The improvements needed to bring the A-Leagues back to prominence

One way to get Soccer into the headlines again!

Sack the A League and promote the proposed B League into a new Premier League. Bring back the tribalism and historical rivalries that Australian soccer fans want. Every club game would be like an International fixture eg. Apia v South Melbourne. Rebadge WSW as Sydney United and Sydney FC as Hakoah FC.

Blaming Western United and Macarthur what are you blaming them for? Are they to blame for others not having money or wasting it in elaborate ways. Its Danny Townsend mysterious spending that has put the A-league into massive jeapordy. That Silverlake investment would have kept the A-league going for 10-20 years if it was wisely spent even with no TV deal. Every week there seems to be another revelation as to more spending. The way for the A-league to survive Noahs ark, anyone not able to pay their own way has to be jettisoned like the last minute rush to the ark, What about Melbourne Victory after their own crazed spending they have signed a deal which is very bad in desperation its 60m debt for whatever cash they received. If the new APl structure cannot eliminate debt as easy as the old Lowy structure then they have to go. Western United and City can the absorb some of their supporters. The biggest danger to any business is actual big out of control spenders , thieves are even less of a danger than bid spenders. No one should be seen as a sacred cow Roar, CCM, Adelaide could go easily, Newcastle of course. There needs to be a walk the plank attitude and they should not even step in mid season despite whatever the PFA says.

Ahem, apologies for the all thumbs typing on my phone. The start should be, a life of have left behind...

OK, here goes. I personally have decent chops in branding tho it is a life of have nowhere left behind. But it feel my experience qualifies me to make some reasonably informed comment The first being that the A League brand is damaged beyond repair. There is no way back for a brand at the moment end of years of year on year decline. The brand was in deep trouble, but Western United and Macarthur have been the final nails in the coffin. Clubs no one wanted playing in the empty stadiums. Secondly, it will be expensive, difficult, and unpalatable, but the only commercially realistic option is a re brand and relaunch. The sticking point here, cost aside, is that this kind of exercise only works of the new brand can offer a substantive point of difference. The logical strategy would be appropriately sized, football specific stadiums, and a competition's without Macarthur and Western United. Perhaps there are other more achievable options out there. But a drastic circuit breaker is needed and Western United and Macarthur are doing real damage to to the competition. There is a cliff coming with the end of the TV deal, and it is the product of the most colossal incompetence, first from FFA, and then from APL.

The only reason for a faint glimmer of hope is Foley buying into Auckland. But, yes, impossible to see another FTA deal when the current agreement expires. Quite a apart from the dire ratings, Paramount wants out of Ten.

I personally dont find Ballymore prohibitive to get to but I do like walking and also respect that others with mobility issues (or who are coming further afield) might disagree. The newish (and cheap) car park at QUT helps a bit, but really accessibility is judged on public transport not carparks. For me that place is a non-event until firstly the Eastern grandstand is constructed and then secondly public transport is included in the ticket price. Third, there would need to be appropriate lighting so night games are possible I won’t be baking in the sun in Dec, Jan, Feb. Last week was a fail in my opinion (losing didn’t help). Some further points of disappointment on the day were 1) my digital ticket using that app did not display the section I was sitting in so I had to get passed over to three stadium staff to tell me where I was seated. I was told they had “issues with the app.” 2) when I did locate my seats they were pretty much corner flag seats on the Western side despite having platinum memberships, so I thought they might be closer to the halfway line. The closer attention you pay to all these little details, the more it becomes clear the amateur operation Roar are running.

You can't just ask (or expect) TEN to run more ads of the ALeague. It's either in the contract, or its not.

Roar at Suncorp are now an inconvenience to stadium operators, mainly due to the increase in concerts but the low crowds don’t help. I felt the one men’s Ballymore game had been “set up” for success and we were all meant to go “wow, how good is this, we should play all our games here next season” the response was somewhat underwhelming and instead the low crowd and negativity around that one game must have disappointed the club What to do next season? My guess is three games at Suncorp and the balance at Ballymore. Not sure how many memberships will get sold on that basis.

