When does keeping a low profile transition into being forgotten? How much are supporters willing to endure? Can you promote your way into a good product? After a week in which it felt like several tipping points were reached at once, these appear to be the metaphysical predicaments confronting the A-Leagues and its handlers, the Australian Professional Leagues.
On Wednesday, the latest symbolic reminder of said malaise was delivered in Sydney’s west at a stadium devoid of fans, colour or atmosphere for Western Sydney Wanderers’ 2-0 A-League Men win over Melbourne Victory. In previous years, this fixture was a bewitching spectacle which consumed supporters and neutrals alike and drove the 22 men on the field to strive for more. But mid-week, two of the league’s most well-supported clubs could attract only 4,231 fans to attend a contest reports described as an “ordeal”. The Wanderers are bad right now, but not that bad.
Only once has the A-Leagues cracked more than 20,000 fans at a game this season and of the teams with actual sample size, only Victory is averaging more than 10,000. Victory games in Melbourne, in fact, make up five of the seven to have lured more than 10,000. Television ratings, even after the behemoth that is the Australian Open has moved on, have been middling to poor. The streaming experience on Paramount+, where most games are shown, is crude to the point where an international viewer watching on YouTube is getting a better experience than someone paying for the service in Australia. Grace periods are a thing but have limits.
Of course, to critique in good faith, acknowledgements must be made. Inheriting a league that was fragile even before Covid-19, the APL was dealt possibly the worst hand by the pandemic. Rescheduling has played havoc with the fixture and the national teams, still Australian football’s best ambassadors, have been moribund. The hype train greeting the APL’s arrival possibly gathered unrealistic steam thanks to bombastic statements about handbrakes and the perception that drains in Football Australia and Fox Sports were being jettisoned. Looking at the empty stands of the men’s Big Bash, the A-Leagues are hardly alone in having Covid-driven troubles.
But these circumstances, the thin margin for error, make the needless own goals all the more grating. And as “drinks breaks” have continued to be inserted into games shown on Network 10 to allow for advertisements, fan sentiment has begun to bubble over.
Football supporters can put up with a lot – they have to in Australia – but having to watch a game be deliberately paused for the benefit of an advertiser is a new one even for them. These breaks in play may be the price required to be on free-to-air TV and exposed to a larger audience, but they come at the cost of what was previously considered sacrosanct to the loyal cohort who stuck with the game. Australian football has a long history of alienating its core supporters in pursuit of a mythical mainstream and injections of capital, and this is seemingly the latest example from a group that promised to be better than that.
And despite all the new bells and whistles, the league’s core product – the actual football these breaks are interrupting – feels stagnant. Ignoring the false comparison that is European leagues, the quality of ALM’s play has taken a step back from its heights of the 2011-2015 period. Dour pragmatism and playing not to make a mistake is now the prevailing paradigm.
Unfortunately for the APL, any attempts to actively legislate how clubs play would take away from the game’s essence – another intrusion on the sacred pitch – and only alienate further. Better players would help, but there’s been more concrete discussion of foreign signings and marquess than youth leagues and development. These are coming, but when?
Meanwhile, in the A-League Women, a day after she scored five goals against Brisbane Roar, Adelaide United’s Fiona Worts was back working her part-time job at a McDonald’s. She still isn’t able to develop as a full-time professional, often finds herself kicking off under the harsh early afternoon sun and only gets to play in a 14-game season. Hey, but at least now, as she serves a McFlurry at the drive-through, she gets to call herself an A-League Women player rather than a W-League one. The Matildas remain the best promotional tool the ALW has but, with professionalism and full home and away uncertain, their harvest is in danger of withering.
Ultimately, things should get better. Covid will fade and fans, after watching the AFL and NRL fill stadiums, will return. It is in the APL’s interest to fix this. But hope is not a strategy. Neither is waiting for Covid. And pretending there aren’t issues beyond the pandemic is not helpful.
