For Football Federation Australia, the A-League grand final was a great success but there’s one aspect they aren’t keen to see ever again.
On televison screens around Australia, more than 650,000 tuned in to the meeting of heavyweight clubs Melbourne Victory and Sydney FC.
Around the world, FFA says that number swells to a quarter of a billion people in more than 100 countries.
A-League chief Damien de Bohun hailed growing interest in the match.
“The global audience continues to grow, some 54 countries took the game live and another 50-odd countries on delay,” he said.
“Somewhere between 250 and 300 million people would have watched the A-League grand final yesterday which is a massive result for us.”
While the television audience was the biggest, the crowd was the smallest in the 10-year history of the A-League.
Almost 30,000 witnessed Melbourne Victory take apart Sydney FC 3-0 at AAMI Park.
De Bohun said the boutique stadium created an “atmosphere unparalleled in Australian sport”.
But FFA is working to ensure it won’t host the A-League’s biggest match again.
Etihad Stadium is the FFA’s preferred venue in Melbourne for the grand final but on Sunday it was two-thirds empty for an AFL match.
The Docklands venue hosted just 18,170 people for Fremantle’s defeat of Western Bulldogs.
De Bohun said another AAMI Park decider was “very unlikely”.
“The sport has grown so much, the code has grown so much that our biggest games, our marquee matches need to be played on the biggest stages,” he said.
“We’ll work with the government and the stadiums to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Next on the FFA’s agenda is a packed schedule of touring European clubs.
That begins in a fortnight with Spanish club Villarreal’s visit to Adelaide and Brisbane followed by beaten grand finalists Sydney FC’s hosting of English Premier League clubs Tottenham and Chelsea.
If there is an off-season headache, it might be Brisbane Roar.
In the Bakrie Group, the 2014 champions have want-out owners and have seen their managing director and football director leave the club in the past fortnight.
De Bohun said it was “too early” to determine whether an ownership change, which inlcudes the possibility of an FFA takeover, was needed.
“We’re sure they’ll get to where they need to over the coming weeks to be a powerhouse of the competition like they have been for the last four or five years,” he said.
Barry
Guest
Hopefully they get what you are saying Fuss, well done! Nzer
Smell the fear
Guest
I've been in a pub in new York with at least 500 people watching it
Smell the fear
Guest
Massive chip on your shoulder about this don't you? 250 mill Is a totally made up number- you can't deny that. And no I'm not an egg baller
Smell the fear
Guest
Agree Gronk, pure speculation
Smell the fear
Guest
Cool, sleep we telling yourself that
Bondy
Guest
Interesting read (http://www.espnfc.com.au/paris-saint-germain/story/2456012/psg-pay-sports-highest-wages-as-football-dominates-top-10) ...
Kirk
Guest
Storm crowd was bigger than the Carlton crowd on sat night. Considering the A League game was at AAMI it never had a chance of drawing higher than the Collingwood game but it was still a bigger crowd than the game at Etihad.
conchie
Roar Rookie
There were 60,000 people at the Richmond Collingwood game which was on at the same time as the soccer. On friday night the Essendon North seating was sold out albeit 43,000 at Etihad, only crappy standing room tickets.
Kirk
Guest
Both A League and the NRL had bigger crowds in melbourne than AFL games that were running at the same time. Would have to be the first time ever.
bryan
Guest
Phew! This thread has morphed from "Wouldn't it be beaut if there was a 50k capacity rectangular stadium in Melbourne",through a discussion on the overseas viewing audience for the GF (with the obligatory,though irrelevant, AFL bashing thrown in);to a comment about Tinkler & Newcastle,& finally,to alleged problems with MVFC & SFC both having blue team colours! At the end of the day,the "A"League's future stands or falls in the Australian market. Overseas viewers are nice,but not that relevant in the scheme of things. Local TV Networks won't get that much money from overseas sales,that it will affect their decisions. The only events that do that are things like the Olympics,the World Cup,Cricket Tests,& the like. Overseas interest may be a big deal to the AFL,as they are still at the stage of "building the game",whereas for the World Game,that's all been done,& people mainly watch their local competition,or the old established European stuff.
