IN bold, the future what isn't seen and un noticed but starts at grass roots !
They dgaf about APL its about to play football having watched a WC here and our own running on the grass and dreaming.
You don't see knock off effects for years but its the DNA thats created.

Our games leaders are the ones who need to act and help support from the ground as we all know.
Costs, support the countless volanters more, improve coaching kits - give acknowledgement.
Improve the eco system.
Be more transparent.

Its a question/premise I/we have been questioning since 1974, when the Socceroos made the World Cup for the first time.

Even the notion that making and being in World Cups Men's and Women's and having some flow on success would transfer to Club Level football.

The historic evidence suggests it doesn't make a difference at Club Level never has.

The Club dynamics can be answered by these links:

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/marquee-players-are-overrated-says-new-a-league-advisor-scudamore-20191115-p53b1p.html
https://www.foxsports.com.au/football/a-league/football-podcast-aleague-news-richard-scudamore-ffa-football-federation-australia-analysis-review-epl/news-story/804350649d0087b8d0da73042178d8dc
https://www.ftbl.com.au/news/a-league-sign-epl-genius-scudamore-532405
https://www.ftbl.com.au/news/focus-on-football-not-marquees-says-epl-guru-scudamore-538758
http://pfa.net.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Attachment-1-in-text-FORTHEFANS.pdf

Your answers to what the APL should do are all in these links, and have always been there.

APL has a different view with an MLS centric policy as apposed to a Global Standard and has ignored or discarded the advice provided.

And let's be clear that the early success of the AL centred around a belief from football people that we could make the game a success in terms of reach in the form of attendances and media, even though the standard of play wasn't great, its now better but the metrics are down. We lost the "buy-in" of a higher purpose, in making the game relevant here.

The A-League is also modelled on the ....AFL.  Works for them because the best players don't leave to play overseas.

The problem with football in this country was always how to go fully professional and still connect with the fans. This problem was solved by the A-League franchise model, and the deal with Foxtel. 

 The model undeniably was fully professional, and connected with more fans than ever before, its not even close. 

  The game was relevant

 Then the connection with fans was lost.

 The new problem is how to regain the connection with fans, and still remain fully professional.

Could maybe look at the rest of the world, and copy them.

sometime before I die would be handy

We did.  It went nowhere.

I've had 3 girls ask if they can join the boy's team I coach in the last week

Bingo, the a-leagues both male and female should cater for the national teams, after all they our flag bearers for the sport and our face when we compete internationally.

The AFL and NRL dont have that global presence like football does, AFL especially so they interests lies only here so its normal their sports will get alot of attention and of course their support is generational meanwhile the a-league is very young and struggles to get attention against these more established codes.

How to get more fans involved is fine but thats not the main priority and maybe too much energy has been focused on crowds and ratings when its not that straight forward to get fans in the gate when they are so many distractions in supporting a local league especially more popular overseas leagues that are more lucrative too.

The selling point of seeing the stars of tomorrow and seeing them at big leagues and clubs overseas will make our national teams stronger, and that should be the direction going forward for the APL anything else will have a ceiling especially following the AFL, NRL model who have a different footprint to football.

It will also make our Clubs stronger from Transfer Fees and the search for the next big thing.
JJ made it painfully clear that we were missing out the Transfer system gravy train in 2020.

We did? when mate.?

wait for Enzo's counter will be salivating I'm sure.

Ppl keep bringing this up as some sort of gotcha for why pro/rel can’t work here..but conveniently leave out the fact the NSL had direct pro/rel for only 2-3? seasons of its entire 27yr existence..w/o a national 2nd tier below it.

ill chime in
we need to have a second tier , and a domestic transfer system
a team from canberra and tassie must be in the second tier.
Rectangular stadiums only , no more playing at AFL grounds , they can fark off.

Govt has to provide increased funding for Wleague players.
access to facilities needs to improve.

If anything it indicates just how wide the gap between NSL and state-league football had become in less than seven years; certainly wider than the mob in charge then had estimated..

But bc there’ll be a second-tier(& hopefully at least a third in future🙏🏼) in place this time, thus allowing for an actual calibration of standards across the board, is why it will succeed now.

Next time they buy a happy meal, they'll be included in the AusKick stats

We need our own stadiums, not shared with any rugby code either. Then we can play whatever time of the year we want. 

Well the answer is 42.  Let me explain.

In the context of this thread, the question is why is football and specifically the A-league not "popular" right now?  Agreed?

