A finals series is just what the A-League needs right now

It makes no sense. It looks like one of the reasons we have a finals series here is the TV money, but if that's the case there should be two legged home and away playoffs - the NSL used to have a top 6 (out of 16 teams) with two legged home and away playoffs, why can't we do that now?

I don't see size of country as an issue right now - comparing NZ rugby v Aussie football would be very appropriate for scale. If/when football were more popular, then yes. . Playing each other twice, and then the top an lowest teams playing eacher 2 more isn't enough? With funding low, your big Australian grassroots can still feed into the competition and allow it to grow into the 16-20 you're talknig about. But with competitiveness, resources where its at, and the question of league winner/finals winner, I think this would still be a good interim solution.

It's not just the grand final, it's most rounds during the regular season. Take this season as an example, you'd see some even more horrid crowds and TV numbers without finals because Sydney wrapped it all up about 6 weeks ago. Care levels would be nought. That's cool if you're OK with that, but most stakeholders wouldn't be.

There’s nothing wrong with the top six per se. The problem is the top six in a competition with only 11 teams. The A League should have around 16-20 clubs.

NZ is a small country so that might work for them. The A League's problem is it has far too few teams that play each other enough already. They need between 16-20 teams, and a reformatted FFA Cup to engage the massive grassroots support for Soccer that don't engage with the A League, and this will end up serving another function as a proxy second division.

But there's two trophies anyway to celebrate both achievements, so what's the issue?

From next season it will be 6 matches per round. And, hopefully, up to 7-8 matches per round within 5 years. 70k buying tickets every week on average. We use averages because we don't want to have data skewed by outlying data - high or low.

“Personally, I think the finals series is great for the A-League.” Of course it is. The administration loves it, the majority of fans love it, it gives broadcasters enhanced content, extends the season, and provides a ‘premium climactic event’ at the end of each season. Can you imagine how dismal the end of this season would already be if there were no finals? The crowds and ratings would shrink away to almost nothing. But on this tab, forget practical benefits and forget tradition...all that matters is some inane purity test of who is the truest believer or the biggest euro-devotee. The comparisons with what I’m they do in Europe is just laughably irrelevant to the ALeague. The finals series is critical to the competition.

Nemesis; 1) There's only 5 games per round, 10k = 50k. 2) Metrics are boosted by Sydney and Melbourne derbies, the last time the round average was above 10k was in Round 18, where they had 3 derbies and only scraped over the line at 11,143 average. Before that it was in Round 13. 3) Ticket prices are higher for grand finals, I don't know how much they are but I'm assuming you would if you've ever attended an A-League grand final, anyway Grand Finals make more money and only having to hire one venue is cheaper for the league, as oppose to hiring 5 every week.

One way to do a premiership and Pro/rel is be creative, like the NPC rugby championship in NZ, where two divisions play as one. For HAL, you do home and away for the 12 teams – 22 games – then the top 6 play for the premiership in another home and away, and the bottom 6 play for the “2nd div” championship – best of the rest. That way you have a grading, enough time for players to get developed, equity of opportunity for owners teams and sponsors each season, yet the most deserving teams prosper. And we get to see our teams play home and away 32 times, and the last ten against teams of our calibre. This is important because all those premier league competitions people are pointing to, they are circuses with the best players from around their country and the world. They do not perform the development function in the same way HAL must – players, culture and fanbase. The HAL wears many hats.

"The relevance is public interest" I sometimes wonder whether people watch any sport in Australia, or are they really unaware that, for all the professional sporting competitions: AFL, NRL, A-League A full round of 5 Home & Away matches generates more ticket sales & higher viewing across Australia, than a Grand Final. The only thing a Grand Final generates is higher ticket prices &, most likely, higher ad revenue for a broadcaster who relies on ad revenue.

The relevance is public interest. Finals primarily exist to hold the attention of fans as long as possible. In Europe, that's done through the lure of European qualification as well as the threat of relegation. The A-league has neither of those things and the Asian CL is no carrot because so few care about whether their team qualifies.

@ Waz. I highlighted the top football nations as an example of how the best do it. We should aim to be like the best. The main reason I have advocated against finals for years is that Football, due to it's difficulty in scoring and relatively low scoring rate, is the sport where a 'one off' match can deliver a result that allows a lesser team to upset a better team on the day. However, over the course of a long league campaign, these abnormal results will become less statistically significant and best team will accrue the most points and rightly be crowned as the best team of that season.

Nearly 2 million participants is not to be sneezed at.

What's the relevance of that in the context of ALeague which has no prizemoney for either the Premiership or Championship. In fact, finishing on top of the ALeague table means automatic ACL involvement, which provides massive exposure for clubs that can sell the opportunity to sponsors who want access to 4 billion people in Asia. More people will watch the 6 group matches involving ALeague clubs than will watch the entire AFL or NRL season. Additionally, players get showcased & provides an opportunity for clubs to reap the rewards from player Transfers. Mark Milligan's transfers to Asian leagues netted MVFC close to $2m. Jason Geria transferred to JLeague for around $1m and I'm sure Thomas Deng would have gone for a higher price, given he's a better player and captain of the Australian Olympic team.

Those leagues, particularly the European ones, have a massive prize for finishing in the top X. The lure of Champions league or even Europa League keeps that interest from fans of mid table clubs. Sadly most A-league fans couldn't give 2 hoots about Asian CL qualification. If/when that gets enough prestige to keep fan interest they might look at scrapping finals. Until then, no chance.

Calling it the minor premiership belittles what is the best team in the country.

Thanks Nem!!!!

NEW FOOTABLL PARTICIPATION REPORT RELEASED - 2019 FOOTBALL PARTICIPATION HIGHLIGHTS: • 6% overall growth on 2018 Total Participation to 1,957,552 • 11% growth in Women & Girls to 156,893 • 5% growth in MiniRoos Club & Kick Off to 239,002 • 35% growth in Social Football to 125,866 • 36% growth in Futsal to 63,031 • 7% increase in Registered Coaches to 38,715 • 20% increase in Volunteers to 23,322 - https://www.ffa.com.au/sites/ffa/files/2020-03/2019%20National%20Participation%20Report-%20High%20Res.pdf?_ga=2.179764132.103616164.1583893292-356912155.1582551651