Here is some free advice for Brisbane Roar. The Brisbane Bullets are back, and they’re ready to cannibalise your support.
When Football Federation Australia was announcing that Brisbane Roar’s upcoming FFA Cup clash with Perth Glory would take place at Ballymore, the National Basketball League was putting the finishing touches on its impending season launch.
Any illusion that Brisbane’s return to the competition wasn’t a big deal was shattered by the NBL handing the Bullets a plum draw for the 2016-17 season.
And several of their early fixtures clash with Roar games.
While the Roar kick off the new season with a glamorous showdown against Melbourne Victory on October 7, the Bullets get the jump on the A-League outfit by tipping off the NBL season a night earlier against Perth.
And the Bullets’ next two home games – both in the heart of the city at the Convention Centre in South Bank – coincide with two away games for the Roar in Newcastle and Gosford.
That’s not to imply that sports fans in Brisbane will suddenly turn their backs on the Roar simply because the Bullets are playing at home.
But if Roar fans wanted a glimpse of what a concerted marketing campaign looks like, they need only look to the revamped Bullets.
Rather than opening the season at Convention Centre in South Bank, the Bullets will instead take on defending champions Perth at the 11,000-capacity Brisbane Entertainment Centre in Boondall.
And NBL supremo Larry Kestelman – the entrepreneur who paid $7 million to take majority control of the league in May 2015 – clearly thinks they’ll draw a crowd.
“The Bullets are a big part of our year and we hope it’s a blockbuster game in front of 10,000 to 11,000 people,” Kestelman told The Courier-Mail at the season launch.
All of which is important, from an A-League perspective, because the Roar offer little in terms of marketing and receive only limited coverage from the city’s media.
They’d better hope their ‘membership drive’ at Ballymore on August 10 is a success, because not for the first time, their off-field fragility makes it difficult for the Roar to retain fans – let alone attract new ones.
It’s all well and good for the well-heeled Melbourne City to sign Tim Cahill, but if any club needed a big-name marquee star, it’s arguably Brisbane.
It’s hard not to feel that the Sydney-based FFA are largely oblivious to the Roar’s ongoing struggles, with new A-League head Greg O’Rourke wasting little time in claiming that expansion is “inevitable”.
But with confusion remaining over who is actually in charge of the Roar – current managing director Daniel Cobb is presumably still finalising his consortium to buy the club from the Bakrie Group – perhaps valour is the better part of discretion when it comes to discussing football in Brisbane.
Staying on message is something most A-League clubs could probably do more of.
A handful of Red and Black Bloc members took matters into their own hands late last week, releasing a merchandise video that was part faux-hooliganism, part existential nightmare.
A more embarrassing video you’d struggle to see – it looked like the sort of thing a bunch of pre-teen sociology students would create if they’d just discovered a website called Hools R Us and the ‘record’ function on their iPhones – and it was impossible not to guffaw throughout the utterly cringe-worthy production.
Still, the RBB have at least succeeded where our own administrators often fail and managed to get us talking about the A-League by using guerrilla marketing – dreadful pun intended.
Marketing of any kind is something Brisbane Roar desperately need in the build-up to the 2016-17 A-League campaign.
In a city in which the Brisbane Broncos dominate the sporting landscape – leaving the rest of Brisbane’s professional clubs scrambling around for coverage – the last thing the Roar need is another major competitor.
Bob
Guest
I gave to agree with jbinnie here. He was very consistent on this very point right from the early rounds
Bob
Guest
It's clearly more than 15,000 or so that have an interest in Brisbane Roar jbinnie. Assuming 5,000 members that means another 9,000 or so turn up to get the average crowd and they won't all turn up to every game, so basic statistics mean if non-members turn up: 1 in 2 games that's another18,000 interested 1 in 4 games 36,000 interested 1 in 6 games 54,000 interested It takes a lot of interested people to get average crowds around 14,000 and I'd say the number of people interested in BR, and go to more than 2 games in a season, is between 35-45,000 including members.
Bob
Guest
I bet the Bronco's are worried then. Not.
Bob
Guest
Not really Mike. Media sets itself up to promote the sport it's head office tells it to promote (so there's no "competition" there) and commercial opportunities again, such little overlap it'll make no difference.