The most common complaint is that the A-League is stale because its boring watching the same small number of closed shop teams every season.  The second most common complaint is that they're not "authentic" clubs.  The third complaint is that without relegation there is no excitement and incentive to do better at the bottom and without promotion there is no excitement and incentive to do better in the lower leagues

P and R is touted is the solution to both these problems, and therefore make the game more "popular".

Point 1.  Its fact that 42 unique clubs played in the NSL.  FORTY TWO. If FORTY TWO teams is not enough variety,  how many additional unique teams do you think P and R will need to introduce to the top tier to make it interesting to the football public, this time around?

Point 2.  Authenticity.  All those FORTY TWO Clubs were as authentic as they could be.

Pint 3.  Oh but those FORTY TWO teams didn't get promoted through a NSD"   Ok, explain how significant do you think that difference is going to be for the popularity of the game given that most of these clubs have tiny community followings?   Who- apart from those tiny communities, who and how many others are really going to care that they're in the league to improve its popularity?

History is clear.  Adding more unique teams from the lower leagues results in sweet FA to the games "popularity"  in the long run.

Getting back on topic, the thread is "how do we maintain the current popularity being achieved by the WWC.  Well you first need a measure of "popularity"?

"How do you measure "popularity"?  I understand your personal romantic and nostalgic connection to the past,  but that doesn't keep the lights on.  Well you measure"popularity in terms of match-day attendances, broadcast viewers, media interest and sponsorships. That's the ugly truth.

Despite FORTY TWO unique clubs playing in the NSL, the attendances didn't increase, the viewership numbers were rubbish, the sponsorships small, the media attention was scant.

The popularity never grew: 

Ok so you tell me what it is that P and R of the current lower division clubs and relegation of current A-League clubs is going to bring to the table in terms of increased attendances, viewerships, sponsorships and media interest.

These are the measurements of "popularity" that matter. 

Romanticism and nostalgia won't bring in over a billion dollars that the A-league did and you need money for a fully professional code.  Why fully pro?  Because full professionalism was the key plank that old timer stakeholder in the NSLback in the day identified as being the *number one* priority for football in this country... and some of them actually knew what they were talking about.

Actually more fans involved IS the main priority.  Without the fans- as we've seen in the A-League, football is nothing.

 

What I expect to see coming out of the WWC is a large number of girls and ladies fronting up to clubs next season wanting to get a game and finding that the clubs aren't ready for them.  Right across Australia we need clubs and competitions planning now how they will run if suddenly the demand increases by 25-50-100% with the most of the increase driven by people who are new to the game. What will the club with 200 players with 40 or 50 females do when another 20 to 50 want to play?  What about the larger clubs in FNSW and Capital Football with 1000+players?  Do the State Feds need to be budgeting for seed funding for new grassroots clubs and growing grassroots clubs to cater for the increased demand?

I don't expect that there will be much difference at the elite levels of the football ecosystem.  New players will move through to that as they develop and are spotted over the next decade but the influx of grassroots players brings with it the potential for new football fans provided they get a good and enjoyable introduction to the beautiful game and provided that the clubs at the various levels of the elite game are active within their local community and their wider community of interest.

Absolutely 100% Flytox..... hit the nail on the head.... we deseprately need funding for lower tier clubs to increase their facilities, grounds, change rooms, floodlights etc etc... better funded clubs will offer better facilities, will increase popularity and so the wheel turns.... 

very good points Flytox/BA81/banzai and not unexpected from you unlike Enzo bringing up the past having a sore neck and all about the top.......
This type of thinking never gets us anywhere and part of the prob.

Its about underneath first and foremost.
The womens growth is going to keep going and great, as Flytox mentions there are Clubs but is there enough but more so local "grounds" - better facilities etcetc......
The lower eco system needs the funding and lobbying with councils this is on the FA and the State Feds waking the fuck up, there's a struggle every season over ground availability due to cricket season, too much sharing of fields with other codes, so many Teams in Clubs talking Sydney training nights is a mosh pit at many, if syn pitch's are the need as it seems going this way more needs to be done about this as well.
Fees, its OTT as we all know, not just the girls the young boys.

