A late-night statement on the back of the most tumultuous 48 hours in A-League history suggests the only way things will change is if fans initiate a league-wide boycott of games.
Monday’s extraordinary announcement that the A-League Grand Final has been sold to the city of Sydney and the New South Wales government’s tourism arm Destination NSW has unleashed the most visceral outpouring of rage we’ve seen in decades in Australian football.
It’s worse than when former FFA chief executive David Gallop failed to defend fans after The Sunday Telegraph published the identities of 198 banned supporters back in 2015 – many of whom had been banned for entirely spurious reasons.
A concerted boycott saw attendances drop by more than a third in the wake of that report, and you could argue they’ve never really bounced back.
But what’s different about this decision to sell off hosting rights to the Grand Final for three years is the fact that it affects every A-League fan.
All across Australia and New Zealand, fans in every A-League city have spent the past 17 seasons dreaming of the right to watch their team host the decider.
(Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)
Many of our most cherished memories hail from Grand Final day – from the first Orange Sunday in Brisbane, to Archie Thompson’s five-goal haul at Docklands, to the afternoon South Australian fans painted the Adelaide Oval red and finally celebrated a championship.
But not anymore.
After two days of roiling anger across every social media channel you care to read, the Australian Professional Leagues released a four-paragraph statement at 11pm AEDT overnight reaffirming their commitment to hosting this year’s decider in Sydney.
Signed originally by representatives of all 12 A-League Men clubs – at least until the APL pulled the post down and re-posted to social media with names removed – the statement is proof that administrators plan to double down on what is undoubtedly the most unpopular decision is A-League history.
And the only way to respond to them is by voting with your feet.
No one denies that Australian football has long been desperate for more cash. But the APL signed a $200 million, five-year broadcast deal with Paramount barely 18 months ago.
They sold a 33 per cent stake in the league worth a reported $140 million to private equity firm Silver Lake hardly six months later.
What on earth have they spent the money on? KeepUp, for one thing.
A couple of the big-name journos they’ve brought in-house to produce content got an unfortunate taste of corporate propaganda when they were tasked with lobbing a few softballs the way of APL chief executive Danny Townsend in the wake of the announcement.
I’ve tried a few times to secure an audience with Danny myself, but I’ve always been given the run-around.
I can’t hold my peace on what I think is unequivocally the worst decision the A-League has ever made though.
If the APL thinks the way to get more fans into the A-League is by doing surreptitious deals with Destination NSW, they should quit the football business and start running some hotels.
Because this decision is anti-football. It’s a slap in the face to fans and it erases 17 years of actual Grand Final history – not the laughable ‘tradition’ the APL claims they’ll create.
(Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
And it’s not the first time the APL and its executives have spectacularly misread the room.
What happens next is largely up to them – but only because they seem so determined to compound their egregious error.
The alleged $15-20 million they’ll receive for the deal isn’t worth it. If the game goes broke without it, it was in even worse shape than anyone thought.
But more than at any other time in the A-League’s checkered history, now is the time for fans to make a stand. Already there’s a mass walk-out planned on the terraces at the Melbourne Derby on Saturday night.
And on the back of the Socceroos’ glorious World Cup campaign, it seems incredible it has come to this.
But it’s the only way they’ll learn.
The APL must be reminded: football without fans is nothing.
Marcel
Guest
Are we pleased with ourselves now Mr Tuckerman ?
Garry
Roar Rookie
Im waiting to see Mike apologise to me.. people stirring this up without thinking of possible consequences has caused this disaster in Melbourne..
Garry
Roar Rookie
I can..throwing flares, invading and assaulting players officals and other staff.. :angry: See Mike this is what happens when emotions come into play without thought..
Rodger King
Roar Rookie
Yes, then you are right, the first season of the then new A League.
Blood Dragon
Roar Rookie
Will be interesting to see if Roars game against Sydney at Suncorp will actually draw a decent crowd or not
Blood Dragon
Roar Rookie
United want A-League while Knights are very sceptical about the NSD the only QLD club that pay end up in NSD is the Redcliffe based Peninsula Power
Garry
Roar Rookie
it depends how you date things..the first season is 2005/2006 which is the one I meant, "The Grand Final took place at Aussie Stadium in Sydney on 5 March 2006"
Rodger King
Roar Rookie
2006 we finished 2nd on the ladder behind Victory. 45pts - to our 33pts. In the GF that year they kicked our backsides 6-0. In the first season 2005, we won the league but got knocked out in the Prelim by CCM who went on but got defeated by the Bling in the GF.
