Replying to your own multi, how desperate are you 

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.

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 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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

Nice retort. My point still stands.

Another one of those paulc "facts"

Meanwhile on Earth

Number of aleague seasons that averaged attendances of over 13k

2 - 07/08 and 13/14

Yeah. Fox are at fault. All 58 million dollars per annum, they are at fault. The FFA are mismanaging Fox's money Joff, you dill....

Gallop. He was Murdoch's Laywer during Rugby League wars. Blame him. He is a Plant, and no assistance to our code... Unless Lowy is railroading Gallop...

Good topic Joffa.

I thought it would eventually end up being about Advertising. Although for me, something always goes wrong in the A-League. I'd like to think that we could solve this sometime soon. Wether it be expansion, or just sorting out things like underwhelming performances, atmospehre at games, atmosphere.

I think channel TEN is it ? having the live games could change the dynamic a bit. SBS is quite monotone and boring as a channel really. 7 might help with delivery a little better

What do you think? Is it a game on SBS Friday and then TEN saturdays ? u think that could help a bit, idk

We are in flux until FFA sort themselves out, or are sorted out. It appears the later will happen. That we have not gone backwards whilst they have been fiddling around says after November we should be able to improve. How quickly will depend on who's in charge then.

Such things as expansion and promotion will certainly be the first 2 cabs off the rank. Relegation should come a couple of years down the track.

Why do I have to support an ex NSL team to see that things are up the shit?

The TV deal is small and for a whopping 6 years. The "A League only" line doesn't work because the combined deal isn't even double

The A League has a larger gap from top to bottom than leagues without a salary cap. It has been proven. The only thing a salary cap does is equalise titles over a longer period of time - not create balance in an individual season. The A League also has exemptions which has seen 3 teams fall off the pace. And why is balance so important? I didn't read a single line in the Crawford report that said teams in a top tier from top to bottom need to be able to win a title. This is AFL / NRL mentality and doesn't work in a global competitive market

The attendances are ambiguous. Pull a figure out of your ass and rationalise it. The fact is attendances haven't moved in 5 years, and in the balance of things aren't much different to when the A League started. This 10k figure people hang their hats on today was the benchmark for an unknown and unproven league consisting largely of state league players. No way Sydney should be averaging 16k

Again, NSL comparisons. "Hey guys, we currently have 90% ignoring the national league. Give me $50m and I can make it 78%". That's potential right there

And what is self interest? A governing body that owns and operates all clubs and divides all revenue up as it sees fit, and doesn't even have a constitutional body that meets the basic needs of the empire it is part of? Giving teams a permanent spot in the top flight is the definition of self interest. Fans like me are asking for a fair system that rewards competitiveness and investment

😎

“The average cost to an Australian broadcaster of purchasing one hour of US drama is roughly between $200-$300,000, while the average contribution to local Australian drama is $1 million plus. It’s a huge cost differential,” she said.

https://mumbrella.com.au/panel-249709

Fox is currently paying less than 400k per game, not including FFA cup, Asian Cup including finals...which is massive unders. It works out to be well under 200k per hour.

A-league is cheap tv no matter how you dice it.

And it just happens to fit snugly between the AFL and NRL seasons....

Anyone who doesn't think Fox is happy with current situation is delusional ...after all what evidence is there that Fox are agitating for more content?

Yep

The fact that they have agreed to pay for more content. You know, a contract.

Yes they have a contract, that hardly means they are aggressively pursuing or encouraging expansion...which they could do easily!

It is a bit like the current advertising campaign'made in the A-league' sure they have it, but really they're only going through the motions....preaching to the converted if you will.

For loss making cash and only if they chose the 2

I'll see what the new ad campaign (if there is one) and overall level of promotion is like first, and then I'll make my judgement.
Yes, the FFA are leaving it late, but what's new, it happens every year! Is that acceptable? Of course not, but it's very predictable by now, and shouldn't really come as a surprise to anybody.

It looks like the club membership numbers will be ok, which most likely and usually means attendances will too. A few more double headers with W-League games can only be a good thing, particularly how well the women's game is going at the moment, and it's our first season on Ten/OneHD, so let's see how we go. Potentially that could be a massive gamechanger, hopefully we have some cracking Saturday night games this season, and it rates well.

The sameness of the league is a concern of course, but hopefully we hear more about that this coming season, with a blueprint for expansion and some dates to keep the fans interested. That should happen, but maybe only after the FFA has sorted out their own backyard with the clubs and FIFA. Also an independent A-league is not an 'if' but a 'when' proposition, and we could have word on that before the end of this next season. Either way, this will happen.

But overall, I'm very much looking forward to the season, as it's been a very long offseason, too long. Looking forward to checking out the new players coming into the league this year, specially the foreigners as many seem promising, there may even be another Broich or Berisha in amongst them, we'll see. But looking forward to seeing them perform, as well as the new coaches, to see what they bring to the table.

In other news, the new Parramatta Stadium began construction today, and that's gonna be a fantastic stadium for our code. Also, Adam Peacock said that there's new Football programming on FoxSports this season, let's see what that looks like.

I know there's plenty of things to complain about, and it's not all roses, but on the other hand, it's not all doom and gloom either, the real football's back again, and I can't wait!

You cant formulate a decent argument. 

must admit it's boring. players need something to play for...
all these over hill players will make or break a season. either injuries or just not giving a shit.

Forget the bloody "October kickoff Clear air" bullshit. Moving the damn season back to Mid August kickoff would actually give us WAY MORE clear air. For most of August, half the teams from the AFL/NRL are playing in dead rubbers, then even less play games throughout the whole of September. Imagine a 3pm Melb or Sydney Derby kicking off yesterday arvo, instead we are sitting around twiddling out thumbs for a ridiculously long off season.

Would open up way more opportunities for stadium availability, would allow or international breaks as well as a standalone FFA cup Grand Final weekend, it would reduce the fixture congestion and spread competitive games over a much longer period of the year.