Who isn’t! We need to consider this October start date...

Way to farking long.

-PB

Fans are more bored I dare say. 

More teams and a sept start.When the codes are into finals.Half their fans have switched off.Plus the number of competing games is drastically reduced.Issues of stadium availability can easily be overcome with a sensible draw.

EPL starts this week thank fuck. 

Gotta wait for the clean air bro

I remember being bored during last season, not just before. 

This! This is the thing that pisses me right off! this says to all other codes in Australia,'hey we're agreeing that we aren't the biggest code locally, so lets wait until you're all finished before all of your fans can come and watch our sport'. 

Football doesn't need that, There are fans enough in Aus for it to get 5-10k to games before AFL/NRL finishes. Fuck the Stadia, play at Local venues capable of holding 2-5k, reach out to the rural/local population. use your heads ffs. FFA Cup is brilliant, don't get me wrong but there is a solid two month gap between the round of 32 and the start of the A-League season. 

The EPL off season is nearly shorter than that gap. even in World Cup years.

4.5k people turned out on a Wednesday night to watch an NPL team play.

The clean air angle is so stupid as media attention turns to cricket within 2 weeks anyway.

Does anyone know what the plan is when the comp goes to 12 teams?

is it going to be 3 x 11 rounds = 33 games 
or (surely not) 2 x 11 rounds = 22 games

When we get to 14 teams to we end up with 39 rounds or 26? or something in between?

Good point

There will always be something to compete with the A-League, so may as well get it underway late Sept or at least early Oct. A month earlier next season (with 2 extra teams and therefore some extra games) would be achievable surely.

Something needs to change here or otherwise things won't/can't improve 🙁. As things stand, the long off-season kills any momentum that was built during the previous season and/or International competitions (ie World Cup etc).

On a separate issue, how people can think/believe that the A-League with its 7mth season (5mth off-season), is better for youth development, then that of clubs whose Leagues have seasons of 9mths (3mth off-season) is mind boggling.

A-League club matches (low-mid 30s)
Clubs abroad matches (40-60ish)

The A-League's expansion can't come soon enough.

This. Let's say a foreign club plays 50 matches and we have 35. Each year, a player has ~40% more game time than our domestic league. 

a bloozy snooze fest.

Pretty sure the plan is to just address it later on when it happens. One thing at a time, slow and steady. Otherwise things just get too damn confusing.

Isn't everyone? 

Anyway I guess these half arsed leagues are what needs to be done to prevent the professional game becoming too big and influential at the expense of National Team appearance fees.

AFC states that 26 is the minimum number of games every team must play. So we would have to go to a 33 game season or have an uneven draw.

Question to somebody that would care enough to know?

Do the Rugby League and Rugby Union seasons wind up during August? 
If so, wouldn't the grounds become usable fairly quickly as their regular seasons drop away.  I ask only because I've always thought one of the big problems with an August start would be the state of the pitches. 

If they're fairly clear, then a start at the end of August would work because we can still pick up the dregs that couldn't get another game in the big Leagues right?  You'd get enough "clear air" for the League launch, then perhaps a bit of a back burner during the final series stuff.  Everybody can get their Wellington and Perth games out of the way during that.  :)  After Bathurst weekend you've got some momentum, with the press hungry to fill column inches going forward, well before the 20/20 silliness starts.

Just a thought or two.

Member when the a league used to start in august and people complained the off season was too long... I member. 

It is a myth. Football should do whats best for football. Won't be clear airspace cause then for a whole month the AFL media talks up the trade week and draft etc too.

We still did pretty good with a late August kick off as is.

We could play a lot of the games in the first month or so as midweek games.  Get football games on the TV Monday to Thursday night.

I don't think the Australian public can keep up a level of interest for longer than 7 months.

Clean air is a rubbish argument. With the BBL around the corner - are we going to pause the comp while that’s going on?

Nearly extended his own off-season