League re-start (pseudo pre season)

[CityBoyz]

46 minutes ago, HughJass said:

No a-league content on kayo.....

 

or on Foxtel Go or on demand in the sports section 

[Nate]

this is a monumental fuck-up by all parties involved

[bt50]

51 minutes ago, Nate said:

this is a monumental fuck-up by all parties involved

I'm not saying its not, but you seem pretty quick to pass that judgement without knowing whats going behind the scenes.

[moops]

I unsubscribed when there was no football, I won't sub until there is.

Hopefully something will be sorted, I'm still hearing Optus rumours.

[HughJass]

Afr saying they've walked https://www.afr.com/companies/media-and-marketing/foxtel-walks-away-from-football-federation-australia-20200618-p553s9

[Nate]

3 hours ago, bt50 said:

I'm not saying its not, but you seem pretty quick to pass that judgement without knowing whats going behind the scenes.

this is a forum - all that most of us do is pass premature, baseless and emotionally-charged judgement

[kiko]

Just read: https://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/fox-sports-remove-australian-football-content-amid-ffa-negotiations

I like the Festival of football approach, really good concept, mini end of year tournament with a game a day for 28 days. 

Just supporting other comments earlier too with regard to Foxtel which is surely on it's last legs anyhow; I think that there will be a massive media shift almost immediately with the FFA hopefully operating it's own pared back streaming service, to  maybe a 3 or 4 or 5 camera broadcasts as early as next season.

The salary cap will have to be slashed to about half to accomodate, no more expensive end of career signings, hopefully more focus on youth.

Big changes happening.

[bt50]

29 minutes ago, Nate said:

this is a forum - all that most of us do is pass premature, baseless and emotionally-charged judgement

[Harrison]

1 hour ago, kiko said:

Just read: https://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/fox-sports-remove-australian-football-content-amid-ffa-negotiations

I like the Festival of football approach, really good concept, mini end of year tournament with a game a day for 28 days. 

Just supporting other comments earlier too with regard to Foxtel which is surely on it's last legs anyhow; I think that there will be a massive media shift almost immediately with the FFA hopefully operating it's own pared back streaming service, to  maybe a 3 or 4 or 5 camera broadcasts as early as next season.

The salary cap will have to be slashed to about half to accomodate, no more expensive end of career signings, hopefully more focus on youth.

Big changes happening.

We can hope for that but Fox might not be going anywhere yet. Too early to tell. Tony Sage said on Tuesday that the latest Fox offer was well above the first offer of $11 million plus production costs. FFA and Fox met yesterday though and the content came down last night...

FFA haven’t been able to negotiate with any other broadcasters. So it’s probably tough to negotiate from that position. 

Whole thing is a bit of a mess. I just hope we can use this opportunity to create a proper, thriving league.  

[jw1739]

5 minutes ago, Harrison said:

I just hope we can use this opportunity to create a proper, thriving league.  

We have to. IMO it's pretty much our last chance - there have been too many mistakes in the past

[Dylan]

Just fuck them off. Only situation where we should agree to a deal is to leave open the possibility to screw them over.

To remove the previous content off their platforms is just childish

Edited June 18, 2020 by Dylan

[Harrison]

34 minutes ago, jw1739 said:

We have to. IMO it's pretty much our last chance - there have been too many mistakes in the past

I agree. I think we use this as our chance to hit the reset button and go all out. I’m very pessimistic about our chances without some serious reforms. 

[kiko]

2 hours ago, Harrison said:

We can hope for that but Fox might not be going anywhere yet. Too early to tell. Tony Sage said on Tuesday that the latest Fox offer was well above the first offer of $11 million plus production costs. FFA and Fox met yesterday though and the content came down last night...  

Interesting, if that happens expect salary cap to be scrapped with clubs operating well under this year's level. Does PFA have a say in this, probably another negotiation there.

 

1 hour ago, Harrison said:

I agree. I think we use this as our chance to hit the reset button and go all out. I’m very pessimistic about our chances without some serious reforms. 

