The A-League has learned the hard way that producing attractive and entertaining football does not always get people through the gates.
Last season’s average attendance was the lowest since the 2011-12 season, manifesting the growing fatigue among fans with the league’s stagnation.
While the derbies in Sydney and Melbourne during the opening rounds produced a combined attendance of over 105,000, the excitement had well and truly diminished by the time everyone had played each other twice.
One may argue that maintaining such fan excitement under the current format remains a task too arduous – enter the guest marquee.
The Guest Player is a concept the FFA have continued to endorse since the league’s inception, allowing the league to benefit from a marketing perspective while simultaneously improving the leagues quality and professionalism.
Currently A-League clubs are permitted to spend an unlimited amount on a Guest Player who is restricted to a maximum of playing 14 matches.
The FFA should be doing be its utmost to encourage clubs to embrace the guest player concept as well as promoting the Australian lifestyle on offer as a means of luring guest players for a suitable duration of time.
The league’s continuation over the December/January period potentially acts as a significant drawcard to big name players, particularly those en route to leagues such as the MLS or China who have their off-season during this time.
Given that these leagues have deeper pockets and will continue to sway big name stars, the newly implemented full season guest spot is almost out of the question. The more viable alternative is for the FFA to encourage a eight to 14 guest match appearance.
Clubs acquiring the services of a guest marquee is nothing new. The recruitment of David Villa and Romario remains fresh in the minds of fans, however neither had the impact the FFA would have hoped for due to only playing four matches each.
The recruitment of a guest marquee, particularly during the January window, the overall interest in football can be reinvigorated with fans being incentivised to tune in more frequently as well as attending matches.
Imagine the pandemonium should Steven Gerrard or Frank Lampard come Down Under for ten matches? Not only would this allow the FFA to go all guns blazing with marketing schemes but it also exposes home grown talent to players of a higher calibre, amplifying their improvement and ultimately bridging the gap between the A-League and the international leagues.
In addition, the overall excitement in the league can be prolonged into the weeks where interest begins to dwindle.
The A-League has succeeded in the past in attracting quality foreign players in their prime who have had a significant impact in the competition.
So why should clubs recruit stars well past their prime when they can pluck a Besart Berisha, Thomas Broich or a Marc Janko?
The answer lies in the guest marquee’s ability to draw the interest of the masses and the mainstream media.
The foreign players inserted into the league have had a greater impact than any guest player ever will, but ultimately fail in drawing the interest of football fans who may not have an invested interest in the A-League.
This concept in the contemporary A-League can only work should the players stay for a prolonged period of at least eight matches, allowing the league the opportunity to attract and maintain the interest of fans.
The financial stability of the clubs needs to also be accounted for. While the recruitment of a guest player can increase attendances, it needs to ensure that it equally has a positive effect on team performances. Albeit a guest marquee could provide something new to clubs deprived of success for several years, helping them take the required steps to break the glass ceiling.
We have never had a shortage of entertaining football in Australia and given the vast improvement since the A-League’s inception it is quite underwhelming to see a stagnation in attendances.
Thus, the recruitment of guest marquees could prolong the increased attendances witnessed during the beginning of the season.
These higher calibre players could hence be a catalyst in exposing the A-League to a new generation of fans who may just decide to stick around.
lopr
Guest
The answer is simple: Throw all eggball thinking into the fire. Learn Euro format. Promotion relegation, no salary cap, no finals, 9 month season.
Athos Sirianos
Roar Guru
Waz - thanks for the comment! From what I read, prior to last season the FFA implemented the 'full season marquee' which would allow the player to remain for the full season. From what I understand a guest player can stay for both a full season and limited stint. Cahill was not signed as a guest player but signed with City on a 3 year deal, where in the third year he will involved in coaching with the City Football Group. Victory tried to acquire a guest marquee with players such as Diamanti and Essien but were declined by the FFA.
j,binnie
Guest
WAZ - You touch on a very valid point there when you mention Cahill's 22 games for Melb. City, last season albeit many of them off the bench. At the time of Tim's joining City he was probably the most recognisable player in Australia, but his arrival went nowhere near as effective as ADP did in Sydney as a "marquee", in fact his own club,City,actually experienced a fall in seasonal average attendance though that could also have been affected by them having 2 derby games the previous season. So is there a lesson to be learned from this factor? One thing is for sure ,replicating ADP's first season effect all around the country is not as easy a role to copy as some of our HAL clubs appear to think it is. Or is the grouse the restrictions caused by salary caps????, the players union would say yes ,but hard nosed administrators might not agree. Cheers jb.
