https://www.codesports.com.au/subscribe/news/1/?sourceCode=CSWEB_MRE170_a_FBK&dest=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.codesports.com.au%2Ffootball%2Fa-leagues%2Faleagues-financial-crisis-club-funding-slashed-by-50-per-cent-as-tv-deal-tanks%2Fnews-story%2F3455d7dbeebef563a6472d58a177750a&memtype=anonymous&mode=premium



The Australian Professional Leagues (APL) board is set to confirm a huge cut to the central distribution fund, derived from TV rights and commercial revenue, from $2 million this season to just $1 million in 2024-25. The 50 per cent reduction in payment to clubs will cover just over one third of the A-League Men’s salary cap of $2.6 million.

CODE Sports understands the APL received as little as $5 million in cash from its TV rights deal this season, announced just three years ago as a $30 million per year deal, after production costs were factored in and penalties around benchmark subscription rates not met.

The APL has two years remaining on its five-year deal with Ten/Paramount+.

The dramatic reduction in payment to A-League clubs, many of whom are already cash strapped, lays bare the APL’s financial plight. By comparison, most AFL clubs and all NRL clubs receive central payments totalling more than 100 per cent of their respective salary caps.

The $140 million private equity injection from Silver Lake - announced less than three years ago - has been spent, although the US firm maintains a position on the APL board and will be involved in the future direction of finances in today’s meeting.

The bleak outlook comes at a galling time for the domestic competition after a high quality weekend of on-field action where Sydney FC won the A-League Women’s grand final, Melbourne Victory won an epic elimination final against rivals Melbourne City on penalties and Central Coast Mariners became just the second Australian team to win an Asian club continental title by lifting the AFC Cup.

The news also arrives at a time when Newcastle United is without an owner, the license for Perth Glory was sold for just $1 and the anticipated introduction of a Canberra men’s team remains in doubt.

How clubs navigate the off-season and set budgets for 2024-25 is uncertain, with sales of young Australian prospects, like the reported $3 million Adelaide United received from Bayern Munich for Nestory Irankunda, set to be the saving grace for clubs equipped to develop talent, a topic covered in today’s episode of Saving Football: Elite Development.

Until now, the central distribution fund underpinned all A-League clubs’ bottom lines, with a former club executive telling CODE Sports it has “always been the No.1 revenue stream.”

The A-League Men’s salary cap is set at $2.6 million, although at least another $3 million is needed per club, per season to cover costs such as coaching, support staff and logistics. Another $1 million annually is required to field an A-League Women’s team.

Next season’s distribution figure of around $1 million is nearly a 70 per cent reduction from less than a decade ago, when each club received more than $3 million per season when the A-Leagues were under Football Australia control. The figure was $2.4 million last July but cut to $2 million in August, just weeks after clubs had already set budgets for the current season.

The APL’s financial state caps a torrid three years after it secured separation from Football Australia, following a bitter six-year political battle that saw the Lowy family walk away from the game in 2018, just 13 years removed from the creation of the A-League under chairman Frank Lowy.

The clubs agitated for change, arguing they had no control over their own destiny.

The APL promised a new dawn when the breakaway was confirmed in December 2020 and a year later, with the $140 million from Silver Lake confirmed, then-CEO Danny Townsend told CODE Sports: “You’ll blow through that money quickly if you’re not careful. It’s about spending it wisely and doing it in a structured way like any other business.”

A series of strategic mis-steps, most notably the reported $50 million spent on the now defunct digital arm KeepUp, has sent the APL into a spiral financially.

Townsend left the APL last October, replaced by Nick Garcia, while inaugural chairman Paul Lederer stood down and was replaced by former Labor federal minister Stephen Conroy.

Garcia and Conroy, tasked with cleaning up the mess, will deliver the harsh news to clubs today.

Under Conroy’s leadership, along with Football Australia’s new chairman Anter Isaac, the once-fractious relationship between the APL and FA is improving; a crucial development given the A-Leagues are the major pipelines for developing future Socceroos and Matildas.

Football Australia CEO James Johnson said the governing body is committed to helping the APL through its current troubles.

“We are in very positive dialogue with the APL,” Johnson told CODE Sports earlier this month. “We are here to help. Might have been frosty a few years ago. Not now.”

Oh boy…

that k unt... in saudi arabia or wherever he is should be brought back...weasle 

these top end corporates always get away with destroying something and moving on to next ay day while everyone else suffers 

The rest of Repucom gang are still here, sucking it dry. 

