- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
There are numerous advantages of staging the A-League in the opposite season to the other football codes. The most obvious would be the better share of media coverage, as well as the benefits of hosting the season through the holiday period.
However, the question needs to be asked, is Football Federation Australia taking full advantage of the summer holiday season?
Many fans may have seen the governing body advertise through various media channels, through social and traditional outlets, with the tagline ”Summer Football: 15 games in 12 days”.
Akin to the English football calendar – with its influx of games over the Christmas and New Year period – the A-League has followed suit, scheduling several fixtures over this period.
Overall, it was a grand success, with many viewers tuning in and turning up.
There’s no denying that football and summer go hand in hand.
There’s certainly a great deal of potential to be realised during the holiday season, however it can easily be argued that FFA isn’t taking full advantage of this scenario.
Undoubtedly, the A-League is now a mainstay in the Australian sporting sphere, particularly in the summer months, although in terms of summer scheduling, it’s visibly a step behind its biggest competitor, cricket.
Cricket’s Big Bash League competition, a six-week tournament, is played between December and January. Crowds may have declined in its second season, however TV ratings continue to consistently garner figures in excess of 200,000.
While it’s unrealistic for the A-League to stage matches as often as Big Bash teams – given the unrelenting demands of football, in contrast to cricket – it’s evident that football hasn’t taken full advantage throughout the holiday season.
The A-League yearns to be Australia’s new summer sport, yet when we tune into our television sets, more often than not, cricket is taking centre stage.
The decline of midweek fixtures this campaign is rather evident, although has it been strategically thought out?
There’s no reason why there shouldn’t be midweek games featured each Tuesday and Wednesday nights – one match each evening – during the January period.
It really is an enormous free kick to its main summer rival. Cricket, through the national team and the BBL, can be seen almost on a daily basis, giving sport lovers a treat during the holiday season.
Can the same be said for football? No, going by the current January scheduling.
During the 2010-11 campaign, crowd averages were just over 8,000 – the worst since the A-League’s inception in 2005.
There were many underlying factors for this figure, although FFA was clear to point out that the increase in midweek fixtures were the primary problem.
Since then, it’s fair to assume that FFA is hesitant to bring back regular midweek fixtures into the A-League’s calendar – fearing a similar trend to the 2010-11 season.
While continual midweek fixtures may not be part and parcel of the Australian sporting culture in the football codes, there’s certainly room for this concept during the month of January. For football to take another leap forward in popularity, and cultivate the code’s appeal with fans, the A-League needs to grasp this opportunity and think outside the square.
With kids on school holidays, clubs could market specifically to families by holding promotional initiatives – for instance, one adult ticket gains entry for two children.
The summer football tagline has potential, it’s now up to FFA CEO David Gallop to take on fans’ feedback, and realise the game’s potential during this important period of the season.
Courtesy of Goal Weekly
Follow Robbie on Twitter @RobertDiFabio
Are you the ultimate team manager? Pick your own superstar team and go head to head with other football fans for glory and cash prizes on Draftstars. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.