so.... whats with these job cuts?

Axing Keep Up sounds like right way to go, it's been a big leak in the pocket for Apl.

It was a petty dumb strategy. 

I think the concept of KeepUp was a great idea. I think they were successful in bringing all football news together and reminded the Aussie readers that it’s all one giant, global ecosystem, and that we’re very much a part of it.

However, I used their social media pages mostly, as their app and website left a lot to be desired. Slow with updates and not very user friendly, generally speaking.

$40 million, though? Why do companies with private business models choose to operate like the public service, fiscally speaking? That is a MASSIVE hole in the budget - just about as big as any we know of!

It was good if you have a huge market to engage with and then the resources to continually pump out high quality media 

At the end of the day - nobody cares about the a-league, nobody cared about the NSL....for teh most part nobody cares about football past 16 years of old here 

Executives need to just admit it and aim smaller, in their heads they think we are the equivalent of the MLS or something

People cared about the A-League when it pulled 62,000 for regular club game in Sydney. We had to put a stop to that so we now have the A-leagues and the APL and the governance structure we wanted

The keepup app was terrible. Just information everywhere (a lot of our outdated as well). Really amateurish. 

Not exactly true is it? The FFA were doing a good job until they fought with the active and didn't expand the league so it got repetitive with the same teams. The Fox sports stopped caring and it got worse 

I agree with this. 

Respectfully, I think that comment requires qualification. A lot of people do care, and the still thousands who attend games prove that. 
But there is no doubt at all that a huge amount of support and general goodwill and interest has been lost over the last 10 years - the figures prove it. That is down to rank mismanagement by first FFA and now APL. The urgent question is whether that support can be regained. . Personally I don't think it's possible until every Club has Stadium similar to Hindmarsh. Empty stadiums match after match are the single most destructive Factor in the current context. So will this happen? Frankly, it looks like no chance.

Another thing to bear in mind is the fact that Macarthur and Western United - dismal mistakes in governance by the old FFA- are grossly distorting average attendances across the league. Personally, I would prefer to see both those clubs gone from the competition. In the meantime, I believe that the only way to meaningfully look at attendance is exclude those two clubs, and in that's light, the league looks at the least tough be the holding ground. 

I think it better to ignore the average and just look at the total attendance each round.

We want the league to be bigger with more games, so they should be happy with the teams they have (as long as they pay their way) and add more. I don't care that some teams are less popular than others. It is an irrelevancy to me. If Macarthur and WU only bring an extra 1-2k+ people interested each round then how is that a bad thing? If we add in more teams and they do the same then we have increased the following of the league by 5-10k. Small steps with a long term goal. 20 teams, 38 straight rounds plus a circus round or two if they want. Better product and development.

The sooner we can get a lot of teams and more rounds in the better our comp will be. Some of those teams will have crappy seasons and hold the bottom of the table - same as some of our teams are now. Victory is a prime example of that. Having crap teams is good when your team isn't one of them and is playing one of them.

I used Keepup to see the schedule of games and the table. That's all it was to me. If we were/are spending $40m on that it is not a good investment for my old school 'bugger off social media' self. There are better uses for the money - like maybe 'donating' 500k prize money each year to the winner of the NSD. What better way to start healing that rift and show that money can benefit more than the top level?

Or, if they really cared about developing better football players, that 40 million could have funded the National Youth League?????? 

Allianz stadium concert cap of 4 lifted to 20 per year. There goes another decent pitch. 

KeepUp was always a risky strategy when the returns are risky at the same time, it could have been used in other areas to help develop the sport.

Its clear the APL need a hard reset what that means is anyone's guess.

A league at Allianz now competing with what will be 15 concerts every summer (no outdoor concerts in Winter)

Same with AAMI, Same with Suncorp

For the love of god, PLEASE move this league to Winter. It might be the only hope of salvaging this thing. 

$40 fucking million dollars burned and nothing to show for it. 