Probably enacting their own escape plans as we type

+ 9999999999999

They'll need to look at getting out of that deal early. I read something on here that may happen this year? Or am I misremembering. That's unsustainable for another 5-years. All clubs would need to re-structure. 

Clubs re-structuring is probably a good thing. No point pretending things are the same as they were a decade ago. 

They should be carefull what they wish for mate, who else is going to pay to broadcast soccer in Australia? At least enough to distribute 12 million to franchises anyway?

Theyll end up having to live of whatever handouts the FA can afford... Lets hope they dont take anything away from the championship budgets. 

Is it possible they can have a league the second division npl all on YouTube? Feel like that would be something a subscription that gives you heaps of football 

Stephen Lowey predicted this would happen , taking the money admin away from the people that understand money letting the clubs have free rein and Silver lakes $130mil blown mostly on an app that nobody could find .
shambles

The Lowey family surely wouldn't have set up the APL to fail would they? They saved soccer in Australia?

In fairness the early days were pretty decent, good marquee players and decent football 
the middle years were average, post Lowy and the past couple have been pretty dire post Fox even though standard of football has improved, the off field issues keep dragging it down.
all the positives heave been overshadowed by multiple own goals 

Lowy didn't predict shit. He didn't read the room and couldn't figure out everyone fucking hated him. On his way out while the door was hitting his arse, he fired off a "you'll be sorry" like any other mope who just got dumped. People make it out to be some Nostradamus moment.

Not long after all the Aleague advertising began disappearing from Westfields around the country.... And (maybe its just the few that I frequent) Rebel sports stopped carrying Aleague jerseys and merch (at least as many as they used too) 

That should have been enough to set alarm bells ringing!😲

Well the A-league in a good period was 2013-17 when western Sydney Wanderers just entered the comp.

The A-league and Socceroos package was worth 40 million a year, but it was actually 37 million a year as 3 million a year was spent on advertising.

We also had one free to air game on Friday night too. 

The next tv deal was around 50-60 million a year for like 6 years but that was cut off during the pandemic.

And yet the Lowys and the FFA were poorly running the sport here.

Lookin' at the situation now.... That 2013-17 period was like paradise compared to the current situation now.

Yep the APL have done a bang up job.

Those A-league club owners wanted freedom from the FFA. Well you got it.

The A-league has grown significantly.... Into a joke LoL 

But yet the standard/quality of football has increased 

It ain't squat if there's no A-league in 2024-25 right?

We need money in this A-league league or will this A-league league be funded by dole bludgers and Centrelink?

Carn the Centrelink Socceroos! LoL 

Yep but in the past people have said that the financial support will improve when the product improves. 

I'm not so sure about that. Not saying it's worse, more that it's pretty much stayed the same as it has been for a decade or so. Only difference in the last couple of seasons is we are seeing more young blokes get more minutes. This is a direct result of the cap being reduced.

8k crowds is good for our wages globally and 12k that we used to have is insane

Need to find a way to have profitable match days. If we do that then wages can increse which should bump crowds up etc

I still dont understand the insistence of higher wages means better attendance??? Havent you all seen what is happening in Saudi Arabia? 

Do you not think that league crowds can be bumped up to 15-20k averages if the actual clubs marketed themselves to their target demographic a bit better and made their customers feel like members and a tribe rather than an income stream???  FFS its not rocket science.. Who cares how dire the football on the park is as long as your lads are on the pitch representing you?... Sheesh look at African and Eastern European leagues with wages no higher than the oranges they get at 1/2 time.... 

In who's estimation, yours? 
You and others still don't get it. 80% of the defenders have no idea how and where to position themselves and that's why young players are scoring goals. Move forward and those same players can't get game times o/s because they can't score against good defenders.
I like everyone on here have high hopes for Irankunda and I really hope he can buck the trend of the last decade.

That's nice to hear. So does that translates to money or more viewers?

So.... Why isn't the average game getting 20-30,000 a game?

Why isn't there an average 500,000 people watching an average game?

Good questions that I don’t know answers to. AL crowds/tv subscribers haven’t been the same since covid hit. Now there’s a cost of living crisis. There might be more tv viewers if AL was broadcast by Optus cos they also show EPL - people that pay for Optus for EPL are less likely to pay for Paramount as well just to watch a lesser league?

again its excuses. 1st off it was the Effnicks.

Then it was the AFL and NRL and even the NBL were sabotaging us lol

Now its covid, the cost of living crisis. The Centrelink Socceroos . 

