Opinion
When Western United were announced way back in late 2018 as the next A-League expansion side, you would have been hard pressed to find many people cheering.
The club certainly seemed ambitious. It promised to build a new stadium and established itself quickly as a powerhouse in the A-League.
In some respects, the club has certainly seen success, winning the league is an achievement of itself, let alone after three years of playing in the league.
However, even the most committed Western United fan could admit that despite last season’s championship there are some significant causes for concern.
Ahead of the upcoming 2022/23 season, I’d like to take the time to reflect upon my experience as a supporter of Western United and what I have observed.
I would like to point out what the club has done well and what it could be doing better. Far too often when I read about the A-League expansion clubs there is no nuance in the discussion, they’re always disrespected by fans of other clubs as if they are the worst thing to happen to the league since Clive Palmer and Gold Coast United.
But whilst I believe that the criticism against the club is not without merits, I believe that Western United are checking off a lot of the boxes that should create a successful club.
On the pitch, it is clear that Western United are a success. Last season’s title winning performance is clear proof of this. However, from what I can understand there are two main criticisms against Western United.
The first, is that the supporter base is too small to sustain an A-League club. The second is the stadium issue.
I will address the supporter group issue first as it is the easier criticism to counter. Despite the relatively small fan base compared to the rest of the league, it is clearly growing and is on an upward trend.
There is a clear passion amongst the Western Service Crew for the club as demonstrated through the scenes throughout last season’s finals campaign.
Western United lift the A-League Men trophy. (Photo by Dave Hewison/Speed Media/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
The support for Western United is clearly growing. Last season’s grand final proves this. Despite the low attendance for the grand final, it was not as if the stadium was completely empty.
It was also not as if Western United supporters were in the clear minority that night either. I found that the support between Melbourne City and Western United was relatively balanced.
In addition, wandering around Melbourne in the build up for the final in my Western United scarf, I found more Western United fans when compared to City.
Furthermore, how many supporters does an A-League club need to be successful? If we are looking at Melbourne Victory as the benchmark, then their numbers have been on the decline, as has attendances across the whole league.
Many other clubs in the league struggle to get 10,000 people to games at the moment. This is not an issue exclusive to Western United.
Western United is also doing all of the right things to get more supporters. They have gone on a trophy tour, hosted community days and offered free tickets to youth clubs.
They have been aggressive with their marketing campaigns and advertising. What I do not understand is, when the criticisms regarding Western United’s low supporter numbers are raised is what more could the club possibly be doing to get more numbers?
There is but one thing I consider that is significantly limits the ability of Western United to grow its fanbase, the matter of its stadium. I do not think it is an understatement to suggest that this is the single biggest issue with Western United.
Dylan Wenzel-Halls of Western United celebrates victory with teammates. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
I believe the decision to play out at AAMI Park when compared to playing in Geelong was also a difficult but necessary decision. The atmosphere during the club’s early days at Geelong was not as good as compared to what it is today at AAMI. In addition, having a consistent, rectangular stadium as a home ground surely helps to grow a fanbase.
However, the legitimacy of Western United as a whole depends on their promise to build a 15,000 seat stadium in Western Melbourne. Anything less and the club risks being seen as ‘snake oil salesman’ who bought their way into the league with false promises.
For a matter as critical as this, updates and developments regarding the stadium have been slow at best and confusing at other times. Although the club has acknowledged that they where naïve to promise a stadium in three years, they have done very little to demonstrate their commitment to building a privately funded stadium since this statement.
Western United would point to the fact that development has started on a 5,000-seat training facility that will host A-League games in the interim, but I believe that there is a growing fear that this 5,000-seat training facility will become the de facto stadium.
This is grounded on the very little information the club has presented regarding the actual stadium itself.
I am also quite concerned by Western United’s communication with Victorian opposition leader Matthew Guy. Guy has promised to develop a sporting predicting in Wyndham should the Liberals win the upcoming state election.
But why should the club feel the need to support his campaign if they were already committed to privately funding the stadium to begin with?
I understand that if a political does offer a developer free money to support his campaign bid it would be difficult to say no, but this is a very poor look from Western United given the limited information we have about the 15,000-seat stadium.
The quickest way to resolve this issue, in my opinion is for Western United to continually post updates regarding the development of the 15,000-seat stadium (not the training facility). If there is no commitment to building this stadium, then it signals that there is no commitment by the management to the club.
Why should then anyone feel justified in committing to Western United when its own management does not?
For sure, I have no doubts that the CEO is committed to Western United. But this is not communicated clearly enough to fans nor to the wider A-League as a whole to completely remove this scepticism.
The thing is though, a 15,000-seat stadium is perfect for Western United. I can see it rivalling Hindmarsh in Adelaide in terms of atmosphere.
If the 2021/22 grand final was held there instead of AAMI, I don’t think there would be many complaints. It therefore baffles me why the club is so silent about the new stadium all the time.
Of course, the club may be silent because of a lack of meaningful developments regarding the stadium. But if this is the case, then surely there is criticism to be made against the club here.
I understand COVID and government bureaucracy would have limited the speed of development but is it too much to ask for a monthly update regarding the stadium process?
Western United has so much potential as a club, the signs are clearly there in its short history, but the fulfilment of this potential can only be recognised when the stadium has been built.
Otherwise the club loses respect in the eyes of the rest of the league and it becomes much harder to build a fan base. I hope that this season, in addition to being a successful one on the pitch is one of it where meaningful developments regarding the stadium can be observed.
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