The A-League tried to invest in digital and it hasnt worked. As well as the move to Paramount (not sure were many other options) but I don't think Ive been to one pub or club or TAB  that has Paramount. It means theyve always got cricket or basketball on all summer. Surely they could have spent some money getting Paramount to more venues. 

Agree 100 % but then APL will have to find a TV deal that will go with winter. So far, they have all wanted summer.
We need a winter season and our own grounds. 
Sadle, if don't think either will happen unless the A League goes under. 

I'm not sure where else in this country you would find the level of incompetence shown by the APL. 

The NSW government once spent 300 million on consultants to get a new ticket machine on public transport. It didn't result in new ticket machines on public transport.

Ok I'll pay that. Good grief. 

https://www.2gb.com/podcast/former-australian-soccer-player-robbie-slater-fires-up-at-the-australian-professional-leagues/

Bosnich on tomorrow night. I personally appreciate these guys having a say. Sure, some loath them or find them opportunist but it's all part of discussion. 

The broadcast stuff goes in periods. Apparently JJ is going to re-sign Australia national teams for Channel 10. Slater suggests 7. FFS are we really going to even suggest them? He says people don't know where to watch the league because it's on Paramount. There are two games on 10 every weekend. All games should be shown on 10 but that won't happen.

Slater saying he's not sympathetic to people who ensured Fox sports demise and we over. It reminds me of the Simon Hill biography (will need to read again) how SBS was winding down and his own talent was touted. It's no different in a lot of countries with broadcasting. While done somewhat better, the way the German federal cartel office split Bundesliga rights across providers and then the bidding for CL also started has been very fan unfriendly.

Oh and there's Optus too... I appreciate they've given it a go. Stan for European football. Bundesliga on BEIN as an extension of Amazon. It almost makes you not want to watch. 

I enjoyed the All Access stuff but what's the ROI on that? Was it inspiring people to go to games or buy apparel?

I guess it's the same anywhere that these shows are to keep things in the limelight, a risky and potentially costly marketing ploy. 

The Saudi Pro League, as reported in another thread, has some crowds in their 100's. Like them, we could spend billions (ha!), and yet never achieve "acceptable" bums on seats.
We need to stop attempting to compete with AFL (the #1 league in its code) and the NRL (no idea, but obviously high) and be realistic about where we sit. The A League was in its inception actually punching above its weight but all the experts conspired to ruin it. We will never match the crowds the other codes get here, but there should be a good medium we can reach where clubs are financially ok, can produce players, sell the odd one to make some good $$ - just like other leagues around the world.

As much as I don't give a crap about Macarthur and WU, like Melbourne Heart, they should be given a chance to grow and maybe some random investor or freak action will see them head the right way. Culling clubs is not a good look - Northern Fury and Gold Coast may well have been rushed in, but getting rid of them was poison. The DD on M and WU was assumedly better (ok, did I really say that?) - but regardless give them some time. The league needs more playing time and I don't care which millionaires might be getting screwed so long as our up and coming get more minutes.

For that money could they not have had a YouTube channel with a Monday night review if the round, with some panelists guest player followed by a Thursday night round preview given that 10 and Paramount weren’t doing it. Surely it could be done for $40 mill

ROI on YouTube wouldn't be worth it in the short term. Takes a while to get up to the subscriber and view numbers before they can get monetization. They would need to have their own sponsor spots within the ads to make some money and that would be a hard sell if they are getting low views. Even once you get monetization they would still need to be selling sponsor spots to make money.

Thankyou Mr Gallop.

FFA appointed an executive who was really just an ex-lawyer, who was known right across the NRL as being incapable of leading expansion and with no understanding of football followers.

What saddens me is that a league of 16 teams with a crowd average of 10,000 was eminently doable at one stage.

For that sort of money they could have paid a FTA channel to broadcast all of the matches on TV and seen immediate broadening of viewership... 

My idea if ROI wasn’t so much of the nonitization from YouTube but to increase interest in the game. They could promoted the shows at the games in the screens or even banners during broadcast if the games. Subs and ad revenue would come in later. It could not have been any more of a failure t than employing 100 -really????/to maintain an app