I agree with you there, the FFA has massive opportunities to reset and get a more realistic economic model up and running, and make something more attractive for fans. I'm talking controlling their own media content, reduced wages, moving to a winter season, extending the FFA cup, establishing a 2nd division, supporting the Women's World Cup which needs suitable stadia, getting more $ from government, better alignment for Asian Champions League, revisiting active area policies and practices,  and even possibly creating a exciting summer competition with new format & rules which results in higher scoring games. Lots of avenues to explore.

Edited June 18, 2020 by kiko

[moops]

1 hour ago, kiko said:

Interesting, if that happens expect salary cap to be scrapped with clubs operating well under this year's level. Does PFA have a say in this, probably another negotiation there.

 

I agree with you there, the FFA has massive opportunities to reset and get a more realistic economic model up and running, and make something more attractive for fans. I'm talking controlling their own media content, reduced wages, moving to a winter season, extending the FFA cup, establishing a 2nd division, supporting the Women's World Cup which needs suitable stadia, getting more $ from government, better alignment for Asian Champions League, revisiting active area policies and practices,  and even possibly creating a exciting summer competition with new format & rules which results in higher scoring games. Lots of avenues to explore.

PFA has been a bad influence on our game, they made us like Icarus, reaching above our means. When we should have realised what was important, what we were. Fozzie was the worst with his background with the national team, in the early years of the A League he was a bit of an idiot, a well intended idiot, an idiot all the same.

 

 

Oh my lord you read my mind.

[CityHeart]

On 16/06/2020 at 11:07 AM, Harrison said:

Disagree with it being futile. It’s actually the future of live sport and we have a great chance now to do this. The revised Fox offer changes the equation. It won’t be easy but it can be done.

What’s crucial is cutting production costs down from the $50-75K a game that Foxtel currently pays. Fox put together content that is very high quality. If FFA produce their own content and build their own platform, those costs would need to come down significantly. But it probably could still be done pretty well. This bloke goes into more detail here:

https://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/netflix-style-ffa-tv-streaming-platform-is-the-future-says-sports-technology-expert

Also, folding clubs like Newcastle and CCM is a bad idea, especially when both have good stadia and have proven they can average around 10K. We need to expand the league, not shrink it, and we also need to be comfortable with the notion of smaller clubs, which exist in every league around the world. They don’t need to average 20K, they just need to be sustainable. But other changes can be made to help them achieve that. Transfers and loans would be helpful because that’s the way these smaller clubs can make money.

Agree with stadia being very important. But I don’t know why you’d say that on the one hand and then on the other want to get rid of one or two clubs that have good stadia already. 

 

If you think that slashing the budget and running a cheap streaming offering is going to take the league anywhere you are dreaming. It will be laughable, and send the sport back to the NSL days. Yes, OTT streaming could be the future for major leagues, but lets be honest NOBODY pays the foxtel monthly subscription solely for A-league and hardly anyone will purchase this.  It will be given out for free with club memberships and will signal the end of the league as we know it. 

OTT will work ala Netflix for TV shows - the OTT product is a BETTER product than what TV has been able to provide. Putting up armature budget level streaming for a pro-league is exactly what Netflix isnt.

Stadia is key - but not the only reason for club locations. Newcastle and CCM (always the bottom for crowds) are two clubs from an area that shouldn't be sustaining 2 clubs. The catchment is too small. Even still, their smaller stadiums are still too big and are never packed, creating sellout situations etc. Thats what we need. 12K max etc. Compare to lower league English clubs etc.

Your "sustainable" comment is exactly why FFA and the A-league have ballsed everything up again. No, the key should not be 'sustainable' at all - it should be putting clubs in locations to THRIVE.  Take my point on Werribee - just an absolutely brain-dead decision by a bunch of brain dead people. Yea, they could be 'sustainable' (but probably not really), but a SE Melbourne team would be the only further option in Melbourne to THRIVE. The catchment is much larger, and automatically distinguishes themselves from the two other Melbourne clubs.  An utter no-brainer of a decision that was stuffed up, yet again.

