The A-League is too good to be this bad

Post Hoc, while I agree with your post (and you should add the NRL had to give out thousands of free tickets to Juniors for the GF and even then couldn't sell it out), I don't think you can call the Bledisloe cup the biggest Rugby Union match of the year, especially when the Wallabies haven't won a series for ages.

Is north QLD really feasible in summer, do you have any idea how hot it gets up there, even at night? Do competitions in the middle east and countries along the equator run over summer?

Anon Pretty poor trolling, but lest play along. The AFL couldn't sell out ANZ for the two Sydney based teams in the best AFL competition in the world. In fact one of those teams couldn't even sell out there own 24,000 seat ground. And this is the biggest and best AFL competition in the world. The NRL couldn't sell out ANZ for the Grand Final of the biggest and best Rugby League Competition in the world. The Wallabies couldn't sell out ANZ for the biggest Rugby Union match of the year against the All Blacks, ie World Champions. So I think I am starting to see a pattern here, and it isn't associated (pun intended) with Football.

All very interesting points. As for your 'joint ventures', I know that here was a lot of talk at the time helped by the fact that Lyle Gorman was GM of Cronulla Sharks that a 3rd team based out of Shark Park. This allowed the ground (which is owned by the Sharks) to be used all year round. Supported by the Leagues Club next door and the housing development which is being used to upgrade the stadium. Not a bad deal and one that could be used in other areas so maybe a Cowboys backed venture could work. Wollongong and South Coast would be interesting but may end up being more Mariners like, which is not a bad thing and we do need those levels of clubs, but don't expect a mega club. Canberra has the issue of the place being empty over Summer, many people flee Canberra. If the rumors were true, you could move Wellington tomorrow and it would have no impact on the structure of the competition, you could then increase by two and then increase by two again. 1 x Qld (brisbane, FNQ) 2 x Victoria (surely Victoria could support 4 teams. That means Victorians have 4 home state games I'm obviously thinking another Melbourne team and possibly Geelong. That should get some good crowd movement. That leaves 1 more place, that last place I just don't know

Doesn't help that 'One' is now transmitting standard definition rather High Definition either........... Often wondered why crowds aren't encouraged to the TV viewing side of the ground - would make the TV pictures look better. Even better to have the active supporters there as you can often hear them, but all you SEE is a half empty stand of non-active supporters.

What a great idea at least we would see what's happening with all teams in the A league .might be able to follow it then .are you listening David Gallop ..no point in having it on pay tV no one has it to watch it.

Stick to your aireal ping pong .you have no idea what your talking about .

I preferred his "how not to kick a ball" avatar

I'm a regular Roar attendee. But it costs about $100.00 to go with my elderly father. I've stopped going as their football is unwatchably bad.

Anon As Tony Jones would say "I'll take that as a comment..." Or in other words "we'd all like not to have been here for the last few minutes listening to your ill-considered, factually dubious, clumsy, and, humourless ranting - please go away now".

