The predicament facing the A-League struck me shortly after the 2010 grand final. Sydney FC had defeated Melbourne Victory in a thrilling game at Etihad Stadium. It was a massive win for Sydney. Instead of the first five seasons of the A-League being Melbourne 3 Sydney 1 for overall championship wins (and Newcastle’s 1), it was Melbourne 2 Sydney 2. Melbourne had been one kick away from claiming A-League supremacy and the resulting bragging rights. Almost unbearable for a Sydney fan.
The next afternoon, the Sydney players returned home to a city of four million people and what should have been an exciting and wild celebration. The club had erected a huge covered stage on the playing field at the Domain, with a backdrop of an enormous Sydney FC shirt.
The entire team was picked up by bus from the airport and brought directly to the sun-drenched Domain. There was Australia’s 2006 World Cup hero, John Aloisi, who had just played his last game for the club. The club captain, Steve Corica, with leg in a brace, had recently announced his retirement. Slovakian international Karol Kisel was about to return to Europe. All were ready to sign autographs and embrace their fans for the last time. And what did the champions look out on as they held the trophy aloft from the stage? A couple of hundred diehards who cheered and clapped and tried desperately to show their gratitude for a fantastic season. Surely the players thought, “Where the hell is everyone?”
That’s the mystery and the problem. A great spectacle needs a big crowd. I go to all Sydney’s home games and the standard of play is usually excellent. In 2009-2010, the football was entertaining and highly skillful, as new coach Vitezslav Lavicka brought discipline and flair to the team. Football’s profile was sky high with the Socceroos successfully qualifying for the World Cup, and the excitement of South Africa approaching. Season five should have seen football on a high and crowds filling the stadiums.
Yet in my over-45s weekend team, where every player stays up all night watching the English Premier League, nobody else goes to Sydney’s games. We talk about Sunderland and Everton. At work, a few people who went regularly in the early seasons no longer bother.
Yesterday, Sydney had its lowest-ever crowd of 7500. Its average crowd reached a peak in the first season, at 16,710, and has been falling since.
Last week, the owner of the Newcastle Jets, Con Constantine, asked Football Federation Australia to save his club. They were champions two years ago in a soccer-mad city. FFA already owns North Queensland Fury and Adelaide United, and Gold Coast United is teetering. The owners of the new club expected for next season, Sydney Rovers, will need very deep pockets, because it is estimated that combined losses across all clubs total $25 million a season. Love of the sport only goes so far when you’re losing a few million a year.
In most other countries, the game is booming, with the English Premier League the world’s most watched sports competition. FIFA has 208 member countries, more than the International Olympics Committee.
The highly successful World Cup in South Africa took top-level soccer to a continent of 800 million people for the first time, and there is an Asian tsunami of interest. The 2014 Brazilian World Cup will be one big global party. Teams such as Barcelona and Chelsea are producing some of the greatest football ever seen, and Forbes Magazine rates Manchester United as the most valuable franchise in any sport.
In Australia, soccer is the only football code listed in the top 10 sports and recreational activities for participation by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The biggest problem in Sydney is finding enough grounds to cope with rapidly expanding demand. Of the 2000 registered players at my local club, Northbridge, 500 are women and girls. Australia is the only country that has four football codes competing for public attention, and while each has its problems, it has been assumed that the world’s most popular game would be one of the survivors. But participation is not translating into paying interest in the A-League.
While there’s a decent chance Australia will host the 2022 World Cup, and this will give the sport a lift as it approaches, that’s a dozen years away. There’s no real problem with the quality of the product, the standard of our stadiums, the coverage on television or the behaviour of players, but there is so much else to watch and do in Australia that football will continue to struggle. The tradition of attending games whatever the circumstances, which sustains clubs with a long history and loyalty built over decades, has not yet created a sufficient fan base. The A-League will survive only due to revenues from pay television and international games, and the benevolence of a few wealthy optimists.
For many years to come, there will be far more empty seats than warm ones in A-League stadiums, regardless of the quality of the players and worldwide popularity of the game. And there seems nothing that FFA can do about it.
