Three Ways to Boost the A-League

[costargh]

READ FULL ARTICLE AT LINK THIS IS JUST THE FIRST PARAGRAPH

http://thebigtip.com.au/football/three-ways-boost-league

Three Ways to Boost the A-League
By Costa Vasili on Sun, 09/01.2011

Many Australian sports pundits would have you believe that the A-League is on its last breath, a flailing disaster that is destined to go the same way as the now defunct NSL. How could a league with such alarmingly low crowd figures, with clubs hemorrhaging millions of dollars annually possibly continue to run this way? The simple answer: it won’t. Changes must and will be made. The A-League will be here in five, ten, even twenty years time, but like all leagues worldwide, the environment in which it operates will increasingly face significant challenges. Here are three ways that the A-League could help resolve their issues:
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READ FULL ARTICLE AT LINK

[costargh]

Did anyone happen to get the chance to have a read?

[pi]

Did anyone happen to get the chance to have a read?

Yes I have read it, its a really logical article that raises a lot of good points.

These are my thoughts:

1. Grassroots, etc.
I think this is a really important point. In my local papers, the news of a new club president here or there appears at least once a year, whilst such news from Aussie rules clubs happens extremely rarely. The main idea of A-League clubs having a greater role in the club (ie grassroots) level and establishing a sense of pride and loyalty is essential and should have done originally. I feel that, after having plenty of opportunity to spend analysing other codes (ie AFL) and other successful team sport organisations (eg Cricket Australia, etc) during the developmental phase of the A-League, they should have done better planning to increase participation early on. Poor planning, but immediate action could make the problem better.

2. Cost
This has been raised all the time: Ticket cost vs TV. Now that ticket costs are less standardised, the problem becomes even worse. In order to make a new leaugue more popular, tickets should be sold either fairly cheaply (early on), OR have other entertainment (like T20 cricket with music). Again, poor planning to blame.

3. Advertising
I believe this is the most minor point, as I see plenty of advertising in newspapers and on free-to-air TV regarding Victory clashes (less about Heart matches though). Sure, more widespread advertising would help, but I feel it is more the other two points mentioned in the article that are the real problem.

[costargh]

Great to hear your thoughts! I have been receiving some feedback that my points are 'nothing new' - to which I would say "that was never the point of the article".

Sometimes you don't need some flashy new idea, you just need to make sure things are done right.

[pi]

Sometimes you don't need some flashy new idea, you just need to make sure things are done right.

+1, its all about planning and the basics

[Bonifacio]

To be honest, as someone who actually goes to A-League games, I'd say that the way the vocal fans are treated is a massive factor. 9-10 of my mates and I were going to A-League games week in week out, once police started flooding the terrace and pushing us around and stuff we just got over it and stopped coming.

The league needs free to air exposure and time to grow. When you think of cricket, you don't just think of Shane Watson, you think of Bradman, Waugh, Gilchrist etc. That's the historical impact of the sport that embeds itself on our culture getting people to games. Give the A-League 20 years before it has some sort of impact on the culture of Australians. I honestly cbf typing up a longer reply, but basically free-to-air TV, cheap tickets, a few superstars, patience and clubs treating their supporters as fans not customers is what is needed.