I cannot agree more, but after following the game here in Australia for more than 50 years, I'm staring to think that it may never happen, or at least not for a little while yet.
All the ingredients are there, we as football fans are seeing more football then ever, out national teams are doing OK, the standard of football at the local level is the highest it's ever been, more kids are playing the game then ever before. However, the cooks all have their agendas & not wanting to use all the ingredients, or want to add their little flavour to it. It's so disheartening, after such a great World cup, what is the knock on effect? FA admin stuff it up & then followed by that silly act in Melbourne.
Just gives fuel to the anti football media.

Couldn't agree with you more Robbo.

Hahahaha made my day reh 
I know for sure robbos if I can quote him and myself don’t fall in that poor true  wankas article for she’s right in her description of many here especially the east - much like certain parts of melbon :) 
Have a good long weekend but better one next for the Greek fraternity - I’ll enjoy this one with fam cheaper coffees and running around in our cheap seat cars :) 

Yep we’ll added  - I had hopes 17yrs ago and here we are - not about the NT but more so the game.
Hopefully we’ll see our game as a better package top to bottom or at least NST down whilst in aged care haha 

I'd say the big difference is they have a motive to rig their competition to maximise betting, just stand alone advertising doesn't do that as it's a flat revenue - getting a cut is something based on performance - giving a massive incentive to maximise it directly for the company, a nuanced but very big difference

In season 3 we got within 1,000 of NRL's average attendances.
I honestly thought they were in reach, that we could catch them on those metrics and close the gap on TV ratings as well.
15 years on or so, and the NRL have 17 teams and are set for a record season this year.  The sponsorship revenue for all NRL clubs is through the roof.
The gap between them and us is large today as it has ever been in history.
Both Brisbane teams are going strong, even the Lions got a crowd of over 33,000 last night.

They have also pockets 100s of millions from government over the years,

For example the AFL basically had stadiums built for them. This a massive turning point for their game. If football had that influence they could match if not exceeed in the long term

Football has generally always been run by fools here or tainted by others with grievences - at least for the last 3 or 4 decades

It goes back into the 50s that I know of.

Back in the 50s, all sports would have been playing in crapholes of stadiums, I doubt there was much difference between all the grounds used by all the sports.
The two most recent upgrades of stadiums here in Sydney (at enormous cost to taxpayers) has advantaged both NRL and A-League clubs.
In the case of Parra, it's the Eels who have zoomed ahead of the Wanderers in attendances.

What goes back to the fifties is football having been run by fools or tainted by others with a grievance.

We must be so happy we have JJ our savior now!

the previous one came in with a bang out on a whimper, we await whats next.

Didnt Football get AAMI park and Combank in NSW? Also the State "Excellence" facilities in WA, Adelaide and now Latrobe for the Matilda's ... OK its not on the same scale, agreed, but also not terrible for a sport that is just not that popular at the "professional" level.... 

The three Sydney clubs are playing out of grounds which have all been recently re-built or re-furbished at taxpayer expense.
The Mariners and Hunter stadiums are a bit older, but are still excellent publicly owned facilities.
Of course at least 2 of Melbourne's three clubs are playing out of a beautiful rectangular stadium, barely 10 years old.
Both of Adelaide's and Perth's stadiums are getting a bit of refurbishment.
So I guess that just leaves the Roar currently missing out, but there's a hope they'll get something out of the Olympic's investment.
As far as the A-League goes, I'm not sure we can truly complain about the expenditure of public funds.

With AAMI, Storm was a big part of it. I don't see that stadium being built if it was just Victory alone or just Storm alone. 

Sure, but what I am saying is that massive investment was the catalyst for the AFL 

that money dwarfs anyone else and was solely  for their benefit 

Your right of course, however in the state governments defence, the VFL attendances prior to Marvel being built and MCG renovated were still pretty massive,despite playing at bog awful suburban grounds like Princess Park and Glenferrie Oval. AAMI is an absolute peach of a stadium, whether it was built solely for football or not, it is still miles ahead of anything in Melbourne before it and, despite WUs bullshit promises, will be for a very very long time...

Where we need funding is grassroots clubs, local pitches and training facilities NOT the professional side .... at least in Melbourne.

Actually, at the time of the early designs of AAMI, the Victory were getting massive crowds at Docklands, consistently big crowds, and they had to up the capacity from 20k to 30k.
That was done solely on the basis of the Victory's crowds (at that time).
Of course, if they were designing the stadium today - well yes, they would be paying more attention to Storm's crowds.

Absolutely MV were the driving force, however Storm were getting 10k+ at Olympic Park which was pretty much a full house. Having both clubs doing well really helped push the project over the line.