Does anyone care about the summer of football?

Why do you bother commenting your understanding of our code is zero and your comments only reinforce your ignorance on talking about a subject you know nothing of .do your homework before you speak its amažing when one is armed with knowledge what a sensible discussion one can have .if you bothered to watch the games the quality of football is very good.soccer would be easily the third most popular at national domestic competition not fourth and only slightly behind league .league average crowds fifteen thousand A league average crowds eleven thousand ,not much of a difference is it .crowds are down in all footy codes league and rugby included.rugby has lower crowds than soccer and league only averages a couple of thousand more than soccer..considering the media support in this country for league and airiel ping pong and rugby is at saturation point and soccer receives very little midea coverage the round ball code is doing very well thank you when comparing with the other footy codes league and rugby .we won't bother comparing with Ariel ping pong because that's not really a national league .westen Sydney giants crowds are never what they say they are always inflated by five hundred percent ..the A league has the same problems as league and rugby nothing that good markwting can't fix with the right team of management.w love the W league crowds could be better but remmeber at W league games you have to pay to get in the other code it's free entry.

I dont think comparing an cup match against Man Utd is exactly the ideal way to go ... The fact is our crowds will be low until decient name marquees are added to each team, Australian sports fans are fickle for the most part. So we can preach the negativities of bringing high paid big names with less current talent than some of the no-name marquees we have but its a truth. Why not have both i say. If it takes Brisbane Roar grabbing a 33 year old former Prem League star to get an extra 3 thousand through the gate so be it. Imagine The Jets on fire now with marquee money for January! The papers printing rumors of big names possibly turning up on loan (Young EPL talent) or for a year as a free agent. The other solution! Is one bought up continuously! Stadium size! Id rather watch the Wanderers Roar, City, Sydney FC etc play at a smaller ground and potentially sell out with fans missing out rather than the club playing in empty coliseums just to make a little extra cash off a few thousand extra fans. If i had it my way ... 1. The Wanderers would be playing out of Leichhardt's ground until Parra is finished. 2. Sydney out of Kogarah or Redfern 3. The roar must have a smaller ground somewhere in brissy! When a team can see out these grounds consistantly round after round for multiple seasons ONLY then decide to increase capasity with a ground build of a 2nd or 3rd tier on those grounds! Or build a boutique stadium! If they are getting owners from overseas, clubs should have an A-League mandate to build a home ground by 2022

Anyone expecting different stadia to be used for A-League games isn't really thinking things through. Unless some super rich soccer philanthropist send in a whole bunch of council applications that the clubs involved have already agreed to, there aren't going to be any changes anytime soon. The NSW govt. is already copping it big-time for their planned revamps of Allianz & ANZ so I can't see them backing something more 'boutique'in size. These are the stadia we have so let's focus on using them mire effectively.

Chris - are you trying to argue that Australia doesn't have a unique climate or history? It does, every bit as much as Canada does. And I know enough about both countries, plus quite a few others, not to buy the argument that it's cultural cringe to support traditional sports. It's cultural cringe to abandon them. If you want to support the big global games - football, basketball - fine, go ahead. The sports themselves are worthy of support. But it is not cultural cringe to support the local regional games. An Indian supporting kabbadi, a Japanese interested in sumo, a Frenchman keen on petanque, a Scot (or Canadian) passionate about curling - that's recognizing the quality of those sports and their long traditions. It's got nothing to do with cultural cringe. Quite the opposite. Cultural cringe is arguing that Australian or Canadian sports aren't good enough. Cultural strength is saying, I can enjoy any sport of my choosing, and if that's cricket or AFL or ice hockey or lacrosse, I don't care because a sport doesn't have to be a global one to be worth following.

Northerner I was born and bred here and what Redondo says is spot on. Maybe in Canada with climate etc things are different. Who knows. You're Canadian so I'll take your word for it.

Redondo - I respect a lot of what you have to say, but I really disagree with this particular comment. I grew up in Canada, and the history and climate there is such that certain sports, not globally popular, are nationally popular. Hockey (the version on ice) is the best example,played seriously in maybe 8 to 10 countries in the world. It's enormously important to Canadians as a pro sport and as an international and Olympic competition. CFL is another sport with big support, played nowhere else on the planet. Lots of the snow sports (x-country skiing, downhill and slalom, free style, snowboarding) are very popular in a few countries. All of these sports are limited by climate and history to a small number of nations and fans. So what? Quintessentially American sorts like NFL (played almost nowhere else with any degree of seriousness) and baseball (handful of countries but hardly a global game) have a rightful place in the sporting scene in those countries where they are played and enjoyed. I don't see support for these "northern" sports to be cultural cringe at all. I see it as a celebration of the history and geography of the countries in which they're played. So I have a huge problem with the argument that Australian support for cricket (played in countries with populations pushing the 1.5 billion mark) or AFL or NRL, represents cultural cringe. I think it's the exact opposite: acceptance and even pride in the history and local tradition of these sports. I think the argument that Australia is somehow failing because it doesn't support football in the way that Europe and Latin America does, is in fact a perfect example of cultural cringe. Why on earth should Australia care what Brazil, Germany or Italy do, if it's a self confident nation? The basic argument for football - that it's the global game and we all should fall in line to support it because our own sports are not worthy - is the quintessence of cultural cringe.

