We really just need to follow in teh footsteps of every other football league in the world and let Billionaires pour money down the drain in a competition to see who's trophy team will win. 
The focus on clubs breaking even is killing the aleague, as funny as it sounds. "Lets all be really cautious and not sepnd any money and in 100 years we'll be 5% bigger if we're lucky". 

The aleague needs excitement. Big names. Advertising. Active fans. Cheaper tickets.
We have/have had billionaires running clubs but they're penny pinchers for whatever reason. 
I've certainly never watched as little aleague as i have this season. It's just the same crap over and over again. No investment.

The aleague has been standing stil for 5 years now. Which means we've gone backwards fast. Every other country in Asia is pouring money into football yet we can't find enough money to have decent facilities. It's bad signs for the Socceroos too. 
We need some Del Pieros next season - another reason Western's interest in Brown and Kone are extremely underwhelming given their link with Sticca

saw a tweet once from sportsindustry showing the total AFL income (AFL plus the 18 clubs) to be $1.6 billion previous year, with the broadcast revenue being $418 million of that (or about one quarter).

So basically the FFA are doing all they can to ensure they get an extra $5m for our game two years from now

Wow. Thats big thinking

The writing is on the wall. Fox are no longer interested. Instead of creating an expansion plan that would have ensured our TV deal doubled, we have instead chased the smallest possible outcome

How many leagues in the world have billionaires pouring money in?

We need to understand that just about every other league in the world began before tv, and grew organically with sustainable clubs.  TV money, no matter how large, was always the gravy on top of the meal, rather than the meal itself.  Until we have a league that can stand without tv money, we will always be playing the game for the benefit of the tv deal, rather than for the benefit of the game.

It's quite interesting that the majority who have been posting on here about what needs to happen with the A-League think that the EPL is the model we should follow.  I don't but I'm one of the few.

funny thing is they tossed out other options because of this $5mill

I dont get this point

If the EPL model requires billionaire owners than why has it been implemented pretty much everywhere except Australia and America?

Haters gonna hate this, but the way the salary cup is structured  the teams with the most money rise to the top, you get the odd fairytale team like jets last year and Nux this year, but basically the league is not close enough, with the top 6 virtually locked in people lose interest.

In the early days the quality was poorer but all the teams were close, a battle every game, made it really interesting.

Getting rid of the cap will make it more like the SPL then it is now. 
P/r will add revolving interest but the same issue will occur unless everyone is either willing to invest in players or more restrictions on the salary cap enforced .

It depends how one defines the EPL model...  Personally, I prefer the ownership structure of Bundesliga clubs.

I don't think most think we should follow the EPL model though - I think most think we should follow the world standard of promotion & relegation.

It is observable that the last five or six seasons has seen a few clubs dominate at different times, compared to how open it was the first five or six seasons.  In season 3, when we had our largest average attendance of nearly 15k, Jets beat the Mariners in the grand final.  Even the short lived Gold Coast United was able to finish third in its first two seasons.  The Wanderers were able to win the premiership in the very first season.  Hard to imagine that Western United will be able to replicate that.

The salary cap is doing exactly what it’s supposed to do:

In the last 8 years we’ve had 6 different winners of the Premiers plate and 5 different champions.

Sorry... Is the A-League a national competition, or is it a Melbourne-centric competition based in Melbourne playing a version of football invented in Melbourne?
Because in the latter case, maybe the comparison to the "Western Bulldogs" might be valid.

Some are saying $7-10 million to run a club each year, i don't know but...
divide this by 10000 "members" and you get each of "us" maybe happy to put in $700-$1000, which is $14-$20 per week...
as the cost for the interest and fun and something to talk about of being a football club owner.
How many coffees or beers are we willing to sacrifice every week for a stake in something we love.
Foxtel isn't the only solution. The German model, I think 51% fan ownership ?, has been mentioned on these forums from time to time.
Just noticed Benjamin mentioned this above.

