Roberts1 wrote:The response ‘Rockwood’ (a cemetery in Sydney)
[/b] Not to be pedantic, but it's Rookwood. The answer is exactly as he says, Rookwood, the clubs never did anything to cement new followers. When some died out, the identity they held with the clubs (whether it was ethnic or not) was not carried over. Many old NSL and State League teams became an old boys club. They weren't openly orientated like the Rugby League or VFL in Victoria. These games had an active promotional tendency to drive new members, fans, followers etc. Combine that with the game's lack of prominence during those times, and we have the factors that caused less fans through the turnstiles. The marketing drives and membership drives of the other codes during those times (I know it's later on, but read Kevin Sheedy's bios about that period) were immensely more powerful than football, and never capitalised on the youth playing the game in droves. Only now, we are seeing marketing, membership and marketing drives being done and the effect is there. If this was done back then, without the old boys mentality, we'd have had a different story to tell than Old Soccer New Football.
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