So surely Canberra is a non-starter for next season given it is 5 months away now? So that’ll be the next bit of embarressing news for APL thrown up in the next couple of weeks you’d think…

Yep P+ ran ads on Optus Sport for the two FA Cup semis, I wonder if AL finals series will get the same treatment?

I actually find it kind of weird they push FA Cup so hard, do people really take out a P+ sub to watch that? I only watch it because I have a P+ sub already, but if it moved to some service I didn’t have a sub for, goodbye FA Cup..

Great response, you have changed my mind haha

You bring up Singapore quite regularly Waz (I know Sage was floating it for a minute 5-7 years back) and I’m interested in why you see a potential Singapore team as such a bad idea? Seems like given they play in Asia and Nix/AuckFC do not, Singapore in a way would make more sense?
Let’s say that new owners secure a license for a Singapore team, put a strong side on the park and do all the right things off the park, what would be so bad about this? Football is slowly moving to a more multi-country league model. Attending an away day every now and then would be a great trip. This would be a bold move no doubt, but don’t really understand why this is so controversial? Genuine question I’m not trying to stir you.
A Unite Round in Singapore would be lame because no one would go and it’d be a fail. If however AL was popular enough to pull it off successfully, I think it’d be great to hold it there. That is my position with Unite Round in any location really…

Yes fair enough certainly don’t blame the customer with this, it is on 10/P+/APL to get the word out (for people to then choose to watch or not watch according to their life).

Certainly all US sports do make reference to upcoming (nationally televised) games during their broadcast, so it would be totally possible for P+ to show a “next five upcoming matches” w/time and date each and every match that is on. Bring this up once in the first half and again in the second, as well as halftime. Do they care about people knowing when games are on I wonder?

I know currently they will display a graphic for each team playing and their next 5 opponents (no dates/times) but this is a separate thing…

I am in Vietnam currently and I knew (and watched). Out of interest, what could APL do to make someone like yourself (who is engaged with the league) be made clearly aware that a given midweek fixture has been scheduled?
In your opinion, how should this failing be addressed specifically?

Ill show you mine if you show me yours (multi-sport that is).

I really enjoyed reading this

It needs to stay in summer so that the end of the season involves domestic champions being crowned in addition to Asian champions…i.e. what is on offer for Mariners to achieve this season. This is proper scheduling for football (imo). The added bonus is then you have a legit “football” reason to avoid competing directly with NRL/AFL.
To mitigate this, all matches from season start till 1 Apr should be played at night, inc Thursday nights.

Living the dream Grem. Will look to get down for 1st ever Syd derby next season, other travel plans permitting.

I have seen billboard ads in Brisbane for a random Thursday night football NRL matches not featuring the Broncos on a couple of occasions (maybe Panthers v Roosters or something similar).

Perhaps giving the Sydney Derby this treatment twice or three times a year could be a good start. Take these matches, which are a legitimately great product and spectable and try to fashion it into one of more national (rather than local) significance?

There is whole bunch of AL content that is now niche and not easily sold to the general public (WU, Mac, Roar, Jets home matches namely, Perth also especially due to time they play on east coast).

Casual observers would be important even as you say in an indirect way. More eyeballs on matches equals bigger broadcast deals. It therefore equals more interest from advertisers (not those ones during play ideally haha) on TV, in stadium and associated with clubs.
When there is more general interest in a competition, media outlets are likely to report on it more. Essentially the whole thing just becomes more mainstream when as many viewers as possible are watching it, including casual observers.
Also, it is possible to convert a casual observer to a dedicated fan. But it requires that casual interest first to do this.

Yes and meanwhile Broncos, Dolphins, Lions and Heat all kind of have a good thing going with match day experiences, crowds and on-field performances. Once personal preference for football is removed, there is almost no reason to go to Roar over those other sports (Broncos tickets on Anzac day cost me $24). NRL and to slightly lesser extent AFL are in the process of burying professional football in Brisbane.
There is 100 small things that need to be done as you say, but I personally want to drill down on advertising, as I have done a few times. I see ads around Brisbane for Gold Coast Titans. So it is apparently good enough for them to advertise in a secondary market (to them), and yet Roar barely see fit to do it in their primary market. Yes it’s expensive and not a silver bullet, but there is a reason advertising exists. It is clearly something Roar can no longer afford to it in bulk like Broncos/Dolphins/Lions do.

These tipping articles kind of remind me of the band that kept playing on the titanic as it sunk into the ocean haha

Being potentially unable to broadcast matches is a problem I did not at all envision throughout this train wreck.

