Commenting each of your lines.....

Sentence 1 APL will always stay independant, put yourself in the shoes of the offshore invester.
Who in their right mind public or private give up their Indepedence, IF they can't see and look what one of their minnow fellow investers ala CCM have done for years they are not on the pulse of their investment but as long as the Board keep the fire burning find more License paying suckers we'll survive.

Sentence 2 can be incl above, look after your investment, work it, enhance your youth investment, you just may unearth prospective promising $$ transfers.

Sentence 3, well again comes down to management - boardroom discussion, obviously their License must have clause's or whatever type of stadiums used as in the past, never been a good business decision for whatever X amount of clubs, again CCM best example and AU, no need for stadiums bigger than these 2 imo.
Idiots.

Sentence 4, well its your call what you pay coachs and players, the amount of DUD calls is for all to see, good luck to them have no pity.

Sentence 5, considering the FA and the NSL have the high ground - more so FA thankfully, F em, their model and what they have paid owners will never accept more loss's, half their power gone, let alone relegation. Call red or black, positive negative, 2 different currents.

Sentence 6, seriously mate, if well off large corps can't figure that out no wonder its in the current position, employed a DUD who jumped ship to the ME do you seriously think they can figure out how to rebuild ? oh we have the Jets sale, thank christ you saved a very important bastion catchment of football in our country, lets hope they don't screw this one up again but the ROI for the APL and fellow owners will be a lonnnng way down the path.
Canbra on hold till maybe following season, thank christ for TBH post honeymoon it will be a fail, I'm afraid Canbra doesn't even work for the ARU/NRL greatly how on earth would football work and worse through the Summer, you can't make this shit up.

MSC, I had a brilliant egg bacon roll this morn, Bruce probably eats smashed avo :)

Does he even eat bacon? l
hahahahahaahah

Sort always has been with his analysis or the players association or whatever it was stuff. 

Why I said he’s sitting there like a pollie - he’s more concerned of himself and where his bacon comes from.
Sitting on the fence more than anything constructive.

Djite has turned into a bit of a wanker, actually. He has even been mentioned as a possible state liberal candidate.

Journos came  from  everywhere for the Women's World Cup in Aus.

The management in a range of Aus media outlets dictated that journos should suddenly start covering football.

If APL remains independent the hope has to be that the clubs take a long hard look at how they manage themselves.

I think the implementation of a transfer system and focussing on developing and selling players needs to be a pivot for some clubs.

Sustainable stadium deals correctly sized for the clubs fan base where thats an issue.

Take money away from underwhelming marquee imports, overpaid coaches.

Introduce pro-rel and try to mend some wounds with the old NSL teams.

Get the scale of the finances correct and sustainable and build from there.

If you can build that base hopefully the game can get better broadcast deals. Would love to find a media network who can be a friendly advocate somewhere too. 

Astute post.

Further, puts on helmet, but looking at last seasons key metrics they actually show reasonable growth  The following are all off a low starting point but if they repeat year on year for a couple of years APL will be a different position in a couple of years..... so do FA invest to maintain the growth

The key IMO will be increasing crowds to an average of 15K, and increasing transfer fees.

https://aleagues.com.au/news/isuzu-ute-a-league-three-year-growth-details-tv-viewership-crowds-sponsorship-transfers/

• TV viewers: TV audience for the Isuzu UTE A-League Men’s 2023/24 season was up 53% on Paramount+, 33% on 10 Play and 16% on Network 10.

• Memberships: Club memberships (men’s and women’s) have increased 31% from last season.

• Crowds: Overall attendance across the Isuzu UTE A-League Men season was up 7% year-on-year, with an average attendance of 8.6k.

• Incredible Finals: Three sold out finals to end the season, while the Isuzu UTE A-League Men Grand Final reached 1.12 million (up 12% year-on-year) on TV.

• Players in demand: We’ve had a record year of outbound transfers in the Isuzu UTE A-League Men; over $17m since the start of July 2023 (a 79% increase on last season).

