If It Ain’t Broke…
With the NRL season already two weeks old and the AFL starting last night we see the A-League coverage being pushed further back in the sports pages. In Melbourne the two-month long AFL women’s competition consistently gains more coverage even though only in it’s second season and would be considered more amateur than professional in regards to the standard of sport.
The publicity of football has plummeted over the last few seasons and this trend will continue if the current way of thinking isn’t changed. We’ve seen the rebirth of the NBL in more recent times and the salivating prospect of LeBron James, Steph Curry and local lad Ben Simmons coming to Melbourne will only catapult the sport. Basketball may not reach the halcyon days of the mid 90’s but the momentum is with Basketball in terms of following a sport in summer.
Unless you’re a Newcastle supporter this season has literally been a case of going through the motions of the predictably boring script. As the teams face each other for a third time and the important top two positions have been decided teams are gearing up for a three-week finals campaign, six weeks early. Attendances are at an all time low throughout the league, marketing has been non-existent and the leagues own golden boy chose to walk the streets of Millwall over Chapel Street. For the average football fan, the ten team competition has reached its used by date, the league has become stagnant and for the most park the most important stakeholder in Australian football (the fan) has largely been ignored for far too long.
For those in the FFA HQ ivory tower there is no perceived problem in the game, frankly the game is bursting with excitement and opportunity and investors and clambering over each over for a chance to join one of Australia’s biggest domestic competitions. Up to ten organisations have expressed interest in joining the league and with only two positions available for the 2019/20 season competition will be fierce.
Southern Expansion (Sydney), Brisbane and a third Melbourne team are believed to be the front-runners as big cities are the preference for both Fox Sports and David Gallop. Former Herald-Sun journalist Matt Windley is heading a big from @WeAreTeam11 (but we wouldn’t mind being @WeAreTeam12 either) has left his post to become the project officer to represent the interest of a South East Melbourne bid. South Melbourne will always put up a competitive bid but will ultimately fail based purely on their NSL history. Geelong, Tasmania and even the Gold Coast have shown interest in becoming one of the lucky winning bidders to be follow the stringent licence conditions of the Lowy family and the FFA as the closed shop of Australian football continues.
With the FFA controlling the buyers’ market, the current shape of how the league looks to fans becomes irrelevant when you have continuous knocks at the door from potential investors. A nominal fee of $10 million dollars is equal to 400,000 fans walking through the turnstiles at $25 a pop, and that’s without stadium hire, and all the associated costs of clubs hosting games, and let’s not forget many of the stadium deals in Australia have been written heavily in the stadiums favour.
Whilst the FFA are still setting the parameters for the league and reaping the rewards of their closed market in the form of desperate millionaires wanting to part with their money quicker than most punters at the Spring Racing Carnival. The promotion/relegation dream will be merely that, a dream.
For the final four weeks of the season its hard to keep more than a passing interest in the league, hopefully this interest will intensify as we reach the start of the finals series. (Something else that needs a revamp but we will probably see four new A-League logos before this happens).
What problem, there is no problem at the ivory office as Stephen Lowy and David Gallop puff on cigars whilst thinking of how many advisory boards of mutual friends can the new licencing fees pay for.
Image: Foxsports.com.au
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