Unless you’re addicted to Big Brother and don’t have IQ on your telly, finding an A-League match on your screens last night was quite the treat.
Although it’s a reminder for the rest of Australia that the lucky folk in Melbourne get more than five minutes off work for today’s big race, four days of A-League in a row is something to savour.
The last three weeks – maybe more- haven’t been quite the spectacle we’re accustomed to (I’m looking at you Newcastle and Melbourne Heart), but there is no denying another night and day absorbed in A-League can only be a good thing.
The newspapers are a tad too occupied with the Melbourne Cup to give last night’s Victory win the world of attention, but it’s in there nonetheless.
Usually, the A-League wash-up fills Monday’s papers and Tuesday can often be dormant if there are no major announcements.
An easy fix – make Monday night football a regular fixture.
These games in recent years have had an advantage in that they were either on a public holiday or the day before one, but there is a great case to test the waters on another Monday night this season and get a better gauge of its success.
Last year’s Victory-Phoenix clash attracted a crowd in excess of 20,000 and they were treated to a spectacle via, lest we forget, Marco Rojas.
It was a similar scene last night, this time with James Troisi as the Rojas figure.
A 3-2 win in Kevin Muscat’s debut was surely enough to get the viewer numbers up. After all, numbers seem to count for everything these days.
There were a number of Monday matches in the 2010/11 season, with the 12,000-strong crowd Newcastle drew for their win over Sydney FC the pick of the bunch.
Regardless of the other matches, the A-League is in a much stronger position now and average numbers are up all over the place.
It’s hard to see a regular Monday fixture having just 1,000 people roll through the gate, as happened for Gold Coast’s 0-0 draw with Perth on January 3, 2011.
It would be heinous to stage a high profile match on a Monday – scratch the Sydney derby, Melbourne derby, F3 derby et al. – but it is plausible to have one, most likely the ‘least significant’ game, on this day each week.
While comparisons with rugby league are oft avoided to keep the ‘code war’ protagonists at bay, it’s the NRL’s example that offers most optimism for the A-League to consider change.
Monday night rugby league has been a successful addition since its return in 2007, putting rugby league on the back pages for much of the week.
Having Thursday night games was a bit of a stretch and was cut early on last season, but Monday night matches have developed a piece of viewing pleasure.
Perhaps it’s one thing still coursing through Mr Gallop’s veins?
Ditto American ‘football’. The NFL thrives on its non-weekend matches, and those games go for hours… and hours.
Like any argument, there are down sides to this one, but a game that is constantly evolving can only progress by taking risks.
This is something of a safe risk and should yield more than it sacrifices.
Bring the kick-off time forward to 7pm to dispel the school night debate and we could have a deal.
While you might not see the sell-out blockbusters of a Saturday night match, the viewing public will soon be glued to the box on a Monday.
Fingers crossed for a repeat of last night’s goal-fest.
Catnap
Guest
I think that next year it should be a melbourne derby the night before the cup!!!!
Australian Rules
Guest
"SBS are hitting nationally between 400-600k all regions." What does this mean? Are you talking ratings?
Arto
Guest
No to Monday night games! This reeks of poor planning... For at least 3 reasons: (there are probably more, I just can think of any right now) 1 - We already cater so much to the tv viewer that we seriously challenge the paying spectator at the game. Eg: Why pay $20-30 per ticket for one game (alternatively $200-300 for a season ticket) when you can pay $60 per month to see the same game PLUS a few more that month PLUS (in most instances) get a better understanding of the important decisions moments of that game (and the others) PLUS get to watch a number of other games such as EPL, LA Liga, Serie A PLUS get to watch other sports you might follow too??? Yes, tv can't replicate the "feeling" of actually "being there", but that has it's positives too (eg: not being roasted during 35'C heat and being forced to pay absurd amounts of money for food & drink, or sitting in the wind & rain, or navigating the monstrous traffic back home after a game, etc.). Don't get me wrong, I love going to a live match, but there are times when I think my decision to do so was a poor one after witnessing the rubbish played on occasion by my team (SFC). 2 - The impact on fan attendence would be huge. It's one thing to justify taking off the last few hours of work on a friday in order to get to a game, but it's something else entirely to do that on a monday - I happen to live now in country with relatively flexible attitudes to core working hours (Norway) and don't have the amount of pressure through expectation to be at work until 6-7pm that exists in many Sydney workplaces (I assume this is also the case in other Australian cities to though). Monday night football lasted 1 season here in Norway & it's the #1 sport (let alone football code) in the country after fans and clubs pressured the administartors (fans actually began to boycot away matches!) into scrapping it. 3 - The potential gain from the 'improved viewing' tv game is short-term as the the tv product is partially dependent upon the stadium appearing well attended too for the neutral supporter. As even the people commenting positively on this issue here have stated that it could only work for a few of a club's matches, this clashes with the 'security net' of showing the bigger/popular teams on mondays (which most likely would draw the main game for the round anyway) so consistently showing a Heart or Wellington game on Mondays is only going to last so long. No, Monday night football is like burning the candles at both ends and will only hurt the game long-term. I'm sure there are other ways of keeping interest during the week than this. There is such a thing as too much of a good thing - just ask any WSW fan now about moving their big matches to a bigger stadium!!!
