As a long suffering true believer and student of football, I have to pinch myself sometimes to see if what I’m watching is actually really happening.
Football is going through a great period in its very short history, and it’s definitely the A-league’s time to shine.
I’ve been to almost every Melbourne Victory game in Melbourne for nine years, have followed the game religiously at home and abroad for over 30.
If someone had told me 10 years ago where the game would be today, I would’ve laughed it off and told them they were completely nuts; that it’d never happen, and that we may not even have a national competition to follow in Australia after the NSL fell over.
But 10 years on, our code is growing rapidly. The game has already had a great journey so far, and won over many new fans in the process.
To qualify for three successive World Cup Finals and start up a new professional national competition from a concept on a piece of paper, all in a decade, is remarkable.
All these are no mean feats, but the biggest challenge is changing people’s perceptions of the game, teaching the uneducated and breaking down old barriers and stereotypes. This battle is not yet won, nor will that happen in the short term, but we are seeing progress day by day.
The battle I speak of is not to see which code is No.1, as some code war or appendage measuring contest. All the codes offer something different, and are all great sports.
But the battle is for our sport to gain the respect and recognition it deserves, on all platforms – from news bulletins to radio stations to the common man on the street. We are still an afterthought to many media outlets, whether in print, radio or TV.
A new $160m, four-year deal with Fox Sports, plus a free-to-air Friday night game on SBS every week speaks volumes as to how far we’ve come, but also shows that football in Australia has merely just scratched the surface in terms of fulfilling it’s potential.
Crowds this season will go close to being the best ever in terms of average per game, and will definitely break the total aggregate attendance for the whole season. TV ratings on Fox are up about 10,000 per game on last season at the moment, and Friday night games are averaging about 180,000 on SBS.
That’s plenty of extra eyeballs on the game that it’s never had before. This increased exposure will in turn help clubs to get more sponsorship dollars.
I think in future we’ll see 12-14 teams in the A-League. We need teams in Wollongong, Canberra, North Queensland and a third in Victoria, whether that be from Melbourne or Geelong.
And depending on what happens to Phoenix long term, I can see another side from New Zealand coming in, maybe from Auckland. But not for at least another 10 years.
The FFA Cup, rumoured to be starting next year, will be fantastic for the state league clubs and fans, many of whom still haven’t given the A-league a chance out of spite for the administration.
I think if every club can play 35-40 games a season in all competitions, we’ll be in good shape. This will mean we’ll need an eight or nine month season, which is ideal.
I know many will complain about decreased media attention while overlapping with other codes, but our biggest issue is actually stadia availability. And that’s the next frontier in our game, club owned facilities and stadiums.
This is probably a long way off, but it is something for the clubs to strive for.
But we need to walk before we can crawl, and there will be further obstacles and major issues in future. If football can keep growing as it has in the last decade, we’ll be well on our way.
Midfielder
Guest
Flat stick yesterday and did not get a chance to comment till very late and then I was stuffed an on my phone ... Without doubt the A-League is about to shine ... Old media, as we’ve seen again and again regarding our sport in the last year, is less aligned with it’s vested interests as it scrambles to survive in the new age. With 3.1 million people that either play or watch the sport in Oz it’s taken some of these dinosaurs to the inevitable point kicking and screaming-but they simply had to for overwhelming commercial reasons.... this didn't come about through protests or petitions or angry letters to sports editors. This came about through our game being big and strong and well-run, and attracting interest. The evolution is well under way ...
clayts
Guest
That means 106k isn't representative either though
clayts
Guest
Wow. I know it was raining on Friday night in Gosford but below 6k? Add that to the supposed derby at Sydney not breaking 15k. Pretty sure no Sydney supporter is now ever allowed to bash Heart for their apparent small crowds..
clayts
Guest
Hmm. I reckon you need to pump the brakes. I love the A League and have been attending since day one, but a 'quality possession based one-touch passing league' it ain't. Yes there are one or two teams that are capable of that in patches but certainly not the whole league, and that's fine! Let Eurosnobs be Eurosnobs. They'll jump on the bandwagon soon enough
Punter
Guest
Ian, I fully understand there will be other leagues with higher quality & realise that even with a 7.5mill salary cap you would not be signing too many of the top players from around the world. I was more talking about improving the league with better quality players not the highest quality players.
socrates
Guest
You forgot to mention Romario's spell at Adelaide United in 2007 The NSL attracted world class players also (past their best) Who can forget Ian Rush at Sydney Olympic and Peter Beardsley at Melbourne Knights.
