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By now, you’ve probably all heard the news that Manchester United will be heading to Sydney next year to take on an A-League All-Stars team in a friendly.
As someone who’s usually so idealistic, I don’t want to run the risk of coming across like an old curmudgeon, but here we go – I don’t care.
I don’t care and I certainly don’t think this news merits any sort of trumpeting about the progress of football in Australia.
For starters, this has happened before. And that was in 1999, back in the dark ages. What did massive crowds in two games in Sydney and Melbourne get us going forward? Nothing, really.
The most common argument that I’ve seen so far is that this event is “good for the game”, that events and big name signings can only help make the league stronger.
Really? Why? This is a nonsensical viewpoint that I’ve had people try to force on me before.
The Beckham circus came to town to play Sydney FC in 2007, over 80,000 packed in to ANZ Stadium. A week later the Sky Blues took on the Newcastle Jets.
Crowd? 10,732. Clearly eight goals and the experience of watching the most famous player in the world wasn’t enough to whet the appetite of the casual football fans.
Next, Del Piero arrived. He has been nothing short of brilliant and it’s truly been a pleasure to see him play live. But after round two, our first home game of the season, I remarked that watching us lose to Newcastle that day was the worst football experience of my life.
Not because of the score, but because of the gigantic number of random European jerseys in the crowd (not just Juventus, which at least makes a semblance of sense) but the complete disinterest in the rest of the team.
Honestly, there were substantial pockets of people wearing Sydney jerseys that clapped when Heskey scored. Just because they knew who he was. I was sickened. “It’s good for the game”, I was told again. Our last two home crowds? 13,317 versus Adelaide and 12,425 versus Melbourne Heart.
I’m fully aware it’s naïve to not at least consider the poor form of Sydney as a factor – but a 23,000 person drop off in less than two months? Absurd. To put it simply, the casuals got bored. And they will again.
I could summarise what I’ve said so far with one line: bandwagons are not a viable long term formula for growing football in Australia.
So how do we continue to expand? The A-League needs to engage the football community. More specifically, the little kids playing small sided football, and their parents. To do this, A-League teams need to have some tangible involvement with the community.
Things like ambassador programs with local clubs and schools, increased exposure to the A-League as a product, and opportunities to get involved with the club.
This is how the Central Coast Mariners have grown since foundation, and is exactly what the Wanderers are doing now. This is how you get more people to A-League fixtures, not one off celebrity events. It’s a quick fix, and as I’ve said – I don’t think it’s fixing much at all.
I think the concept of an All-Star game is great. And it’s lovely that the administration have got Manchester United to come to Australia…it’s going to put a lot of money into the FFA’s coffers if the ticket prices are anything to go by and will probably give some of the top players in our domestic league some global coverage.
But that’s all it is. Don’t be fooled – this isn’t the dawning of a new age or something that will put even a single extra person on a seat at an A-League game.
This event will get all the little fanboys in to support ‘their’ team (you know, the one that’s 17,000km away from their house in a country they’ve never visited), gouge them of a few hundred dollars and send them back home with no further desire to watch the A-League.
This is will all be happening while a fair chunk of the real football fans in the country will be flying to Korea to watch our boys in the East Asian Cup. It’ll probably cost less too.
In saying all of this, it will be fun to try and vote Golgol Mebrahtu into the big game. Or, watching United’s season go up in smoke before it even starts as Terry McFlynn takes out Robin van Persie’s knee with a studs up tackle.
I just hope The Cove have kept that “70,000 people – We Play Every Week” banner in storage somewhere.
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