How to get better A-League crowds and TV ratings

Get real - the A league has stagnated - same old problems only more often - shocking examples of simulation going unchecked - the constant reference by commentators "won a foul" says it all in that respect - we are supposed to accept "milking" (aka cheating) as legit. Watching actors rolling on the ground in simulated excruciating agony, wiping their hands across their face pretending to look for blood is a bad joke and big turnoff. Australian fans ridicule such a sport that promotes this garbage. Too many shocking refereeing decisions. In a game that has such a low goal scoring ratio this is another huge frustration for fans. How can you be loyal to a club (which is really a franchise not a club) when players change clubs like their pyjamas. Also this ridiculous system whereby, excluding keepers), half the team on the park can be temporary foreign imports. Clubs splash millions on players who consistently miss sitters from in front, sky the ball high over the crossbars and shoot directly into the shins of defenders unable to go around. Sickening. Atmosphere? Try watching a match on TV with the almost constant irritating rattle rattle rattle of those kettle drums. i could go on about the inane TV commentary and stupid wo wo, wo wo, wo wo chants by the handful of fan club supporters but save to say after 10 years of watching A League on TV i'm done with it.

Quote; "The Wellington Phoenix have always struggled to generate big attendance figures. They haven’t cracked the 10,000 mark since Round 1 in the 2016-17 season against Melbourne City." I think we put that to bed on Friday night with 22,684 people in attendance for the game against MVFC. There's plenty of other clubs I'd accuse of sitting on their licence before I picked on the Phoenix. Take the City Group in Melbourne for example....

Fixturing - Perth often plays mid-afternoon and at difficult times to satisfy an east-coast TV market. League assisted Marquee Players - Hmmmm - Nope. Perth are deservedly on top because, despite all of the entrenched bias, they continue to win.

Why do you propagate blatant falsehoods? Instead of the facts on Australian Football participant numbers and its strong growth, you deflect to your "impressions/feelings". Why are you not willing to answer questions I put to you?

East coast bias? How so? Perth on top?

Get rid of the "Woe is Me" defence of the game! Everytime someone says something is wrong with soccer/football the defenders of the game point their fingers at other sports and try and blame the media coverage. At some stage we will have to address the game's shortcomings (fixturing, east-coast bias, marquee players for the bigger clubs, dwindling crowds, summer comp, ethnicity in supporting teams ...) if it is to grow.

The crowds in the Victoria footy comps were minuscule years ago and bad in the 80s. Yet are at very good levels now That doesn’t seem to work with your theory . Or is it just soccer and basketball are not capable of victtype crowd increase

I dont care to give you my views on the standard on the A-League or anything else to you. You are nothing but a mouthpiece for the propaganda dept for AFL.

@ Chris and your comment " It's (AFL) reached it s natural level. Never to be more than a boutique novelty north of Victoria". This is incorrect- and you know it is incorrect. Sthn. NSW is Australian Football heartland, and it is also very strong in Canberra. Community Australian Football numbers are showing strong growth throughout the rest of Sydney and NSW; and in SE Qld., Cairns, and parts of coastal Qld. There is, obviously, no "natural level" acting as a barrier to the growth of community Australian Football registered participant numbers. Re the theme of this article/ A League skill level etc, what are your views on the comments of . Archie Thompson, who said (after he retired) that the NSL was better at producing players who could play well in the top echelon European leagues ie EPL, Italian etc. .Tim Cahill, who said (after he retired), that many players in the A league "are just going through the motions" ie not willing to play at their best?

I think the USA approach to major sports - all franchises works well in a big country with a large population. Atlanta has been an outstanding success and the new LA side did pretty well this season. There are some big differences when it comes to sustaining that model though. The obvious one is the population - new teams are all city based where there will be a million plus potential fans but there is also a talent pool. MLS gets a huge player boost from Mexico , central and south america where you see players able to migrate north and earn good wages. We just don’t have anything like it here, it is just a matter of scale.

Fuss has been telling us for years that football fans follow football. He insists real football are different - that they’re not mere event goers. Now he explains half the Victory fans were at the Women’s Tennis during one of the biggest games of the season. Perhaps that was just the 2-game members.

Are you talking about 2nd and 3rd divisions on a national level? Anyway, there's no P&R round the corner. Our model is the MSL, who are already at 24 teams and are aiming to go to 28 teams - all in the same tier. Why is this model attractive to the A-League club owners? Because it means stringing out big license fees for as long as possible. The license fees are worth zero if Shipp Creek United can be promoted into the top tier at the expense of a club which had only just paid a $20 million license fee the year before.

Eamon think AFL. It's reached its natural level. Never to be more than a boutique novelty north of Victoria. Anywhere in the world.

I'm not saying everything stays at the one level, I'm saying it reaches it's natural level, and then that's it. It can bounce up and down, but there's no boom beyond the natural level (when measured across a few seasons).

What about the 20 years where NBL attendances were low? "Natural" deviation???

NS - that's a very tidy article and I would not dispute its assertions one iota. I have friends in the UK who have all followed higher division teams earlier in life but all go and watch their local non league teams these days - and travel to away games and say it is far more enjoyable. I will add that last year whilst visiting I went to an FA Cup game involving 2 premier league sides, i went to a championship game and a non league game - about 3 tiers under league 2 and hand on heart - the best experience and most enjoyable game was the non league game. It wasn't particularly cheap either. Admission was 10 pounds - so over 20 dollars if you like, but the several thousand that were there made it an unforgettable day out. lots of banter in the stands, good humour, friendly faces, some vocal support - none of the pre-rehearsed rubbish - all spontaneous arising from what took place on the field. I have claimed on a number of occasions that I enjoy watching youth team local games more than A League - not always the case, The big blue was thoroughly absorbing last night, but often there is more enjoyment watching kids perform, try stuff, sometimes fail spectacularly but they play for fun and that is the underlying theme here.

Probably substantiated by the number of Sydneysders that can still be seen wearing ADP shirts.......... at games and at local get togethers.

Yes, basketball attendances now are similar to what they were in Basketball's hey day, and TV ratings around the same level. That's it's natural level. The big story about Basketball is that it survived, but absolutely no one talks about a boom (like they used to in its hey day) Natural level. People might talk about a boom, hope for a boom, but nothing ever actually booms (unless it's already booming).

ok, I apologise Jordan. I realise it was flippant and I should not have made the comment.