Its 1969-- the Grand Final is Apia v St George 30,000 cram into the old Sydney Sport Ground, fast track to 1976 the Apia v St George Grand Final has just 11,000 at the same venue, in 1987 Apia v St George NSL Grand Final at Parramatta Park has just 6,900. In 1996 I venture to St George stadium both teams are now in the 2nd tier state league (The NSL is still in place) – I count 30 fans, amongst them a group of 5 elderly Italians I chat to them and ask where have all the fans gone. The response ‘Rockwood’ (a cemetery in Sydney)

It’s a similar scenario with ST George V Hakoah --the 1962 Grand Final has 30,000 – (short highlights can be seen on you tube – Budapest v Hakoah 1962) fast track to 1974 the Hakoah v St George Grand Final has just 10,500 in a year the Socceroos were at the World Cup and there are 11 socceroos on the pitch. in 1982 Sydney City v St George NSL Grand Final at Penrith has just over 6,000… if the 2 teams were to meet again it would be 30…

State League

Not to be pedantic, but it's Rookwood.

The answer is exactly as he says, Rookwood, the clubs never did anything to cement new followers. When some died out, the identity they held with the clubs (whether it was ethnic or not) was not carried over.

Many old NSL and State League teams became an old boys club. They weren't openly orientated like the Rugby League or VFL in Victoria. These games had an active promotional tendency to drive new members, fans, followers etc. Combine that with the game's lack of prominence during those times, and we have the factors that caused less fans through the turnstiles. The marketing drives and membership drives of the other codes during those times (I know it's later on, but read Kevin Sheedy's bios about that period) were immensely more powerful than football, and never capitalised on the youth playing the game in droves.

Only now, we are seeing marketing, membership and marketing drives being done and the effect is there. If this was done back then, without the old boys mentality, we'd have had a different story to tell than Old Soccer New Football.

Agree with your comments -it’s sad to see so many great teams slide into what they are now - Yugal-Prague, St George – their Social club in Mortdale sold off – even their stadium ST George Stadium has been vandalized and no longer use. Eeven Sydney Olympic drawing just 800 for a FFA cup match and their social club in Hurlstone Park has disappeared , Apia ‘s club at Leichhardt no longer the APIA club , their last matches in the NSL drawing a few hundred fans. Marconi who put together a wonderful social club next to their stadium – there crowds would be in the hundreds.
The amazing thing is the young guys in the office have been brought up solely on the A-League – they have no idea about the long clubs

It's much the same in Melbourne with most of the clubs from the 1960's all dead and buried. The ones still going around do not have a future due to the reasons mentioned above. At the same time it is good to see clubs like Moreland City attracting quite a few supporters to their games.