The millionth A-League attendee for season 2023-24 should walk through the gate tonight when Western United and Melbourne Victory meet at AAMI Park in Melbourne.
Another six rounds of action should see the final attendance figure for the home and away season reach somewhere near 1,330,000, a slight improvement on 2022-23 yet likely to end up being down on the pre-covid season of 2018-19 by around 10 to 15 per cent.
In that season, 1,529,994 people come through the gates to watch the ten teams, Sydney FC won the title, beating Perth in the Grand Final at Optus Stadium, Roy Krishna scored 18 goals and Steve Corica was in his first year at the helm in Sydney.
How times change.
David Williams of Perth Glory celebrates after scoring. (Photo by Mark Brake/Getty Images)
The two additional clubs have expanded the competition to six matches per round and made scheduling a nightmare when the A-League Women is also factored in.
Playing three top flight Australian matches at the same time is simply absurd and as a result, junkies like me have missed more of the live action that ever before.
Wednesday and Thursday nights must be used more frequently next season to spread the action more thinly, with this coming Sunday highlighting the madness of the schedule with no less than four A-League Women’s matches kicking off across a two hour period.
The explosion in the women’s game is real. Attendance is up 66 per cent from 2023/24, local clubs have seen the boom first hand in excellent interest and participation right across the country, yet the ability of young fans to watch more and more football across the entire league is sadly lacking.
The branding of the women’s competition has been productive, with names like Emily Gielnik, Chloe Logarzo, Cortnee Vine and Lydia Williams providing a neat link between the show-stopping Matildas and the domestic competition.
Cortnee Vine. (Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
With a free junior pass now offered to all Australian kids under the age of 16, the APL has partially achieved what will be some specific long term objectives in bringing up the attendance numbers and also establishing a women’s league that can begin to attract a tier of international players from abroad that sits just beneath the upper echelon.
In all honesty, as the Matildas one by one ventured abroad and signed European contracts, the A-League Women’s standard plummeted drastically. All credit to the club owners and the powers at be for working together and attempting to raise it back up.
That improvement in on-field play has come of the back of the young players who continue to stand out as future Matildas; names like Maddie Caspers and Talia Younis are going to become household ones in the future and there are plenty more across the league that make the product an entertaining one to watch and a wonderful nursery for the national teams.
Those young players are also doing the business in the A-League Men, yet the challenge of connecting the competition to the Socceroos and the players abroad is a tricky one.
Very few casual Socceroo observers are familiar with names like Ajdin Hrustic, Gethin Jones, John Iredale and Nathaniel Atkinson. Us hard core football folk certainly are, yet I am constantly asked “Who’s that guy?”, by well-meaning sports fans happy to watch the national football team in big games.
It is pleasing to have players like Mathew Leckie, Bruno Fornaroli, Rhyan Grant and Jamie Maclaren still producing at the A-League level as recognisable Socceroo faces, yet domestic enjoyment would be trebled if Garang Kuol, Harry Souttar, Maty Ryan, Craig Goodwin, Jordy Bos and the rest of the overseas based men returned and single massive contracts to play in Australia.
Socceroos giant Harry Souttar celebrates scoring at the AFC Asian Cup. (Photo by Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)
All we need is another nine or ten billionaires to by the A-League clubs, sign-up the majority of the Socceroo squad and 20 or 30 international superstars to pad the competition and Australian football would change forever.
Let me dream.
Instead, the APL wasted a bucket of money on the appalling KeepUp website that could well win an award for the most mindless decision made by a sporting body in Australian history.
Recent events involving grand final decisions, police involvement at matches and concerns from fans that the passion and celebratory culture of football is not understood in Australia, have those spending their hard-earned as concerned as they have ever be.
Whilst people are enjoying the matches across the league broadly, there does always seem to be an ostracised group or two that damages the brand in the media and affects what could be decent attendance figures if everyone was rowing in unison.
Last season it was Melbourne Victory fans who stayed away, many good Western Sydney folk are doing the same as we speak and Newcastle and Perth fans deserve medals if they are still turning up after long periods of frustration.
As has been the case since the pandemic, the football on the pitch has been inspired by the young local talent. There are few questions about the effort or skill being broadcast on the still unreliable Paramount+ platform.
Yet the A-League, as it always does, is trucking along well and taking a couple of steps back before taking another two forward.
One day it will get there. I’ll be dead, but it will happen.
Football is Life
Roar Rookie
My apologies I meant st have interpreted your comment incorrectly.
c
Roar Rookie
If you're talking to me, I must have missed something I'm supporting your argument. :football:
chris1
Roar Rookie
oh ffs
NickA
Roar Rookie
Mike has not mentioned AFL a single time on this thread except in reference to the article's author? You have mentioned it 6 times. He's clearly not belittling the league when he has an opinion that others share - once again, feel free to respectfully disagree with comments but not sure they warrant being called a stooge or an ignoramus. Once again, appreciate your vehement defending of the sport but you are doing no one any favours by just disregarding legitimate comments again & again.
