2015 Asian Cup faces crowded marketplace

I think that in the case of the asian cup, the A- league, as will all other AFC leagues would suspend play through out the tournament. In the case of australia, play will not occur throughout January. The stadiums for league teams being used for the tournament are likley to have no play a couple of weeks before the tournament and no play for a week after

Also just in relation to travel I noticed at the last Asian Cup in Qatar most of the supporters out there were generally from the mid west region I noticed less south east asians out there, I'm assuming there will be a very big presence of south east asian support in Australia but less mid west Qatar Jordan Oman and the like the furhter away you are the less inclined to travel and some of those games out there werent terribly well attended .

I cant wait to see Holland play Kenya at cricket,incidentally buy the time Kenya are knocked out of the cricket world cup ( thats roughly a month) our tournament is over in just under a month, the cricket world cup goes for six weeks .

To a certain extent the benchmark was set by the 2003 RWC when the crowds were, IMHO, phenomenal . I mean like 35k at the SFS for Ireland v Namibia on a wet Sunday night in winter or 33k at Adelaide Oval for Aus v Namibia to watch what were always going to be floggings. I can't imagine that the AC crowds will be anything like that.

i don't understand why we need such relatively big stadiums for something that outside the 'big matches' isn't going to draw as much. Something like south melbourne FC's new stadium would be perfect for hosting the qatar's, Iraq and Oman type of games which are going to struggle to break 10k. i expect Homebush, Docklands, Swan St, Lang Park and Parramatta to be picked. Canberra stadium is a dump tbh and i would think it would struggle the most to draw a crowd. And while i like the idea of two stadiums in each major city to even things out, Parramatta is smaller than robina and thus better suited for the smaller games.

I just saw this Tweet and it sums up things beautifully! Brett Taylor ‏ @behindthegoals Asian Cup is three years away and everyone's already talking about it. That's all you need to know.

Oceania Nations Cup 2004 isn't an international football tournament? Matches were held at Hindmarsh and Marsden Reserve.

I think the 2015 Asian Cup, if marketed right will be a great success. Obviously all Socceroos games will be sellouts, as will the 2 Semi Finals and the Final. The longer the Aussies can go into the tournament will also have a massive impact on interest levels and media. But I think the amount of immigrants from Asian countries that we have in Australia, especially in Sydney and Melbourne will mean that crowds should be strong. I think we'll beat Qatar's average of 12,500 per match. Can people imagine what crowds India, Vietnam and China's games will attract in Oz with the amount of expats living here. Iran, South Korea and Japan will attract Football lovers as they play good football and have players playing at the highest level. The other sporting events in January, but they arent events that capture the imagination of the nation, or overkilled by the media. The BBL will be over by then, the Indian tour will be on, but there won't be cricket for every day of those 3 weeks, and the Australian Open is bigger in Melbourne. I think there's plenty of room in there for the Asian Cup. And it's not all about the Aussie market. TV plays a huge part. The 2011 Asian Cup in Qatar had a viewing audience of 484m people in over 80 countries. They're pretty impressive numbers! What a way to promote our country throughout the world, especially Asia. I'm not too worried at the skeptics of this competition. If we market it properly, I think there's no reason why it can't be a success!

We haven't got Demetriou's permission to play the Asian Cup games in Melbourne, so the big games have gone to Sydney.. Otherwise it will destroy the AFL competition's off season and change Melbourne life forever. The FFA couldn't afford the AFL's 100 billion dollars compensation demands, if any games went ahead.

The main reason is that their respective goverment did not agree to underwrite the tournament. So it purly a state govt decision http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/cricket/adelaide-united-chairman-fears-for-afc-asian-cup/story-e6frectl-1226312938084

Anglo-centric? Wasn't football invented in England. Everybody in Australia knows what football, nee Soccer is. How many Australians are of Asian decent? With the AFL, NBL and NRL in full swing and Cricket still going, didn't we get a sellout 52K to the A-League grand final, a football competition that's "on its last legs". More gloom and doom - lets call the whole thing off, shall we.

