“Only two weeks to go now,” I say to myself, as I scratch another mark on my cell wall.
“Two weeks until the 2013-2014 A-League season kicks-off, with Sydney FC and the Newcastle Jets going head-to-head at Allianz Stadium on Friday, 11 October.”
When they do finally kick off, it will be 172 days, four hours, 33 minutes and 18 seconds since we saw the last A-League game played at Allianz Stadium.
The fixture will also be the first A-League game ever to be broadcast live on free-to-air television by SBS.
“For the first time we will have A-League action on both subscription and free-to-air television which can only be a good thing for the greater growth of the sport in Australia,” FFA CEO David Gallop said.
“Fox Sports and SBS coverage of the A-League will allow for football to continue its sharp growth trend.
“Reaching a wider audience meaning more fans can get closer to the action than ever before at our fantastic venues or via our television, radio and digital properties.”
Football Federation Australia officially released the 2013-2014 season draw what seems like years ago.
The competition starts a bit later and will conclude in the first weekend of May, the latest ever finish to an A-League season, moving it more in line with FIFA and the major European leagues.
“This season’s draw has been crafted to ensure that whether you are an avid supporter of a team or the many new fans discovering the A-League there is always something to look forward to in every round of the 2013-14 competition,” Gallop said.
The season draw has also been carefully “crafted” to get the maximum attendances and TV ratings.
There’s lots of talk about how this season is going to be the “best ever” and it raises the question as to whether the A-League season-opening round attendance record is going to be smashed or not.
The opening round of the A-League season last year not only smashed the opening round attendance record, but also topped the records of any previous competition round for attendances, TV ratings and digital audiences, the FFA reported.
93,500 fans turned out at the five matches, beating the previous single-round aggregate record, set in A-League seven, Round 3, of 87,508, or eight percent.
The TV audience on Foxtel averaged 108,000 per game, an increase of 35 percent on audience averages and 38 percent on the corresponding round from the 2011/12 season.
Visits to the FFA’s digital network of club and A-League websites were up by 25 percent on the 2011/12 record, set in Round 1.
They’re good growth figures.
“The huge audience growth in attendances, TV and digital is an early dividend for the hard-work by our 10 clubs and the A-League management,” said FFA CEO David Gallop.
“The excitement generated by new marquee players and new coaches has been converted into fans on the terraces and viewers on screens.
“What they saw was high-quality football, superb sports entertainment and a fabulous football atmosphere.”
Let’s look at the prospects for this season’s opening round.
First to play on the Friday night and live on SBS is Sydney FC versus Newcastle Jets.
This corresponding fixture last season drew the biggest Sydney FC home crowd of 2012/13, when 35,419 fans attended.
But will the Soccer Before Sex (SBS) live broadcast put more Sydney couch potatoes back in their preferred place?
Saturday will be the biggest day of the opening round. At 5:30 we have the grand final replay, with the Western Sydney Wanderers travelling to Bluetongue Stadium looking for revenge against the Central Coast Mariners.
With a sold out WSW membership book and football fans’ fondness for Central Coast pubs, this will be massive.
On Saturday night we have the Melbourne derby, which was the match to pull in the biggest crowd last year, with 42,032 turning up.
The Melbourne derby has its usual attractions, but this season Harry Kewell returns to Melbourne as captain of Victory’s bitter rivals Melbourne Heart.
Both clubs have recruited very well and with Victory’s star again on the rise, it should be a cracker and very well attended.
Sunday sees the Phoenix host Brisbane Roar in the early afternoon game and then the Barcelona of South Australian football, Adelaide United, hoping to give Perth Glory a slow start to their season.
It’s all great entertainment and I’d love to be able to travel all around Australia and New Zealand to see all games live at the stadiums.
Will the opening round of season nine keep up the momentum and growth of A-League season eight?
Many said that last season was a watershed year for Australian football, let’s hope this season becomes the boatshed year.
HardcorePrawn
Roar Guru
Fadida, I don't think there was any definitive spelling on that catch-cry. James Richardson himself has said that he was told by the musician who created the tune that it was 'Go Lazio', which the man himself said was a bit like the Match of the Day theme incorporating a chorus of 'Go Manchester United'. Others have reported it as being 'Golazzo', a sort of vague version of 'Goal-tastic' or 'Goal-riffic'. If you're not already a fan, it's worth checking out James Richardson's twice-weekly podcast on the Guardian's website. He's been presenting it since the 2006 World Cup (with the occasional break for Jimbo's skiing holidays and presenting gigs for the World's Strongest Man competition) and is well worth a listen.
Justin Thighm
Roar Guru
Thanks - seems like the longest off season.
Cappuccino
Roar Guru
SFC v Jets 24,000 Mariners v Wanderers 19,000 Victory v Heart 44,500 Reds v Glory 8,500 Phoenix v Roar 7,500 Total: 103,500 No doubt we'll break the attendance record this time round.