Watch this - foxtel will play hard ball and they have now cut ties and removed all A-league content.

The A-league will buckle and sign a watered down deal because simply without Foxtel (or a FTA partner), this thing is not a going concern. Fact. 

[jw1739]

I've assumed that the use of the word "sustainable" means that even in a worst case scenario the clubs and therefore the league would be able to continue to operate - a "minimum standard" if you like. I haven't thought of it as being the only objective for the future, and I would have thought that growth and "thriving" would be taken as read.

Western United was a poor choice IMO because it relied on something like a best case scenario for it to be sustainable - a new stadium, growth in housing and population, more crowd-pulling derbies, etc. The decision to defer the entry of Macarthur by one season was also made on a best-case scenario - so as not to draw supporters away from Western Sydney and therefore hope that the new Paramatta stadium would be packed to the rafters for  Western Sydney home matches - and this did not eventuate.

[Jacques Le Cube]

TTIM: The prevailing attitude within the football community that Streaming/P&R/National 2nd Division/Allowing A League transfers will fix football in this country when none of it will solve the fundamental problems.

The Socceroos and A League have lost naming rights sponsors, A League clubs are losing millions, 70% of FFA staff have been stood down, we have no TV deal for a comp that starts in under a month and its all happening against the backdrop of a looming recession. Not to mention the dodgy new expansion teams who are hemorrhaging staff and are both being sued by former employees.

This is a Doomsday scenario playing out before us. You would there would be more written about this but half the football media in this Country have lost their jobs. And when someone does write about it (ie Lucy Zelic last Friday), the FFA release several stories talking about how they are open to, yes you guessed it, Streaming/P&R/National 2nd Division/Allowing A League transfers. And somehow it manages to distract the masses with its management jargon and lack of commitment to anything.

Lucy's article Re the foxtel standoff (12th of June): https://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/what-is-our-game-worth-the-bitter-stand-off-between-foxtel-and-ffa-heats-up

Nikou open to 2nd Div (12th of June) https://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/second-division-still-our-ambition-says-ffa-chairman-nikou

Johnson open to domestic transfers (14th of June) https://www.theage.com.au/sport/soccer/ffa-keen-to-establish-domestic-player-transfer-system-20200613-p55297.html

 

 

 

 

 

[CityHeart]

What do we think IS the fundamental problem? There are key issues, but what is the backbone issue? This is half the issue, identifying it.

On streaming, I hope people realise that the reason organisations bring it up is to 'force' foxtel into a deal as they have other options.

It is the ONLY way to negotiate any sort of deal as, you guessed it, the league has no other options. It is a threat and a threat only, and one that foxtel wont fall for in this environment.

It is the last thing that FFA wants to do. Hopefully it wont have to.

[jw1739]

3 minutes ago, CityHeart said:

What do we think IS the fundamental problem? There are key issues, but what is the backbone issue? This is half the issue, identifying it.

On streaming, I hope people realise that the reason organisations bring it up is to 'force' foxtel into a deal as they have other options.

It is the ONLY way to negotiate any sort of deal as, you guessed it, the league has no other options. It is a threat and a threat only, and one that foxtel wont fall for in this environment.

It is the last thing that FFA wants to do. Hopefully it wont have to.

Not enough money in the game to make us competitive with the mega-rich leagues in East Asia?

[Tommykins]

Once again, Squires sums up my feelings on this perfectly.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/ng-interactive/2020/jun/19/david-squires-on-the-return-of-the-once-forgotten-a-league

[haz]

8 minutes ago, Tommykins said:

Once again, Squires sums up my feelings on this perfectly.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/ng-interactive/2020/jun/19/david-squires-on-the-return-of-the-once-forgotten-a-league

Man I've missed his A-League commentary.

