Soccer in Melbourne is ripe for the picking

[Pessimistic]

Whether you love or hate soccer the market is just ripe for the picking. We have had four or five huge crowds in the last few years and If someone could just come up with the right product (obviously not the NSL in it's current form then there could be 50,000 plus crowds on a regular basis. Given we also produce stars capable of going to the premier league and other top european destinations.

The question is how to tap into it all. Should it be a melbourne 'club' side playing in an asian 'superleague' ? or carry on the african flavour of last night and join an african league ? Obviously a club side which could pay salaries closer to that of the premier league would be better than national sides (who have real problems getting players back from their clubs anyway).
On the national team, one option might be to buy a bankrupt club in the lower english divisions. Stock it with home grown talent (no transfer fees required) get promotion to the lucrative Premier league and watch the money flow in ! The players would be made available for soceroos games and could even play in an Australasian or Australafrican competition in the northern summer

 

[Max Power]

You just answered your own question.

"Given we also produce stars capable of going to the premier league and other top european destinations."

That is why soccer in Australia at a domestic level will always suck. Just like why crowds at VFL, SANFL, WAFL regular season games can be counted on one hand - people want to see the best not leftover washedup rejects or young unknown kids. Plus in the Sydney & Melbourne clubs they've still got the ethnic problem.

Same goes for the National Team - nobody gives a fat rats clacker about it if it don't have the likes of Kewell, Viduka & Bosnich in it (just look at the recent series against Paraguay). As for buying an English club - Soccer Australia tried that not long ago but there is some FIFA bylaw against that.

 

[Pessimistic]

Absolutely, Max. The key is to get the product right - the main barrier being the amount of money that is paid in europe and elsewhere. But Olympics u-23 Chile v Cameroon - they got over 60,000 there - no viduka kewell etc.

And the ethnic base of the NSL is both a handicap and a saviour of the NSL. They can try to 'morph' into something else but unless they are successful they might as well cultivate the ethnicity as it keeps their competition going.

Surely if there was one team from Melbourne, Sydney and perhaps perth, Adelaide, Brisbane playing in a competition with other overseas clubs (Try Jakarta, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok etc) which might be able to pay emough to keep some 'medium' stars here. Melbourne storm is an example of a successful entity that most people can identify with.

 

[Drakey]

Who cares?

 

[TigerTank]

Thanks Drakey,

Sums it up perfectly for mine! Trying to bring soccer to Melbourne stinks of cultural cringe.

 

[Clinton]

TigerTank and Drakey,

Some of us care and we are replying as we are interested (I am yet to reply to the actual subject) so if you don't care just don't look at it.

 

[Dan26]

Penetrating the sporting culture is a very hard thing to do. The English premier League averages about 30,000 per game as does the AFL and we only have 19 million in our country.

Australian Football is the most poular game anywhere "PER CAPITA". We are all obviously biased towards it, but when you live in mighty Melbourne and you have the choice between a game of AFL and soccer, there is no choice as to the greater spectacle.

Australian Football by a mile. Soccer will alwys have a huge participation here due to it's simplicity, but it won't catch on in terms of crowds. We have the greatest game.

 

[Peter P]

Soccer has nearly always frustrated me. Having grown up on the game you can do it all in, soccer has always had a handicapped feel to it - both playing and watching. Sometimes the skills make for a fast flowing game - but so often the athletes who are the pinnacle of a player base of perhaps close to a billion - just can't turn in a game as entertaining as your average AFL match with its player base of a few hundred thousand.

This was brought home to me in the International Rules game at Footy Park. Here was a round ball and nets in the goals but a game three times faster than any soccer match including a World Cup final. We've got hands and when you can use them it makes it a full on contest.

When the professor of Sports Studies at the University of Brighton, UK spoke on ABC Grandstand from the MCG prelim finals, he was full of praise for the "multi-skilled", speed and spectacle of our national game. It is a great game - and if either Ireland or Australia had been empires, a full multi-skilled form of football would dominate the planet - rather than a fairly conservative restrictive game of a British empire.

Mind you the globalisation of sport and the Olympics impress upon those who love Australian Football - the need to care for the future of the game, part of which is to internationalise ourselves. the games against Ireland and the upcoming World Cup of Australian Football in Melbourne in 2002 are very important.

 

[Pessimistic]

I'd like to dispute the "empires" theory - It applies more to rugby or Cricket.

Could the success of soccer be it's simplicity and good administration - just think there's never been a 'split' in soccer - Rugby is doing it constantly and AFL has done it too

 

[Bernie]

Went to the games at the 'G and followed Chile .. 'cause their fans were full-on. But I must say that as soon as Cameroon ran out and started this fantastic one touch game in the wet, and were rewarded with a win in the end, we were all rapt that they ended up winning thw whole thing ( esp. as a guy was sent off for diving - that should be introduced into AFL ... a free kick for staging ).

Soccer is a simple game AND there are many similar restrictive ball games throughout the world - Central and Sth. America had some for centuries and SE Asia has a few ( there's one that played in Thailand that's like volleyball .. net etc .. but you can ONLY use the feet ! ). Kicking a ball is a world wide thing - a round ball makes sense and add a few nets to score .. tada you have soccer.

The game was introduced into Argentina by the English when they were building the railways there, but the macho guys there refused to play becau you had to wear shorts ! However, Uruguay decided to hold a 'world cup' to promote their country ( very rich then because of beef exports ) and invited all the other Sth. American countries. It was so successul ( and Uruguay won ) that all the other dictators saw this as a great way of promoting their country ( and themselves ) .. hence HUGE promotion thru' the 1930's and away it went.

So maybe we need a few dictators to promote AFL throughout the world .. they can really help sport. Remember the Olympic Torch was ogininally the idea of the Nazis.

Soccer in Australia needs success and unfortunately it missed out a few years ago. We can only hope that we can qualify for the World Cup next time.