Justin Thighm
Roar Guru
My remote doesn't have an SBS2 or FOX1 button on it.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
I'm always intrigued by this notion about people not watching a show because it's not on the "main" channel. FoxSports has multiple channels broadcasting football matches. Do people get confused & give up if the match they want to watch is not on FoxSports1? I'm willing to admit there are a significant portion of the Aussie population, who are intellectually shallow (e.g. a story in The Guardian last week provided data from the ABS, which found 50% of the adult population in Tasmania is illiterate & innumerate!). But, when the average 4yr old child is able to find PlaySchool using the remote, I can't imagine why even the dullest Aussie won't be able to find the A-League match on Friday night on SBS2. If you know ALeague is being broadcast on Friday night at 730, and you know the broadcaster is SBS ... then, you've got 3 options to check out: SBS1, SBS2 or NITV (SBS 34). You won't need to pass the MENSA test ... just the common sense test!
asanchez
Roar Guru
I think the FTA tv ratings will be very interesting this season. The games will be avdervertised on SBS, but the games will actually be on SBS2 all season. Im not 100% convinced that SBS has passed on that message properly and clearly yet. We'll see how the ratings go. Hopefully they're really good but I'm not as confident as I would've been if they were on SBS. I know people say that its just a flick of a button between SBS1 & SBS2, but the secondary channels have a much smaller market share of tv viewers.
Justin Thighm
Roar Guru
What am I saying - in fact you will get the same HD pictures that Fox subscribers get.
Evan Askew
Guest
Brilliant because I am bloody sick of the effin EPL and lower league English football on Setanta.
Kane Cassidy
Roar Guru
Vic get out of it, Channel 10's break and butter is reporting on sport, just watch Sports Tonight, they treat everything in sport with the utmost respect.
cliffclavin
Guest
i share your anticipation but it is not the longest off-season ever - that occurred when they pushed the season back by two months from early august until early october a couple of seasons ago - stretching that off-season. This one was the usual 6 months. hopefully in about 5 years time with a couple of more teams the season can be longer [and if they decide to shift cup football to cover the pre-season...]
Cameron
Roar Guru
Fuss, I thought id run it by you for you are a victory fan. If you are unaware then that's fine. I though, do not possess any time at present to investigate the issue any further and with my current life circumstances I am currently ensuring they're put in order before I contemplate taking my journalistic aspirations to the next level.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
@Kellett_1992 I'm not part of the inner sanctum at MVFC. You seem to have access to the issues being raised by fans. Now, if you want to pursue your career in sports journalism, surely, the next step is to organise an interview with an appropriate person amongst the MVFC executive - either the CEO, or the Operations Manager, etc? The mainstream media are hopeless covering any issue regarding the A-League (unless it involves broken seats), so there's an opportunity for any enterprising budding journalist to run with this story. A good investigative journalist will always pursue all the angles: the aggrieved fans, the club, the police, the stadium management, the Victorian Government, etc. That should keep you occupied for the rest of the week-end!
Cameron
Roar Guru
Fair point and I do agree to done extent. But Fuss, if the active supporter groups are the 5% (don't know how large the active area is for victory) and they are the "bonus" or group that adds or provides the large majority of the atmosphere (something which the FFA are looking to build on) then shouldn't at least communication lines be open to ensure all parties remain diligent and/or conduct themselves in a way that doesn't negatively Impact on the club?
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
@Kellett_1992 As I said, I've attended 90% of MVFC home games. I've found security & VicPol members at the match to be no different in their treatment of MVFC fans as they are patrons at other sporting or social events. If you misbehave, you'll probably get a warning. If you ignore the warning you'll get chucked out. That sounds very reasonable to me. It's a shame, modern parenting books don't teach the same strategies. 19k MVFC members. I'd be surprised if 5% of the fans have an issue with the club. If 5% of your customers are unhappy & 95% are happy, I reckon that's a reasonble return. I'd expect at least 5% of society to be chronic whingers &/or unreasonable in their demands and expectations.
Cameron
Roar Guru
"without the atmosphere, I still watch the team." But if the A-League wouldn't be as successful without active support as answered by you with a no, then where would the league be today? Would we be talking about this right now?
Cameron
Roar Guru
The club are being afforded the chance to implement change so harsher penalties are not inflicted,on the active supporter groups. The laws are there to do as you say but before it gets out of hand the club and fans are attempting (well fans mainly), to solve any unresolved issues. The club as the fans have stated are pretty much ignoring their call to be heard. Why do you think that did that silent protest last season. Do you sit in the active supporter bay? Do you know a lot of these prepubescent individuals? Do you know why there are these problems? You're a victory supporter but don't seem to know a lot about this issue. If you do, you either are ignoring the situation, do not care or do not know of the situation? That or you just aren't really wanting to delve into it? Do you deny there are issues that are between the fans are club?
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
@Kellett_1992 "Without active support would you suggest the A-League would be as successful?" No. That's why I said "The atmosphere at MVFC matches is a bonus. " "Bonus" means it add something. Ipso facto, if you remove "a bonus", the net result is lessened.
Cameron
Roar Guru
Sorry yewonk, that was for Fuss.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
"The laws being created will only be implemented if BWB, NTC & the Victory club can’t sort these issues out" Err... no. That's not how our Legal System operates in Victoria. The legislators create the law. The police will enforce the law. The courts will interpret & impose the law. The BWB, North Terrac & MVFC are citizens & their only duty is to obey the law .. or suffer the penalty. North Terrace comprises a few hundred & MVFC has 19k members. Based on what I've seen at MVFC home games (I've actually attended more than 90% of MVFC home games, how many MVFC home games have you attended?) the majority of Nth Terrace appear to be prepubsecent kids, or people in their early 20s. PS: Haven't given any thought to whether you're a spoilt child. But, in general, anyone who stamps their feet & cries when their misbehaviour is curtailed is behaving like a spoilt child.
yewonk
Guest
no i dont think it would be as successful the active support of rbb is a polar opposite to an nrl crowd, its more fun to be a fan at aleague as a result.