The
end of season upheavals in the A-League have left Australian football
fans wondering what more could go wrong with the game in this country.
From
threatening club owners, folding
clubs and others in the red it seems Football Federation Australia is
constantly under fire.
One of
the fundamental causes for the problems mentioned is the poor
crowd numbers seen across the league. The issue was reinforced in my mind when watching the Central Coast Mariners
playing a preliminary Grand Final in front of empty stands. So what can we
attribute this lack of interest to? Is it fair to state that the FFA has
caused all this due to lack of marketing and bad contract deals?
There
is no doubt that marketing is a key component when trying to attract
crowds, particularly for a new product or competition. But the A-League
after 7 seasons is not
a new product and should be able to attract fans keen to finally be a
part of a football culture in Australia. Unless they have been hiding
under a rock, everyone now knows the
existence of the A-League clubs, so why are the football fans not
attending?
The
football fans I refer to range from those whose origins are from migrant
communities and have grown up with the game to all the new football
fans that embraced the Socceroos during the 2006 World Cup; from the
ones who love to watch their kids play and all the the thousands that
are involved in the game at grass roots; even the thousands that may not
actively participate in the game but love to watch and talk about the
glamorous leagues of Europe. We are not talking about a few thousand,
but hundreds of thousands of people.
So
given the above why is the league still struggling to get more than a
few
thousand to a game? A significant part of the blame I believe, and I say
this with the risk of
putting readers offside (pardon the pun), has to be apportioned to the
football fans themselves! Not the ones who do attend of course but the
majority that don't.
The FFA
has perhaps not done everything perfectly but they have planted the
seeds for the game to develop. The
A-League is a competition with a decent standard of football, perhaps
not the greatest level you could see on the global stage but skilful and
entertaining enough for any football fan to enjoy. It's played in
impressive facilities and a safe environment. The fact that it is
usually
played on balmy summer
evenings away from competing football codes should also be an
attraction. Add to that classy Socceroos that have played at the highest
level, a number of technically gifted foreign recruits, emerging young
Australian talent and entertaining high scoring (mostly)
games.
Speaking
from a personal level, I know how many football fans there are around me
and how many attend and I hate to report that the majority don’t
participate. Could you
imagine if for one weekend all of Australia’s football fans attended
the matches how full the stadiums would be?
Reasons
for not turning up are varied and some are justified. However there are
other fans such as the so-called Euro snobs, fans that believe the
standard of the A-League is not comparable to European football and
therefore choose not to watch it. There are also fans of the old
National Soccer League that don’t want to support the new
league as their NSL club was harshly treated when the A-League was
created.
As far
as I’m concerned these reasons for non-attendance are not fair on the local game, because the truth is that
unless Australia’s football fans unite and support the A-League then it
will always be a second
rate competition in the eyes of the media, and the standard of the
competition will never rival Europe’s leagues and grow both in playing standard and wealth.
Greater crowd attendance leads to increased media coverage and in turn increased revenue from
sponsorship, resulting in more money in the game. Ultimately the standard rises by being able to attract better
coaches and players with the increased wealth of clubs.
It’s a vicious cycle: fans blame either the standard of the game or the lack of media coverage
for non-attendance , yet don’t turn up to the stadiums to convince the
media
it is a competition worth reporting and helping the game grow. If the
FFA solves most of its off field dramas next season then all the
football fans can also do their bit for the game: attend matches!
* photo from The Age
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