Also love it whenever a Simpson's monorail reference is used.

[Harrison]

3 hours ago, CityHeart said:

 

If you think that slashing the budget and running a cheap streaming offering is going to take the league anywhere you are dreaming. It will be laughable, and send the sport back to the NSL days. Yes, OTT streaming could be the future for major leagues, but lets be honest NOBODY pays the foxtel monthly subscription solely for A-league and hardly anyone will purchase this.  It will be given out for free with club memberships and will signal the end of the league as we know it. 

OTT will work ala Netflix for TV shows - the OTT product is a BETTER product than what TV has been able to provide. Putting up armature budget level streaming for a pro-league is exactly what Netflix isnt.

Stadia is key - but not the only reason for club locations. Newcastle and CCM (always the bottom for crowds) are two clubs from an area that shouldn't be sustaining 2 clubs. The catchment is too small. Even still, their smaller stadiums are still too big and are never packed, creating sellout situations etc. Thats what we need. 12K max etc. Compare to lower league English clubs etc.

Your "sustainable" comment is exactly why FFA and the A-league have ballsed everything up again. No, the key should not be 'sustainable' at all - it should be putting clubs in locations to THRIVE.  Take my point on Werribee - just an absolutely brain-dead decision by a bunch of brain dead people. Yea, they could be 'sustainable' (but probably not really), but a SE Melbourne team would be the only further option in Melbourne to THRIVE. The catchment is much larger, and automatically distinguishes themselves from the two other Melbourne clubs.  An utter no-brainer of a decision that was stuffed up, yet again.

Watch this - foxtel will play hard ball and they have now cut ties and removed all A-league content.

The A-league will buckle and sign a watered down deal because simply without Foxtel (or a FTA partner), this thing is not a going concern. Fact. 

Who said anything about cheap and amateur? The costs need to come down but the production quality can still be decent. The technology these days makes that possible.

Nobody will purchase it? 125K A-League members out there, I’m confident many of them will subscribe and if the league aligns better with grassroots and NPL then maybe many more will. If it’s given away for free then yes that would be stupid.

Your comment about Newcastle and CCM always being bottom is ignorant. Even in 18/19 Newcastle averaged over 9K, which was more than us. Back when CCM weren’t terrible they were averaging 10K. Years and years of awful football will bring crowds down but both clubs have shown they can be sustainable. Also, they’re in two separate areas, and it seems like you think they’re in one area. Both areas have over 300K people, so it’s big enough for them to THRIVE, as you put it. I just don’t see how merging them or shrinking the league helps us in any way. All leagues have smaller clubs and we shouldn’t be an exception.

But where are these 12K seat stadiums coming from? I don’t necessarily disagree. I just don’t know where they are and who pays for them.  

And yes I agree with the Team 11 point. I was surprised too. But WU said they could build a small, perfectly-sized stadium relatively quickly and have a catchment area that is growing faster than any other. Doesn’t that meet your criteria? Team 11 are still viable but their stadium solution isn’t exactly robust yet.

Anyway, the whole point of these types of reforms is to create a proper football league that the two million football participants in this country can be proud of. We get control back with a streaming platform. Will it save the league? Maybe, maybe not. But what’s the alternative? Sticking with Fox? Is that what you want us to do? They aren’t the future and don’t care about football anymore. They’ve invested billions in AFL and NRL and will rightly focus on them. 

Edited June 19, 2020 by Harrison

[jw1739]

Stadiums in Australia are very expensive. There are many reasons, not least of which is an insistence by FFA/League that they have all the "bells and whistles." I note that when I used to go overseas quite regularly, many stadiums were fairly basic - facilities for the players and officials and seating for the spectators, but the food and drink facilities were often just set up outside the stadium on match-day only. There are examples of "kit-built" stadiums around the world and if we focussed on the absolute basics and getting the costs down I'm sure that we could do better than what we have.

