ok, so this post came about after reading simon hills articles in this months mag.

i was having a chat with my younger cousin the other day. we were speaking about his football try outs. he said, practically the whole school turned out to tryout for the football team. he said, football never had such big turnouts before, it was always enough players to make the team, so everyone who turned up was in. but not the case anymore.

he says everyone at his primary school has a soccer ball. everywhere you go, you see one. at break time and lunch time, everyone is playing soccer, hes never seen it like this before.

now this got me excited inside to hear of such a thing. i then wandered, but what happens next? what happens to keep these lads interested? what happens to make sure that the numbers dont dwindle and this is not a phase?

simon hill said in his article about giving free tickets to kids for a-league games and other incentives such as that.

if there really is as much interest as my cousin suggests, then what are the FFA doing to make sure that the kids continue with the interest and it does not just die out during league and union and afl season. there must be some incentives and programs to make sure the game is booming at a primary school level.

It was always the case while I was at school...
And if you were registered at junior level you were given a kids free pass to the demons or parra power
But thats western sydney :D

It seems only logical that teams with big stadiums that they struggle to fill (Sydney, Bris, GCU, Newcastle) have a few games where they give out free passes to every child from a certain district/competition. Not only is this good PR but their parents will come to the game and spend money on their ticket.
Unfortunately clubs don't seem to do be keen to sacrifice a few dollars in the short term to make a lot in the long term.

Throughout the 90s, at Roker Park (not the biggest stadium in England), then later at the Stadium of Light (one of the bigger stadiums), Sunderland gave 2000 tickets every week to local schools and youth groups in order to encourage young kids to go to the game. If a CCC/Prem team in a one team-one sport city, can see value in doing this, I can't see why A-League sides, struggling to establish themselves in a very competitive sporting market wouldn't.

The next question is - once they are playing how do we take them to the next level - my solution...

We get the A-League far more involved at a youth level...
Every franchise should have at least 2 full time, well qualified coaches assigned to touring around the local area giving coaching sessions at local clubs.
The best kids in the area - based on the recommendation of their coaches, not on a mass trial, should be brought together at least once a month, and for a week in the holidays, etc., for deeper coaching sessions with those 2 full time coaches (possibly attended by A-League players, etc.). This both increases the quality of their training, and provides encouragement for them to turn up regularly, etc., and win their coach's favour and earn a recommendation to go to the training sessions. Finally, this also gives the various franchises excellent opportunities to both monitor and contribute to the development of the next generation of talent.

Re Benj: NSL sides used to do that out my way as well. Northern Spirit and Parra Power would give out free tickets to juniors up to the age of 14.

Every young rugby league player gets a card that allows them into regular season matches for free. Excluding finals and State of Origin...how hard can the be to implement?

Edited by avy1990: 10/2/2010 04:07:40 PM

Playing Football and watching football are not the same thing. you'd be suprised how many kids don't want to go watch professionals play when they copuld be playing the game themselves.

I agree in raising the age of free entry to 12 years old but thats about it. Universal ticket pricing is also necessary Kids and penssioners $5 youth (16) conssession $10 Adults $20

I think people need to activly engage the youth they know in to attending matches as well.