Are we okay with the A-League Men becoming a made-for-TV competition?

I don't think it is a matter of "Penny Pinching" as much as survival. I was of the understanding that the Roar would need to hit 15,000 supporters at Suncorp to simply break even on game day. Even in our glory days we were only really averaging 14k or so. Those supporters staying away from the game in protest of the departure from Suncorp are only hurting the team even more. If you want the games to return to Suncorp, every game needs to be a sellout with people lined at the gate demanding tickets. At that point management may feel they could afford to move back to the big smoke. Remeber Clive Palmer capping the numbers on the Gold Coast? It was a simple business decision for him, as it would be for you if you were left digging into your pocket to cover the losses every week. The football community have been calling for "Boutique" stadiums for years, now that we are in one (a very good one) every one complaining about it.

There was a time there the RBB were carrying the atmosphere in the A League. No need to make incorrect statements due to personal bias.

You have hit the nail on the head in every point you make. The only issue I can see with winter is ground availability with some of the eastern states clubs. Unfortunately not every club has the luxury of playing in a football only stadium or being the primary tenant as is the case with Adelaide United and Coopers Stadium. The other issue with winter is the clash between playing times for many NPL/Amateur/grassroots league matches and A-League matches. If we can overcome these 2 points then I think we're onto something.

More importantly, did we ever think it was not? Keep in mind that the prev rights holder PRESSURED the A league into where the new teams should come from. Remember the tender process and how some of the parties vying for the spots felt like certain teams were getting an inside running? Looks like they were. The A league was lucky to get a tv network to come on board. Its no longer attached to FFA. It has to make its money and its decided to do so this way.

Typical AFL responses from AR and Paul2. AR with all the money that the AFL spends here in NSW (and Qld) you can't even scratch the surface of getting people interested here. Getting a few old men to watch AFL on a main channel (7) can't be sustainable can it? They'd be better off running an old western movie or a 300th re-run of True Lies.

I believe the correlation between the success of the men’s and women’s national sides and the game in Australia is about participation at grass roots level. After the 2006 WC we saw tremendous growth in player numbers of all ages and a few years back when the Matilda’s were going well there was an explosion of numbers in the girls and women. I don’t believe it generated more spectators at A League though.

Yeah, that was a pretty poor crowd for the GWS. It had all the atmosphere of a Wanderers home game.

He'll never comment on GWS because it's an embarrassment. $200 million spent and absolutely nothing to show for it.

I don't think pinching pennies will grow the game. Especially if that involves hiding it out at Recliffe.

Ok. So… You agree with me then.

That would be correct if it was just any sort of program. Because they have the neds sports betting guy in the program as well , that seems to make it lucrative. I dont think Ten is paying anything for the A-league anyway because they would be the only ones able to deliver the contra component. There was article claiming the A-league is generating 16 million in advertising ,and most of that is coming from free to air. the A-league and W-league always have the same ads all top brands as well. There is apparently no room for any other ads.

Some excellent comments regarding ALM being designed as a made for streaming competition. The AL, though, has limited room for manoeuvre/ innovation as Paramount + provide an essential, for survival, income stream. A few observations. Australia is unable to compete financially with the MSL, J and K leagues, CSL and Middle Eastern leagues to attract genuinely high profile players. This supposed panacea needs to be put in the dust bin. The standard of play in the ALM (I am a committed and original MCFC supporter) is good and as mentioned is comparable to third tier European competitions such as the SPL. The lack of atmosphere in recent years, though, is a defining difference and I believe a major cause of the precipitous decline in crowd numbers. The comparison between the fortunes of rugby union and Football being tied to the success or otherwise of the Wallabies and the Socceroos is onerous and misleading. The participation rate is small even tiny when rugby is compared to Football. There are likely, weekly, to be as many park footballers (playing non-competition games) as rugby players in organised competitions and the earlier is a year round sport. Also football is pervasive throughout Australia with by far the largest club footprint compared to the other codes. A major problem appears to be the reluctance of the APL to embrace a fully competitive model, initially for the ALM, involving P/R across two 12 team leagues. (Introduction of a two tier professional league would be conditional on, from year 6, of the trapdoor that is P/R also applying to the 'second' division). This reform would be a crucial unifying factor and genuinely link the grassroots with the professional game in a way that the Australia Cup can only partially do. The FA also appears reluctant to show leadership on this fundamental issue to sustainably grow Football. Finally the reasons for summer football no longer stack up. The ALM season, with a minimum of 33 home and and away games, should run across the cooler months from March to November; interspersed with the Australian cups for both women and men. As demonstrated in the last two ALM seasons the football is more intense and quick (and appealing) when played outside of the heat, humidity and glare of summer. In a nutshell why would a business expect to thrive if the product, namely summer football, is second rate compared to the alternative. Also this aligns the professional season with the semi-professional and the grassroots: important, in my view, for promoting the game in the community. Also in my viewpoint the European leagues are the major competitors for eyeballs rather than the other "football" codes. The period from mid May to mid August is the only period where the ALM (and ALW) have relatively 'blue sky' to focus eyeballs on our domestic competitions.

You are right to have concerns. The A League is being run by invisible people who cannot be contacted and have no accountability. The Keepup website is useless for keeping fans up to date with the future strategies for the league and to at least give hope! The A League is very poorly run. It is hugely disappointing and very sad that while the MLS in the USA goes from strength to strength our league goes backwards fast!

I wouldn't trust anything that SM Pete says RB. He is all for the demise of the A-league and only cares about SM.

I'm curious, did you watch the Sydney derby and/or the Adelaide United v Melbourne Victory match? My guess is no. They were great games and there have been more like that. Sure are there some ordinary games too but that happens in all leagues. What's made them worse this season is the covid affected bad fixturing and constant chopping and changing of match schedules, poor promotion resulting in sometimes woeful attendances. Hopefully a massive improvement during finals and next season.

I am going on 74 years of age and am not well enough to go to Hindmarsh Stadium to watch Adelaide United. Have lost complete interest in the A-League since it went to free to air parasite+. When it was on Foxtel(my one luxury) I watched every game from Brisbane to Perth.Now I rarely see Adelaide United and don't take much interest in other matches,plus there is not enough exposure of the games,if any. I curse the day ten got hold of it and messed it up with adverts during games,incorrectly naming the match commentators etc.When will the clubs get back to running the football and not the TV stations..??

I can't agree with that either. I can't see why the two are linked especially when most of the Socceroo squad are not even playing locally.

"Many times the media coverage" ? I think in the last few years the mainstream media coverage has decreased dramatically to the point where I don't think its that much better now than in the NSL days. Luckily there are now places online to get our information fix, that is the difference.

Funny you should mention the Rangers-Celtic match. I watched a replay of the Adelaide Utd - Melbourne Victory match just before the Rangers v Celtic match. Watching the games so close to each other I noticed that the standard of the football was not that different between the two matches. People might freak when I say this but I honestly believe that if that SPL derby was played in front of 8044 Australian fans (who are not as fanatical as the Rangers/Celtic fans) and the Adelaide Utd -Victory match was played in front of 50,000 fanatical fans, you would not have noticed big difference in the football standard, maybe slight but hardly noticeable. I saw many passes going astray, unforced errors and wild shots in the SPL match and these were the 2 best sides in Scotland by far. Maybe a slight difference in speed and physicality at certain times but that is as much due to the players feeding off the fans noise than anything else. So the bottom line is that a full stadium of fanatical fans makes a huge difference to a viewer's perception of the match. Great result for Ange in the end!