Nice retort. My point still stands.

So Bluebird which exNSL do you support

The TV deal is for A-League only so you are comparing apples with oranges

The salary cap is to provide an equal paying field

The attendances are at a solid level, it's a competive market - we have four football codes plus other sporting codes to compete with

You mention 70 % of registered players don't follow the A--League. The figure under the NSL would have been over 90%. Look at the wonderful grand final attendances held around the country since 2004

The game is followed by main stream Australians. Prior to 2004 this would have been unthinkable

Its not just about SELF INTEREST

But how can one improve the structure when one has not established the structure?

Me: Your bike has no wheels
You: At least I have a bike

Can't spend money on advertising when you're spending it on lawyers.

You can't read or write beyond one sentence is obvious.

"It's better than the NSL so everything is fine." Standard

Not ideal and room for improvement. There's no argument there.

The fact is that the HAL has made significant strides since the dim dark ages prior to 2005 and even today with advent of channel 10 showing key live HAL matches is a small but positive progress steps in the right direction.

Reiterating, changes to improve the structure to graduate to the next tier of development is absolutely required but the sky has hardly fallen because you didn't get your own subjective way.

The other thing I'll add is it doesn't bode well for a competition kicking off in less than 2 weeks that wont advertise because there is an AFL game being played 6 days from now

But when you say "increased" it is still relative to a defunct semi professional league

There is a difference between improvement and potential

Is the A League an improvement on what we originally had? Yes
Is it achieving its potential? Hell no

In fact relative to its own accomplishments it is taking some nice backwards strides, let alone trying to answer questions regarding growth and potential

The attendances have not shifted from what the A League was achieving when it kicked off 12 years ago
The "media exposure" has resulted in not one bid for FTA rights resulting in a $5m FTA loss and no HD coverage. The TV deal was the smallest increase in the league's history and less than what was offered 8 years ago. Not a good thing
The "greater investment" is being held back by the FFA. City want to spend more. They aren't allowed
Football has always had good participation rates. Cant credit the FFA for something FIFA did. What we do know is more than 70% of registered participants are not following the A League. Not a good look for the current model
The A League has a salary cap which means footballers get 1/3 of what's on offer in the AFL / NRL making them the least paid professional players of any football code in this country. A lot of players are leaving prematurely to chase bigger coin in failed careers as a result. There are also only 180 professional playing spots. The AFL W has more
The sufficient funds for the national team has been regarded as mismanagement of funds. The FFA are under a lot of criticism and stand to lose their position over the mismanagement of money and dictatorship control

Because everything you type is a comparison to a defunct semi professional league it means you have very very very very low expectations of where the league should be. 5 years from now we'll still have a $50m a year TV deal where as costs would have doubled if not tripled

In 2005 a bit of paint was used to launch the A League. Its football but not as we know it
In 2017 a bit of paint has been used to position our code into a corner. Its football exactly as it once was

The Fox tv deal has reached it's audience limit and the AL is in danger of following the rugby Union down the slippery slope of limited exposure.

Add to that the growing noise from the old NPL teams and other splitters, along with the lack of expansion teams and it is really hard to keep finding a reason to pay $750 for the family memberships and/or $50-60 a month to watch the A-League, when I can watch all of Europe except for the EPL for about $15 a month.


The membership price at CCM has gone up roughly double in the last 4 years. Wages haven't.

Replying to your own multi, how desperate are you 

This seems to be the bottom line.

I'm looking forward to seeing more football in a friendly Timezone. I do enjoy watching football no matter the level.

I'm not looking forward to the monotonous nature of the A-League.

Er, it's in major newspapers across Facebook etc. 

It features players like Mooy with exactly what you said. What type of 'oomph' do they need to add to a simple message? 

ha ha - totally.

There is no alarm
The league is going fine
There are a few sad people on this forum who can't get over the fact their dying little former NSL team aren't involed
Suck it up the A-League is here to stay and your team is not welcome
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If the purpose of the A League was to deliver average attendances then you might be right

I'd say a 6 year TV deal locked in at 80% of what was offered 8 years ago, Socceroos finishing 3rd, clubs turning against the governing body, FIFA stepping in, only ~180 national professional playing spots, no expansion or expansion options etc... are signs of a broken model

An ambiguous average figure that is only comparable against a defunct semi professional league, and indicative of no progress on that front for 5 years, is not the only benchmark

Once fans stop attending derby games, big encounters, and core support stop attending top tier football games, then we are well and truly fucked. If the FFA are waiting for that to happen before acting then they have less of an idea than I thought

13,000 average attendance and holding strong despite little publicity or exposure.................is not a model that is broken given the continuing interest.

Perhaps a model that has reached its limitation but not broken.

One thing you can be sure of is that Foxsports is not a road block to expansion.
They have HAL rights for six years.They have even offered more money for expansion.
Foxsports want ratings and subscriptions over anything else.It's hard if not impossible to make out any case that expansion would reduce ratings and subscriptions.
FFA is the clear roadblock.No money for expansion,no plan to make more and of course a giant axe hanging over their heads.They clearly are more interested in their own necks rather than what is best for football here.

Yep dying is a ludicrous word to use. Stagnating is more apt

@ well said bluebird.

Arguably football has the highest profile its ever had going in to a new season - let's hope the clubs/ffa use it well. Memberships are holding up, attendances should too, and I for one can't wait for the new season ..

The A League in its early years proved this "clean air" concept is a load of shit

If you advertise well and create hype then people will watch. If you hide in the corner while people go about their day to day lives then you're limited to those that actively seek you out

When the AFL / NRL seasons finish we will not be getting more media space than we normally do. We didn't last year. We didn't the year before. We didn't the year before that (etc...) ... Horse racing starts. Cricket starts. And some people just plum don't give a shit about the A League

The Matildas sold out and got good ratings in the heart of the AFL / NRL finals

ffa cup results and matildas have been leading the sports news on abc24 - in eggball finals season.

that's pretty impressive.  can't say what it's like in the msm.  who really gives a fuck what happens there anyway? ,

There are a lot of new visa players that have been signed across the clubs
I for one can't wait
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It's more of a sign that this shit with the FFA and the clubs should've been sorted years ago. That was the entire point of the Crawford Report.

What's the point of commissioning the report if you're not going to even consider any of its recommendations?

There's just no point this season. Lowy thinks it's all about his survival. It's not. It's our game, fuck off.

@ joffa m

I've heard it's the other way around - Fox have become frustrated at the lack of expansion and are blaming the ffa. Not quite sure where the ten clubs sit on this - Roar publicly say they support expansion and want a brisbane Derby but you never know