Garry
Roar Rookie
think you're confused.. 2006 AU were premiers.
Rodger King
Roar Rookie
Gee thanks for bringing up such a nightmare for us. But to be honest, Victory was the stand-out team that season. They finished top so should have hosted the GF which they did. No arguments. I have a feeling that, that GF has gone down in folklore and in 100 years time people will still bring it up, much like the 1923 'White Horse' Cup Final at Wembley.
Garry
Roar Rookie
see 2006 :silly:
Garry
Roar Rookie
“As a result, the APL received less money than anticipated from Network 10 this season, and distributions to the 12 clubs were lower as a result – requiring A-League executives to look for another source of income to help make up the shortfall and keep some of the more precariously placed clubs from falling over.” .. so boycott and kill off your cliubs completely, such a foolhardy move. You may not be talking people giving up memberships & para subs but it IS out there..4 Vucks who run a podcast seem to have done so already and are encouraging more. Im glad you put IF you win premiership AND qualify for the GF. There are fans out there arguing they deserve the GF if they finish 2nd or 3rd (has happened when the premier is knocked out) ..do they really?? I would argue the ONLY team ‘deserving’ is the team that wins the premiership…on and aside without money issues maybe the GF should go to them. A lot of us think the premiership sb more important.
At work
Roar Rookie
It's so mindbendingly stupid for the APL to think that this was a good time to release this news. I can't imagine they thought this would be greeted with applause by most football fans, so why wouldn't they leave this announcement until the offseason to allow people to get outraged and hopefully move on by the time the new season started. I can't imagine a better way to completely blow the Socceroos WC campaign goodwill anymore than this.
Rodger King
Roar Rookie
Yes 60 million, IMO is nowhere near enough for 3 years. Just because you are scratching for some dollars doesn't mean you should sell yourself short. By selling off your biggest gem for chicken feed confirms what everybody else thinks, that you consider yourself worthless. Yes, our owner did sign off at first and then ran away from it once the 'excreta hit the oscillator' and I have not read on any of the Adelaide fan sites where people have stated they were cancelling their club membership, or their Paramount subscription. [we paid for ours up front] so that is a pointless exercise by anyone to cancel. The clubs have our money. As far as sponsors go, some will run for the hills if it gets too noisy, but there may be some who see the fans as an important asset to be associated with. Give and take, or swings and roundabouts. From memory, the head of Paramount did suggest to us all that she believed it would take 3 to 5 years to gain a foothold into the market. We are 18 months into that time frame so they are not expecting any great returns until after 5 years. As for taking Government money, I am all for it, but I know when public funds are handed out they come with 'strings' attached. As none of us is aware of the details of the agreement it is us fans who are going to be expected to 'bail' the APL out come Grand-Final time. So the APL needs to know that we, the fans, or most of us, are far from happy and that this isn't a good deal unless they got a truckload of money and not a piddling 15 or 20 million. So, as you can tell from my 'rant' I support Mike's opinion piece. We the fans need the APL to know how we are feeling, They appear to insulate themselves from us, so how else do we get their attention, how else do we say to them, "GUYS You F**Ked up" unless you got a mountain of money this is not a good deal. AND no 20 million isn't even a small hill let alone a mountain. But I appreciate your position Garry and respect it, but we will have to agree to disagree.
Cameron Handley
Roar Rookie
the only good thing that could come of it is the destruction of the National Curriculum.
Cameron Handley
Roar Rookie
there's no money for a national second division. it doesn't exist. what there is an appetite for is a destruction of the franchise model and a return to the old legacy clubs in Sydney and Melbourne as the top tier in the country. That's all that promotion and relegation is aimed at achieving, and it's the only logical conclusion if you play it out.
Adam
Roar Guru
Then watch the media jump on the issues some of these clubs have had in the past with one another....
Cameron Handley
Roar Rookie
These people don't want the league to bounce back. They want the legacy NSL clubs back as the top rung in the country
Cameron Handley
Roar Rookie
these people want the old NSL Garry
Cameron Handley
Roar Rookie
one can't help but feel a lot of this boycott push comes from the same people who crave a national second division made up of legacy NSL teams, knowing full-well that any a-liga franchise that gets relegated outside of the Sydney or Melbourne suburbs would fold overnight. There's a lot of rhetoric around 'commercialisation' and 'franchise football' as negative things, and I can't help but feel there's a lot of people angling for the old ways