ouch!

Fly The cultural cringe is still there. One example is our overwhelming preference for watching minority sports we know we can win. Our fragile national ego is bolstered by dominating sports few countries play. If we lose too often at a sport our ego-guard kicks in and we give the sport the flick e.g. Rugby Union. AFL is the standout when it comes to delusional ego-stoking. For AFL, we will always be the best in the world (sadly, also the worst - but we just ignore that). Apart from the odd disturbing upset against Irish Gaelic footballers, nothing on this earth can puncture our national fantasy about how good we are at Aussie Rules.

which one? You seem to have lost your way in your ramblings its hard to work out what you are actually asking?

try answering my questions

You're one of the annoying flies I referred to in an earlier post

*site*

"While we are talking crowds whats with the discrepancy in the reported crowd figure for last nights game?? ABC say there were 2k more than the HAL website." Maybe, ABC hired that girl that AFL uses to count the crowd?

I really can't stand soccer but I too am mystified as to why a sport with a player base somewhere near 1 million draws such poor crowds here. Could it be the cultural cringe continuing in this country? ie, it's Australian so it can never be as good as anything from overseas? Is it because it's the 4th football code in Australia that it's automatically rubbish compared with EPL, Serie A etc? Just because the big Euro leagues have highly skilled players doesn't guarantee high-quality matches there. And given the Matildas' terrific world ranking (I think we're up to #4 now), what do male soccer fans think of the W-League? Or would the answer reveal perhaps way too much about soccer fans?

While we are talking crowds whats with the discrepancy in the reported crowd figure for last nights game?? ABC say there were 2k more than the HAL website. Looked like more than 20k there last night.

Redondo check out https://afltables.com/afl/crowds/summary.html, the site also does NRL crowds, would be great if someone would get a similar table up and running for the HAL. 1997 total AFL crowds 6403814 average = 34615 2017 total AFL crowds 7287880 average = 35207 Remember next year the AFL will see a significant increase in average and total crowds with the new Perth stadium coming on line and resurgent Melbourne clubs. Likewise HAL crowds will bounce back hard once Parramatta Stadium is completed and Brisbane sorts its self out!

I can’t believe you AFL guys are still talking about this. Just accept the facts i.e. compared to 1998 (20 years ago): - AFL average attendances are down - AFL total attendance is up only marginally (way below population increase) The Football crowd accept that A-League attendances are down and are discussing ways to fix the problem. Why do you AFL guys so vehemently deny AFL has the same problem? I’ll answer for you. It’s because if the only national Aussie Rules competition in the world fails then the sport will quite likely shrivel up and die. You Aussie Rules guys are riddled with angst because the AFL is probably your sport’s only barrier against extinction. You should just enjoy what you have while you have it - it’s not going to get much better and will gradually get worse and worse. Your sport is not dead yet but you are already in denial - the first stage of grieving. Relax, enjoy a Football-rich Christmas.

Why would the swans have to fudge figures? Genuine question.

Blame the marketing of the league it does not happen why one as to ask the FFA .secondly why aren't we marketing the stars of each team kids want stars to look up to ,social media and tV campaigns promoting the big names in each team .,and why are we playing in such BIG stadiums , no atmosphere playing in mega stadiums same problem rugby league has . ten thousand fans in a twenty thousand seat stadium equals atmosphere not in a eighty thousand seat stadium though. And where are the big names from overseas nothing brings more excitement to the start of the comp than some big names from overseas even guest Big names that can come out for six games or so will do I mean look at the excitement Villa brought to the game and he was only here for a few weeks .And Del Piero was HUGE here .its about excitement being an event rather than a game .and the fact that only ten teams just isn't enough anymore ,we need fourteen teams so the competition becomes more exciting,it's summer in Australia lot of alternatives for fans they need a reason to come other than good football. FFA has stuffed up big time

How was the re runs of bad santa in the ratings . My favourite Xmas movie