Mike Tuckerman’s excellent recent article contains a short list of some of the silliest, most tin-eared decisions A-League clubs and league organisers have made to alienate their customers.
This passion-killing culture in football’s leadership has been around in various forms for years now, and I’ve been wondering, how does that even happen?
What kind of business people are so indifferent to their customers’ wishes that they do the things they do?
Well, unfortunately, there is a good reason.
The people who have run football in this country mostly have backgrounds in industries that don’t care about ‘Joe Public’ customers.
When we look into their backgrounds, we find three large cohorts: mining, property development and recruits from other sports.
I’m going to leave recruits from other sports to one side because we’ve debated the merits of ‘football people’ versus outsiders enough already. I want to focus on the miners and property developers.
Both mining and property Development give their proponents strong abilities in identifying assets to be exploited. They also need the nous to cut the big deals. One-off transactions with their customers.
But what miners and property Developers don’t need to learn is how to constantly sell products and services to new customers.
Repetition of effort just isn’t required in their day jobs because getting customers hooked and wanting to come back week after week is not part of a property developer’s or miner’s play book.
I don’t believe there is anyone in the front office at Western United or Macarthur who knows how to find 10,000 or more customers and generate repeat business from them.
(Photo by Brett Hemmings/Getty Images)
A-League leadership has long lacked a critical mass of people who have a keen appreciation of retail business. This includes building brands that mean something positive.
When I see Western United’s badge, my first thoughts are “homeless” and “no fans”. I just don’t want to watch their games because I’m not sure they’ll even exist in a couple of years’ time.
Not believing in the longevity of clubs in the A-League is pretty poisonous because it hits hard in the ‘trust and confidence’ side of the relationship.
Why would anyone spend time and money on something they have little confidence in? Customers will always walk away from shoddy products.
To turn this situation around, Football Australia and the Australian Professional Leagues need to become customer-focussed in a hurry.
All business people like to say they are “customer-focussed”, but it’s a much rarer commodity than most would believe.
Being genuinely “customer-focussed” means listening intently to your prospective customers. Knowing what drives and motivates them. Understanding what they fear. Working out how products match up to the customers’ desires, then intensely marketing to those desires and fears accordingly.
So when was the last time you, the football fan, were engaged with by Football Australia? Has the Australian Professional Leagues reached out to you to listen to what makes you tick?
Does the AAFC engage with you? Do any of these organisations know what you and your mates want to experience from football?
I’ve been to A-League games with most of my mates. We’ve also travelled interstate to matches, and been to a World Cup. But the only football we talk about regularly these days is the Socceroos.
Everywhere we look, it’s obvious that disengagement is rife. The club forums are really quiet compared to how vocal they were several years ago.
Crowds are down, TV ratings are bottom of the barrel. Pick your metric, and it’s clear that football fans are not nearly as motivated to engage with the professional level of the sport as we were five years ago.
And why should we be?
None of the entities that run football in Australia have shown any interest in understanding or engaging with fans. They are now paying the price for their indifference.
Australian football exists in a hyper-competitive retail market and we just don’t have the right people with the right skills running the retail side of the game.
Football people need to run the operational side of the game, and people with excellent retail resumes need to be recruited into to do the hard work that the incumbents just don’t know how to do.
Simmo
Roar Rookie
Is your username a 12th Man reference? :laughing:
Simmo
Roar Rookie
Not at all. They're also in the property business. Westfield's business model is buying well located land, developing a mall on the site and attracting dozens of lessees. Westfield isn't in the business of bringing customers into anyone's particular store, that's the stores' problem. It's not unlike how the A-League was run. They brought about the league, issued a fixed number of licences to franchisees and then left it up to the franchisees to find the end "customer" aka Fans. We should have put greater emphasis on selecting clubs based on ability to create fan bases and play solid football. Those weren't important enough factors in who was given licences...
Buddy
Roar Rookie
Mr Gorman even stopped in the pouring rain at CCM for a brief chat about “the state of the nation”. These days at WSW there is no interest in having an ear imo.
Buddy
Roar Rookie
Cos they get to sing a little ditty from an old musical that they believe was written and performed for the club and it makes people feel “as one” and 10 feet tall!
Popavalium Andropoff
Guest
Do Frank and Steven Lowy count as "retail business" ? Because to be fair things weren't necessarily going too well with them around (certainly not after the World Cup bid failed).