For my part I had to get a refund from P+, because they charged me for a year before I could put the membership voucher through. But that was for last season though. As I understand it (could be wrong), but I don’t think that P+ discount for club members is a thing anymore? I’ve had very poor dealings with the BRFC membership team this season as well that in the end cost them an additional membership to the 2x I took out. I emailed them before the season started, got a response a good two months later after the season had started and many of the home games had come and gone, so was no longer interested. They kept emailing me multiple times asking if I wanted a membership even though I already had two and the season was half over. Embarressing for them, and tbh I’m uncertain I’m going to take a membership out next season, it is somewhat uneconomical given if you miss a game, that is two tickets that can’t be used on another game, which I can with my Lions membership. Word on the street is management of Suncorp are trying to convince Roar to leave Suncorp.

I have P+ but it’s not linked to the A League or Brisbane Roar. If you remember they used to send out a link so they could link football fans with the account … the Roar one came out so late, didn’t work, and there was no support so I ended up going direct and getting it done myself. I’m sure I’m not alone.

Waz's comment elsewhere under this article risks being buried but it's spot on and worth repeating over and over again: "Before we get to media coverage and attracting new fans, surely a focus has to be on keeping the ones we do have and bringing back the lapsed followers!"

Transfer fees are a necessity because they bring 1) longer contracts for player security. 2) outside interest by media and fans with speculation on who's buying who and what they are worth. There are many web pages devoted to this such as Transfermarket (Europe wide) and Teamtalk (UK). These publications never stop however I am not expecting an immediate influx of media interest but it will build.

Oh you said the Tv deal will fall by 40% if Brisbane go, I remember somoene saying they dont have any clauses to maintain any teams in a particular location which was probably regards to Perth but now will apply to Brisbane. Foxtel deal was probably different. If you feel entitled to non stop A-league bashing on the basis of their being a security mechansism given to QLD and the Roar , there is none. The women I think is still funded by FQLD so they will stay you will just become the new Canberra. If the Bakries go and that is your no 1 wish then goodbye Brisbane with Conroy in charge. The A-league could end up with 13 teams and no Brisbane for all we know. The scenario Newcastle, Brisbane and no Canberra mens could also happen so 11 teams.

We’ll never really know, but it would be interesting to understand how many subs signed up for P+ as rusted on fans (i.e. would similarly have followed AL to Stan or Optus at a higher price point) vs people that didn’t previously have Kayo but signed up for AL because it was cheap vs people that signed up for P+ more broadly because it was cheap and have since taken in some AL because it is on there. Given the state of the league being reduced to mostly rusted on fans only, I’d expect a big chunk of the subs are that first category. Which means that someone like Kayo, Optus or Stan would potentially be able to better monetise AL given their higher price point perhaps. Yes, you’d lose some not willing to pay $35 for Kayo along the way, but you’d also pick up some existing Kayo subs that don’t like the league enough to pay for a P+ sub. Which is not new subscriptions obviously but still additional eyeballs to advertise to. So how much value is there in having FTA games? No one really watches the current ones, is that because 10 is poor or because there is no mainstream interest in the AL? Is FTA worth holding as such a high priority? I suspect yes but the options available to sports are pretty limited in Australia.

Strange that NBL can manage this but AL cannot..says a lot really. However there was a game on 10 during the Fox years I would also point out. Feels like the 10/P+ deal is not long for thks world which pretty much leaves paywall only options unless 9/Stan Sport are interested.

“ 4) Negotiate separate TV deals for FTA and subscription. This is how it works for NRL, AFL and NBL.” The FA and APL already tried this. They couldn’t find a FTA bidder.

forget it

Hard to say whether it will continue - by the sound of it they’re not paying that much for it. Every 100,000 subscribers is worth $10m in subscription to P+ … so how many do P+ have?

The management of the A Leagues under the APL is nothing short of baffling. I don’t know what more to say :crying: