Football in Australia responds magnificently to World Cup disappointment.

[Zidane98]

Melbourne Victory and Brisbane Roar have just played out a pulsating draw with an excellent crowd. Superb atmosphere, it really sounded like there was 50,000 fans there. The passion and support was enormous, and just goes to show that the World Cup was viewed as a bonus, not essentlial to the development of the league.

 

[Santana]

Get a grip FFS.

 

[Clay Davis]

Less than 12,000. That's got to be close to Victory's lowest ever crowd.

 

[Sebastian Balboa]

Melbourne Victory and Brisbane Roar have just played out a pulsating draw with an excellent crowd. Superb atmosphere, it really sounded like there was 50,000 fans there. The passion and support was enormous, and just goes to show that the World Cup was viewed as a bonus, not essentlial to the development of the league.

take some of these FFS:

 

[Pessimistic]

Pulsating draw ?

Gee I hate soccer when theres no penallty shotout.

Actually thats sarcasm. When the FA cup adopted penalty shootouts I think the sport died a little

 

[Zidane98]

Less than 12,000. That's got to be close to Victory's lowest ever crowd.

Was a bit surprised when the crow was announced looked well over 1/2 full atmosphere was truly amazing

 

[Wallaby]

Was a bit surprised when the crow was announced looked well over 1/2 full atmosphere was truly amazing

Is that well over 1/2 full, or just a little over 1/2 full? These details are important.

 

[Godzke]

Quite possibly the biggest flog BigFooty has seen yet.

 

[Echo Bravo]

Time for a name change, OP?

 

[Zidane98]

Time fo

​

r a name change, OP?

Yes, you got me there

 

[usalion]

Time for a name change, OP?

Maybe we could have a contest?

My entry...QatarSucksEggs

(Got to be reasonably clean after all)

 

[VikingSven]

My 2 c would be: "PWNEDbyFIFA"

 

[Dirty Bird]

I've contemplated getting WorldCup22Qatar
just to annoy him
just CBF, but I liked that idea

"PWNEDbyFIFA"

 

[Sebastian Balboa]

My 2 c would be: "PWNEDbyFIFA"

You win!

 

[Zidane98]

I've contemplated getting WorldCup22Qatar
just to annoy him
just CBF, but I liked that idea

"PWNEDbyFIFA"

I might have to claim Worldcup2022Qatar most corrupt Wc ever

 

[Munro_Mick]

Was a bit surprised when the crow was announced looked well over 1/2 full atmosphere was truly amazing

That'll be because the ground level deck was where everyone was, so it sounded loud and looked packed,.....just avert your gaze from the empty upper tiers.

Gee soccer is doing great guns though - - 2-3 years ago, such a game might've nudged 35,000. MVFC vs top of the table, not SFC, but Roar.

Here we are, a chance to make a clear statement (a bit like the Storm fans did the week after their turmoil this year), and instead, only 12,000 ish turn up.

The people have been voting and continue to vote.

The worst thing is, that combine Hearts and Victory together, and, you're actually getting LESS people overall to twice as many matches!!!!

And how many of those a dual members??

The FFA has acknowledged that they need to pay more attention to the home front and gee, it's pretty well as near as possible to desperate times.

 

[Zidane98]

Well even the top tier looked at least 1/2 full. Infact, the Hearts usually get around 7000 or so and when they play the top tier is completely empty. I was honestly expecting the crowd to be around 18-20k on Fri Night.,

 

[twentydollarnote]

its heart no s.

 

[Munro_Mick]

Well even the top tier looked at least 1/2 full. Infact, the Hearts usually get around 7000 or so and when they play the top tier is completely empty. I was honestly expecting the crowd to be around 18-20k on Fri Night.,

Fair enough.

I did a little review -

last year, MVFC had 14 Melbourne home (regular season) matches - drew 290,000 at an average of around 20,700. That was surprisingly low, they dropped 4000 from the previous season, despite being defending champions and again contesting the Grand Final. It all looked a bit odd - but, with the Hearts building, and the new stadium around the corner - we heard stories of protests by people who hated Etihad, and those people who were never 'real' Victory fans who were building for Hearts this year.

And so, here we are, both Victory and Hearts have 9 'home' games under the belts each.
MVFC has dropped now to just a smidge over 14,000 average.
And Hearts, even with the 25,000 home blockbuster local derby - are only doing 8600ish.
the combined tally - is 18 matches, 204,000 attendees, avg under 11,400.

and, worringly, we also heard about those intending to take dual memberships!!!

Last year, MVFC drew 290,000 attendees to 14 matches.

The bottom has fallen out of the Melbourne soccer market it appears.

And this is in a WC year, and a WC bid year.

Things are looking very, very sick.

Even up in Sydney, the title defence has seen their home crowd drop from what was itself a miserable 13,000 in last years title winning season (2nd worse season avg to that point for SFC and massively boosted by last round 'blockbuster' hosting of MVFC), and this year, so far, as the defending champion, SFC are running sub 10,000.

These are very, very bad trends for the 2 biggest markets and the two MOST successful clubs in the A-League (2 championships each).

Seriously - there looks like a lot of hard graft going forward.

The 2 QLD expansion clubs are unsustainable as they are.

The Sydney Rovers, are they or aren't they ever going to happen?

And there's no, no 12 years of free ride promotion of the game on the back of potentially hosting a WC.

I don't want to be seen as death riding - - but, this is serious here. If clubs start falling over, suddenly the resemblance to the NSL is all too clear, but, without the long standing NSL ethnicity excuse.

(btw - I'm also nervous about seeing what Suns impact on Lions is, and Giants on Swans in the AFL. However, we HAVE seen in the past, that on field success DOES get reflected in attendance. The peaks occur where you'd expect them to. Not so the A-League thus far.)

 

[doodlefeatures]

Lucky the Victory demanded that AAMI Park be at least 30 000 capacity to hold their massive crowds

 

[mustapha]

(btw - I'm also nervous about seeing what Suns impact on Lions is, and Giants on Swans in the AFL. However, we HAVE seen in the past, that on field success DOES get reflected in attendance. The peaks occur where you'd expect them to. Not so the A-League thus far.)

This year the FFAs handling of the A League (eg. promotion, fixturing) has been very poor. With the bid done, more attention on the domestic comp should be the focus of the FFA.

As a North supporter, are you worried about the impact that these new expansion teams will have on your club? The AFL will plow every single dollar into these foreign markets. Will they still be keen to prop some of these struggling Victorian clubs? Will the AFL be able to divide it's attention between keeping existing clubs healthy, and it's own "world cup bid" in the northern states?

 

[Munro_Mick]

This year the FFAs handling of the A League (eg. promotion, fixturing) has been very poor. With the bid done, more attention on the domestic comp should be the focus of the FFA.

As a North supporter, are you worried about the impact that these new expansion teams will have on your club? The AFL will plow every single dollar into these foreign markets. Will they still be keen to prop some of these struggling Victorian clubs? Will the AFL be able to divide it's attention between keeping existing clubs healthy, and it's own "world cup bid" in the northern states?

FOr North - it's simple. Survive until the AFL assume 100% ownership of Docklands stadium.

The worst thing for us about the interstaters is if, like this year gone, we get scheduled to play all 6 at Docklands (WCE, Freo, Ade, Port, Lions, Syd) - - - it wouldn't be so bad only drawing 15,000-20,000 for these games if the break even point at Docklands wasn't more like 28,000. I recall 2 years back when we drew with the Swans, we had 28,000 there and lost $1000. Compared to Geelong drawing 24,000 and clearing $600,000. That $601,000 variance only has to happen 3 or 4 or 5 times to trim $2-3 million off the comparisons.

At least next year, it's Melbourne and not North that get's all 7 with the Suns coming in. After that, the 'home season from hell' would see a side hosting all 8 interstaters.

That's where the Ballarat thing would be great if it could come through.

btw - the 'propping up'. In part, it's what the AFL owes to clubs that get a less 'profitable' draw. i.e. Collingwood get's a golden draw, big opponents, Anzac Day, Queens B'day, guarranteed matches vs Ess, Carl, Rich etc, and Friday nights etc - - - -largely because it maximises revenues. It also maximises attendences - and that assists the AFL with it's venue deal at the MCG. It only fair that there's a partial 'redistribution'. It is, in effect, compensation.

the 'propping up', back when the Gold Coast move was talked about - was a bit of a furphy, as, the AFL talking about how much they put into North each year, included the standard distribution to ALL clubs that pretty well covers the TPP (total player payment - under the salary cap).

North aren't quite as dire as some might suggest - but, they DO have to do something about the Docklands deal. (again, - Ballarat). And the Docklands deal, well, that's where the AFL circa 1998-1999 was perhaps a little more open to clubs folding/merging/relocating and so a couple of clubs got left to fend for themselves on stadium deals in Victoria. I think the AFL now regrets it.

It does look now like the AFL is not in the business of culling clubs. For the time being anyway. And in part, because they've in recent times managed to re-negotiate the deals at the MCG and Docklands. And, also, now that the WC bid failed......can't help but say, that's a good thing for my North Melbourne. And if 2 year old North QLD Fury folds and 141 year old North Melbourne FC survives........I won't be feeling any guilt.

 

[Zidane98]

I don't think the suns will have an issue, there's a huge expat Victorian community in Gold Coast to draw on. Their only problem will be converting them from their old Victorian club they follow to supporting the suns instead.

As for GWS - they are doomed already. Go to Sydney and you will speak with people who tell stories of the AFL offering local councils money under the table to erect AFL goalposts on ovals to "give the appearance that AFL is being played". Many pubs refuse to screen Aussie Rules fixtures - something like 100,000 viewers in Sydney only watched the AFL Grand Final and most of them would be ex Victorians. It makes much more sense for the AFL to start a club in Tassie IMO or even merge North with a new team down there, and have them play 1/2 their games in Tassie and 1/2 in Melbourne/Ballarat.

 

[Joe Mama]

Or better yet, just take the Giants lock, stock & barrel to Tasmania (It happens all the time in the USA, the Atlanta Flames were in the NHL in the 70's in a bid to expand markets south of the Mason/Dixon Line), where they were poorly supported, then they were bought out, moved back to a Ice Hockey Heartland in Calgary where they've been a solid team ever since.

And for the A-League they can abandon North Queensland, send the team to Western Sydney, play them out of Parramatta Stadium (or somewhere else, I'm just giving out a ground here), and call them the "Sydney Rovers", similar to what they were going to do.

I know that many people here are going to say that the A-League will inevitably go the same path as the K-League or the J-League (whilst ignoring the fact that Korea only has Baseball as a Professional Rival, & Japan has Baseball & Sumo).

Maybe we should look at the history of the former NASL and it's demise as a guide of what to avoid (As America is a lot closer to culturally, its a better comparison that any competition from East Asia) , over-expansion in a crowded market place, a bad broadcasting deal, owners many of whom had little knowledge in running teams who's teams were on shaky ground, or got into trouble due to their owners getting in bad debt, a league who's survival was hinged upon the fortunes of one team, etc, etc.

I'm not saying that the A-League will fade away like the NASL, but the decisions that the FFA make in the next few years in regards to the A-League, will be telling in what sort of future they will have as a domestic league product.

 

[Munro_Mick]

The Giants is very much a necessary evil.

In 20 years time might be when you gauge success or not. In 50 years time you'd hope people say that they got it 100% right.

I haven't seen anyone suggest it'll be easy.

The market or not - - it may surprise people once they get moving. West Sydney region is under-represented in 'elite' sports. You just never know.......and certainly won't know unless you give it a go.

So, good luck to the AFL.

Agreed that Gold Coast should be fine - there's been a very solid Aust Footy community in S-E QLD for a long time, and I for one had previously hoped for the Southport Sharks to enter the AFL. As it is, they are a major sponsor of the Suns.

The 2nd tier future around the NEAFL I reckon is important too.

btw - 2011 international Cup has a week of fixtures at Blacktown - - I'd urge anyone to go have a look, it's a great open/friendly/relaxed atmosphere.