- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Opinion
The same APL that thinks anyone will turn up to their Sydney grand final is the same one that has caused one of the most precipitous drops in attendance in A-League history.
Let’s get the stark truth out of the way first – the Australian Professional Leagues have made a colossal error in selling A-League grand final hosting rights to Sydney, but they’re incapable of doing anything to fix their mistake.
And the real-world consequence is that fans in cities like Melbourne have simply stopped turning up at games. Why bother attending a regular season fixture if you have no intention of going to the grand final?
The surreal situation was brought into sharp relief on Saturday night, when 53,886 fans turned up at Optus Stadium to watch the Perth Scorchers down Brisbane Heat to win cricket’s Big Bash League.
Perth Glory drew a bigger crowd when they hosted the 2019 grand final – in scenes that won’t be repeated for at least three years – but fast forward to 2023 and a crowd of 3,858 at the tiny Macedonia Park is somehow lauded as good for the competition.
Let’s be honest, Destination NSW has been sold a dud. And while the APL will be praying a team from New South Wales makes the decider, many fans will boycott the grand final either way.
So we’re left watching a car crash unfold in real time caused by a governing body for whom dreadful decision-making seems to be second nature.
Josh Risdon went off suffering heat stroke in the 66th minute of Western United’s 1-0 defeat to Western Sydney Wanderers on Sunday afternoon, as the umpteenth match of the season kicked off at 3pm under a scorching summer sun.
Why does the A-League continue to insist on doing this to itself? Are the viewing figures on Network 10 and Paramount+ so high they can’t afford to move kick-off times until later?
CommBank Stadium is already a problematic venue for broadcasters given the shaded side is given over to corporate boxes – meaning no one sits in the seats that are shown on TV – so why does the APL keep scheduling afternoon fixtures in Parramatta over and over again?
They’ll claim later kick-off times make it difficult for families to attend, but they’re already doing everything to alienate supporters anyway.
Which is a real shame, because for the second week in a row, the football on display was highly entertaining.
It started with another spectacular Jake Brimmer free-kick in Victory’s 3-1 win over Wellington, featured a contentious 2-1 win for Adelaide United over Brisbane Roar in Saturday night’s free-to-air fixture, and ended with Western Sydney’s hard-fought 1-0 win over Western United.
But the biggest news of the weekend was, of course, Football Australia’s announcement they have begun the process of creating a National Second Division.
Kicking off as early as March 2024 and comprised of between 10 to 16 teams, Football Australia says a second tier is a key component of their “15-year vision for the game and our efforts to reconnect and realign Australian football competitions”.
There’s no doubt former National Soccer League sides – several of whom are expected to apply for inclusion – have been shut out of the top tier of Australian football for the past two decades.
Some of them will be shut out from a National Second Division too – unless they meet strict financial and administrative criteria.
And while Football Australia says promotion and relegation can’t happen until a second tier is “mature” – how long that’s supposed to take is anyone’s guess – the announcement has fuelled hopes that a genuine football pyramid could be just around the corner.
What will, however, be interesting to see is whether an FA-run National Second Division competes with the A-League for popularity.
Because right now, the APL and its constituent clubs are doing plenty to turn fans off the game.
A spot of competition won’t kill the A-League… assuming our administrators haven’t already done so first.