Futbanous
Guest
What counts is was the spectator at the ground or viewer on TV confused ie was incapable of distinguishing between the teams, did the colours take away from the spectacle, was it difficult to see who was being hammered and who was doing the hammering? Emphatic answer no, so it's irrelevant what happens in Europe.
tom
Guest
what is it with Australian competition administrators and their inability to get their heads around match-day kit presentation? no way would we have seen such a situation in Europe where two match-day teams with a large amount of a same or similar colour would be on the field against each other unless one team had something like stripes/hoops to break it up, particularly in a major final. Sydney should really have sky blue or white change shorts for matches away to Melbourne and Perth.
Jack Russell
Roar Guru
Not sure why you keep bringing it back to the AFL fuss. I don't think i've ever heard anyone suggest the AFL grand final gets 10-15m overseas viewers. If they did you'd be on here as quick as a flash to correct them. And Bondy, the MLS never registers a blip on the TV ratings front. Whilst you say you watch it, if that's actually true then you're in a very very select group. In any case, it's clearly higher profile than the HAL And if no-one's watching that, why the suggestion of millions watching the HAL outside Australia?
Bondy
Guest
Jack Russell I watch football from America in the MLS and the quality is almost the same to Australian Football in the A League and I will watch their GF ,you dont know what you're talking about your throwing darts wildly at the dart board and missing with a statement like that ... Do you have the experience to gauge the difference between football leagues ?, I do and the creditability here as well to do it ....
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
"doesn’t even have any novelty appeal – it’s just a low quality league. You guys seem to live in your own little bubble." That's a pretty low dig at the AFL. They can't help it that their sport hasn't moved outside Southern Australia in 150 years.
Jack Russell
Roar Guru
Why? Because you think that fans of the game all around the world have the time or interest to watch it because it's on some incredibly obscure channel that few people in Asia would even have access to? How many of you watch the MLS - broadcast live in Australia (including the finals when they're on)? It doesn't even register on the TV ratings system. And it's a league that's a much higher quality than the A-League. The HAL doesn't even have any novelty appeal - it's just a low quality league. You guys seem to live in your own little bubble.
Horto Magiko
Roar Rookie
"This has absolutely zilch to do with the AFL" Agreed. AFL is irrelevant to this topic. What's happening here is debohun is a bigtime spin doctor. There's no secret. This then incites the AFL mob, in turn causing football fans to go on the defensive.. detracting and digressing from the point. If no AR (and his minions) showed up, football fans would chuckle amongst themselves at debohuns lofty claims and then we'd merrily go back to discussing other football related issues. Something that should be clarified is: in regards to international broadcasting, afl can only ever really appeal to/engage with ex pats.. It won't really grow as brand internationally as it is insignificant and irrelevant to a global market. Football on the other hand has global appeal. It aims to engage the same target audience as afl but has another different demographic being existing global football fans, of which there are many millions. By no way are the exorbitantly exaggerated viewing figures accurate. Debohun is doing his job, in reality the purpose of his loose assumptions is to raise awareness within Australia and ruffling the feathers of the establishment. He's talking about potential viewers not actual viewers and he has achieved his real purpose of getting everyone talking about football. Getting into the minutiae only serves to keep the conversation going.
Horto Magiko
Roar Rookie
AR "I can promise you the same doesn’t happen in AFL GF week." What are you talking about exactly? Are you saying football fans incessantly post on the afl tab all year, but don't during AFL GF week? (I've never been to the afl tab, so can you list for me all of the football fans that incessantly post on the AFL tab?) Or are you're saying, during AFL GF week you stay clear of the football tab?
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
@Steve It has everything to do with AFL. The Fumble Ball experts are questioning the ALeague ratings overseas. They never question the AFL Grand Final ratings overseas. If anyone thinks AFL is watched by any non-Australian overseas, they're probably taking the same stuff that will soon see Essendon players lose their jobs. At best, AFL GF is watched by 10k people overseas. Whatever the number, the ALeague GF will be watched by more. Don't look to Europe - that's not the market, or the time Zone. Asia is the market for TV viewing of ALeague overseas.
Steve
Guest
Depends what you are talking about Bondy. There has been much better matches at reasonable times in Australia that barely rate above 20k (Argentina vs Chile World Cup qualifier in the middle of the day on Saturday). The assumption that if it's on people will watch it is just false. You might, but in no way are you representative of the entire football loving population in Australia, let alone the general population.