Muz
Guest
No to Monday night games. No one will turn up and it will look dire on TV.
Justin Thighm
Roar Guru
I wrote an article about how Fri night FTA will affect Fox and interestingly, Fox TV ratings are down on last year at this time, SBS are hitting nationally between 400-600k all regions. But . . . avge attendances are up from 12,341 to 17,485 or up a huge 45% increase on last season.
yewonk
Guest
i reckon thursday nights work better than monday.
Cameron
Roar Guru
Unless attendance figures and viewing numbers were big enough to accommodate Monday night football then it can stay away.
Jack Russell
Roar Guru
Is this guy fair dinkum?
Kasey
Guest
I have tried to embrace Asia as best as possible also, after all I am an AU fan:) Some of our best moments have been in Asia! regarding engaging with Asia (Japan) I saw this great line in WSC the other day: “The names of a good number of clubs in Japan's J-League draw on corrupted versions of languages spoken in some of football's superpower nations. The likes of Jubilo Iwata, Kashiwa Reysol and Omiya Ardija hope that their brushes with Portuguese or Spanish constitute echoes of the success achieved by teams from the appropriate countries – coupled, of course, with a hint of the exotic. In the depths of the Japanese non-League pyramid, however, one club have taken a different approach to the knotty problem of choosing a moniker. Ignoring the reflected glory that German or Italian might provide, FC Ube Yahhh-man have drawn upon Jamaican patois for, the club say, its perceived friendliness and warmth of spirit. Whatever their source of inspiration, it seems to be paying dividends: Japan's very own Reggae Boyz currently lie top of the Yamaguchi Prefectural League." I now have FC Ube Yahh-man at #8 on my list of brilliant global football club names, behind: 1. Club Deportivo Wanka (PER) 2. Fotballaget Fart (FL Fart) (NOR) 3. Thailand Tobacco Monopoly (THA) 4. Bangkok Glass(THA) 5. Grasshopper Zurich. (SUI) 6. Young Boys of Bern (SUI) 7. Joe Public FC (T&T) 8. FC. Ube Yahh-Man (JAP) The global nature of football provides so much entertainment, even if it is usually more than just a cheap giggle at a club name in Peru or Norway:)
oly09
Roar Rookie
I think the crowd average for midweek games when they were played a few seasons ago was about 6000. Compared to the then average for all games of about 8500, so it was significantly lower. Monday night games are only played in the NRL so Fox have another night to show a game and they have awful crowds. I really don't think we need, or will, go down that path.
tawk
Guest
Monday night games are terrible. Would prefer to watch games on the weekend. Only one Sunday game. Maybe if there were 10 games we could stretch out to thursday and Mondays. Until then stop this ridiculous stupidity.
Brick Tamlin of the Pants Party
Guest
I feel a little better thanks for that,we are getting a lot more late kick offs further into summer to be fair but even the game on the weekend we had 10,651 there when a later kick off have seen the crowd closer to 12,maybe more I know there were times during the match I was wondering why I wasn't at the beach.Would be pretty frustrating for Sage seeing he's always saying 12k attendances have the club breaking even.
AGO74
Guest
No offence Brick. I can barely watch my own Sydney FC at the moment if that makes you feel any better.
AndyRoo
Roar Guru
I think Sunday afternoon (and Saturday afternoon) is it's own problem. Playing in the heat always reduces the spectacle.
Ben of Phnom Penh
Roar Guru
I was waiting for either you or Nathan to reply to this :D
Brick Tamlin of the Pants Party
Guest
So we're sweltering over here in Perth at 2:30 in the afternoon to cater for eastern states viewers and you don't like watching us,screw the lot of ya!......though I can't really blame you for not wanting to watch the Glory.
Kasey
Guest
Ironic that Merrick wasn’t interested in performing in the ACL as it was arguably the 5-0 loss in the ACL that sealed his departure from MV.
Jukes
Guest
Towser I think you will find that Perth home games can be played at the time slot of 7-8pm (AEST) and that is probably the best time to schedule their matches ie 4-5pm Perth local time. For Wellington 7pm (AEST) wont work as its a 9pm kick off in Wellington. Ideally I would like to see no matches in Australia start before 5pm local time. Not sure how that would affect the Fox coverage, if they could push out their time by 1hr for the Perth home matches it would definitely help the players.
albatross
Roar Pro
When Sydney FC played an ACL match in 2007 against an Indonesian club, Persik Kediri, in Parramatta on Anzac Day evening (if you see what I mean) it drew more than 10k.
Keyless sky blues nut
Guest
What I don't understand is why we are still starting Warren when we've got a solid lb in the Youth team in Petkovski! He can't be worse right, and needs game time. Warren pretty much cost us the game by dropping way deeper than the rest of the back four for no real need which conned the linesman into thinking naggai onside. Drop him now please, along with chianese for naumoff and Abbas for any other youth player.