I agree totally with the Bundesliga model.  The purpose and the framework for the League is set out in a Treaty between the DFB and the club owners body that is negotiated between the two parties and then a separate operational body runs the league as set out in the Treaty.  The League operates to serve both the purposes of football and the owners and the operational body operates without a conflict of interest.  The Treaty is able to be renegotiated and this has occurred at least one.

Wow, another slap in the face for the nuvo new dawners

W000000oooow

It wont be a national competition when Promotion and Relegation come in. Cant say since you're the only Perth or WA team here you cannot get relegated.

Imagine Fox Sports go into melt down because theres no side in WA or other states and threaten to not release funds for the competition. Wouldn't that encourage match fixing just to keep the A-league a National league?

But that wouldn't make the league not national.

not in the eyes of fox sports. imagine having to lose viewers because a state dont have a team due to promotion and relegation. they need a team in all cities in all states to maximise viewers. losing perth, adelaide or brisbane would be a blow to fox sports

FFA promoted the ‘big city derby’ propaganda and metrics required by Fox and is now being screwed, but used Canberra as a fluffer bid along the way. Nice work.

id say if canberra dont make it in the next phase, the only way to the A-League is to get promotion and that could be decades away

I still can't believe the dickheads in FFA thought it was a great deal to get an extra $5 million dollars for Melbourne and Sydney clubs, over better bids from cities that currently have no representation in the A-league.
It would have been much better to not get the $5 million and go with something like Wollongong and Canberra next season. 
I like the idea of the West Melbourne bid simply because they plan to build their own small stadium, however there was no legitimate reason why they couldn't have accepted them and another Sydney club with a entry date of 2021 so by game 1 their new stadium is ready. 

@robstazzz, agree entirely but the metrics propaganda won the day!

People seem to forget that Optus were very much apart of the last negotiations and bidding process though the FFA basically made it clear that they would be sticking with Fox to maximise expose. Add to that that everyone was still pretty pissed at Optus for pinching the EPL rights. In hindsight I wish Optus did take over the A-League because it would be interesting to see what position we’d be in right now. The thing that annoys me most about Fox is that the FFA are bowing down to all their demands yet they’re either going to lowball us next time round or completely piss off altogether leaving us to pick up their mess.

this. its the only thing that matters

@HeyItsRobbie, sadly, when it comes to the FFA, there is nothing but metrics! And we can all see how this is working for our game.

The a-league viewership numbers started falling when foxtel lost the EPL. When foxsports was the home to football. You would start with the a-league then go on through with the EPL. Then foxtel did the deal with bein and we then had top games from Germany italy and Spain... now if you look at it, we are getting games from la liga that most people don't care about straight after the a-league matches. 

Foxtel used to be where EVERYONE went for their football now you have to be rusted on a-league to still have it,  so the a-league isn't picking up the (borderline) eurosnob that would watch the a-league before their games. 

Foxtel are the ones who went from the home of football to the home of indian hockey super league. They are the ones who didn't hold up their end of the bargain. 

That isnt what fox are saying at all did you read the article? 

the contract they had was for a team in Melbourne and Sydney at team playing in Geelong is not melbourne based and without the word melbourne in it is not contractually bound to paid the money the FFA have f***d up NOT foxtel. 

If anything foxtel are losing a truck tone of money on the HAL based on decline in ratings ----HOWEVER---- we are starting to see the deterioration of foxsports football because they lost the rights to the EPL a few seasons ago. Most EPL fans might watch a bit of the HAL if it is on TV since optus took over they dont have access to it they dont love the league but they love the sport and will watch it if they have access to it which they no longer do... 

I DONT BLAME FOXTEL FOR NOT WANTING TO PAY THE MONEY 

What concerns me is that foxtel would sour a good relationship with the FFA over 5million which is nothing for them. If anything to tells me that foxtel will be either looking to get the HAL rights a lot cheaper next time around or not get it at all.

If you ask me football would be better if optus sports took the rights or foxtel paid they money and got the EPL rights back to unify the fan base 

FFA need to open up the league to rich investors and introduce pro/rel or you might as well close down the league.

It is unsustainable financially and boring as fuck to watch