Ian
Guest
Good post Towser. Surprises me some compare the size of the crowd to the size of the stadium as if that means something. If we were in a 20000 seater would it appear more popular? Noise levels are good and come through (at the ground and now that have fox I watch the game at home). Imagine if were in a 20,000 seater. Suncorp is such a great stadium any talk of going elsewhere has no interest to me.
Ian
Guest
It also rained in Brisbane most of the preceding night up until just after midday so a lot of the walk up crowd may have pulled out. The sun only came out about 30 mins into the game if I remember correctly.
Evan Askew
Guest
True.
seaseaemma
Guest
Another advance: 2GB Sydney's A-League Hour broadcast on Saturday at 1. p.m. with Andy Harper
asanchez
Roar Guru
Thanks Mid, I appreciate it. The overall response might actually make me write another 1 someday.
Football United
Guest
Nonsense, Nations like Russia might have a larger population but it's population distribution is so focused on Moscow and St Petersburg, so much so that under your logic, sustaining two national divisions and a cup should be logistically impossible as well. The Russian second division has teams of a range of sizes like Baltika on the border of poland in Kaliningrad to Khabarovsk and Vladivostok by the sea of Japan. There are still plenty of regions that could be capable of first or second tier football given the opportunity like Geelong, Tasmania, Wollongong, Canberra, Auckland, Christchurch, Dandenong, Ipswich, Sunshine Coast, or the Gold Coast again. That's enough for a whole new division and done smartly through mixes of community and private ownership, construction of smaller stadia, possibly regional zones and a minor tv deal to coincide with increased professionalism in the NPL is a vision that should be achievable in the medium to long term for the FFA.
midfielder
Guest
ads Great read .. We are on the move
Football United
Guest
Clubs would be sustainable with lower crowds if they played in stadiums that were suitable for lower crowds and thus had lower costs. It is daft to think sustainability is totally reliant on crowd levels, Sponsorships, Tv Deals, Corporate events, player sales, merchandise and the use of academies instead of transfer fees for sourcing new players all play a significant part in determining a clubs sustainability. But i guess that's totally incomprehensible for mr franchised sport is the only sport. Socialism in sport makes it totally bland.
midfielder
Guest
+1
asanchez
Roar Guru
Think of it this way, it gives us 12 years to keep growing and to keep lobbying the government for an upgrade to AAMI. I reckon the other Melbourne sides like the Storm, Heart & Rebels would've grown by then as well and that will also help with a potential upgrade. Mind you, the AFL might buy the stadium before that.
Justin Thighm
Roar Guru
The next Sydney derby is at Parramatta Stadium on Jan 11. There is some action to try and move it to ANZ because the game is already nearly sold out. The third and final one is at Alliance on 8 March.
Griffo
Roar Guru
I'd also add in first touch. The amount of heavy, first touches that turns over possession or that kills a half chance on goal is still a worry.
AZ_RBB
Guest
broadcasting games simultaneously splits your audience. maybe not in half but you lose a lot of the people who watch multiple games every week.
Evan Askew
Guest
True, not only the better performance that would come at a 7pm start time compared to a 4:30 pm start time but the fuller stadums that would result would also present better content for the tv stations as well as being better for the fans. Surely foxtel has the ability to broadcast games simultaneously? Its what they should be doing for the last round. At present I think a game friday night, 2 games at the 7pm timeslot on saturday night and 2 games at a 4pm timeslot sunday would be the best.