On any given Melbourne Heart match day there are a few noticeable features. John Aloisi’s Italian crafted suits, Hayden Foxe’s pizza boy outift, and a mixture of home-grown talent and veterans taking the pitch.
And of course the bays and bays of green seats.
For an A-League enthusiast it is a sad sight, especially because Melbourne is the sporting capital of Australia. As evident with the Victory, the people in Melbourne love their football.
Average attendance is a real issue for the club, and one they haven’t been able to solve.
Although they can’t make the finals, the Heart played some attractive and attacking football at home this season, and had an outstanding home record.
However, their crowds don’t reflect this. Their average for season 2012/3 is just over 8000, but we must remember this was helped along by the Melbourne Derby.
Besides the derby fixture, they have failed to engage the people of Melbourne and draw the people in.
Now I am not saying that the Heart are the only ones struggling (look at the Mariners, for example), but there is a clear underlying factor behind the Heart’s attendance issue, and if addressed, can solve it.
If you take a look to the Wanderers, who were established only eight months ago, they have been able to engage with the people of Western Sydney and have drawn the people into Parramatta Stadium.
This has a lot to do with results and the efforts of the Red and Black Bloc but they have disproved the theory that you need time to build up a supporter base.
Many Heart supporters I have spoken to claim that give the Heart time, let them win a title, and the people will come.
But I don’t believe that time is what the Heart need, rather, it is an identity.
In Sydney, there are two distinct teams. Generally speaking, the Wanderers represent the people of Sydney’s western suburbs (population roughly around two million).
Then of course there is Sydney FC, the original team in the city, the team that represents everybody outside of the west (particularly eastern suburbs).
The two teams have their own identity and there is a clear divide between them. However, the Heart lack this identity.
They fail to differ in any way from the original team in Melbourne, the Victory. There is no real social or geographical differentation.
The Heart are thus a team for the eight or so thousand disenchanted Victory supporters (generally speaking).
However, this identity crisis is one that can be solved. Because like in Sydney, there is a strong community of football enthusiasts that can be defined in terms of a distinctive geographical location.
I am referring to South Melbourne.
You may remember the days of the NSL when South Melbourne Hellas were one of the most strongest and well-supported team in the country.
The club has not fallen off the face of the earth, but are now playing in the Victorian Premier League.
There is a real passion for football in this area, and I believe that it would be in the best interests of both the Heart and FFA to relocate to this area.
There is a perfect sized stadium in the South with a capacity of 15000 (Lakeside Stadium) and would be a perfect size for a South Melbourne A-League club.
Derbies could be moved to AAMI Stadium, but these are details that can be negotiated.
In saying this, there are of course issus that would rise from such a move.
First you have to consider the role that the South Melbourne Hellas Club would play in such a move, and whether the club would be associated in any way with the Greek community.
One would assume that if you were to truly engage the people of the South, there would have to be some connection with the Hellas Club, its name and colours.
This is of course problematic because the A-League and its clubs were deliberately formed, unlike the NSL, without any specific distinct ethnic ties.
I am not saying that an ethnic associated club is a bad thing, but it is safe to say the FFA wouldn’t be too comfortable with such a prospect.
Perhaps there the name Heart could be kept and its colours (thus becoming South Melbourne Heart), but FFA needs to make sure that it connects with the people of the South.
It is hard to know exactly whether playing at the Lakeside Stadium alone would be sufficent in achieving this.
Despite these potential issues it is important that the Melbourne Heart and FFA and sit down, negotiate, and form a second club in Melbourne with its own distinct identity.
Eliah James
Roar Rookie
In regards to the temporary seating behind the goals, look at http://stackedseats.com/. They look like little beauties, and based on some rough calculations, with the space available, there is the possibility for an additional 3000 seats at either end. The only issue would be the possible effects of the pressure on the running track, but I imagine we're at an age of sophistication that there is a solution to prevent that. The other great thing about this is, depending on the opponent, they could be built accordingly to tickets sold, reducing costs for smaller games. The website estimates building at 63 man hours per 1500 seats (set up and pack up). For 6000 seats thats 252 hours... thats somewhere around $7000 in wages per transformation, and the seating could (hypothetically) be set up on the day and taken down overnight. Now from all reports I've heard, that will be a lot cheaper than the Hammers and the Olympic Stadium.
Eliah James
Roar Rookie
I can never imagine the Heart working in Geelong. It is a town painted blue and white. I agree it is definitely a potential market area, but if you are trying to capture the mainstream public in Geelong, it needs to resonate with the Cats AFL team.