Grem
Roar Rookie
The world order of football will constantly change. That’s good, as it keeps things interesting. Did Kim Jong-un play and score a hat trick of goals?
chris1
Roar Rookie
Huh? Ok NickA - Im kind of done with explaining things to you but I will give it one more go. I don't care if someone follows a 1,000 other sports. But if that someone constantly belittles football and constantly talks up AFL then he sort of loses credibility in my view. To me they come across as having an anti football agenda so their critiques are worthless because their only offerings are to degrade the game. I really can't explain it any clearer than that so good luck to you.
NickA
Roar Rookie
So what you're saying is you're disregarding his pretty legitimate comment based on the fact that he enjoys another sport... You might need to jump off the high horse just a little Chris.
NickA
Roar Rookie
and Japan lost to N Korea.. how good are N Korea??? We'll never know
Football is Life
Roar Rookie
if you are going to offer that response back it up with tangible evidence to support your claim
c
Roar Rookie
Indestructibility- appropriate description :football:
Grem
Roar Rookie
Ratios will be changing in football after the recent World Cup. Speaking as a NSW primary school teacher in a public school – if the schools are the key then it’s looking very good for football and netball and possibly basketball and AFL, but very bad for league and even worse for union. Generally at school level, sport is competitive, depending on the coaches, but fun. However, every school will then send their best players to the next level to try out for the zone team. From there it’s area and then state and possibly Pan Pacific Games. The talented athletes are generally well catered for. All successes are celebrated, but making representative teams in football and netball is a real achievement as the competition for places is huge.
Garry
Roar Rookie
Daniel McBreen "Hearing rumours the potential new Jets ownership may have fallen over. If so, why is the Newcastle Jets such a difficult club to sell?"
Munro Mike
Roar Rookie
#Grem This is where it's interesting. The official talent pathway is based around registered participants. In 2019 FA National Summary the total outdoor affiliated was listed as 539K and the 2022 report listed as 543K. That's around roughly a 4:1 ration male to female. The male/female divide is greatest at the 'senior' level but...how many are hitting the high performance pathway from that cohort?? In essence - - the mixing pot is 239K Miniroos (4:1 male/female) and 165K 'youth' (3:1 male/female). Based on 2022 participation. And beyond that........the schools...........the schools..........THAT I put is the key battleground. 591K in School programs/comps in 2019 and post covid rebounding 476K in 2022. Schools is it!!
Grem
Roar Rookie
I don’t know enough about it to comment accurately. From what I’ve read and heard, there are problems, as there are in every sport. The problems, such as favouritism and politics are not unique to football when choosing players for representative or developmental teams and academies. Obviously football also has a huge amount of young participants, so accurately identifying all talent is difficult, which will also be true in the other 3 football codes with less participation (AFL) and much less participation (league and union). Trying to identify, select and nurture the next Sam Kerrs, Mary Fowlers, Tim Cahills, Harry Kewells, etc from the mass of participants from every state and territory in the country is close to impossible, in my opinion. That indicates I am not completely happy with identification and pathways, but I am also realistic.
Kitwally
Roar Rookie
Good positive post FIL. What’s the latest with the Newcastle owners?
Munro Mike
Roar Rookie
#BT So.....Nani.....nearing the end of his career arguably gets paid overs to rock up for Victory.......do you reckon there was a reasonable ROI on that move?? How many games did he actually play?? Not sure putting forward Nani disproves my suggestion. Were he brought out for a 4 year contract at age 31 then mebbe. But his term with MVFC looks a massive financial blunder. Perhaps someone at MVFC forgot to 'stay in their lane'. Just sayin'.
Munro Mike
Roar Rookie
#Grem Question. Are you satisfied with the structure of the 'talent pathway'? If not - - what would you like to see in place. Reason I ask - - given Australia is arguably the worlds most competitive domestic 'football' market - - ALL 4 codes have to be exceptionally efficient within their own talent pathways.
Grem
Roar Rookie
Absolutely agree – a lot more nurturing needs to be done. I understand the funding and effort in other countries to develop talent is way ahead of us. We rely too much on the goodwill of so many to volunteer their time and skills in those early years.
chris1
Roar Rookie
Hey NickA - you need to distinguish between people who have a genuine interest in football and can offer proper criticisms along with support where it's warranted. Fan boys like Mike are just a waste of pixels as they are here to disrupt and drone on about how good AFL is. If you can't work that out (with your ridiculous "smash the non-believers") nonsense, then good luck to you.
chris1
Roar Rookie
Grem our talent at youth level is very encouraging. The juniors I see and coach are exceptional but we need to stay vigilant and progressive because the talent in Japan (which I've seen first hand) is phenomenal.