Bob
Guest
If Brisbane Roar falls in a heap in the next few months (as seems likely to everyone in QLD) then gallop must go surely? He can have no excuses for not knowing a crisis is unfolding again!
Bob
Guest
That works for me. Same for Cricket - BBL definately tier 1, Shield probably Tier 3 and test matches split between tier 1 and 2 depending on who the opponents are.
Josh
Guest
More like 'struggle to get 10k'. The Lions are finished, such a humiliating end.
STEVEN ELLIS
Guest
Well said...Murdochs hatred of football in thiscountry is relentless. .The Telerag is running daily one to pages onthe ..ahem 'Giants' and to less extent swans. All aussie whitebread etc feegood pieces. As well...it has lately pushing the AFL's new domestic Womens comp. Basically its continuous pr. On the weekend the Sunt Telegraph will do a piece on womens sport...only will focus on the AFL and Rugby !! To the complete exclusion of football..! Meanwhile there is a certain national womens team called the Matildas that are only in the Olympics...
j binnie
Guest
Max - It is a pity you only read what you want to read, I never said Roar could not score goals last year, what I said was that they did not "score the goals that their outplay probably warranted" and, if they had, they would probably have cleared the decks in the silverware winning stakes,of that there is no doubt.. So,back to school and read the whole of a statement before passing comment. Actually Waz and I were discussing the replacement of departed players and goal scoring ability was only a side issue.based on their only real striker Jamie McLaren and how at the moment it appears he is expected to carry the task of scoring alone.. In answer to your question about following the game,the answer is yes,at playing ,coaching, managing and administrative levels for 60 years.Cheers jb
Waz
Guest
The new DM is moving forward, played in the Eredivisie last season; maybe next week? http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/football/brisbane-roar-close-to-unveiling-corona-replacement/news-story/66e415acfe973d79f0b9a427509fddf3 Also Joey Katebian, ex-victory youth, was photographed trialling with Roar this week.
max perram
Guest
Does J Binnie follow football? He said Roar could,nt score goals. They were in fact equal 2nd top scorers in a season of record goal scoring !!! Perhaps this guy should do some research before writing this nonsense. And why don,t so called Roar fans stop whinging and bloody support your team. Mariners fans given the small population they represent leave you for dead and I am not one of them I follow another club. Roar got within a whisker of both the minor premiership and grand final so that is a great effort after so many off field problems.
max perram
Guest
The regular season average was in fact 14,449 source Wikipedia but the Nrl add the finals crowds to make it look better.
max perram
Guest
Lets just use the facts .Football is played by 1.18 million Australians and is the most popular for both men and women. Nothing else is close. No one has mentioned the NRL lying about their crowds that outside Qld. are the worst of any code. Blockbusters in Sydney with 5/15000. Melbourne Storm average 14,400 as the only Nrl club in Melbourne and as for basketball most games have just 2/3000 think Cairns ,Wollongong, Townsville etc. The NRL Dragons last two crowds were 7,800 and 8,100 the Roosters play in front of 2/8000 and the last 3 games in Syney as I write averaged just 10,000 each! By comparison the A-League average was 12,500 last season almost the same as the REAL Nrl crowds that were falsified to avoid embarrassment. The last 10 games of big European clubs have averaged over 55,000 and easily surpassed the Origin aggregate last year with the 3 biggest combined at 250,000. The biggest of 99,500 was higher than Origin and the Afl grand final in Melbourne. So when has basketball done that? The point is that after the Afl football is easily the most popular sport with the right players. To finish if Australia are 59th in the world of football and get these crowd figures how far behind are the others?