That idiot albo riding off the back of the Matildas and ol Hawkey times blubbering about a public holiday - seriously what a piss take and kudos to the below
‘Fund our f***king sport’: Ex-Matilda’s vicious Alboattack
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has copped a withering spray from a formerMatildas star in response to his push for a public holiday following the WorldCup.
https://www.foxsports.com.au/football/world-cup/fifa-womens-world-cup-2023-latest-news-results-blog-exmatildas-star-melissa-barbieri-unloads-on-prime-minister-anthony-albanese-over-lack-of-funding-australia-vs-france/news-story/c68e9cd73a573c964336065acc60b29b

Take note FA - time to step up the plate and lobby the Gov finally for our tax payers $$$ instead of pissing down the drain elsewhere as you normally do and stuff a public hol.
Just as GA shakes his head our lacking here and not even a proper dedicated facility for our 2 NT Football teams.
Its seriously is a joke.

I agree with you 100% on EVERYTHING above Enzo.... the NSL was a red hot steaming dumpster fire.... Using "nostalgia" and  "personal romanticism" as a handbrakes for moving on to the next stage of evolution doesn't help me OR you.  Those 42 clubs wanted to but COULDNT market themselves beyond their meagre resources, thats the point... We now have mainstream media, an absolutely stellar home world cup and potentially thousands of young boys and girls looking to swell our playing pool next year... THEY are the future. 11 Australia clubs to support wont work for us, this is beyond the AFL and NRL, we need every single kiddie that is looking on in amazement at this new found "window into the world of the beautiful game" to join the hundreds of thousands of other at their local club. This club should have enough pitches, lights, changerooms and staff to cater for them... The bigger these clubs grow, they more they want to achieve so they can attract more players and support... THATS what Pro/rel can add, THATS what should have been set up in 1977 or in 2005 or in 2024...Build from the bottom, have a club like Middies famous Woy Woy screaming up the divisions because they have 5000 juniors, a full time admin and coaching staff, 4 pitches and 500 punters through the doors on seniors matchday.... fuck the APL and how much money they make man.... Fuck the NSL and how it held soccer in this country back... lets move forward.....   Those tiny communities (whether they be geographical, religious or ethnic) you dismiss can do amazing things...Having 1000 clubs be slightly more popular means the sport iteslef will be massively more popular...  People gravitate towards their own enclaves, they dont do well when told who their "tribe" is.... If AFL was to start up next year from scratch and designate new franchises to new areas it will die in 2 seasons...... 

Football without fans is true but too many decisions have been made for the best of commercial realities and less about football excellence.

So its a balance it needs to be maintained and improved after all its a football league, for example Graham Arnold continues to call on the league needing more games and having a longer season because they dont play enough games compared to overseas.

Its something that needs to be addressed because this problem wont go away but I do agree the more the fans the better.

#fundthegame

Get it trending.

Your fascination with the 42 is misleading

If Melbourne Victory get relegated, that will be very very interesting, 
The journey from possibly, to probably, to actually happening would create much more media interest than any APL manufactured nonsense

The following Season, Melbourne Victory would be hot favourites to get promoted back
That journey and the chance of them possibly failing, to probably going up to actually going back up would also generate much more interest
Add to that the previously promoted teams battle to stay "in with the big boys" and maybe failing

Net result after 2 seasons is exactly the same sets of teams in the leagues, but actual, genuine interest along the way, 
It could have been any of the 'Big Boys' who dropped, and it could've been any of the NSD's that went up. 

That adventure is in the mind & actions of all 24

Authenticity is important for some but less so for others

Right now the APL is stuck with a fishing rod with only plastic bait
Right now the NPL is stuck with only a small pond to fish in

Open it up and let everyone fish anywhere with whatever they have available

Every club starts as a 'tiny community'.

Some stay that way, some give up, others grow

They grow because of many reasons, they might just be well run, have a natural monopoly, a wealthy benefactor or other revenue stream, or some crazy events that no-one predicted.

Right now, they're stop still at maximum NPL level with nowhere to go. 
Meanwhile the APL is carrying Duds that they're insisting 'must survive' because....erm.... metrics

With P&R you need to not finish in the relegation zone
To not finish in the Relegation Zone, you need a team that's stronger than the worst of the rest
If you can do that in the top league year in year out, without being professional, good luck, that'll be a fascinating story in itself.

No need to put the cart before the horse.   P&R will force professionalism naturally

P&R will also get rid of the lemons that are giving the 'Pro game' a bad image.  (Yes, I'm looking at you Brisbane)

If there was promotion and relegation from the ALM to NSD there's no way Melbourne Victory would have finished last in 20/21!