Interesting piece, Graham. I can say that I’ve never been to a soccer match in Australia that didn’t have one of my kids playing in it. I have nothing against the game. Played well, it’s interesting but hardly compelling when there’s a million other things to do with the decreasing amount of free time we have.
I went to an Arsenal v QPR game 30 years ago. In the last five years I’ve been to the UK and Europe twice and have never gotten within a bulls roar of getting a ticket. And I reckon, especially in the UK, the reason that people bust themselves to get season tickets is that there’s far less to do with one’s time. Weather is crap, top line cultural activities cost well beyond most people’s ability to pay – and at the bottom line, besides getting plastered at the local, there’s not much to do on any Saturday for the UK urban. Football is the natural choice.
But here – even in cold weather you can put on a steamer and go surfing for free. Or hop on a bike, go for a bushwalk, or if you like sport – actually play – as you do too.
If it’s a small consolation for you, I love a good game of baseball, but nascent leagues here appear and disappear with the blue moon too.
I tend to think that the mistake the Football (soccer) people have made is going head to head with the two major codes,Summer is the way to go gents BTW I follow the Glory as my second team in Perth,I follow my local RL club first, with Wests Tigers and Canberra in that order
There is a fundamental problem with Soccer in Oz.
No coverage on FTA TV. Nada. Zip. Zilch!
I can’t afford pay TV and I’ve never seen an A League match ..EVER!
I love watching soccer, but I’m afraid the FFA has pulled the wrong rein, with the emphasis on pulling in the $sss to buy and develop good players and coaches, while the mass audience is denied access by the paywall.
It might be a good deal for Foxtel. But it sure stinks for your average mug punter. 🙁
The current version of the national soccer competition is the third incarnation. Clubs from the previous versions are now playing at much lower levels of competition. Think of Footscray JUST, Heidelberg Alexander, Juventus, Croatia (Melbourne Knights), Mooroolbark, Sunshine George Cross, Preston Makedonia, Morwell Falcons and South Melbourne Hellas from Victoria. Other states would have similar examples. Soccer is probably played by more people in Australia than any other sport but basketball, but like basketball it has difficulty in translating players to spectators. At least two A-League clubs are run from head office, and at least two others are known to have financial problems.
This may be a peculiarity of the English-speaking world – the Poms sold soccer to everyone but those who speak English. Consider where soccer stands in relation to other sports in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, USA and the Indian sub-continent. South Africa is perhaps an exception, as apartheid reserved rugby for whites.
The national soccer competition moved to a summer season because it could not compete with football (as Australians understand the term) and both forms of rugby. Attendances at A-League matches are no better than NSL attendances of twenty years ago. To put things in perspective, Collingwood Football Club drew about as many people through the gates in 22 games as the A-League did in 135 games last season. Collingwood’s finals games would easily match the total attendance at A-League finals. Even North Melbourne or Port Adelaide draw crowds that any A-League club would kill for. The attendance figures may reflect the comparative attractiveness to spectators of football and soccer.
People have been confidently telling me for 60 years that soccer will take over as the main spectator sport in Australia. Their confidence is badly misplaced
Soccer is a victim of its own unreal expectations. Everyone is pleased that Australia does well in international soccer. We all support the Socceroos. We watch them on TV and sometimes when they play in Australia. The A League hardly includes any Socceroos and is very definitely not top class soccer.
In this country the National game in two thirds of the country is Australian Rules. The remaining third of the country is the centre of world Rugby League. It may be that only one country plays Aussie Rules and only a handful play League but these are games that we like in Australia.
More to the point, when I watch the AFL I know I am seeing the best (Australian) Football. No-one in the world plays Aussie rules better than Gary Ablett, Dane Swan, Adam Goodes and Chris Judd. Rugby League fans watching NRL can make similar comments about Greg Inglis et al. When I watch A League I know I am not watching the best Australian Soccer players much less the best soccer players in the world. Soccer may be the World’s Game but it is played at its best somewhere else in the World.
Australian football fans will support the Socceroos in the World Cup for a chance to support a national team. When it comes to local football, we would prefer to support real teams, with real history and traditions, representing real places like Collingwood, Carlton, Geelong or St George, Manly and South Sydney rather than teams made up by marketing managers, with no tradition and ridiculous names like Fury, Glory and Roar!