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Opinion
There was considerable despair among some Australian football fans to hear the A-League average crowd for all 12 teams fell to 8795 as of 13 December 2022. Outside of the pandemic, it’s a low watermark not seen since 2008 to 2011, when the home-and-away season average was below 10,000.
However, while I too hope that A-League crowds return to an average above 10,000, perhaps again reaching the record 14,600 average of 2006-07, when the league had just ten teams, international data indicates that the A-League crowds are not bad when compared to other national leagues.
While football is indeed the most popular sport in most countries of the world, with few countries having a serious rival sporting code, there is only a small proportion of countries that have a major football league with an average club crowd above 10,000.
Looking at worldfootball.net attendance data, as of 6 December 2022, I found 14 national leagues with an average crowd above 15,000 based on the current season and the most recent data.
There were just two soccer leagues (top tier) with a crowd average above 30,000: Germany with 42,629 for 18 teams and England with 39,900 for 20 teams.
I observed six other countries currently with a home-and-away season average above 20,000 but below 30,000: Spain with 29,540 and 20 teams, Italy with 29,079 and 20 teams, France with 23,803 and 20 teams, Brazil with 21,522 and 20 teams, and the USA with 21,034 and 28 teams.
In 2019, prior to COVID, China averaged 23,234 people across 16 teams.
Other national leagues with a recent average crowd above 15,000 include Mexico with 19,304 and 18 teams, the Netherlands with 17,791 and 18 teams, Scotland with 16,274 and 12 teams, and India with 15,356 and 11 teams.
(Photo by Vince Caligiuri/Getty Images)
Russia averaged 16,801 people across 16 teams in 2018-19, while another source indicates that Argentina’s premier division averaged 19,532 for the same season.
So excluding the above 14 national leagues with average club attendances above 15,000, while recognising that most of them have very large populations with the exception of Scotland and the Netherlands, an average crowd of 10,000 people would appear to be quite decent.
The A-League’s current average crowd is not that far behind other national leagues, albeit most of them have more teams.
As of 6 December 2022, the latest season data indicates the following:
Looking back at the most recent data available before the pandemic or the war:
The A-League crowd average is currently on a par with the second tiers of some of the biggest soccer nations as of 6 December 2022:
(Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)
Although it’s far behind the second-tier league averages of Germany (21,326 people for 18 teams) and England (18,194 people for 24 teams), two nations with unrivalled club interest.
Sure, the A-League crowd average could be higher, especially given it only has 12 teams, but the international data indicates that getting an average of 10,000 for club matches is not easy for any national league, even in the many countries where fans have far less distance to travel to away games when compared to the vast distances between Australian cities.
Present A-League crowds are also far superior to the last years of the National Soccer League.
From 1997-98 to 2003-04 the NSL averaged 5000 at best, with the figure down to 4100 and 3800 in its last two seasons.
Prior to the A-League, from 1997-98 to 2003-04, no Melbourne or Sydney team got close to averaging 10,000 spectators, with South Melbourne only twice averaging over 8000.
In fact the only teams that averaged above 10,000 from 1997-98 to 2003-04 were Adelaide United in 2003-04 (12,643), Northern Spirit in its first 1998-99 season (14,633) and Perth Glory for several years from 1997-98 until 2002-03 (its peak was 14,909 in 1997-98).
While some point to Channel Seven hardly boosting interest in the NSL by limiting the amount of free-to-air coverage to a one-hour highlights package, crowd attendances then were not affected by live television coverage, as they are today.
Although Melbourne Victory shows that an A-League side can average over 20,000 for a full season, having done so on ten occasions – with a record average 27,728 in 2007-08, boosted by large crowds at Docklands Stadium – achieving a crowd average above 10,000 has got harder.
Of the 67 occasions when an A-League (Australian) team averaged 10,000 for a home-and-away season from 2004-05 to 2019-20, Melbourne teams did so on 18 occasions and Sydney teams (counting Central Coast) 22 times.
Melbourne Victory has done so on 15 occasions, Sydney FC 14 on occasions.
Next is Brisbane (formerly Queensland) Roar ten times, although not since 2016-17, with its peak average 16,949 in 2007-08.
(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
Adelaide has achieved such an average nine times, but not since 2015-16 after a record average of 12,697 in 2007-08.
Newcastle has averaged more than 10,000 six times, with the last being in 2017-18 (it peaked at 13,388 in 2012-13).
Perth, which was the most popular club prior to the A-League from 1997-98 to 2003-04, has only achieved an average crowd of 10,000 twice in the A-League, most recently during the 2018-19 season.
In this era when much revenue also comes from television for live broadcasts and streaming, the A-League must decide whether to accept current crowd levels, expand the number of teams or even be prepared to accept an even lower crowd average if the promotion-relegation system leads to the more popular clubs being relegated to the second tier at times.
Quite simply, Australia is not the USA, where its population of 330 million has helped Major League Soccer achieve a crowd average above 20,000 for its 28 teams, although both countries have many professional or semi-professional sports competing for fan support.
As of 2022, while Australia has around 15 cities with a population of at least 100,000, the US has 122 cities with populations over 200,000.
With Sydney and Melbourne having around 40 per cent of Australia’s population between them, totalling around 10 million, the introduction of a third Melbourne team (Western United) and fourth Sydney team (Macarthur FC) has also brought down the crowd average given that the two clubs averaged just 3351 and 2945 respectively in the 2021-22 season.
In the 2022-23 seasons Western United and Macarthur have hosted three home games so far with averages of 2993 and 4515 apiece.
Should a second tier be introduced, this may also reduce the first-division average even more if the most popular clubs are relegated.
Of the 11 highest home-and-away A-League crowds from 40,500 to almost 62,000, ten of them were derby matches (six for Melbourne and four for Sydney).
Given that 20 teams (at least) would be needed to host two divisions of ten teams, which may mean more regional cities are involved, Australia has viable possibilities capable of generating decent crowds of around 5000:
It may well be that the cities already involved in the A-League will have more teams represented within the two tiers.
But if the goal is to promote the sport, then perhaps Australian soccer needs to stop comparing itself to other domestic sporting codes in terms of crowd numbers and do what is necessary to create greater interest in Australian football by having more cities with a major football team presence and adopting measures to make the sport more attractive to attend.
It may well be that the A-league will not get much bigger in either average crowds or television audience in the short term, a possibility increasing as Australia’s economic fortunes diminish, which could lead sports fans to streamline their viewing expenditure.
Unlike other popular codes in Australia which have very little global interest (Australian Rules and rugby league), many Australians can and do watch many major football leagues around the world via television and streaming.
However, while the A-League will long need smart strategies to boost crowds in order to maintain its position as one of Australia’s best-attended sporting leagues, reflecting the reality that Australia’s sports market is one of the most competitive in the world, Australian football fans should not despair as only a small proportion of nations have a better crowd average for their major football league competitions.
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