For me Season 10 of the A-League has been fascinating. The quality of the football has been great, and the entire league (in the majority) just seems to keep improving year on year, which is fantastic.
But despite this season being a great one on the field, there’s been way too many distractions off it, most of them out of FFA’s control, like the scheduling of the Asian Cup, followed by the Cricket World Cup, coincidently both on home soil.
But for me, there’s been a few issues this season, which head office needs to analyse and sort out as soon as possible in readiness for next season. A few minor tweaks are needed here and there and we optimise the entire product.
The issues are:
– falling crowds post-Asian Cup
– ownership issues at the Newcastle Jets
– salary cap cheating at Perth Glory
– bad midweek scheduling of games
– potential stadium non-availability for A-League grand finals in Melbourne
– TV ratings approximately five per cent down on Fox Sports
I think for next season to go to yet another level, a series of both minor and major tweaks and changes need to be implemented by the FFA in the off-season, to help get rid of the noise that’s plagued some of this year. We need another smashing season and also ensure that nothing hold the code back.
Things like breaching the salary cap are hard to get rid of, the FFA just needs to make sure it’s doing frequent audits of all the clubs and making sure something like this doesn’t happen every second year. The cap is small, and clubs always stretch themselves.
In my opinion these are the things that I think should be sorted out as soon as possible:
– fix the ownership issue at the Newcastle Jets
– look to resolve the future of Wellington Phoenix in the A-League with the AFC and FIFA.
– resolve Wellington’s home ground in New Zealand, explore the Hutt Rec ground option permanently.
– get the scheduling spot on, get the fixtures consistent
– don’t play midweek games if they’re not needed
– don’t have a team playing away from home for more than two weeks in a row, as this breaks rhythm.
– get their dates right, pre-book all the venues for finals including the grand final
– start the season in late August or September, giving us a bumper three months to start the season off with a bang, and maintain that for longer into the year.
– keep all the big games, like derbies and the like until after the AFL grand final on October 3, 2016.
– play the FFA Cup final on a Saturday night in November or December, taking a break from the A-League for that weekend, putting full focus and exposure on the FFA Cup.
– the last round for the regular season is on Friday, March 25, 2016. Play all five games in last round simultaneously
– A-League finals series start on Friday, April 1, 2016, with the grand final on April 17
– change the marquee rules to two marquees per team, regardless of who they are where they come from, not restricted by the current one foreign and one local marquee system
I know there’s quite a few things in there, but the FFA need to start making at least of few of these changes in time for next season. Others are longer term, but should be acted on for the good of the game.
Editor’s note: The Central Coast Mariners have contacted The Roar about a small section of this article. We have removed the section so we get a full comment from the Mariners.
RBBAnonymous
Guest
I agree that we need to eventually get on a FTA station but not at any price. The coverage needs to spot on as how they show their ads. As for competition, teams in the A-league will always be competitive with or without a salary cap. The most important aspect about the A-league is lifting the quality. If you lift the quality through better imports, aussies coming back to a viable league, better player development and good infrastructure then we will get more spectators, more sponsors, more money. The best way to do that is open up the league, plan for an A2 over a 15-20 year time frame, pro/rel, get rid of the cap. Biggest sport in Australia.
asanchez
Roar Guru
Thanks for all the comments guys. As for the existing salary cap, I don't think it should be scrapped, but it definitely needs tweaking. Perhaps a luxury tax which gets distributed back among the other 9 clubs is the way to go, it'd also help keep certain clubs investing extra in the game if they can afford to, and also help clubs to keep their better players from being cherry picked from overseas. As for TV rights, and I've said this many times before, the A-league gets 1/3 of the AFL average TV viewers per game on Fox, and about 1/4 of NRL viewers. Crowds are even closer, as it gets about 80% of the NRL attendances, and roughly 1/3 of AFL crowfs. But disparagingly, it gets $40m per year in TV rights, while the NRL & AFL get $200m and $250m respectively. And if you believe the current rumours, the AFL is looking at a new $1.6-$2b TV rights deal next time around, meanwhile their TV viewership hasn't dramatically increased from where they've been in recent times. The key here is competition. Sponsorship is another important metric, and a greater FTA presence would do wonders for more sponsorship dollars, and that'd increase almost overnight. The A-league at the moment needs a commercial FTA station to show 1-2 live games per week. SBS 1 or 2 just don't cut it. I think if they switched to secondary channels OneHD, GO, GEM, 7TWO or 7mate, that would be a great step forward, with an ultimate view to get on 1 of the big 3 channels sometime after that. These things take time. But we're on the right track.
Tom Findlay
Guest
From reading these comments I wish I could read something with a novel concept. There are a plethora of words, but little in the way of perspective. I'm a bit sick of the insular views round my office. It should be the epicentre of Australian football in terms of plausible suggestions to improve the work of FFA. FFA need to get off their collective rear ends and provide some leadership. I think I could do a better job than Lowy Junior being given the keys to the place.