Waz
Guest
Chops, Roar has the highest social media engagement of any HAL Club apparently (and one of the highest of any sports club on Aus). That includes Facebook, website, Twitter sites like this etc. I've always wondered if it's because of Roars lack of fan communication lol
stu
Guest
It's not a matter of 'another major competitor' rather an inability of the Roar to understand the value of promotion. The lights need to come on in this department before scrambling to try and nullify a potential rival. The Bronco's set their own agenda and confidently embrace the town, sadly the Roar do not exert any confidence in an identity nor how to stand up and express it to joe public.
j binnie
Guest
Waz - Agree on all counts but don't forget the biggest flaw in last years team was their total inability to score the goals that their outfield play probably warranted. That flaw,and JA's apparent reluctance to try and cure it, probably cost Roar ,not only the league title but all the other silver-wear as well. I am not so sure last year's leading scorer will get as much room to "operate" this coming term ,for he has now built a reputation and opposition coaches will order a watching brief on him and that will have to be addressed as well, for the lad is not exactly built for the job of "lone" striker. As you say, we can but wait and see, but-------time is marching on . Cheers jb .
Chopper
Guest
Waz you are correct in the broader squad management issues. I also agree on the strength of the squad should the projected acquisitions come to fruition. The one thing we are not pushing is the emergence of youth team players. Last year the club released quite a few youngsters that John and Craig deemed not good enough for Brisbane Roar. Since then they have brought in two good young defenders and a central midfielder to add to the existing list of retained youth players. We could expect a breakthrough of at least one or two of them this year. I am purposely not naming specific players however for some it may be their last chance. On another note, I cannot help but notice the huge engagement by Roar fans on this medium. If the management at Brisbane Roar read this they must surely be embarrassed.
Waz
Guest
jb: wait and see is the watch word right; the broader picture is the Roar squad have been lacking a proper squad management approach for a few years, I don't know who was responsible for it in the past but you have players like Theo and Broich being resigned on to big contracts until they are 36, visa players were signed who weren't regular starters, and new players like Polenz who was given a 2 1/2 year contract, this sort of approach hamstrung recruitment in the twilight years of those contracts (last season and this). Corona aside there isn't a really big loss to Roars squad this season - the first XI is still solid with the weakness being a proper DM (Pepper will surprise many people but he wouldn't be my first pick) and LB (although once brown gains confidence he should make the position his own). So if, and I do say if, JA signs a specialist DM (replacing Brattan/Corona), a "playmaker" (presumably a 10 to complement/replace Broich) and a utility forward (replacing Ricky) then Roars squad is as good as any. But they have to make those signings and those signings have to be good ones.
j binnie
Guest
Waz- I sincerely hope you are correct about Matt's "post training piece" but a look at the" ins and outs" over the last 1.5 seasons doesn't say much for Roar's success in the procurement stakes. Last season saw a "clearout" off 7 players, most intentional, but 1, Brattan, we have to assume an error..To replace them we got 4 ,McLaren,Corona Hervas,and Lambadaridis, 2 of whom were barely used in the first eleven. That brings us up to date and again we find we now have 8 departed ,1 (Donnachie) again could be put down to "error", but 3 of last years "gains" have also departed,and yet we only have 2 under-age kids and a reasonably experienced HAL midfielder to fill the gaps. Now it has been stated in these columns many times that this season was a chance for the coaching / football staff at Roar to stamp their own authority on to the squad with players of their choice. Matt (and I) appear to be waiting with bated breath for something to happen in this area of operation. With 15 departures in 19 months and only 4 new faces one has to be concerned when we examine the standard/experience of players departed against the standard / and or experience of the 3 replacements gained so far this season. Apart from reducing the wage bill considerably and freeing up visa spots there has been little to date to suggest an improvement to a squad that already contains 3 "top" players who could be deemed to be in the "veteran" stages of their career. We can but hope, but,the danger is that if an Import policy is to be applied it takes time for "imports" to settle and that commodity,time ,is quickly running down. Cheers jb
Cathar Treize
Roar Guru
you may want to note ALL pro sports in this country have been trending the same way, so it's not just an NRL phenomenom. With new stadiums on the horizon and the NRL taking back the resheduling of matches from the TV networks, I believe the sport will start trending upwards again but that may not occur for another 2-3 years. This trend will be more commensurate with the NRL's healthy social media indicators & TV ratings. The fans have especially demanded better facilities for years. Also the big TV contract money will kick in so expect a big marketing push. Memberships are already near the 300,000 mark showing a 20% increase each year of late showing fans will show their loyalty in other ways until the stadium issues are sorted.