The A-League's winners and losers for season 2016-17

OOOPS - I said Joshie, :) That's a sign that even I forgot the campaign

The point is that there are people that come to the derbies but stop there. There is potential to have the 20k average (excluding derbies). Marketing should assist however it is really non existent now. Additionally, my kids play football and I always try and convince the parents of other kids to check out an aleague game. They are keen but due to the lack of advertising, they are non the wiser when or where games are being played. Syd fc have a great junior membership scheme, whereby all registered players under 12 get free entry to all home games (except derbies). I try and advertise that to the parents...I'm doing my part!

hear hear Nemesis but sadly we get overlooked even at grassroots level. I live in a developing area with new housing estates springing up around me. New park space is restricted but there is a new park with two football fields which is already heavily used by clubs from all over, some travelling over 50k. There's no club based there so no permanent facilities other than a very small toilet block and shade shed for maybe 6-8 people. But now someone (State or Federal?) has funded several million $ alongside for a Men's Shed, which has less than 20 members. Nothing against that, but it shows what a lobby group can achieve, and what Football Australia is not achieving.

Shouldn't that be qualified, the true level of game day support for the competition, with the existing level of promotion. It's a true neutral or default level, achieved with virtually no promotion. Even the Yoshi campaign was largely confined to Foxtel, and the daily presence of our football gentry, or leadership, is almost non-existent in the media. Hell, Roar play a top Japanese club tonight and it gets not a mention in local news bulletins.

Like I said, I too believe the FFA has fallen asleep on the wheel, they have not taken anything but conservative steps & too busy protecting their own jobs. Attendances no doubt dropping, but not as alarmingly as some might suggest. Let me highlight some examples, 3 Australian ACL teams performed terribly in 1 night, the Fox commentators, mainly Slater & Bozza, 'the state of football is Australia is at an alltime low, no players, poor teams'. Now the 3 ACL are not world beaters, but they all recovered & had some reasonable results FFA, now I probably wouldn't say incompetence, but more their lack of activity, however, there has been muted expansion, the football twitter goes all crazy, no why there, they should expand here. Agendas, no not Tassie, not Sth Melb, not Sth Sydney, not 2nd Brisbane side, not Gold Coast, not, not!!! Now I'm not saying it's been a milestone year for the A-League, but some of the negative comments coming from football media & fans is just astounding. Do you think people are concerned that Chelsea is running away with the EPL, oh no, we are all caught up in the relegation battles of Sunderland, Hull, Swansea, Middlesbrough & Crystal Palace, keeping people awake are they, dreadful football. I should know I follow Derby, but hardly watch them play, it's poor football at the foot of the EPL or Championship level.

Thanks for that Real. I'm not an expert, but I hope I'm not clueless either...a huge effort and build up for little return I'd imagine.

Griffo, this is an area in which I have significant expertise, and my view is the the campaign was profoundly misconceived. No time to go into an analysis now. Bottom line for any screen narrative: your protagonist defines your audience demographic. I honestly have no idea what they were hoping to achieve.

Masters was awesome. Garcia is da man. Check this out if you have not seen it before: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10jORLiU7Ak This is why golf is the most skilful game in the world.

Rick, I wish Buddy well, I like his girlfriend, well I don't know her, I like the look of her. Hope he won in his 250th match. Sorry, it was all the Masters for me on weekend, Garcia v Rose over the last 4-5 holes was what sport was all about, also kept an eye on La Liga, Real Madrid still on top. Also my Liverpool mates all going ape about their little sad team visiting our shores. Looks like they will sell out ANZ. Then today it was all Barcelona's lost in the Champions league, a new world superstar may have been born in Dybala. So no Buddy for me sorry.

I agree. The stadium issue is of huge significance and, unfortunately, does not look likely to be solved in the foreseeable future. And I speak as someone who has suffered the ghost in a shell ambience of Suncorp for more than a decade.