j,binnie
Guest
Nemesis - As you have often made clear in your many comments, we here in Australia have a penchant for attracting people to see something that is unusual,(95,000 to see Liverpool play Victory and 85,000 to see Sydney FC play Arsenal) just recently. Now I know you also like to place these excesses in spectator numbers as "johnny-come - lately's" but I tend to differ in my thinking, If we can attract these numbers to football matches against EPL opponents then it is up to our clubs to get up off their backsides and do something that may ,or may not, bring some of these people to our weekly games. One thing I am sure of, we will not ,even if just for one season ,attract people to our entertainment by using average overseas players under the guise of "marquee" players. I agree with your comment re- ADP being a very effective'marquee" in his first season but did the other 9 clubs learn nothing from the experience????. Victory are the best supported team in the HAL,no doubt, but who in their roster can be as effective all around the country as the little Italian Maestro was in that season you mention I suspect you know the answer to that and that is where I question the use of "marquee players" to bypass salary cap restrictions. Cheers jb.
Waz
Guest
"Currently A-League clubs are permitted to spend an unlimited amount on a Guest Player who is restricted to a maximum of playing 14 matches" .... not a well researched article then; that rule hasn't been in force for over ayear now. Guest Marquees can play as many games as they like eg Cahills 22 for City last season.
Nemesis
Guest
jb You make a very valid point about ADP drawing big crowds for the away match. Of course, I'm sure you know, Sydney FC gets $0 from ticket sales at away matches. And, by Yr2, the ADP halo had vanished. When ADP played his one and only Finals match (it ended up being his last match in Australia), only 20.8k people turned up to watch him playing MVFC in Melbourne. In fact, more people turned up to watch MV vs Brisbane Roar earlier that season than watched ADP in a Finals' match at the same venue against MVFC.
j,binnie
Guest
Athos - I think your assertion that the HAL crowds are in a "stagnation " mode,while being factually true,is not nearly as drastic as you could be accused of being in your observation. Counting only the 135 games played in each season my averages read, last year 12,293, 15/16 12,316, 14/15 12,515, and 13/14 13,063. Now as you can see from those figures the average has dropped in 4 years by 770 per match and though that may suggest a downward trend there are other factors to be considered such as WSW's move away from their "home",the extraordinary performance of Sydney FC that "killed off "any heightened interest over, the last few weeks of the season, and of course the continued poor on field performances by Jets and CCM that saw their home crowds dwindle from a season "high " of 11,000 to a more regular 7,000. Over the 17 weeks of the season these factors can have a drastic effect on crowd averages. So if these factors are accepted what then can be done to break the "status quo". If one examines the marquee status type player there has only been one outstanding recruit in recent years and that was the procurement of ADP by Sydney FC. What criteria was used to measure ADP's success?. Surely it has to be that everywhere the little maestro played that first season (except Adelaide) every HAL club enjoyed their highest "home gate" of the season. That to me is the only true measure of "marquee status" Now, in order to "beat " the constraints of the salary cap, clubs have allowed the idea of "marquee" to deteriorate into a means to an end of "beating" the cap. I would like to read your views of that fact of life in our game Cheers jb.
Nemesis
Guest
Guest marquee is good for attracting people to 1-2 games & the away matches. Del Piero was great for the ALeague to get celebrity sports watchers excited. But, after the novelty wore off, Sydney with Del Piero in the side attracted crowds of 12-13k for 4 matches out of 13 home matches. We need to find ways to build loyal fans who turn up every home match.
Nick Symonds
Guest
On the subject of guest players I'd like to see Messi and Ronaldo in the A-League. They might be too expensive for a whole season but why not just for one match, the Sydney Derby, with one on each team. That would be a great advertisement for the A-League.
League table speaks
Guest
Guest and marquee players only exist as a work around for the flawed salary cap based system. Deal with the core issue and bring in a more open and flexible structure to the domestic football economy.