On streaming, can compromises be made (I don't know anything about streaming or PayTV at all)? For example, if you buy a City membership, why can't that have a discounted additional payment that means you can watch "away" City matches? 

I also think that the various codes could co-operate with each other more on memberships and admission prices.

Overall IMO we need to be smarter on what we're doing as a code and as clubs. City will survive while CFG are still the owners, simply because of our financial backing, but as far as relationships with City fans are concerned IMO they have been pretty dismal.

[CityHeart]

4 hours ago, Harrison said:

We get control back with a streaming platform. Will it save the league? Maybe, maybe not. But what’s the alternative? Sticking with Fox? 

Of course they will sign a deal with Fox. Do you really think there is a viable alternative? Unless fox flat our refuse, which I highly doubt. Fox want the EPL back and they are not anti-football. They have just overpaid in the past for what they are getting. No more free lunch for leagues such as ours and super union rugby. Need to stand on our own two feet now and perform as a league.

Pretty simple what must happen. Re-sign a smaller deal with fox, and in that contractual period turn the league into a compelling TV product - all of the issues discussed above and everything is on the table. Forensically go through everything from keeping/moving each club, to stadiums, to ticket prices (waaaaay too expensive) to the season length (home and away season nothing more) to the season it is played (I cant see winter working but meh), if it stays in summer SURELY the GF is played before AFL/NRL commences etc.

Everything is on the table. 

[CityBoyz]

James Johnson done remarkably well at a good price. 

[citymad]

I think the result indicates the legal position foxtel were in also. The two seanon transition  to winter will work well prividing the new streaming service get up. just out of interest when was the next team expected to enter the comp?

Salary cap gonski i am thinking. 

 

[fensaddler]

We have a deal. We have a chance to reset. We can go forward. 

[CityBoyz]

All done well done James Johnson 

[Jovan]

20 hours ago, CityHeart said:

What do we think IS the fundamental problem? There are key issues, but what is the backbone issue? This is half the issue, identifying it.

On streaming, I hope people realise that the reason organisations bring it up is to 'force' foxtel into a deal as they have other options.

It is the ONLY way to negotiate any sort of deal as, you guessed it, the league has no other options. It is a threat and a threat only, and one that foxtel wont fall for in this environment.

It is the last thing that FFA wants to do. Hopefully it wont have to.

The fundamental problem is that soccer has never been accepted as a mainstream sport.

You can dance around all the other issues but when you look at everything soccer has never became part of the Australian mentality. 

For the past 20 years or so we in the soccer community have banged on about participation rates and have claimed a place thinking we are equal to the other football codes and cricket/tennis and basketball but ultimately in the hearts and minds we will always be less.

The vast majority of junior participation is because of the other football codes are physically dangerous and not because of the the attraction of our beautiful game. Many of the kids may grow up playing soccer but fundamentally don't love it.

Where does that leave us?

For me the game and community needs to accept its place and concentrate on its own. Stop chasing the dream of becoming a major sport and look within. 

This whole premise of developing a proffessional league and creating clubs in areas that are "viable" is wrong.

The entire model should be based around what happens on the pitch. Play a good competetive game and you will gather genuine support. 

Ignore the outside restraints and go back to absolute basics, follow the example of basketball in recent years, from an almost extinct existence at the proffessional level a few years ago, it is now being discussed as a proper sport again. 

There are enough true believers 100k to 150k nationwide to support a professional game but it needs to be genuine. There are enough people/consortium's willing to invest to become involved to drive future modest growth but ultimately we need to start accepting the reality we are in.

Off to training (finally).

[Harrison]

Pretty good news I would’ve thought. To get $32 million and give us a bit of time and certainty whilst beginning the transition to winter is a very good result. Johnson has done well. 

They will use the FFA Cup as a bit of a testing ground for the streaming platform, so let’s hope that works well and there’s solid uptake. Seems like we’ll be able to finally execute independence too without the threat of Fox walking away. 