Everyone on here said free to air was supposed to be the saviour. We got A-league games on SBS , then on ABC , now on channel 10. 

See what the APL should of done with that 40 millon a year from Paramount was actually spend money to Advertise this product.

I know the answer (or at least I think I do), it is Media. You absolutely need personalities at the top end of the game with strong business and media connections. If not, you will become irrelevant to the mainstream market and the professional game suffers and takes generations to recover.

Football had its golden ticket in the Lowy family. A family with (in my opinion) a genuine love for the game, deep pockets and, most importantly, strong business, political and media connections. It is not surprising what the A-League achieved in that time as a result. We now have a bunch of, in Australian business terms at least, a bunch of executives with little or no influence. Accordingly, the game has fallen off the cliff. 

song song song - reminds of a radio sketch whilst driving around long ago in Syd.

Mate, in bold
The Lowy fam had genuine luv to line their deep pockets no diff to all bunchs of white collar excutives.
Their deep pockets only cared for their gain and they didn't read the room a shop front needs content and support from beneath whereas a sport such as FOOTBALL needs its poor grass roots foundations the middle to top having connections so as the whole system works together.
It was falling off the cliff pre young Steve he just was the fam sacrificial lamb replaced by their customers - how ironic, they both deserve each other at the bottom of the cliff but the game will and has carried on, look below it survived.

Sounds about right. They Lowy family had deep pockets to grow the sport in this Nation.  They had strong business, political and business conections. Take that away and look what the a-league is now. Its a poxy league run by unemployed dole bludgers and bums. lol

How many leagues around the world are averaging 30000 a game ?

indeed

even in the post covid slump our league is way above average for its wage bill

at the moment we need 16k averages to break even on a wage budget below league 1. This isn't viable as it would mean we are one of the most attended leagues in the world and one of the weakest divisions in the first world. We need to find a way to be profitable with 8k attendance and build by reinvesting profits

I dont know and I dont care.

The point is the backbone of most Sporting leagues in this current situation is tv rights money.

Again at one point in time, We had a tv deal back in 2017 or 2018 that was worth 346 million over 6 seasons. Thats at least 50-55 million a year. That was good money for the A-league and Socceroos package.

and people on here still complained about it because its not fair. It should be as much as the AFL or NRL tv money lol.

We had a good deal money wise when Foxtel paid money each year for the A-league rights from 2005-21. 

We were better off being looked after by foxtel when they had the EPL rights.

Why dont you ask how many leagues IN AUSTRALIA are averaging more than 30k a game?

https://www.austadiums.com/sport/comp/afl/crowds#google_vignette AFl at 39K this eyar

even crummy old NRL is north of 20K

https://www.austadiums.com/sport/comp/nrl/crowds

We are a sport mad country but apparently COVID and cost of living only hit Aleague audiences?

That wasn't his point though, was it ?
Funny that you are quoting Austadiums for crowds, instead of Wookie ! I also quoted them, but you mocked it.

Fair point, it was just the quickest set of number at hand... Also more so arguing the point that COVID and cost of living are excuses for poor crowds here in Australia, not a direct response to you... my bad. 

Yes the Lowys and FFA were poorly running the sport here... most of the funding and focus was on 10 Australian clubs and the other thousand plus clubs were being neglected grossly... Now the FA can do what it is supposed to do, look after the actual sport for a change.

From 2013-17 the whole sport package was 40 million a year. So 10 A-league sides means  4 million per club. Hell even 3 million for each was enough.  That left 10 million left to hold on to. If a struggling club like central coast or Newcastle needed 1 or 2 million to survive, at least the cash was there.

Unlike the previous tv deal when from 2016-13 it was like 115-120 million over 7 years

Most of the funding and focus was on those 10 A-league clubs. You know why? Because they were the main reasons and bulk of the value of the sports package.

When the A-league renewed for 2017-8 season onwards, it reached to 60 million a year for 6 years. Thats 6 million per club or 5 million if we expanded to 12 sides.

I am curious how you think the FA or APL will get this sport out of this poo heaps.

No one, not even Foxtel will want the A-league for even 20-30 million a season for 6 or 7 games a round.

Hell not even channel 7 would want it or sbs or ABC would want it if it was for free 

Sorry I was talking about football in Australia, not the fiances of 10 foreign owned franchises.... The Football federation of a country (any country) is mandated to administer the sport and make sure funding exists for national team setups, coaching, ALL of the country's various league administrations and to ensure we comply with FIFA mandates around participation, inclusion and development... Two totally different things...