We have had the most exciting season to date in the a league and still ratings are down. Now the standard is at a good level, do we need a big name marquees next season with the new TV deal to attract people back to watching the league and showing how much it has improved

No

I’d like melbourne city to go for a player like James Milner 

gotcha lets just keep it with the low ratings then

Or maybe concentrate on developing players from your area, and community engagement, use the money wisely, sugar hits wear off pretty fast.

Introduce pro / rel and a NSD and you'll need a truckload of insulin shots.

Actually doing some proper promoting of the A league would be a good place to start

Perfect.

But thats a little too much sugar... Bridge too far for the APL

Agree. All the planets have to align........high level of marketing, TV deal to show financial stability and strength, improved media exposure and yes, real good marquees.

David Wagner is looking for a job right?

Unfortunately the sugar hits pass very quickly. Even throughout the same season as a marquee signing has joined, less and less people attend each week to watch these kinds of players as they’ve already ticked the box of seeing them.

The ones who stick around tend to be genuine football fans who we should be able to acquire with authentic means instead. 

Marquee players are like Aldi special buys. They may get people in the door from time to time but they won't stay to see what else is on offer. Also I don't know what people expect clubs to get with their current budgets. Clubs won't be spending big for a while. Every one is broke. 
Then you have marquees that are here already that no one cares about. Diamanti ticks all of the marquee boxes. Consistently performing well. Has charisma and personality. Opposition fans wish he played for their club. It's reported that he regularly stays back to help out the young players with a bit of extra training. Doesn't put any extra bums on seats or eyes on TV's. 

We need leafy green vegetables ... a Canberra team!

People need to stop looking at the TV ratings as it does not give the full picture. 

What we should be excited about is the high interest from streaming companies looking to obtain the AL rights. 

Well said 

Football in this country is a "product" (which is what it is for those companies) that has immense commercial potential but which has been very poorly managed and marketed.
It is the only sport in Australia that is truly global in content.
You'd have to be a fool not to see why there is  interest. Football is a gold chip investment currently available at a bargain price. 

Also, the really exciting thing if Stan picks up the A League is that if course they are in an ownership lock with 9 and Fairfax, which means the end of of mass media invisibility. The significance of that cannot begin overstated. 

"We have had the most exciting season to date in the a league"

If that were true, then newscorp would have run positive articles constantly about the AL. it doesnt mean much

Not necessarily. News' stake in NRL means they have no interest in promoting thei A League, which has been been nothing more than off season filler for Fox. 

I think it's been very good in terms of football quality. 

Football in Australia is a niche sport at the professional level, the sooner people realise that the happier they will be & can be realistic about the direction in which football needs to be taken in long term.  

Feel money could be better ways than pandering towards eurosnob eyeballs.
Same goes for snobs from other big fish in small pond codes like the AFL.
The standard compared to the top leagues is a mute point (except for ACL) as the Australian market is small fry in world terms.

Moving forward the game may do better marketing it's niche differences to other codes and not try to compete by providing the same sanitized modern ideal.

True. They'll be sticking with the franchise model forever imo.



I'd love a Canberra team.  And a Tasmanian one as well whilst we're here.

This. Even ADP was stale after a year or so. 

"Most exciting to date". "Standard is at a good level"

We're clearly not watching the same league. 

This is the conundrum of the A League. We all know without big teams and big players the interest will be low. But the only way being peddled forward is a rigged and "balanced" competition so we can see different names at the top each year

ADP worked because it was new. Its not new now. We saw that with Cahill

If the A League isnt prepared to be a serious and competitive league that capitalises on the 80 / 20 rule like every other team / league / business operating in a global market then it wont get anywhere

What you are seeing is interest in a salary capped league. And while you say the standard is at an all time high, we can only use the Socceroos, ACL and success of exiting A League players as an indication. IMO the league is a failure on both fronts

Release the shackles with active support wouldn't be a bad place to start.
We haven't seen big flags, tifo's, banners or genuine colour in years.

It's all got too hard to continually support the clubs due to a wide range of factors so a lot of people have dropped off and now the casual fans have followed suit as games have the atmosphere the equivalent of AFL & NRL so there's no level of difference.

The problem is that Football was once of a very high standard. The level of players we were producing, the quality of football on the field, and the standard of our national side. 

Now we are nowhere near any of that, so it's a bit defeatist to be like, "we just need to accept we are a niche sport", because that suggests no growth, which history has shown to be not the case. 

Who's going to cover the tifo cleanup costs?