The distribution to clubs will probably be lowered so that means the Cap comes down. Do squad sizes reduce too? Might be a stripped back league next season. Things like expansion, second division and rule changes still need to be implemented but we’ve got a bit of breathing room I guess.

All things considered a good deal.

[Jacques Le Cube]

10 minutes ago, Harrison said:

Johnson has done well.

 

10 minutes ago, Harrison said:

All things considered a good deal.

A good deal? TV revenue has dropped 81% from $171m to $32m. Also keep in mind there is a new team and an extra 27 games next season.

As was reported, Fox wanted to reduce the $57m x 3 years to $11m x 3 years. At $32m, Fox are now paying exactly what they wanted in their initial low-ball offer and have engineered a face saving exit. Also, in shortening the contract length by 2 years Fox have saved ~$13m in production costs. (It costs Fox $40k to produce a game).

 

But you wouldn't know it from the reporting of the new TV deal. Instead we get the headline: "A-League set for winter switch after securing new Fox Sports deal"

Of course, the winter switch is not confirmed. It MAY happen, but there is no commitment. But that hasn't stopped Johnson from spruiking its potential:

 

"The deal will see the professional game – for women and men – reactivated, and ensures that football is at the heart of all our thinking in the future"

"The shift in the timing of the next A-League season is a strategic decision to enhance the alignment of our top tier professional men’s league "

"better aligning the competition pyramid of Australian football to facilitate enhanced football outcomes"

 

Just more jargon and spin to distract from the $139m the game has now lost.

 

[jw1739]

18 minutes ago, Jacques Le Cube said:

 

A good deal? TV revenue has dropped 81% from $171m to $32m. Also keep in mind there is a new team and an extra 27 games next season.

As was reported, Fox wanted to reduce the $57m x 3 years to $11m x 3 years. At $32m, Fox are now paying exactly what they wanted in their initial low-ball offer and have engineered a face saving exit. Also, in shortening the contract length by 2 years Fox have saved ~$13m in production costs. (It costs Fox $40k to produce a game).

 

But you wouldn't know it from the reporting of the new TV deal. Instead we get the headline: "A-League set for winter switch after securing new Fox Sports deal"

Of course, the winter switch is not confirmed. It MAY happen, but there is no commitment. But that hasn't stopped Johnson from spruiking its potential:

 

"The deal will see the professional game – for women and men – reactivated, and ensures that football is at the heart of all our thinking in the future"

"The shift in the timing of the next A-League season is a strategic decision to enhance the alignment of our top tier professional men’s league "

"better aligning the competition pyramid of Australian football to facilitate enhanced football outcomes"

 

Just more jargon and spin to distract from the $139m the game has now lost.

 

The way it reads here is that the deal is until the end of 2020-21 season - i.e. for the completion of the current season, and next season. Whatever the actual amount of money is (rumoured to be $32m), it is for that period only, and certainly not over three years as you are stating.

https://www.a-league.com.au/news/football_continues_on_fox_sports

The downside in the deal is that there is no commitment beyond one further season, although there are mixed opinions on whether that is actually a bad thing, because being free of Fox enables us to rethink all the parameters that presently control the league.e.g. KO times and so on.

[NewConvert]

4 hours ago, Jovan said:

The fundamental problem is that soccer has never been accepted as a mainstream sport.

You can dance around all the other issues but when you look at everything soccer has never became part of the Australian mentality. 

For the past 20 years or so we in the soccer community have banged on about participation rates and have claimed a place thinking we are equal to the other football codes and cricket/tennis and basketball but ultimately in the hearts and minds we will always be less.

The vast majority of junior participation is because of the other football codes are physically dangerous and not because of the the attraction of our beautiful game. Many of the kids may grow up playing soccer but fundamentally don't love it.

Where does that leave us?

For me the game and community needs to accept its place and concentrate on its own. Stop chasing the dream of becoming a major sport and look within. 

This whole premise of developing a proffessional league and creating clubs in areas that are "viable" is wrong.

