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No wonder you have no mates.
'Devastating', 'painful', 'punished': Socceroos OUT of Asian Cup after Miller's moments of madness
Have you considered changing your handle to Ignorant Max? The Matildas, best performance ever in the most recent Word Cup, teams like the Mariners playing entertaining football with a young squad… one loss on the turn of an individual act of stupidity and you’re calling time? Come on, Max, man up, dude, a bit of resilience, please!
'Devastating', 'painful', 'punished': Socceroos OUT of Asian Cup after Miller's moments of madness
I think there is a popular misconception that virtually everyone who plays football is there for the taking as a prospective A League spectator/viewer. I played until I was 40 and coached both my son and daughter’s junior sides and could count the A League followers across all three squads on one hand. In fact, as a holder of a Sydney FC family season ticket, it was a challenge to get anyone interested in coming along to a game.
There is a saying in Marketing: There may be a gap in the market but is there a market in the gap? In the US, a population of 300m can support professional leagues across five sports and a vibrant college scene. In Australia, with a tenth of the population, the AFL aside, crowds are typically modest unless its a finals series, origin, the national team is playing or its an event like the WWC. Sadly, I believe the A League has already peaked as a commercial proposition and as a haven for world class participants.
Think of the children: The A-League finally reaches out to football's future generations
You’re right. The franchise model over there does lend itself to coercing City Halls, in particular,to kick the tin along.
Melbourne got exactly what it wanted from the FIFA Women's World Cup
Good point, didn’t know that.
Melbourne got exactly what it wanted from the FIFA Women's World Cup
I would argue that Australia is unique in the way that state governments compete with each other to build stadiums and host major sporting events. And I’m not sure I agree that the United States has a culture of taxpayer funded support for professional sport. In the Bay Area, for example, the largest stadium (80,000) is within the (private) Stanford University campus while the two stadiums built in the last 30 years, Oracle Park (SF Giants) and Levi’s Stadium (SF 49ers) were constructed without any public funding. Certainly, local authorities spent a lot of money on surrounding infrastructure, but the cost of building, managing and hosting events is borne by private enterprise.
Melbourne got exactly what it wanted from the FIFA Women's World Cup
Nicely written article, Archie. The average annual salary of a male A League player is $136K so, with the possible exception of Melbourne City, not too many issues for local fans of the world game concerned about bucket loads of cash corrupting our sport.
Personally, as a Crystal Palace fan of several decades standing, despite the EPL’s flagrant display of wealth, I would rather see them competing at that level than in the more modest confines of League Two.
Football, or how I learned to stop worrying and love the money
In an online/social media-driven world; I’m not sure there is such a thing as ‘mainstream’ anymore. Channel 9, having paid billions for the right to broadcast rugby league, will inevitably protect its investment by limiting its viewers’ exposure to competitive threats. I was going to say, ‘likewise’, Channel 7 and the AFL but 7 has the broadcasting rights in Australia so; go figure…..
Will the Matildas finally earn football some mainstream support?
As I remember it, he ‘exploded to stardom’ at the Wanderers. Regardless, the overused term, ‘legend’, is absolutely appropriate. Thanks for the memories, Aaron.
Arnie leads tributes as Socceroos legend Aaron Mooy retires at age 32
A portfolio of niche offerings (Chelsea TV being a perfect example) does not constitute a mass market offering. Last month Fox reported that the Kayo subscriber base had grown 14% YoY to 1.3m. The point being that Fox’s No More Football strategy coupled with a focus on other sports appears to be a sound commercial decision (for them) which hurts, I know. However, I don’t understand all the jilted lover-type whinging here particularly given the support and exposure Fox provided for the A League at a crucial time in its development. The media landscape has changed for football, that’ all: As someone else pointed out, Channel 10/Paramount+ is worthy of our support for local coverage while Stan, Optus and BeIN Sports (which is available for $19.99 a month) continue to provide comprehensive worldwide coverage.
Foxtel's axing of beIN Sports is another slap in the face for football fans
I don’t think we should get too bent out of shape about this. BeIN Sports was, at best, a niche provider of content and, even then, limited in its coverage – The Championship being a prime example. Foxtel probably made a strategic decision several business cycles ago to focus on Australia’s three mainstream sports, leaving football, like rugby union, free to make other arrangements.