Eliah James
Roar Rookie
It seems everybody is so paranoid about the resurgence of the NSL clubs (especially SMFC) that as soon as you put the words 'South' and 'Melbourne' together, everybody starts screaming anarchy and death. I agree with you, but I don't think there needs to be an association with Hellas. SMFC will continue to play during the winter and the fans can continue support in the winter, much like any WSW or SFC fan can support either team in the summer plus Syd Olympic, Marconi, etc. in the winter. However, while I don't think there should be an official association, there are a few implicit things Heart could do to stimulate a new identity in the south/south-east. Somebody mentioned a pure white strip, but I think that would be stripping the heart out of the club (yes, terrible pun intended). Instead, there could be some subtle changes to the kit that mesh the current kit with that of SMFC... just add in a little blue. Look towards something like the Stoke away kit (http://cdn.latestcasinobonuses.com/lcbcontent/newsimages/9890/thumb_main_stoke_city_bet_365.jpg) or the Atletico Madrid home kit (http://www.jerseysmark.com/html/upload/item_img/201208/11693/0134493879545ce5137AtleticoMadridHome.jpg). As for Lakeside Stadium, I wonder what the costs of temporary seating behind the goals over the running tracks are. Carrara Stadium used to use them along the edges of the pitch, which went in front of the permanent grandstand being a few metres above ground. That would a) increase capacity, b) allow the hill areas behind those temporary stands to be 'fan zone', community type spaces, or just areas for kids to kick a ball, and c) bring the active fans much closer to the pitch, increasing atmosphere. At the end of the day, the Heart does need an identidy. But it needs its own, not one adopted from an existing club. Get that right, and its not too late to salvage a passionate club with a lot of (...yes) Heart.
jesse
Guest
the npl is designed to be a future option for ffa to grow the a-league into 2 divisions, basically to earn back an asian champions league spot
Elliott
Guest
The derby crowds that I took out of the Heart average attendance was because they are really MVFC fans super-inflating the figures and don't represent hearts actual fanbase, south top attendances are south fans not due to another clubs fans artificially inflating them
Hawker
Guest
if you take out South's top 3 attended games, like you have for heart, how is their average looking then ?
Gm08
Guest
I agree with the comments about geographic location and MH identity. I've said before that they are MV Danny Devito twin, harsh but true. The south east would be perfect for the heart. There are many big British state league clubs in melb south east and its a huge market. But not just Brits, there is a wide football following and over 1mill people. In many ways similar to Sydney's west but certainly with less tribalism. The point is though, you'd need to build a boutique stadium for about 10,000 down there and it would work. You can't play out of subs standard facilities like moorabbin, the sporting public has become accustomed to the finer facilities in melb. The heart could re brand themselves as the southern cross, or something altogether different and really try to connect with their local clubs and community. That's the only way forward for another club in melb outside of MV and SM. The A league would need to invest millions in preparing a ground and backing the club for 10 years, like the AFL has in western Sydney and the Gold Coast. Frankly I see Lowy wanting everybody else squandering their millions building a club but not himself. Perhaps he dips into his millions for once and back football in this country. After all, he's the one with the failed big ideas!!!
Sara
Guest
The thing with the Melbourne derby is that I see no reason why anybody would go for Melbourne Heart if they didn't already support Melbourne Victory, and I don't see any reason why somebody would jump ship from a team they have already supported for several years. Football fans in the west of Sydney had a legitimate reason to support the Wanderers, even if they already supported Sydney FC. A team which is based closer to their home, which represents their suburbs specifically. Melbourne Victory and Heart share a stadium and both represent all of Melbourne. Right now the average crowds are heavily in favour of Melbourne Victory. Although, by the next generation this matter of personal choice may really take off since fans can choose a team from a young age and their choice may be based on family affiliation. Some of the biggest local rivalries like Milan share a stadium and represent the entire area but the derby works. I think Sydney really needed a second team to make football in the city more exciting, and it's a very large city. Western Sydney is the home of football in Australia in many way, Wanderers basically already had fans before they even existed. As Sydney FC fans now our love for our team is strengthened by the new competition. Anyway, considering there are so many more Mariners fans in the north shore than in the city I would think that geography plays some part.
Elliott
Guest
I see what you mean, though if you look at the geographical heart of south fans its probably more centred on Oakleigh and if they can engage all the clubs throughout the sth east they would definetely be a good geographical representative. Looking at the major clubs in the south east you have Oakleigh, bentleigh, Waverly and malvern who are greek which is a good start, then they just have to form strong partnerships including sharing tactics, techniques and training, as well as promoting juniors to the A-league, beyond and providing compensation for those that move overseas.
Elliott
Guest
Well actually that's not true, if you take out the Melbourne derby (which are huge outliers) and look at their average over the first 3 years, and compare to South Melbourne's last year (03/04 season) the stats are: Heart: 6283 South: 6832 South actually had a larger average crowd and without a modern stadium close to public transport, the high publicity of the league etc. I'd imagine south could quickly develop crowds of 10 000 plus and sold out Etihad.
