Winter switch opens up endless opportunities in Asia

It will be interesting to see how many clubs actually have the ability and will to do this. Good to see Western United give it a go!

You need to factor in things like market sizes, living standards et al. Many clubs have a naturally restricted fanbase, while bigger clubs in bigger cities are likely to get more.

"It wouldn’t surprise me if they were generating more revenue than our league too." Average revenue per club in 2017/18 in the Allsvenskan was €9 million, according to a Annual Review of Football Finance done by Deloitte's Sports Business Group. This would be right in line with ave revenue per club per annum across A-League. Melbourne Victory's revenue in FY2018 was A$22M, which exchanges to around €13.5m. No doubt MVFC is at the high end of revenue, so the average across 11 clubs would be similar to Allsvenskan

A-League clubs have never had an imperative or incentive to invest in a stadium. The competition was owned by the FFA. The intellectual property of each entity was owned by the FFA. The clubs only had incentive to maximise revenue from ticket sales to home matches. They also had incentive to develop players to sell overseas, but this is only now being understood with WSW & City sinking significant capital into youth Academies. Now the ALeague is owned by clubs they now have incentives to start investing in their brand & identity. Property developers can now approach clubs with the offer of tenancy for the stadium over the next 25 years. Attach a hotel, retail shops, office space to the stadium. Current stadiums are used maximum 2-3 times per week for 4-5 hours. What a waste of invested capital. Have the stadium generating revenue 365 days per year. That's the Business Case to pursue for boutique stadium development.

this is a good point, in world terms, to average 10,000 for a domestic football league is very good, the A-League is in good company the A-League sits alongside the Belgian first division in attendasnces and it actually does better than the following football leagues: I-League (India) 10,200 Turkish Super League 9,700 Ekstraklasa (Poland) 9,400 Allsvenskan (Sweden) 9,100 Persian Gulf Pro League (Iran) 9,000 Liga 1 (Indonesia) 8,700 Categoria Primera 1 (Colombia) 8,600 Premier Soccer League (South Africa) 7,300 Saudi Professional League 7,000 Chilean Primera Division 7,000 Malaysia Super League 6,900 Uzbek League 6,900 Israeli Premier League 6.400 Austrian Bundesliga 6,400 V League 1 (Vietnam) 6,300 Botola (Morocco) 6,200 Liga de Fútbol Profesional Boliviano 6,100 Danish Superliga 6,000 Eliteserien (Norway) 5,800 Czech First League 5,550 Superleague Greece 5,300 as you can see, we are in very good company, and in global terms doing very well

Sweden has a fraction of the population of Australia, and five or so Allsvenskan clubs do get five-figure averages. There have been some pretty big crowds for some of the bigger games in that league. It wouldn't surprise me if they were generating more revenue than our league too.

anon - As a follow up to my reply to you. In 1985 when summer soccer was first suggested John Aloisi was 9 years old, and by the time it actually happened in 1989, John was 13, as I said ,still playing junior football, hardly an age he would have been partaking in the politics of national football. Cheers jb..

Allianz should be redeveloped at about 25k capacity. That would be plenty for the majority of games held there by the current tenants. And funny how the government has announced the promised curtain has been ditched and yet the price has gone up by $100m!

The pitch a little but it hasn't been too bad; the main complaints I've seen are related to it being an oval (and not rectangle), a grass hill instead of seats and also the fact it's situated nowhere near any places to eat or drink pre or post a match

The Dragons are the historical tenant, but really they play no more than 6 games a season there now. While Sydney FC are playing there they've helped in getting the big screen installed, but once they move back to Allianz (fingers crossed) then agree St George will become the main tenants again.

Fair enough assumption, but moving even further south would alienate even more supporters. I think we're all hoping for some kind of 'curtain' at the new Allianz

Interesting you mention Sweden. Just like the A league it's teams play in a wide variety of capacities in regards to their stadiums. And the overall attendances consistently average just under 10k. Is that what you meant by "very decent crowds"? if so, the A League is doing reasonably well then.

Sorry, what I meant was - an NRL team owns it's own stadium. Which means it's theoretically possible for an A League team to do the same. But maybe the circumstances of how the Sharks came to own their own ground aren't relevant now? I have no idea.

I was referring to Jubilee, WSW stadium, ANZ, Leichhardt. Last I looked Shark park is not used by any Sydney A-League teams. Did you know that?

And Sydney FC (and their fans) have complained about the state of the pitch at Jubilee.

Good point about the draw. But there's also the state of the pitch to consider. Rugby codes like the grass cut much longer than football. I wonder who's wishes would be listened to if there were two tenants?

The Cronulla Sharks own their own ground. I don't know how that situation came to be or how much it cost to build. Might be relevant for A League clubs looking to do the same?

That amount is what will be spent on the whole development, including the admin and training facilities for the Lions (men's and women's teams). The stadium itself only has seating for 700 people (total capacity around 10k, mostly on grassed banks). So, has the Roar put a proposal to the government to build a football-specific stadium?

anon- The first article to appear promoting " summer soccer" was in 1985, in what was known as the Green Paper. I am the "stupid bastard from Brisbane " ( SMH journalist's description) who wrote the article which was taken up by the editor of "the Green" Andrew Dettre as a worthwhile subject for debate. The then ruling body, the ASF were in their usual mode of operation and it took them 4 years to finally "give the idea a go'. John Aloisi,who I guess would only be out of junior football in 1985 is definitely not the best person to be citing the reasons the "switch" took place, but what is important is the way the original suggestions were bastardised by the then ruling body. In 1985 the ASF loved to boast about the number of people in the country who had a contact, either direct or indirect, so the first bit of reasoning behind the move was the "apparent" ready made "market" for clubs to aim their efforts at improving crowds. This did not happen. The second reason was that to aid the above, games should be played in "early evening" under floodlight. This had a double purpose, families coming home from a beach outing still able to close the day off by watching a game or as teenagers they could attend before going clubbing. Good reasoning that was never acted upon due to lack of ability for clubs of the NSL to install floodlights, so games continued to be played at the usual 3pm Saturday or Sunday. The Sydney journalist reckoned that this experience would result in deaths on the filed, the reality is that "summer soccer" has never resulted in a death on the filed in 30 years. John's observation that the reason was to 'get away" from NRL,AFL, or RUGBY games is a myth for moving our best football, the NSL, actually brought us into line with the season's and seasonal competitions being used in Europe at that time, so the benefits to Socceroo selections were sure to occur. and of course our top game was being played ongood pitches. In the four years from suggestion to introduction the ASF increased the NSL form 14 to 26 teams, a disaster that sent clubs racing back to local football of the time or even worse, into oblivion. So anon dont believe everything you hear about "summer soccer", the move was a success ,only dampened by the non existent efforts by the clubs to "tap" the available market,, their inability to supply floodlit arenas and worse still the ASF's negligence to incorporate the "move" as was described in the original suggestions. Cheers jb.

Rugby Union is the pitch killer. So Suncorp, SCG , Canberra Stadium and AAMI are all going to be chewed up through winter. League does some damage but nothing compared to Union.