Unfortunately for fans of The World Game, as opposed to fans of one team, one nation, one league or one tournament, the price of universal and instantaneous availability is a segmented market which comes at a cost. I am old enough to remember a time when I had to check Monday’s Herald for results and the only live match from overseas was the FA Cup final (bless you SBS for your historic contribution to the game here).
I guess my point is, as fans of world football, we’ve never had it so good in terms of access and availability. We just have to make choices as consumers and put our hands in our pockets (or not).
Foxtel's axing of beIN Sports is another slap in the face for football fans
The recent Leicester City story is a cautionary tale for every club not bankrolled by an obscenely wealthy benefactor. Owners, the King Power Group – a Thai travel and retail company, never recovered from COVID-19; hence, the lack of funds to feed the beast over the past few seasons. I guess you could also argue that The Foxes represent the seamier side of Premier League football with an owner, who hails from a country with the fourth highest wealth inequality rate in the world, pumping billions of Baht into a vanity project in the East Midlands.
The sudden collapse of football's greatest fairytale: Where did it all go wrong for Leicester?
I think it was an issue in 2015 and, I may be wrong, but I thought there were challenges with timing when the old Sydney Football Stadium was co-hosting the Waratahs and three NRL teams. Either way, it sounds like it is no longer an issue and, regardless, I agree that it is no justification for the three-year hosting commitment to a Sydney venue.
'Damage the game': Cove boycott is justifiable, but won’t make a difference if they go it alone
I’m going to go out on a limb here and cut the APL some slack over this misguided decision of theirs. Struggling to secure a venue for grand finals has been a recurring problem in the past and, as an embryonic organisation, they are probably closer to insolvency than they are to their billion-dollar counterparts at the AFL and NRL. Football has been an orphan for decades; Destination NSW offered them a home and, regardless of the financial inducements, it is not surprising that they accepted.
Having said that, it was the wrong decision to make. It also seems ironic that Graham Arnold is still bemoaning the lack of suitable permanent facilities for our national teams which makes this seem like an opportunity missed to extract serious concessions for football, in a broader sense, from a willing benefactor desperate to justify the construction of taxpayer funded stadia.
Once again, those charged with running our game prove that they couldn’t organise a two-car parade.
'Damage the game': Cove boycott is justifiable, but won’t make a difference if they go it alone
In Marketing terms, the APL should reassess its value proposition given that its regular league season (its core product) is padded out with four additional derby rounds to stimulate interest followed by a final’s series featuring half (half!) the league. A 22-round competition with an undisputed champion is what football fans the world over understand and support so why not here?
I understand the Australian obsession with a need for a Grand Final, in which case, a 22-week league season could be complemented with a six or seven round/week cup competition, FFA Cup-style, with a final locked in for the same time each year like the FA Cup which would also be unique selling proposing across Australia’s sporting landscape.
Two cracking A-League finals are a reminder of what the APL should be marketing
The me that sat dejectedly in the rain last March watching a truly awful Socceroos against Japan cannot believe I am saying this but…. well, done, Grahan Arnold, you deserve another shot at the title.
Four more years: Arnie given new contract, but turns focus beyond Socceroos
I was at this match yesterday and very entertaining it was, too. However, the disappointing crowd size (6k) for a national final represents another example of the ineptitude of the FFA when it comes to managing and promoting its ‘product’.
Jubilee Oval, with a modest capacity of 20k, should have been full of people from the southern suburbs, school kids, players of all ages, casual football fans who show up to watch touring premier league sides, Matildas and Socceroos supporters and Sydney FC fans and members (the latter were actually there in large numbers).
Given that a precedent has now been set for removing FFA employees using survey results; maybe it is now time the fans got to fill one in covering the performance of, what passes for, management within the FFA, particularly its Marketing arm.
Sydney FC win third W-League title 4-2 over Perth Glory
To your point about a bad look: I saw Rudan behaving like a pork chop on the news last night. There’s nothing the mainstream media likes more than another example of football shooting itself in the foot. It, regrettably, helps fuel a sense of self-righteousness amongst AFL and NRL proponents.
Wanderers play victims again as Rudan launches childish, Trump-like conspiracy theories