- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
An interesting article by Mathew Windley in the Herald Sun caught my eye today, regarding Melbourne Victory’s plans to grow their support.
Windley was interviewing Melbourne Victory CEO Richard Wilson about Melbourne’s ambitions for the future, Wilson asserts an intention to grow the existing 18,432 strong membership (season ticket holders) by over 30 percent over the next four years with the aim of reaching about 30,000 and prospectively aim for 50,000 in ten years time by 2023.
This at first seems slightly fanciful given Melbourne Victory’s membership growth has been generally flat over the past few years.
Or rather, it has held steady in the face of a second Melbourne-based franchise being introduced in addition to the league going through lean years.
But the A-League is set to go through a new phase with free-to-air (FTA) exposure on Australian television for the first time.
This will give all teams a boost, but in particular the Eastern Seaboard teams which play their home games in the timeslot that matches broadcaster SBS’s preferences.
More particularly still, being the team with the highest attendances in conjunction with the most telegenic (namely an atmospheric and fullish looking stadium when at AAMI Park) means that Melbourne Victory look set to feature in the league promoting Friday timeslot.
This is along with Sydney FC featuring Alessandro Del Piero and Western Sydney featuring the RBB but more importantly the television audience of Western Sydney.
It is feasible then that A-League teams like Melbourne Victory and Western Sydney Wanderers in particular (given their crowds will be a great form of promotion for those teams) can aim to facilitate some core membership growth on the back of FTA exposure.
Additionally there is the fact that for the inaugural over the next ten years the ‘second generation’ of fans who are brought along by the first generation will start to add to the base core of fans.
The matter of Melbourne Victory gaining 25,000-plus members will start to bring issues for the club given there isn’t much room for manoeuvre within AAMI Park.
Wilson’s vision of “In 10 years’ time, why wouldn’t you have 50,000 at Etihad Stadium each week if all the stars align?” is innocent on the surface but it is a slightly controversial vision.
That is because it potentially sets the Melbourne Victory administration on a collision course with significant elements of its pre-existing fan base who have a much different vision of playingat the purpose-built and rectangular AAMI Park each week or as much as possible (myself amongst them it has to be said).
Active supporters in general have a poor history with stadium management, playing at Docklands is considered acceptable given it has effectively been the difference between being in the red and in the black financially for the past few years.
That’s without going into the ‘vision’ of an AFL-owned Etihad Stadium whereby the leasing costs to the resident A-League club are not quite as sweet as they are now.
The terms of Victory’s deal with Docklands stadium a matter which has irked the AFL in the past, then it really is a case of ‘watch this space’ when the AFL comes to own Docklands.
Another issue lies in the scenario whereby if Western Sydney Wanderers membership were to explode, or in the future when multi-generationally strong.
There are some potential questions as to whether they in time will be able to play out of the suburban stadiums of Sydney’s west if they remain as they are now.
This is why the outcome of the NSW Government’s decision as to whether to build a 40,000-plus stadium in Sydney’s west or explore other options is of such importance to Western Sydney’s future as Luke Doherty discussed earlier this year on The Roar.
As a Melburnian I hesitate to speak on behalf of people from Western Sydney, but given their pride in where they live I think it’s fair to say they will have a strong preference to play in the heart of Sydney’s west well into the future and not in a stadium that straddles the border between east and west ala Homebush.
Amidst all of this, a rather serious number of questions are raised about the potential challenges in ensuring football’s capacity to grow well into the future.
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.