• U23 Minutes: This season in the Isuzu UTE A-League Men saw record minutes for U23 players, a 46% jump year-on-year, benefiting our national teams, resonating with fans and adding to entertaining football.

• Growth in sponsorship: Local and international sponsorship revenue grew 17% across the league in season 2023/24.

• Expanded community: Year on year, our total social community size has grown 44% to 1.9 million fans.

I daresay some clubs that do have NPL setups (but run their junior program right down) probably do buy the gold plated Quilton.

Yeah that bloke Harcourt came across as a typical AFL wanker.

Grassroots football is $200 to $400. I know because my kid plays grassroots and so do I.

Mind you Djite said his 10 year old was paying thousands which is nuts BUT definitely a choice. 10 year olds don't have NPL set ups do they? Do they have gold plated dunny paper at that club?

First I've heard of this over here, but that is problematic.
Although, a new stadium might help alleviate that Andrew Barr... (cough cough)

That's a good point actually. 

Not sure what it is for the city slickers (and also in current time), but depending on the club/age group, would be looking at between $100-$300 fifteen years ago in Griffith.

This. Mind you, the amount of "help" might be allied to the number of strings the FA wish to re-tie about the APL.

I despair of the football politics in this country.

I think there is also a misrepresentation of the cost for 'grassroots' football.

In the video Harcourt says he is playing $250 for his son to play AFL or cricket and he gets vouchers from the Govt. He then said his mates pay $3000 for their kids to play. Djite said his son fees are thousands. What are grassroots junior fees rather than a NPL or reps team fees. I'm sure we are not comparing apples to apples.  

The FA would be laughing their heads off BUT they can't let the A League fail either.

I doubt they'll merge but I can see a situation where the FA steps in to 'help' in some form or another.

Wasn’t fifa involved demanding separation? APL should go to fifa for support. 

Agree. Tells us nothing and pure speculation 

There is some talk about the possibility of this being a problem for the Canberra ALM bid. With both the Brumbies and Raiders playing out of GIO in a cold climate maybe the surface would be problematic.   

I cant see the APL "handing back" the league either... They'll have to go it alone financially from the looks of things with the aim of selling a few more licenses to carry them through the lean times ahead....  Will it survive, who knows?  It almost seems like all the "spectators" in the media are waiting to see which horse to jump on moving forward.. Interesting times. 

Would only do this if absolutely desperate and would rather even then the first step be an fa grant to the a league rather than resuming control


Lack of a safety net from fas massive budget means the a league is finally looking to the transfer market and sustainable match day strategies. The fa .eanwhile can look at funding down the pyramid, expanding the participation rate and building the nst and npl finals

I dont think the APL will hand back the a-leagues to the FA after fighting to have their independence, if anything the FA is in their best financial position in a long time which should help the national teams in terms of funding and attention.
However I can see both parties working together and solving their problems that way.

I dont think band aid solutions isn't the way forward either way, just look how poorly run Australian rugby has been by focusing on the short term goals and ignoring longer term problems and football cant afford to go in a similar path.

As long as any offer of help comes with the terms being made by FA which should include alignment of the seasons for a start.

This article is just a reminder of just how much we are lacking when it comes to football journalism. The author literally never writes about football, or any sport for that matter. As a result it's just a dull generic article with very little new information.

better this in its own thread unlike being inter twined in Middys Broadcast deal thread for I posted links in there earlier on.

Well we don't know what the FA think in the end Balin.
My concerns of the article as usual its a economist suit.
Surprising Cricket didn't come up as one of the opponents more so than Union, Union is a minnow and half now whereas circket still kicking goals and way more international than any of the 3 other codes.
Then we have Bruce being the pollie talking MLS as example he annoyed me there, there is no parallel between the 2 countries in resource/size/fabric and sport fundings privately or corporate.
Start talking real you nobs.

I f    on ly  R emo te Cont rol   w as  st  ill  on f or  um  to sa y   ‘ i  tol d you’  

FA definitely don’t want the ALeagues to fail/fold so will have to offer help of some kind eventually?!

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-11/footballnomics-suggest-a-league-and-football-australia-reunion/103960928