RBBAnonymous
Guest
@ JB Thanks for pointing that out JB. If you also notice I was responding to Mister footballs post and nothing else.
Brendo
Guest
It is funny, always the same arguments come up and while I think some are no brainers there are always others which I think could go either way. Lots ion your post though 1. Early Start Kicking the season eariler does have a lot of merit. As there is always going to be some overlap with the AFL/NRL seasons, its a question of better to be crowded at the start or the end. Personally I prefer the early start and the March finish. 2. FIFA Dates Do we really need this? I personally think it impacts the flow of the season if you stop the season and it creates scheduling issues that results in more mid-week games. I also like the fact that clubs need to reach into their youth squads to fill spots. 3. Salary Cap Cannot agree with you here at all. Salary Cap must remain, I would like it to be constantly restructured to reflect more money coming into the game but to remove it entirely would be a disaster for the league. I do think its too low currently and the FFA's approach that it be set at the lowest dominator to ensure all clubs are viable has to change. 4. Transfer Fees I totally agree that the current system does not reward grassroots clubs enough and needs to change. I would prefer that all transfers within Australia contain sell on clauses that reward grassroots club set percentages of any followup transfer fees paid to A-league clubs. In terms of transfer between A-league clubs, why? How does placing a price on a transfer allow clubs to more easily offload a player? Any system that allows a easy movement of player from one club to the next when they are unwanted will be the best for the players and fans. 5. Clubs not Franchise I think everybody would prefer clubs to be fan owned and not dominated by a single individual. But forcing that is not the way to go. We came close this season with Victory talking about selling some of its capital to the fans. The problem is chicken and egg. It is difficult to have fan based ownership in a environment where club is losing money, but if you rely on business people they expect long term payback for their investment. I think a mixed model where positions on the board are opened up to the the members may be the compromise that is coming. 6. Too much control from FFA Totally agree with this one. 10 years old now and they need to start letting clubs control more of their own destiny. Websites, Branding, Playing Strips, Sponsors all need to be opened up to allow clubs to find their own identity. We have seen some good signs of this over the past few years but it needs to go further. 7. Finals or No Finals, Rel vs No Rel I love the first past the post finish and am no overly fond of finals but in a league that has no Rel/Prom I think it does add some needed excitement to the end of the season. I think at the moment they are necessary but once we have a second tier with Pro/Rel they could be dropped for a first past the post season. 8. Make Football More Accessible I think with all said and done we have a culture issue in football. The vast majority of people talk about better coaching standards, lower fees. But what a lot of people fail to understand is that the vast majority of costs at grassroots clubs can be traced back to paying coaches. To lower costs we need to change our opinion of parent coaches. We need to embrace the idea that community clubs can have 17/18 year olds & parents coaching juniors. Sure we still need the FFA to increase the bar at the elite level and we need a lot more coaches with C level licences. But we need more coaches who are doing it for club and less that are coaching for the money. But in Victoria the biggest issue still remains infrastructure. 9 Strategic Plan for 2nd Tier 100% agree, the FFA need to put a stake in the sand regarding a 2nd Tier. I personally would love to see 10 team second tier in place in 5 years, with a pro system in place that allows winners of the 2nd tier the right to bid to enter the A-league under certain conditions. Not every team will make the jump up. I agree if you set the idea in place we would be surprised at how many clubs step up to achieve it. 10. NCIP Must go in its current format and implementation. It is divisive and doesn't help anybody.
The artist formerly known as Punter
Guest
International elements in the A-League is definitely a double edge sword. This will change in time & it will take time once; The prize money in the ACL increases & it benefits clubs in the hip pocket to compete in the ACL. This will happen, as you see more & more money coming out of Asia in football, the recent success of the Asian cup in a non footballing country. Smarter pundits then me are saying this century will see football in Asia grow immensely. Scrap/change the salary cap, with such a small salary cap with limited squads it made it impossible for WSW to compete strongly in both competitions. Credit must go to WSW (I don't think there has been enough) to win the ACL with such a restricted salary cap & squad. Unfortunately, at the expense of the A-League competition. Scheduling, very difficult to do with such a strong sports market for ground & TV space, but the FFA must assist clubs much better when competing in the ACL while representing this proud sporting country. We are building for the future to ensure we are on the Asian bandwagon as it gets bigger.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
RBBA Yes, it's likely that the extra mid-week games have taken their toll on both teams. I'm guessing it would be a world first that a club wins a continental club championship and then ends up bottom two in its domestic league in the same year. I think it's fair to say that the international elements are a double-edge sword for the A-League.
