Brisbane Roar can go a long way to clinching the Premiers Plate tonight in the blockbuster first versus second match against Western Sydney Wanderers.
With a finals run-in which sees the Roar play six of their last nine games at home, a win at Wanderland would open up a ten-point gap on second place.
However, the Roar will have to deal with a potential issue that may well derail their premiership campaign and it has little to do with who they play, but rather what they play on.
Super Rugby starts this month and the Queensland Reds will be churning up the Lang Park surface as only rugby union can do.
The following month, the Brisbane Broncos will begin their NRL season and Brisbane Roar’s wonderful passing game will be sorely tested by a surface that will quite probably not be conducive to the style of play that has captivated many fans this season.
Of course, the Roar are not the only side that may be seeing surfaces cut up by co-tenants in the coming weeks and months.
Eight A-League clubs share the ground they play on with a rugby league or union ‘flatmate’.
It is an unavoidable consequence of playing in the top stadia around the country, with a population unable to support clubs building their own grounds for exclusive usage.
It is not the time for football to get its back up because the rugby codes are commencing their competitions.
Rather, it is time for the various clubs to work together with their co-tenants, and for the A-League to work with the NRL and the ARU, to ensure that the A-League games are played on the best surfaces possible for the remainder of the season.
The Central Coast Mariners and Adelaide United are the only A-League club who do not have a permanent co-tenant.
For the other clubs, the most preferable option when ground usage starts to ramp up, is to play first, which given the cycle of competition, would mean on Friday nights.
Obviously that is not possible most of the time due to a number of factors, among them TV rights of the other codes as a well as the A-League.
It would therefore make great sense for A-League clubs to be insisting in their ground hiring arrangements that the preparation of the surface starts as soon as the Super Rugby or NRL game is over.
Without being demonstrative, A-League clubs need to exercise their rights as tenants to ensure this happens.
Football clubs are now an integral part of stadium contracts, as grounds are being used year round.
Year-long occupation brings in more revenue for stadium management, more membership, more advertising, more money through food, merchandise and ticketing sales and more sponsorship opportunities for the stadium itself.
Within two seasons, Western Sydney Wanderers have more than doubled the attendance and usage of Parramatta Stadium.
Despite their ordinary season, Sydney FC are averaging crowds as big as their co-tenant Sydney Roosters and a little under the NSW Waratahs (who have a supporter base almost as fickle as Sydney FC!).
Brisbane don’t get the kind of crowds that the Broncos and the Reds get, but they have the potential to bring the A-League Grand Final to Lang Park, something the Broncos can’t do no matter how well their season goes.
Melbourne Victory are a bigger club than the Melbourne Rebels or the Melbourne Storm, even if they seem hell-bent on alienating their most passionate fans (I know it is not all the club’s fault but as a side-issue, it has got to be sorted out).
However, it is not the other codes issue to address. They pay their ground hire fees, they get to use the ground.
There is no point getting all huffy with league and union if grounds start to become bumpy and of poor quality, because it need not happen.
AAMI Park seems to cope with the increased activity, and there is no reason save for really unfavourable weather that the other surfaces cannot be brought up to scratch.
Arto
Guest
@ Passionate_Aussie: I don't know if this is still the case, but it was at least a major gripe of the clubs that they didn't have full control over marketing & advetising as FFA wanted to make sure that all their sponsors weren't put into a conflict with a rival sponsor by a HAL team as it would diminsh the value of the FFA's deals. Thus, HAL teams haven't really invested in their marketing & advertising capacity as they were always restricted by what content they could make. Combine that with the FFA's at times poor finances and it is a major reason why advertising & marketing for games is pretty much only seen on Fox Sports (possibly also on SBS now?? - I haven't seen their coverage of thr HAL). Compared with other sports, so there's a heap of advertising for matches in many forms of media and I think it's definitely an area where the HAL lags behind and possibly hinders them a lot from generating new fans - unless you actively search for the fixture list or have Fox Sports, you don't really know when & where the games are on or who the big players are for each team, and this is something which the casual or new fan needs in order to find out about the game...