Elliott
Guest
Totally disagree, why would you want to decrease the crowds of an A-league club no matter how big they are? Heart taking fans from Victory helps no one, we need to bring more people to the game, new people who are football fans and even non-football fans.
Elliott
Guest
Exactly, The issues with South Melbourne coming in are around ethnicity. If South can represent the south eastern suburbs of Melbourne, creating partnerships with all its clubs and having development pathways to its first team that would engage the football community. There would also need to be changes to the look, I'd move away from Blue and go with pure white ala Madrid and Leeds. The greek community is huge down here and would be a strong supporter base, but the club would need to focus on all Australians. It would need to really promote this side of it and I think a nickname that is pheonetically close to hellas would assist in keeping the songs and football culture, but changing the ethnic meaning behind it. One thought I had is a partnership with Oakleigh Cannons, the name cannons would work in place of hellas and having a base in Oakleigh would be more geographically central for South East Melbourne (home ground would obviously need to be Albert Park. If you look at the attendance figures of the 03/04 season South melbourne are the only club with attendance figures close to Adelaide and Perth, generally between 5-10 000. At that stage they are already competitive with Heart, with the higher profile of the A-league I'm sure South Melbourne would grow quickly and would have a strong history (4 times champion), supporter base and a geographic difference to Victory. I live in the Sth East and am a Victory member, I would never change and neither would any of my friends but I'm sure a lot of new people would jump on.
Elliott Walton
Guest
Exactly, and even Newcastle United and the Newcastle knights (who ever thought that was a good idea was off their rocker)
Prosinecki
Guest
The problem with Melbourne Heart is that it has no geographical identity. I would argue that a large number of football fans in Melbourne are based in the south eastern suburbs, a fair distance from the CBD. I would suggest that the Heart take over an old AFL ground in the south-east, eg Moorabbin, convert it to a rectangle shaped stadium and play their games out of that stadium (derbies can be moved to AAMI Park).
Supermercado
Guest
Worst thing about most comments relating to South Melbourne is the assumption that every single person who watched them was Greek and that if you didn't speak the language you were somehow not allowed in. I'm not Greek in any form and watched them every week (including for a few years into the VPL before the mediocrity became too much to bear), and there are and were plenty of other supporters in the same boat. I'm not convinced it would work again, especially with the natural drift in support towards Victory (and to a much lesser extent Heart) but let's get away from the urban myths and treat 'old' clubs with some respect.
Supermercado
Guest
"For the last time the A-league is NOT going to bring any of the NSL clubs back" That will come as a surprise to Perth Glory and Adelaide United.
NUFCMVFC
Roar Guru
Agree, Heart out and South melbourne in
Gm08
Guest
Jukes, I totally agree with you. I understand the NSL was not run correctly and that it carried a bad odour. But there was good in there too. You said it right when you said you don't desert your kids. I'm not sure Marconi would have worked as I don't understand the west Sydney landscape as you. I do know that along with SM, it was a very big club. I'm not sure how the Italian community would respond to its reintroduction to top tier football either. If its not certain then you hold back. Melb can certainly have 3 teams. There are fans here who would attend if the teams were structured properly. Hearts should be melb united and try and grab the NSL fans of days gone by. SM would be the only club here viable from the old flock that could stand on its own two feet. Melb united / heart would take a long time and significant investment. At least 20 years before it saw a profit. The FFA would need to invest in that club, perhaps own it outright or in partnership. It must have a long term strategy. Otherwise, melb would struggle as hearts in struggling with this 3rd club.
Paul
Guest
They could play their home games at Epping Stadium.
Jukes
Guest
As a West Sydney resident I have never supported Sydney FC at any stage and even if I did it would have been only a passing interest. Not many people from the West of Sydney have connected to Sydney FC. Now if they played their matches out of Parramatta like they were originally supposed to. Different ball game and we would have a totally different landscape of football in Sydney. As for Marconi I would not have supported them either. Nice club but I am not Italian and wouldnt have connected to them. Lots of people were dissolutioned by the discarding of the NSL to the A-league but for me it was going to happen at some stage. Football back in the NSL was run by a bunch of punch drunk jokers who had no f*cking idea. Ran the game into the ground. Dont even get me started on that F*ckwit David Hill either. Yes they threw the baby out of the bath with the bath water. It was a pretty smell kid by that stage and all the dirt that was on the kid couldnt be washed off. But you never desert your kids no mater what. Anyway I am glad the CCM deal didnt go through. If South make positive strides like they seem to be doing then it will be sooner rather than later. Keep ticking all the right boxes. But if football goes back to the way it was in the old NSL which I am sure it wont then I will no longer support it and I know for a fact I am not alone in this regard.