The entire model should be based around what happens on the pitch. Play a good competetive game and you will gather genuine support. 

Ignore the outside restraints and go back to absolute basics, follow the example of basketball in recent years, from an almost extinct existence at the proffessional level a few years ago, it is now being discussed as a proper sport again. 

There are enough true believers 100k to 150k nationwide to support a professional game but it needs to be genuine. There are enough people/consortium's willing to invest to become involved to drive future modest growth but ultimately we need to start accepting the reality we are in.

Off to training (finally).

I tend to mostly agree with you BUT there is another entrant in the market place: online gaming. I have fiends who are heavily involved with AFL & cricket and what they are seeing is a drop in numbers, the kids get dragged there by parents who want them to get some exercise but when they hit their mid-teens they are gonski.

Soon all sports will be battling.

[jw1739]

4 hours ago, Jovan said:

The fundamental problem is that soccer has never been accepted as a mainstream sport.

You can dance around all the other issues but when you look at everything soccer has never became part of the Australian mentality. 

For the past 20 years or so we in the soccer community have banged on about participation rates and have claimed a place thinking we are equal to the other football codes and cricket/tennis and basketball but ultimately in the hearts and minds we will always be less.

The vast majority of junior participation is because of the other football codes are physically dangerous and not because of the the attraction of our beautiful game. Many of the kids may grow up playing soccer but fundamentally don't love it.

Where does that leave us?

For me the game and community needs to accept its place and concentrate on its own. Stop chasing the dream of becoming a major sport and look within. 

This whole premise of developing a proffessional league and creating clubs in areas that are "viable" is wrong.

The entire model should be based around what happens on the pitch. Play a good competetive game and you will gather genuine support. 

Ignore the outside restraints and go back to absolute basics, follow the example of basketball in recent years, from an almost extinct existence at the proffessional level a few years ago, it is now being discussed as a proper sport again. 

There are enough true believers 100k to 150k nationwide to support a professional game but it needs to be genuine. There are enough people/consortium's willing to invest to become involved to drive future modest growth but ultimately we need to start accepting the reality we are in.

Off to training (finally).

You may be correct as far as our "Skippy" population is concerned, but many of our 300,000 migrants each year come from countries where football is king and games like AFL and Rugby (U and L) are just nowhere at all. This surely is an massive opportunity for us?

As well s lack of big money in the game I suggest that the professional clubs are just not innovative enough in attracting and then retaining supporters.

[jw1739]

According to this article the switch to winter is not really a switch to winter - the 2020-21 season will run December to July. Unless this is a one-off and following season will see a real winter competition.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-19/australian-football-leagues-make-switch-to-winter-finish/12375502

[Nate]

I like December to July as a starting point.

The A-League gets its crucial breathing space during summer in what I think, is one of the most saturated sports markets in the world (probably only behind the US, but they have the population to justify it). Then as the season progresses and the A-League will have to compete toe-to-toe with the AFL and the NRL, at least it'll be winter and the teams will have found their stride by then and can produce the highest quality product possible.

Smarter fixturing will be paramount to ensure blockbuster games don't clash with the other codes (eg. avoid fixturing the Melbourne Derby the same night there's an AFL game at the G between two Melbourne-based teams) but I'm excited to see how it goes. The need for change is greater than ever.

[Dylan]

Winter league = new in or out thread?

[Mr MO]

Sad to see that Simon Hill is leaving Fox Sports. Just see and they’ve kept muppets like Slater and Gordon.

[citymad]

Any body else think that a decision will come soon forcing the Victorian teams to relocate to Sydney Hub due to COVID19 spike?

[jw1739]

1 hour ago, citymad said:

Any body else think that a decision will come soon forcing the Victorian teams to relocate to Sydney Hub due to COVID19 spike?

Yes. I go further and suggest that the whole business of "completing the season" is in jeopardy. No-one really seems to have a grip on the local situation, and there are still mixed messages. The Victorian position changed from Friday to Sunday as the daily numbers increased.