Alessandro Vari
Roar Pro
Leichardt Oval for Sydney FC?
apaway
Roar Guru
Johan It won't happen because a) There's not a lot of real estate left and b) "Boutique" size stadiums already exist In Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide (Sydney has at least 6), even though they are not in the "centre" of the city.
apaway
Roar Guru
No argument from me on that, Brian. However, the condition of the ground can lead to a downturn in quality, which is not a problem that faces the other codes to the same extent.
apaway
Roar Guru
Jorji, your earlier post indicated ARF could be played on any surface. The Docklands problems would indicate otherwise.
Passionate_Aussie
Roar Rookie
What do you mean by "centralised control of marketing & advertising that FFA have in place?" I thought Roar had control of how much they spent on marketing? Didn't they choose to spend it on Matt McKay?
Cameron
Roar Guru
That would not be good at all. Suncorp is the Roar's home and that's the way I personally would like it to stay.
Cameron
Roar Guru
They being Brisbane Roar, not Bakrie Roar.
apaway
Roar Guru
Jukes The Waratahs and Roosters do the bulk of their training on grounds in Moore Park that were specially built for them by the Centennial Park Trust (which in itself went against the charter of the Centennial Park Authority but that's a whole other story)
apaway
Roar Guru
Mid I thought the title was quite witty... :) Souths play at the Olympic Stadium so the SFS is used by the Waratahs, the Roosters and Sydney FC. I don't think there is any way SFC would move to Parramatta Stadium - it takes them away from their supporter base and plonks them right in the middle of their city rivals. I think the SFS is a great place to watch football (of any code) and even half full there is a good atmosphere.
apaway
Roar Guru
James While I agree that the Roar have the ability to play ion a less than pristine ground, I recall they played the Jets at home in December not long after a rock concert had stuffed the playing surface, and got beaten 2-0. Mike Mulvey never blamed the surface but on that night it certainly hindered the Roar more than it did the Jets.
apaway
Roar Guru
SFM I agree. Added to the fact that in Sydney at least there are a multitude of EXISTING grounds that fulfil that magical 15-20,000 capacity, I can't see any new ones being built unless a club can fund it themselves.
Arto
Guest
At the risk of entering the war-zone between Ian & Passionate_Aussie, could Roar's failure to average 20K crowds in a season have a lot to do with the centralised control of marketing & advertising that FFA have in place? I mean I realise grassroots activity counts for a lot, but IMO that in the most part is a bit like preaching to the already converted - it's not going to significantly increase crowds (in the order of the percentages Ian has listed below) year on year... Bringing 'new' fans to the game will achieve that and I get the impression that most HAL teams feel hamstrung by the FFA controlling this activity (when they can't devote more resources to it than they do presently)...
Jorji Costava
Guest
They seem to be going in this direction in the USA/Canada with their MLS. Key is, the clubs/MLS own the facilities.
Jorji Costava
Guest
Personally, I never played on anything resembling half as good as Docklands. Players are molly coddled and look for any excuse when they do not play well Played on the bitumen in the military. A couple of nasty grazes, but there were a few commissioned and nco blokes you wanted to square up with, so it was better the worse the surface was. Our own footy is ideal infantry training btw.
The Big Fish
Guest
No harm in trying to improve since broadcast and corporate dollars are important no matter what you think. If one stands still others wil pass you.
Gave me a Laugh.
Guest
Maybe its 98th and maybe its not. If you enjoy the football it produces why give a flying f***.
Johan
Guest
The clubs need coin and aside from heart (with man city owning them) the rest of the a league clubs have no coin. This leads to the current situation where a Bon jovi concert or some similar garbage takes precedence over the a league which is unacceptable. Other sport is at least understandable but bon jovi!!! As fellow posters have mentioned the solution peeps is the building of a soccer specific boutique style 20,000 capacity stadium in the centre of each State Capital except Hobart. The difficulty is, as so often the case, who would foot the bill? Frankie lowy could afford it but would he be willing? My guess is that it wont happen for a couple of decades as no one will foot the bill.
Bill
Guest
They are about to deliver another premiership and potentially championship for the Orange. They also brought in Fifa female player of the year, Nadine Angered, on loan. Brisbane supporters have nothing to complain about.
langou
Roar Guru
I also can't remember any of shots on target from The Glory Must be my memory :-)