RF - is it really their true level of support? I genuinely expected to see a rise by a few thousand given their league status this season and I tend to ignore the Derby and look to a home game against MV to gauge where they are. This season 13310 compared to last year 15947 and 17356 Two previous seasons saw 21242 and 22233. Understood that there are different time slots etc and sometimes MV bring a fair contingent but never more than 1000 surely? Last weekend at ANZ they would not have numbered 100. What I'm looking for is where all those missing ones are during a season where the team is excelling on the pitch. it isn't just an ADP and Italian story really is it?

If we can average 12k crowds, playing in appropriately-sided stadiums, that's all I want from the ALeague for the forseeable future. Imagine Aleague: 14 teams playing in stadiums that are filled 50-75% capacity on average every week. i.e. 15-20k capacity stadiums on average ALeague 2 16 teams averaging 2-3k playing in 5k venues Promotion & Relegation every year. For me, this would be football heaven in Australia.

"Death riding" is a major overstatement. Is there anyone other than a Sydney FC supporter who could seriously claim that this season hasn't been lacklustre as it has gone on? Look at the attendance stats, punter. They aren't anything to do with eye of the beholder. They are empirical evidence.

For you maybe RF, you have been death riding the season for awhile now. I'll be out there on Sat night watching SFC collect the Premiership trophy & also hopefully become the best performed home & away team in A-League history. Pumped up for it. I have no doubt that FFA has fallen asleep at the wheel, but I'm loving this season, the only problem is that SFC have no rivals. So I don't think Rick has a point, as you mentioned beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.

We really do need a second division. I hope it can be made to work.

Al I think that campaign burnt a huge hole in the FFA A-League marketing budget, all in the pre-season. It's one where Yoshi's journey with his new team could have continued over the season - through the highs and lows - refreshing the 'Do you have a team' campaign when each stage was getting stale and not having any cut-through. I'd love to know the target audience: was it tweens and teens (which is what it appeared to me, and perhaps a nod to getting the grassroots and their youth involved in the A-League post-winter), or was it the 'younger' demographic the A-League attracts, up to late twenties? In which case Yoshi, a teen girl, and a twenty something each going through the 'choose your team journey' would make more sense, but need more budget. I think, if the marketing budget is pretty narrow like it appears to be, a better campaign needs to be created that lasts for most of the season, or key points for the whole season at the very least.

To add to my previous posts, the problem with attendances, in the end, is money. Only spending on a global level can dispel the perception that this is a third or fourth rate league, or worse, depending on your preconceptions. I have been a support of the A League since its inception, but even I would concede that, in global terms, it is a third tier league at best. I personally can live with that, but I've been involved in football my whole life. To attract potential fans outside the hard core football cultural base is, under the present framework imposed by the salary cap, impossible. Only by bringing back the best Australian players and attacking a far higher profile level of visa players, and by marketing the hell out of them, do we have any hope of changing that public perception. In many ways the claims are ludicrous, but AFL and NRL can and do lay claim to being the world's best competitions in those codes. The salary cap is a massive millstone around the neck of the A League. Whether some clubs would be prepared to spend what it takes to create teams of real excellence is another argument. Melbourne City, Sydney FC and Melbourne Victory have notably lacked ambition in their choice of marquees, Cahill included. Without appropriate spending, we had all better settle down and accept that 12k average for the League is pretty much as good as it will get while we have a salary cap enforcing mediocrity and a FFA that makes a headless chicken look purposeful.

Don't know about the AFLW. As a general rule, woman's elite sport is rubbish to watch — apart from tennis. I'd be lying though if I said I was watching it for the tennis. :) AFL indeed has started. Buddy was all over the news for his 250th game — was very surprised to see the amount of publicity it generated. Usually it takes crashing a Jeep to get on the back page here in Sydney.

Funding is the most basic part of any business strategy. So, I've no doubt the Business Case will address the funding.

Unfortunately, punter, Rick has a point.