I noticed the crowd for the grand final of the VPL was 3-4k. I’m unsure of past crowds but that is woeful, i would have thought a crowd of 10k for a state final should be the minimum expected.

The three major areas that affect a leagues sporting attendance generally are, price, entertainment and connection/passion.

The price is already cheap. Entertainment/standard of play is good and will always be limited compared to higher levels, it is difficult to improve this area without setting unrealistic expectations.

That leaves connection, either the sport is a crap sport and no one is willing to support it or the clubs are not connecting with their local area enough. There are two ways that a connection can be increased. From the top down [a-league interest] and from the bottom up [local support]. At the moment top down interest is limited and the bottom up interest appears to be very low.

While the bottom up responsibility falls back to the clubs, the competition structure could be changed to help assist them.

To increase bottom up interest:
- Reduce divisions to a single division with ~12 teams geographically based teams [removes any ethnic connotation whatsoever].
- Connect each state team to a junior association with only zonal recruiting allowed from that area
- Based on this increase in support from the changes above, look for an increase in local media support much as the VFL, WANFL, SANFL receive i.e. abc coverage rather than channel 31 or less.

To increase top down interest [requires the competition to be of more use to a-league clubs]:
- Reduce divisions to a single division with ~12 teams, raises standard of play and concentrates talent
- Give move emphasis on youth, mechanism of how this is done is not important
- Align 1/2 of the teams to each a-league team, joint activities, community days etc
- Joint promotional support, for instance the VPL grand final should have been on the victory website
- Players from each a-league to play for their locally aligned club in the off season

This was only written in 10 mins but i think that just about covers it. As these reforms are obvious i can't help but think there is something i'm not aware of which is holding them up.