Rick - my post wasn't really a counter-argument, more a fantasy intended to highlight how absurd reductive generalisations can be. Certainly winning is a factor in attendances - but it is a factor that particularly influences non-core fans. Everyone loves a winner - for a while anyway. But my fantasy claim that it is the sole reason behind good crowds is as simplistic as saying playing entertaining football is the answer (which is what you seem to be suggesting). Entertainment is so subjective. For some Ronaldo is entertaining, for others he's a showboating individualist who, despite the goals, spoils every match he plays with his self-aggrandising performances. I've sat in the crowd at Old Trafford and heard the unprintable comments from ManU fans about Ronaldo - and that was when he played for them. For some Messi/Barcelona teamwork is sublime entertainment, and for others it's a monotonous tiki-taka grind punctuated by moments of brilliance from Messi. Increases and decreases in crowds have multifactorial causes. It could be winning/losing, scheduling, style of play, quality of play, quality of stadium, atmosphere at stadium, weather conditions, competition from other events, presence or absence of particular players, negative/positive publicity (comp, team or event), transport, changes in regional demographics etc etc. The real issue for the A-League is for each team to build a solid core of fans who attend regularly, season on season, and who aren't much affected by the factors listed above. Those fans have a variety of reasons for supporting a team in a local league even though it's not the best team or league in the world. I can't be bothered repeating the list but, again, the combination of factors is complex. I, for example, enjoy watching my team play in the A-League far more than watching lumpen contests involving anonymous EPL/La Liga/Serie A teams outside the top 3 or 4. And games between the top 3 or 4 regularly disappoint in the same way that last Saturday's Sydney v City game disappointed. And for me, my enjoyment of the A-League is a lot about the sport, with the A-League as the pinnacle of the game in Australia. Some of your other comments are simplistic as well. Advising the A-League to follow the AFL model and ditch ideas of pro/rel ignores one promising route the A-League could take to advance itself i.e. connecting better with the huge player base in Australia. The relationship between the A-League and the player base is complex as well, but can't be ignored in A-League planning. Restricting the A-League to its current franchise model would be a tough gamble to take. The model is working for the US MLS but they have a far larger market and a wide spread of well-populated cities to rely on. The A-League doesn't have that. Re marquees - your comments are way off the mark. Players like Broich, Ninkovic, Castro, Mierzejewski and similar are high quality footballers, several of whom have played many times for good quality national teams. Your comments about only watching the best are hard to fathom - how do you tell what's best? It's so subjective and, in any case, how far into the grey areas of 'bestness' are you willing to wander in your viewing habits? You seem to be an EPL fan but I am not alone in saying the EPL, for the most part, is second rate and boring. Even the curiosity value of watching Mooy in the EPL can't keep me watching most Huddersfield games. Burnley v Stoke at 1am...hmm - not likely. Re local players - a real conundrum for the A-League is that until it reaches a certain level of success the A-League can't stop the drain of local players to better-paying overseas leagues. Currently there are around 200 Australian men playing overseas, and around 150 of those are aged 25 or under. Until we can stop that drain, the only way to maintain the quality of the A-League is to import players. Good recruiting brings players who are young enough to make good contributions to the league. This season the set of imports looks unusually good. Sometimes an import works and sometimes it doesn't, but it's a necessary feature of a League that faces worldwide competition for talented local players.

"The Socceroos are about to play two of the biggest matches in Australia’s history and there’s no buzz. ANZ Stadium won’t sell out." Excellent. I prefer if Football remains a niche sport for The True Believers, so I never have to be anywhere near people like you from The Great Unwashed. I don't want you, or your family, or people you associate with, anywhere near me when I'm watching sport.

You can't just pick and chose which figures you think are bollocks and which are fairly accurate to suit your argument - it's a flawed system. If anything I think the AFL figures in Sydney are underestimated as oztam figures are collated from all over the city and averaged out and we all know most fans are from the east and north, thereby watering down the ratings. In fairness though, it should be noted that this match was a finals match and therefore not comparable to a normal match, most H&A matches wouldn't get near that figure.

The moon is made of cheese, don't get confused.

The interest maybe there but dollars may not be. There is only so much spare entertainment money for the average Sydneysider - I would think the Socceroos would get first preference.

Johnny Warren was a little premature in his "I was right". The mid-2000's was merely an outlier -- not the dawning of a new age. Soccer in Australia is experience reversion to the mean. I like soccer, just not second-rate soccer played by teams conceived by marketing gurus. No history, fake identities. The Socceroos are about to play two of the biggest matches in Australia's history and there's no buzz. ANZ Stadium won't sell out. Soccer is in serious trouble in this country. Media won't overpay for the rights next time around.

Nice trolling Anon.

If the ALeague doesn't appeal to you that's an even greater joy for me. Whenever I see people like you talking about the ALeague I tell them: Go Back to Where You Came From.

The only regional town in WA that apparently has a ground up to A-League standards is Broome, and tourists won't go there for an A-League game because the A-League happens when Broome is having its wet season

I tried to give the A-League a go last year by gambling on matches. I haven't watched a single game this season. Last match I watched was the Grand Final and I can't even remember who won. Sydney wasn't it? I know it was held at the SFS because they couldn't get a big enough crowd to hold it at ANZ Stadium. The competition is completely underwhelming and second rate. Teams with no history, no identity, merely marketing creations, with rosters filled with players who can't cut it elsewhere in the world. They would be better off creating something along the lines of what Carlton had in the late-90's. A joint venture with the footy and soccer club. Have the Port Adelaide Magpies soccer club. Fremantle Dockers soccer club. Collingwood soccer club. Also, bring back the ethnically aligned teams. Having a Greek club, Croatian club, Italian club is divisive but there's no other way to have passion in domestic soccer. At least the result means something to these people. Having ethnically-aligned clubs also helps generate excitement and passion in non-ethnically aligned clubs like the Brisbane Roar or Perth Glory because all of a sudden you want to beat the Greek club, or the Croatian club because they take the result so seriously. It's funny seeing grown men get upset over the result of a game.