2x early AL games with NZ hosting Aus sides into Easts/Dragons + Pies/Bombers into Storm/Warriors would be joyous (on a solemn day).
NZ timezone should be leveraged wherever possible.

Nick Garcia said yesterday APL are now implementing a football first strategy (or however he worded it). TBD what that actually means, but a fairly quick fix would be to play at night in locations that are not conducive to playing in the day time in Summer. Which is most of Australia.

Nice work LH

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.

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.

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.

NRL does not show games to local markets, all their FTA matches are nationally broadcast. They used to stage two concurrent matches on a Friday night and show the local market their team/s, but that is no longer the case.

Here it is for me:

1) Allow teams to mostly choose when they wish to stage their home games in order to attract the best attendance. I say mostly as there would still need to be a Thu night, Fri night and Sat night match each week for broadcasters to promote around but beyond that it is free game for clubs
2) This hopefully then has a flow on effect to TV, as broadcasters want matches with full stadiums for a better product. So any future TV rights deal needs to be negotiated whereby the APL and clubs mostly decide when during the weekend when the matches are held, less so the broadcaster, but hopefully some middle ground can be reached
3) Per 1, Thursday nights is scheduled throughout the season. Especially for the NRL, this is fast becoming the marquee match of the round because people watch TV on Thu, less so on Sat
4) Negotiate separate TV deals for FTA and subscription. This is how it works for NRL, AFL and NBL. AL needs to go back to Fox so it is in that ecosystem. I was watching NBL and Super Netball last night, mostly because it was in my face while watching NRL and AFL and I could quadscreen it. Paramount + is too isolated. So if all matches are on Fox, hopefully they can then find a FTA broadcaster for three matches a week on Thu night, Fri night and Sat night
5) Where possible, show the local team in local market. For example, if Friday night is Roar v Syd and Reds v Vic, show the former in Brisbane and Sydney FTA, and the latter in Adelaide and Melbourne. Broncos are on FTA 14 of their 26 matches this season…
6) Have a clear season long ticketing strategy that applies to all teams. Whether that is all juniors free (in cheap seats), or 241 or whatever it might be, find what works and stick to it. (Cheap) tickets to Broncos v Cowboys next Fri (which is likely a sell out) were $22 which represents value
7) Include a streaming sub as part of premium club memberships. Not all membership just the top tier ones but for those people that shell out for this, give them the sub for free
8) Move to a partially fan owned club ownership model similar to Bundesliga. I am very much waiting for Roar to take my money x2 if this was an opportunity
9) Transfer fees so clubs are rewarded for developing their own talent, and punished for not

Some of this might happen, most of it won’t but this would be my initial approach.

If we assume that the AL GF is not going to be in Melb (Wellington or Syd most likely), having some stuff in Syd and some in Melb during this week actually makes more sense to me then what Townsend was attempting with everything in Syd. Too expensive to travel down for all of it (esp in Syd), catering to different audiences (AL fans v Eurosnobs) etc..
I’ll actually be in Sydney for AL GF so am hoping it is there. Were there to also be an All stars match the night before in Syd, I would not be attending. I will however watch it on TV so this splitting up of things is a potential improvement over Townsend’s masterplan in my opinion.
Much prefer these exhibition matches when they feature an AL team though…

It might mean a diluting of the relative quality of both of the dominant sports as the player pool diminishes, but given there is nothing to really compare either to, I don’t think this will have a noticeable impact on it’s popularity any time soon.
It seems unlikely people would cease watching AFL en masse because the product has noticeably declined and take up either AL or NBL in it’s place, given both are known to be less than premium versions or their respective sports (while being entertaining leagues to those who follow them no doubt).
Really rugby is in a much worse state than AL given that in addition to being resigned to a niche sport its player base is also dwindling.
I take no pleasure in any of what I say now, I love AL significantly above every single other league or sport I watch, but I believe we are seeing the slow irreversable decline piece by piece now. The next piece of decline will be the flop of the new teams that come into the league. Will they be a WSW, or will they be a WU? I know what I’d be betting on (although again hope I’m wrong, wish Auckland every success).

Whilst AFL and NRL have always dominated AL and Super Rugby, the gap is widening with each season that goes on.
The majority of their games have good looking crowds on TV. Their streaming platform just went to 4K, where there is a “safety in numbers” being broadcast amongst so many other sports, rather than the isolation of P+. Teams are visible in the local community and covered in the media.
Domestic league football and rugby will live on in some capacity, but as niche sports. AFL and NRL have succeeded in killing them off as serious competitors, and can now fight amongst themselves for supremacy. Both would look back and be so thankful that AL and SR moved away from Fox/Kayo, it started there.