too funnny must be fandom madness on reddit with the countless ex 442'rs jumping up and down - I can picture seeing them under water with long straws breathing some air lol.....

Doesn't age well that comment. FMD. 

meanwhile the AFL are going to get another stadium built for them by the government....

Must be necessary though even Albo’s on board with it 🤔🤫

Any ‘marquee’ players will either depart or be forced to take huge paycut. Higher paid coaches too.

Aussie transfer thread will be in over drive in off season! Hope sub007 can cope 🤞

Hmm i dont think p and r works without a buffer division so the insane optimism in me says that this is all good because the apl will potter along but it weakens the apls bargaining position and we get p and r sooner

On the other hand, the pessimist in me says that we throw out our top division a second time and the clock restarts again with the nst clubs taking 20 years to get back to where they were

None of the top asian teams have a single national division and we will struggle to compete if we have so few pathways as we currently do

Some of the championship clubs are light years away from where they where 20 years ago mate. 

Whyndham council built the APL one didnt they?

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) 

It's probably wishful thinking on my part that any other broadcasters have any interest. But this Paramount deal is in place so if they left you'd assume it'd be for a better deal. Otherwise you'd maintain the status quo. 

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

Genius 

So it's basically one piss excuse for another?

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 

Source: https://twitter.com/simonhill1894/status/1787752941711143413?t=-1YoO9Zive1cWlbf0w-n3Q&s=19
APL statement:
“As part of our ongoing, planned strategic and commercial review, the APL Board met to review a number of our financial metrics and key leagues issues. Club Grants were one area under discussion today. The Board did not reach a resolution in its meeting. As there has been no agreement on this item, any Club Grant values reported are purely speculative. The APL Board will issue a statement when it reaches a resolution on this matter."

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.

Wonder why the franchise owners didn't sign off on it ?

Perhaps they first asked for some clarification as to where all the fucking money has gone

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. 

+ 9999999999999

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.

Its difficult to know were to begin..... 

There is not a single thing that can be done to fix our position.

IMO there are maybe 5 or 6 major things and hundreds of little things, and all need to be done together.

Issue is there are so many things to fix, agreeing on a pathway out of the mess in our current environment is next to impossible.... like arseholes everyone has an opinion on how to fix things....

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

Hey Mid,

Im sorry but it really isnt difficult to know where to begin.

 We have to, finally, take the plunge and decide on Step #1 - What do we ALL want football to BE in Australia. Not what the APL wants, not what the foreign investors want, not what old bitter NSL die hards like me want, not what AFL/NRL footy mums want, not what politicians want ... what we ALL want. its a simple choice #A or choice #B question and then we need to figure out the rest of it (ie how to get there).

#A a financially succcesful "product" that can be used as vehicle to make a return on investment
OR
#B a football ecosystem that encourage meritocracy and ambition from every single one of its participants from amateur to fully professional, geared towards creating a professional pathway and a playing pool of talent that can go on to represent our nation with success and foster a love of, not only the game here but also, a healthy lifestyle for our future generations. 

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.... 

It’s a no brainer really but the difficulty as always is getting everyone singing from the same hymn sheet.