in $10 million. What's the result? The AFL doesn't own it - but, they bought the management rights. Gold Coast get's a vital venue for the Commonwealth Games - so the State Govt and GCCC are happy. Look at Blacktown Sports park where the AFL and Cricket NSW co funded along with state govt and Blacktown Council. I reckon councils will actually welcome the attention of the AFL rather than feel badgered. Councils see a whole stream of funding pouring in and end up with nice brand new facilities on their balance sheet. The NRL - I know less about - but, I suspect they don't contribute much at the top end projects at least. I know in Vic that the AAMI Park is 100% State funded where as the MCG (100% rebuilt since 1990) and Docklands combine for over $1 billion of funds with only $77 mill from either level of Govt - the AFL put $30 mill into Docklands and puts any annual multi million dollar contribution into the MCG on top of a 45 year leave ensuring revenues to pay off loans. Did any of RL, RU or Soccer bodies contribute to the $280 mill Suncorp redevelopment (I gather it was loans that are serviced by the users - is any of the bodies contracted there for a long term to guarantee revenues?? Not sure.).

It's not about badgering, it's about developing a business case that shows value for the council or state government. In the most recent cases (amongst many examples), the AFL has made significant contributions to stadiums it will not own, for facilities that can be used by other sports out of season, e.g. cricket in Summer, and the Easter show in the case of the Giant's ground, also in the case of the suns' ground, the Qld government has put that stadium forward in its bid for the Commonwealth games - so it's actually a godsend for Qld taxpayers that the AFL not only contributes to the refurbishment of the stadium, guarantees ongoing maintenance, and generates revenue for the stadium for decades after the Commonwealth games come and go. That's what I mean about presenting a business case. But if you have rich men going to councils and ask them to build a stadium for them, to be used exclusively by them - you will deservedly get short shrift. If it's part of a broader plan where they are contributing 15-20% of the total cost, and the facilities remain owned by the community and can be used for a range of community sports - you have a real chance at it.

A-League clubs should move closer to the AFL/NRL model, where the FFA badgers governments and councils to re-develop grounds exclusively for A-League games, build up memberships, established licenced clubs with Poker machines and other forms of revenue. The current franchise system is not that profitable unless they can double attendances and football revenues across the board.

If you want to increase crowds then lower the admission fees. I've been a member of Adelaide United since inception and the prices just go up every year. How about capping prices to $15.00for adults and $5.00 for kids. Another thing, how about some entertainment like they previously used to do until the FFA stopped it.

Part of the idea of an Academy is that you might have 50 to 100 U10s coming thorugh at any one time, so essentially there's enough kids available that you play as many scratch matches as you want - at that age, it's not so important having seasons, tables and the like. As you approach U14s, you're starting to weed players out so that whereas you had 80 kids, you might now have 40, etc, and at that point, you might be splitting them up into two squads and you could start playing in U16 comps, i.e. the idea of an elite academy is that you aren't testing yourself against peers, but you are testing yourself against players that are better than you.

Whilst I support a-league academies - who would they play against. If you have an under 12s for melbourne victory with half the best under 12s in the city, would they only play against hearts under 12s? or would they need to be integrated into a comp with VPL academy under 12s? I know South have many junior teams, but does anyone know about the others?

Unfortunately with the demise of Gold Coast United one of the finer youth programs in Australia is about to cease. Would it be possible to keep a GC team in the NYL or merge the youth program of GCU with that of Brisbane Roar, thereby creating a powerhouse in youth development in South-East Queensland, one of Australia's fastest growing regions? Not to mention one of the most competitive areas for youth sport, with all four codes trying to lure talented kids.

A better way for me with SFC in particular is to recruit players from the Ethnic backgrounds that provided the larger clubs in the NSL. The A-League is not a generic entity ,each area is different. You have to cater for that difference.

Whilst agreeing with what you say Beau in theory ,its not always that simple in reality to achieve the goals you have set out. How many clubs in the world are woven into the fabric of their local area, with a clearly identifiable style of play that the locals are proud of & can identify with? Sure we can use the classic example of Barcelona,but doesn't everybody? They are the exception not the rule. Most clubs muddle through from year to year as they have done in some cases for 150 years. What these clubs have is a real sense of being part of the community,being woven into the fabric of everyday life. This for me is more important than style of football. But its not instant its generational. Raising the standard of the local league overall(as the Japanese have done) is the key factor IMO. However some of the points are well taken. The local player done good is a blessing for any club. As you say think of CCM think Matt Simon. Therefore academies as indicated by philipcoates are a must. This is where your Matt Simon's(hopefully a better model) come from. Of course another reality is that we are not ever going to be the biggest & best league in the world. So any new improved Matt Simon model is inevitably going overseas ,hopefully to clubs like Barcelona(ok I watch the Castle a lot). That can be a source of local pride, adding to the layers that build a clubs history.

I like the idea of some MLS clubs that have had some ethnic days to celebrate the different cultures something which i think would heal alot of issues with the old NSL clubs which have done so much to Australian football. Sydney FC have yet to do this but i hope western sydney will do this if they come in next year as alot of the clubs are from western sydney and passionately love the game but yet to embrace the A-League.

This is one area I feel really passionate about. Adelaide United shouldn’t just be the top football club in Adelaide. It should be the club all talented South Australian footballers aspire to play for(even if as a stepping stone to bigger clubs O/S). That way in a season such as this disappointing (on field) one, we could perhaps have looked at some positives like unearthing our own Tomas Rogic or Mustapha Amini. I watch SA Super League football in winter and there are a tonne of talented junior players. It seems to me that under Rini Coolen’s arrogant (I’m a European – I know football! approach) they would never have got a look in. This is why I’m happy for Kossie to be given another year. He hasn’t just spoken of his desire to promote SA youth players; he has demonstrated it with Teeboy Kamara and Jacob Melling(Prior to answering the Club SOS, Kossie was coaching in the SA Super League - Croydon Kings - so he has seen with his own eyes the talent out there. Obviously the fans also want success, so the best SA can produce needs to be infused with the best the club can find from elsewhere(Australian or not), but there’s no reason why the fans wouldn’t cheer a team of SA products held together by the magic of a Marco Flores type player. I’m sure Vidosic would have given his right nut to learn or Flores for a season or two.

Academies are clearly something that would enhance a clubs presence within the sporting landscape (and was spoken about at the recent MVFC forum) but they don't come cheap. Without wishing to sound sexist the A-league clubs might have been better served for the long run if they hadn't established the W-League but instead had clubs look at funding directly, or via partnerships with an existing junior club, teams in the U16 and U14.

Excellent article and I have been harping on about this indie several years now. Clubs need to work hard to establish a tradition to pass on to generations. Win lose or draw these supporters are lifelong fans and it will start with our youth comin to games am attaching themselves to a club. They are our future and will pass the torch of support to future generations.