According to the article it will run from Fri 9/1 to Sat 31/1. So based off that I would play HAL matches Wed 31/12 to Sun 4/1, followed by another (midweek) round Tues 6/1 to Thurs 8/1 at venues not used by the Asian Cup (Ade, Wellington, Perth, Gosford, Newcastle etc). HAL resumes Fri 6/2. Thoughts? PS Australia day would be awesome - an Australian semi final on that day would be ideal.

Brisbane Stadium* Clean stadia please.

Considering China failed to make the quarter-finals of 2007 and 2011 installments I don't think they are a "safe bet" to escape the group. They also failed to make the last round of AFC 2014 WCQs. I would scrap Gold Coast and replace it with either Woolongong, Adelaide or Canberra. John O'Neill orchestrated the 2003 RWC with unrivaled success - I wonder whether he will be involved in 2015 AC? Shame NZ isn't in Asia. Interesting arguments for/against a HAL recess, perhaps the AFC will have say.

I agree the A-League will certainly take 3-4 weeks off in 2015 whether it means FFA will reduce the number of Rounds down from 27 to 24 or extends further into April-May that season remains to be seen

Lads, I agree with your comments about the media but, let's be honest. If 50% of football fans in Australia turned up to football matches played in this country the stadia will be filled every week. In this day of social media & electronic media, football fans should be treating traditional media with the same indifference - actually contempt - that the traditional media have shown football fans. There are enough football fans in AUS to make the Asian Cup hugely successful in the stands. It just depends on whether we can jolt AUS football fans out of their apathy towards Asian football. The HAL GFs are sold out each year, in spite of HAL being shunned by traditional media. MVFC attracts big crowds in spite of relative obscurity (compared to AFL, cricket, horse racing) the Melbourne media. This demonstrates how football fans can rally together without help from the traditional media.

I have no doubt that the anglo-centric media will act as you describe. To them football is a European thing and the only countries they would give respect to(if they give respect to any football) are nowhere near this tournament. Football fans I have no doubt though are aware of the technical ability of many of the nations that will be here and will be there in there numbers to take in a world class footballing event. Whether the media jumps on the bandwagon remains to be seen, but I look forward to a month of highly skilled international football in my timezone. I'm just not sure how I'm going to get to see all of it as I think I'll be traveling up and down the Eastern Seaboard a lot to get to the Socceroos home games.

Simply, the major events orgs in each of those 2 states deemed it not worth of chasing FFA for a seat at the table. I guess they don't see the economic benefits of having their cities shown off to the worlds largest economic growth region via football. It annoys me as an Adelaidean, but ultimately, multiple timezones would have complicated things and the cup only requires 4 venues. We are a physically big country and moving everything over to SA/WA for 4 games would have been a massive logistical undertaking for the LOC.

The other problem is that this tournament may suffer in billing when lined up against the Australian Open and a Test cricket series. Our Anglo-centric sports media still haven't come to terms with taking Asian sport (except subcontinental cricket) seriously! Just look at the derision given to our clubs and national teams when they are defeated by an Asian opponent - totally glossing over the fact that many Asian countries are technically more advanced than Australia in football. These boofheads will no-doubt deride the tournament because it isn't involving the "world's best" (as if here in Australia we have a right to always get the "world's best" sport despite being a small nation geopolitically). The organising committee had better go on a charm offensive to advise the general public that countries like Iraq, Oman, South Korea and Japan are still formidable and technically gifted opponents who, given the chance, could even put European teams to the sword, and are thus worth watching whilst on our shores.

Why has Hindmarsh Stadium and Perth Oval not been considered, even at the very least for smaller fixtures? How about warm-up friendlies? South Australia has made a huge contribution to the game over the years, and the code cannot ignore Western Australia which is currently leading the national economy.