j binnie
Guest
Subversion13- An excellent summation of what may have happened in the season just gone. In today's marketplace one has to stay on the forefront of change for change's sake and this last season has seen ,IMO,the FFA miss out on that count,while others charged ahead,the Asia Cup,the Socceroos,and the "big bash" all prime examples The ADP experience at Sydney FC showed one way in which successful marketing got results and the further success story out west in Sydney,in which they,the FFA were deeply involved,appears to have had no effect on how they,through their experience,could possibly helpother clubs who are struggling to "stay the pace" so to speak Keep up the good work,you debate well.jb
j binnie
Guest
RBB -If you go back to the "top of the page" you will read a headline, "Memo to FFA". The author obviously set out to tell the FFA where our game could be improved for next season.He enumerated certain areas where he felt things could be improved.He operates under the name "asanchez"" and his thoughts were his opinions ,ok?. I felt if we went back to the basic structure of how well our 10 teams performed at the "gates" this year it would give any reader a base from where to start their thought processes. Twice you have attempted to give an explanation as to why Roar's and WSW's figures have dropped and apparently aimed your comments at the figures I supplied. If you read subsequent replies carefully you will see no one is dis-agreeing with what you say,you are simply pointing out some of the things that in your opinion the FFA have to look at for next season and that is the point of "asanchez"s original comment. You appear to have a grouse with the scheduling of matches ,especially for those teams playing in Asia, so would you please address your complaint to the FFA and maybe,just maybe, "asanchez" will feel his comment has reached another fan. My figures are not opinions,they are facts, (the corrected version), and how or why they were achieved was not the purpose of posting them,they were to stimulate discussion. Cheers jb
RBBAnonymous
Guest
Interestingly they also consist of two teams who were performing in the ACL. Do you think that the number of WSW and Roar matches played midweek might have also had an effect on numbers, of course they would. For both teams the number of days of inclement weather were also a factor. At least 3 home matches I stayed away from this year. I am not talking about a little rain either. I am talking hail, thunderstorms, gail force winds and we still managed to get enough crazy people to attend.
RBBAnonymous
Guest
Then I dont agree with your statement our A-league season has been under cut by outside factors. The Roar unfortunately when you scrutinize all the factors have been affected more than most.
RBBAnonymous
Guest
I dont agree with you and just so we are clear. I dream of the day when a team like Melbourne city buys who they want. Even though both you and I know that wouldnt be the case but if it was. I would be droolling like there is no tomorrow and that would only be a great thing for our league.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
Interesting stats jb. I think you have already mentioned this, but the movements up and down correlate closely to how well teams have performed, perhaps with the exception of SFC. That is a fairly normal situation and we can expect to see similar correlations from season to season. The most notable stat above is the Victory's average attendance, that's excellent in anyone's language.
j binnie
Guest
RBB My comment was not meant as an analysis as to why certain figures were arrived at it was simply to point out where things could be improved in the future or should I say will have to be improved in the future.jb.
j binnie
Guest
Due to a mix up in my filing system the figures shown above are incorrect.The correct figures are as follows- Victory Last season's average 21,806. This season 25,389 . Up 17%. Adelaide. Last season's average 11,226. This season 12,636. Up 13%. Perth Last season's average 9,397. This season 9,542. Up 2%. Wellington Last season's average 8,259. This season 8,583.Up 4%. Melb C. Last season's average 10,112. This season 10,404. Up 3% (These figures affected by "derbies") Sydney FC Last season's average 18,682. This season 17,406. Down 5% ( Also affected by "derbies") WSW Last season's average 14,860. This season 12,520. Down 15% (Also affected by "derbies"). Roar Last season's average14,959. This season 11,657.Down 22%. Jets Last season's average 11,982. This season 8,961. Down 25%. CCM Last season's average 9,398. This season 7,570. Down 20% Sorry about any confusion I may have caused. Will try to be more careful in future . The thoughts that followed my original statement still apply,despite my error . Cheers jb
j binnie
Guest
Edias .The figures I showed are wrong .See following article.Cheers jb
j binnie
Guest
Fuss - The figures shown above are wrong .See following article jb
lester
Guest
"I don’t hear the NZRU bleating about how bad Westpac Stadium is" Then you aren't listening. Hurricanes struggle to get anyone to their games because it's such a bad stadium for rugby.
Edias
Guest
JB, Sydney FC's average crowd decrease can be explained by only hosting one Sydney derby as opposed to two the previous season.
Waz
Guest
Example of Roars weird existance at home this year: of the last 10 home games 5 were on a regular Fri-Sun fixture, 5 were played on a Mon-Thu with the bizzare kick off time of 6.40 (why not 7.40??). Overall Roar played their 13 home games on 7 different days of the week, and between December 1st and February 1st there was only one home game (my wife actually thought the season had ended) and when the season restarted after the AC the game originally scheduled for the Sunday was bizarrely moved to the Monday night. The early season games were a bit more encouraging attendance wise but even then we had the first home Sydney game sandwiched between two rugby test matches which was dumb. The reality is all this added to Roars fall off which was compounded by off field turmoil and the fact that until we smashed Mariners we were only averaging a goal a game at home and rarely Winning. So fixturing needs to be improved.