Is the A-League a victim of the Australian sporting landscape?

Love the research! Very interesting actually, thanks Adrian!

"It just shows how popular AFL is"... Pete, you may want to alter the mood of your comment to reflect the past tense. Today, the AFL CEO has suggested the AFL may be forced to move its season to avoid low media attention its getting in NSW & QLD. AFL fans like to smugly suggest SOCKAH moved the competition schedule to summer to avoid conflict with AFL ... ... now we have AFL wanting to move its season to avoid being lost in the media wilderness, outside the southern states of Australia. (Which is odd, since we're told AFL is massively popular in Qld & NSW) AFL crowds will continue the downward trend this season & it's now causing major concern at AFL HQ. http://www.afr.com/p/lifestyle/sport/afl_boss_wants_earlier_start_to_ROzhUnrVakMeRuYy4hwjEL

It just shows how popular AFL is if you think that the A-League crowds are good

Folks, some very interesting facts, some interesting comments and some really misguided opinions throughout. 1st of all, as long as the AFL and the NRL spend the kind of money they do on developing their profile in growing markets and on grass roots football and on improving their infrastructure, the A league will be a fair distance behind in its ranking behind those sports in Aus. The current difference in those budgets is a joke, not withstanding that Lowy expects rich benefactors who don't necessarily love the game to inject millions of their own money to grow their clubs support. The A league's business model is wrong. 2nd of all, the sleeping giant reference to FOOTBALL followers in this country is right bc between the participation rates at the grass roots level and those following the international & foreign league football scene, there are millions of us in this country. Those are the people the A league wants to capture to fill the stadiums of the A league. Clearly however, this is a long term prospect to convert this interest in football to regular participation. Regular participation requires a missive cultural behavioural shift, something the geniuses at the A league failed to apply any common sense to. There is a very practical means to settle disputes over the interest bw the varying codes...it's called TV rights...broadcasters pay the big bucks to those with market share of the viewing public. Simple. The A league is not even in the same ballpark unfortunately. Whilst I'm very pleased to see the wanderers succeed and have a high relative attendance stat, the melb sporting public is in another stratosphere when it comes to attending sports in Aus. For the person who made comments regards the MH's viability, my friend you are sorely mistaken if you think that they are viably bc the sold a couple of players OS. The heart will post a loss bw 200,000 and 800,000k this yr...sad but I have it on good authority. They will not last till the end of next year as their total losses hit bw $6-8mill. Their backers are already looking for more investors to join their board to help ease the burden. The A league has a great potential, but Auckland, NQF and GCU have failed. Adelaide needed new backers, Newcastle nearly folded, hearts are teetering, and CCM are on borrowed time. The perth owner Sage has threatened walking away too. How does this equate to a pass mark for Lowy, or that the A league has the correct business model or that all is good as we look forward? We need to convert the grassroots playing public and the EPL watching public to attend the A league and to become ratings for the A league and that takes time and money...both things the current Lowy administration does not have. The A league made a huge error trying to set up in markets where there wasn't a ready made market. The wanderers should have been a foundation club, NZ shouldn't be in the A league. If they didn't have the millions to spend, then set up where you're guaranteed success and grow from there. So I don't blame the landscape here, the landscape is sufficient for the A league to thrive in Aus, I blame the poor decision making of Lowy and the morons he hired. For every one good decision they made, the made 3 bad ones.

Super we are really only about eight years old as above said watch this space

A-League (the national professional football competition) has healthy crowd averages by world football standards (see stats above) and is in the second tier by this measure while remaining domestically commercially small relative the AFL and NRL as it is still only 8 years old (although growing quickly and with significant unrealised potential from a demographic perspective). From a pure footballing perspective, the A-League is developing quickly with the playing standard comparable to 2nd and 3rd tier European leagues on average (there are exceptions in both directions, but they remain exceptions). The development of the playing standard will slow as it is now approaching the doughnut effect of years of mal administration, but within a generation present day investments (NYL, WWL, SSG, Curriculum, Accreditation of clubs, coaches and officials, NPL, NTC, HAL Academies, etc...) are going to pay dividends. As a domestic code football is the biggest participation sport in Australia by a country mile and also growing quickly - especially women’s, masters and young boys which is remarkable when you consider UNlike most of the rest of the world the game here has a lot of football specific competition (read ‘substitutes’ in economics language). The National team is also experiencing the doughnut hole mentioned above (for obvious reasons) but the ‘base’ and the tip of the football pyramid is in rude health an well ahead of the other codes (AFL doesn’t have a ‘tip’ of course). Globalisation is driving the popularity, participation and commercial growth of football at all levels, and in combination with reformed governance - it will catch and pass the NRL within my lifetime. The AFL will have its wings clipped as its demographic bomb explodes, but will be the number one professional sporting competition for the remainder of my life time. Unfortunately for the AFL, it will be all ‘middle’ and no ‘tip’ with very limited ‘base’ growth. These trends are already well established. It is only a matter of time. Soccernomics will win out as it has the world over. The only thing that can stop these trends is for football to screw itself.