The Ball Bobbled
Roar Rookie
Yeah, well find these Football people then and ask them to stump up $6mil for a license
Winter A League is Awesome
Guest
I kind of see what you are saying. How would you maintain a relstionship with a large nunber of people? What can the current administration dod differently?
Simmo
Roar Rookie
Lyle Gorman was widely respected in the game for how we got the Wanderers off the ground. There was strong early engagement with would-be fans. They listened to fans and let them determine the club's name and colours. Hugely important elements of collective identity. And allowed the RBB to coalesce and become the public face of the club. He's now with the Sea Eagles after being recruited into the NRL by Cronulla. We sometimes get the right people into running the game. Just not enough of them, and not for long enough.
Simmo
Roar Rookie
Honestly I think the S.Lowy-Gallop administration got intimidated by the RBB and the hate campaign they received from the Daily Telegraph. Afraid of their shadows after that.
Simmo
Roar Rookie
This is what losing the Trust & Confidence of fans looks like. The majority of local football fans I know have lapsed for these reasons.
Simmo
Roar Rookie
The distinction is between business people that are used to maintaining relationships with massive numbers of people, versus those who are good at deal-making and acquiring assets. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. The two latest franchisees have yet to prove they can create a fan base for their clubs.
Simmo
Roar Rookie
thanks Mike
Marcel
Guest
Laughably simplistic analysis...to the point of being little more than a pub rant.... I'll have a Cooper's Pale please.
Nick Symonds
Guest
ABC NEWS HEADLINE: Officials who paid $30 million for land worth $3 million had "no experience in acquisition of land", report finds. - At least property developers know a good thing when they see one. If the APL board was made up of property developers then maybe they could make the A-League great again. Less "football people", more "business people". Bring back Clive Palmer, too. He's building a full-size Trevi Fountain now, just imagine what he could do if he was put in charge of Football Australia. He's a visionary leader.
The Rev. Pat Brodnik 2.0
Guest
Stuff like this makes you realise though just how ideal it is for club owners/admins to actually have a passion for the game in their personal lives, moreso than having a professional background in it as ex-players/coaches etc. Put simply, if Clive Palmer had been born&bred a ⚽-lover instead of a QLD Leaguie(albeit w/the point of difference that he was born in Melb) dare I say not only would GCU still be very much w/us in the A-League but, despite the Goldie's well-earned rep as Oz professional sport's graveyard, they would certainly be one of the most powerful clubs in the league????
Punter
Roar Rookie
Enjoyed the column Simmo & I think you are in the right direction. Football in this country around the time of when we won the Asian cup in front of 100K people was when football was at it's peak in this country, however, then slowly by slowly the FFA lost the most important thing in football, the fans, the lack of support by the FFA on the attack on the RBB fans in the Daily telegraph was the start.
Punter
Roar Rookie
There is a reason why the old NSL clubs are shunned. I have followed football in this country since the 1970s, I have attended football games both locally & national games since this time. During the NSL period despite following players from the NSL & going to matches, I never had a NSL side I wanted to follow. As soon as A-League started & Sydney FC came into being, for the first time I & many of my mates had a team we wanted to follow. Now I'm sure you understand why.
Buddy
Roar Rookie
Right now I'm inclined to feel that "there's something rotten in the state of Denmark". From the top downwards and it involves club administration too. To be honest I've had enough for now at least and won't be renewing season tickets x 3 next season and after this weekend Kayo will go as well. It just isn't a good experience week in and week out - at least not at WSW. It isn't about results either although going from a 5-0 win to a 5-1 loss in the space of a week is not a good look. There is absolute silence from the top of the pyramid and I just don't like what I see at club level. Generally, I don't regard myself as a whinger. I've supported through good and bad times and tried to engage and be constructive but I've reached the point where I don't care anymore. It isn't as though I'm even going to become a "eurosnob" as I stopped watching most of that some years back. Frankly, there is more fun to be found in a game of FIFA these days and you don't get harassed by the police and security staff either!
Winter A League is Awesome
Guest
Foxtel have shown their allegiance to all the other sports by the ads they play during A League games. If there was a pre show to games, I am sure those ads would run for other sports as well. I can't imagine there are too many A League ads during AFL games.
Winter A League is Awesome
Guest
That's true, you can have foreign owners that get their licenses taken away but you can't have the clubs have been doing this for close a century in some cases.