that's probably true, but so what?  aren't we all sick of these plastic franchises chasing more non-football people to watch them?  how about we get back to having clubs followed by passionate football people?  let's stop trying to pretend we're the AFL

The bitters can't back their argument up with fact. Like alcoholics they believe in what each other say and pat themselves on the back.

Well here are some facts.....

At their peak, most broad based clubs provided the highest attendance figures. Not one mono ethnic vs mono ethic club produced crowds in a grand final like the broadbased clubs did when they were involved. Not even SM Hellas. Brisbane Strikers being the first to kick off what true potential football had with their capacity crowd at Suncorp. Who can forget that.

But hey, let's pretend that millions and billions follow these mono ethnic clubs instead of learning from their mistakes of insularity.

starting to realise this forum is full of bitters full of negative bullshit.  

starting to realise this forum is full of bitters full of negative bullshit.  

SMFC would at least average that, maybe more.

This is what they averaged back in the day with no marketing and no exposure at all on FOX or FTA

But that is not the point. The beauty of this game is that teams can fight their way to the top flight by winning on the ground. We want to see this plethora not the same 10 teams for the next 50 years.

Even if the Bentleigh Greens got promoted they would average a good crowd because the local community would get behind them. Everyone loves a Cindarella Story.

No they were not. They were the NSL crowds not the SMFC.

I was there watching all the games. SMFC was the second best attended club in the NSL behind Perth Glory at the time.

Perth Glory were averaging about 12 to 13K and SMFC were averaging about 9 to 10K. The average was bought down by other teams.

You also got to remember the NSL had 14 teams whilst the HAL has 10 teams. There were teams in the NSL averaging 2500 and 3k per game, sometimes even less. If you chopped off the bottom 4 with the lowest attendances and left the top 10, the average increases drastically. It's all statistics, so the NSL wasn't as badly attended as some people seem to think. You also had Sydney Olympic, and Marconi that could also pull a decent crowd.

What happened with the A League was nothing short of CRIMINAL. The FFA through the baby with the bath water and with the bath water went thousands of die hard fans too - people now labelled as EUROSNOBS.

What's left is the plastic and band-wagoners. What you have is a lackluster competition that even all of us here on this forum are bored to tears with.

What should have happened was a hybrid set up between the old and the new.

Aflw got 54 k apparently 

Aflw got 54 k apparently 

Yeah, they will be back averaging 9-10k, which is fine. No team from the NPL is going to do better than that.

Yeah, they will be back averaging 9-10k, which is fine. No team from the NPL is going to do better than that.

Last year when Newcastle were doing well they had an average of 11k with a high of 18k
Now they have an average of 9k with a high of just under 12k

Every season has a team that does well and gets higher attendances, and teams that do poorly and have poorer attendances. They arent sustainable because every team cant have a dominate season at the same time

I dont see last night as a win for the league and a sign of things heading in an upwards direction. Next season when its somebody else's time to win the league Perth will be exactly where they were last year

Well, the Championship will be perfect for these clubs that can manage 3-5 000 and unlike the NSL they will have the opportunity to progress to full time professional football, so you could argue that things have worked out for the best anyway.

Yeah but that was against the Barcelona of Australian football.

This is colder:

1998 Perth Glory v South Melbourne - 18,067....they got pretty close to the all time record.     

Also this:

http://ultimatealeague.com/records.php?type=att

Ouch, that's like a cold wet haddock to the face.

Perth v Victory - 17,856.

A-League saved

What a slap in the face for those Nuevo new dawners

Perth v Victory - 17,856.

Perth's highest A-League regular season crowd ever. It's even more impressive considering that West Coast played at the same time and unfurled the Premiership flag.

1998 Perth Glory v South Melbourne - 18,067....they got pretty close to the all time record.

We had 12k against perth on Australia day that season. 10k against parramata power and 9k against adelaide. From memory the attendances died towards the end of that season when it was 100% certain we wouldnt be in the new league.

By that last season, the NSL was already a dead man walking, for Hellas to get nearly 7k in average attendances is a pretty good accomplishment in my book.