Let the A-League battle for Sydney begin

Interesting but not surprising as to where the vouchers are spent. Now if only the governments allocated funds fairly. The people have spoken.

Not just Griffith, but a load of NSW country towns host entire leagues, not just individual clubs. Tamworth, Armidale, Lismore, Port Macquarie, Coffs Harbour, Bathurst, Orange, Dubbo, Parkes, Nowra, Goulburn would fit the definition as well. Soccer has quietly crept into 1st place among the football codes in Wagga as well. Country NSW is definitely under-appreciated for its football culture For anyone who's interested in the granular detail of where different sports have their strongholds in NSW, the NSW Government has a very useful dashboard with loads of detail on where the active kids vouchers are spent on which sports: https://www.sport.nsw.gov.au/active-kids

And why Real Madrid are turning the Bernabeu into a shopping centre with a football stadium in the middle

agree with you there. Possibly why they are looking at Kruse and Zulo, both recovering from injury according to a recent article by Marco. Jack Hingert may lose his starting spot but will be good off the bench.

Watching last nights Aus cup I was filled with some hope for the Roar boys. But it hinged on the fact that I think Moon finally played the boys in the best formation and team selection possible. Austin at False 9 is great, he seems to work harder in defense than attack, but I am confident of they can get the ball to him in the box, he will hit the goal more times than he misses, plus he is very good add slipping those cheeky passes through the defense to fellow attackers. He works well with Danzaki running off him playing a more traditional striker role. Hore on the left and Mileusnic on the right (or vice versa) are always dangerous. And finally Akbari back in the engine where he can quietly keep the ball moving across the pitch, shielding the denfense and releasing the attackers. A Strong makeshift back 4, but I still don't see where Trewin and Neville fit back in. Trewin needs be on the pitch to continue his developemtn and Nevill was by far the best Center back the team had last year, and thought he was unlucky not to get a Socceroos call up at some point?? What really concerns me is the bench. Only really Ivanovic now there who could potentially make a difference. Unless Dehmie bulked up in the off season ready to go toe to toe physically with some of those Big center halves. Still yet to see Lofthouse really contribute or effect anything on the pitch other than running fast and losing the ball. First 11 looks great, depth is the issue.

This is certainly true...but...the decline in newspapers started over 15 years ago. As we stand here today, their decline is not the newsworthy part...that they still appear to carry so much weight - that's the newsworthy part. 15 years ago - on this forum, on the once excellent 442 forum, on the once excellent TWG forum, on the many football blogs and forums which were cropping up everywhere - we were all patting ourselves on the back, proudly declaring that it did not matter that the traditional newspapers were not supporting football. We had found our own way of providing that very same support amongst ourselves! We had overtaken newspapers in importance! Well, 15 years on, and that now seems a rather foolish declaration.

You’re right about newspapers - about to go down the same path as black and white televisions and video recorders.

And I go to a few MacArthur games - the cow bells are good and unique.

I think they are not against soccer. They - like every other newspaper - are struggling to stay afloat. They don't have the reporters any more to cover all the topics they used to cover or would like to cover. I think that they see soccer as very much a minority interest sport in Australia, so they don't allocate scarce resources to cover it. No more to it than that.

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"Casual ticket sales will be on sale roughly 4 weeks prior to the first game, this is normal practice. Moving into a fresh new stadium and on the back of the Community Open Day over the weekend, there is a big push and opportunity to fill seats through Memberships prior to casual ticket"

It's funny, the people in Geelong and in Victoria in general would say soccer is not very entertaining. But then again, if you go to Sydney people watch rugby league. Maybe all that sun and rain does something to your I.Q., drains it perhaps?

no fee for A League transfers, the clubs oppose it apparently (makes you ask, which clubs?). Roar did recently get paid a fee for a young centre-back who had been with the Roar Academy for five years, from U14s, on transfer to Danish club AGF. Good luck to him.

Nothing in the Australian or other News Corp rags. This mob won’t be happy until they cremated and buried football in this country.

That's a whole other discussion isn't it. Ideally youngsters like those should have been at least locked into contracts so that Roar gets a fee from them leaving, otherwise yeah free education and see ya.

That shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how and why Sydneysiders attend events. There will be thousands of people who want to go to the first game at a new stadium who have no intention of getting a membership. The club has potentially missed out on many of these people by trying to push something they have no interest in buying.

That would make an interesting topic on its own. Many of us feel that the design of the stadium in Parramatta is way too corporate and has changed the focus of the incumbents from fans in general to a select few and WSW in particular appear to be chasing corporate dollars rather than fan engagement. Whilst undoubtedly that is where the money is, it appears to forget or ignore what sport is really all about and having been to numerous games at many stadiums as a guest in a corporate box, I genuinely have the worst time you can have at an event. Few people actually interested in the game. Many don’t watch at all and most don’t understand the rules - and I’m not just talking the round ball game. So at the new stadium you have virtually one side of the ground that has minimal interest or interaction with the game and it all helps to kill the atmosphere.

One of the best things we can all do in addition to getting to games is support channel 10 and paramount.

All good Buddy.....Alas 3 year election cycles are not conducive to forward thinking. In the last 5-10yr Stadia have gone through a generational change in design... Strangely people just are not happy anymore with a seat and a sporting contest....large hospitality concourses behind the terraces have become the ideal....get people to come early and stay late...have them onsite longer so they can spend more $ It's the real reason that Inter and AC are looking to leave the San Siro .

Sorry Marcel, it was not designed as an attack on architects and designers but more the politics of it all that allowed it to happen. I’m aware there were alternative plans back in the 80’s for Parramatta stadium but politics got in the way of a far more forward thinking design that should have lasted a lot longer. Local councils are responsible for plenty of appalling planning decisions but it seems that as long as people are making money, it’s ok.