Good point, more people play football than the other code combined and every year more games of football are played in Australia than any of the other so called "popular" sports. And its not just the A-League - we have local domestic, male, female, juniours, internationals and over 200 professional leagues around the world that people can follow. If you add that all up it shows a tremendous interest in the sport. Besides, the A-League is shown to over 50 million people world wide every week in nearly 100 countries. From the FFA website: “you can follow the fortunes of the A-League live and on delay around the world through Sky Sports 2 (New Zealand), iCable (Hong Kong), RAI Sports Europe, Starhub (Singapore), AsiaSports, SkyPerfecTV Japan, Sky Net Sports (Myanmar), Sky Sports Europe (BSkyB UK), Fox Sport (USA), One World Sport (North America – delay), and globally online through Perform (ex-Australia and New Zealand) or to subscribe to the Hyundai A-League visit http://www.aleague.livesport.tv/home ”

Sorry but there are more soccer players than the other codes put together and the best athletes play football if they can as the money is 5 fold more....we would not be much better at football if the atheates from the other codes played soccer as few if any would make the socceroos....,,.the numbers confirm this...football is elite sport....

And your trying to sell a sport where head gear and mouth guards are required and your scratching your head as to why people dont play your sport even in Australia let alone other nations,oh dear. I like the likes of simple Bob that football globally is punishment because theres no aussie rules played there,charming.

That's a pretty strange comment Bob. The reason soccer is popular around the world is because it's such a simple game. Any kid can get a ball and start kicking it around and *viola* you have soccer.

"the AFL has not, and never will have, a national footprint"...? What a bizarre comment. First, check the Foxtel ratings. I'll bet my house they were bigger than any ALeague game. Second, there was no Sydney or Brisbane team playing, so why would that game rate big in those cities? I think a million viewers is ok. It's certainly more than any domestic soccer game has ever attracted, so your comment is a little strange.

@TC The FTA Tv ratings in Sydney & Brisbane - for the opening game of the season - are simply shocking and demonstrate AFL has not, and never will have, a national footprint.

Ratings for opening game of the AFL season nearly 1 million (5 city FTA and Fox), plus 42k at the ground - good result. Total 7Mate ratings of 155k across 3 cities.

@ Australian Rules "the most powerful sport across the country?" Last night, the opening match in the AFL season was broadcast LIVE into SYD and BRI .. on FTA Tv in prime time. Ratings were: SYD: 24k BRI: 40k Remember this is FTA Tv, which is available in every single household in SYD & BRI, and it's the opening match of the season. SYD & BRI are ranked 1 & 3 in terms of population & consumer spend across AUS capital cities. These ratings suggest AFL is a minor player in SYD & BRI.

yes bob and no one else in the world has discovered afl because australia is so far away from everybody else lol (by default)

Of course the world has "International AFL" to excite the philistines, but hey, where are those hoards of excited fans hiding...?

From next season SBS will show Friday night games live and finals 1 hour delayed. FOX Sports is still the executive broadcasters. This should improve our game to get more of a bigger following. The success of the Wanderers for the people of Western Sydney is awesome, Im sure GWS are a bit jealous as they will happy to promote the Sydney Thunder on their website and not the wanderers during the summer season. I believe our game football (the real football) will get bigger over the next 10-20 years and will be a powerful code with the likes of AFL, League and Union. Is only a matter of time for our game to takeover. WATCH THIS SPACE.

The point made was that Australian football started as a weekend colonial hobby in suburban Melbourne in the 1840s and is now a billion dollar industry and the most powerful sport across the country?