What Now for the A-League?

It's finals time in the A-League and time to really celebrate the season. But for those at the top in charge of the game, i.e. Football Federation Australia, there is really nothing to celebrate at the moment.

With two of this season's clubs to cease existing after the Grand Final, i.e. Gold Coast United and now the Newcastle Jets, it puts a dampener on what had so far been a rosy picture of Australian domestic football.

Ok, Gold Coast United had suffered from poor crowds and management of the franchise but elsewhere attendance figures at games had been reasonably healthy - this is soccer after all, which in this part of the world, is very much in the shadow of the other football codes even in the off-season.

Even at the set-to-be defunct Newcastle Jets, the average attendance record has been up there even if it isn't quite up with the city's more well-known rugby league team. Furthermore, the club had won the A-League Grand Final in 2007 beating their closest rivals, the Central Coast Mariners.

So what went wrong? Or rather when did it all go wrong for the 8-year-old A-League?

It's not as if there is no demand for football in Australia. In fact, the establishment of a club in West Sydney for next season is a sign that there are areas in Australia that could host a professional football club.

But therein is the key. The main demand for football in Australia is in the city, in the urban areas where much of the population is, where many of Australia's newest immigrants from parts of the world where football is the sport of choice reside.

That's why the A-League's last expansion team, the Melbourne Heart have actually been quite a success, with its relations to South Melbourne quite clear to see in its red and white colours. It's also why many including myself and the FFA are quite confident that the West Sydney A-League team will be a success.

In fact, Australia's big 3, i.e. Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane could easily support 2 franchises within its metro area. The success of the Brisbane Roar, Sydney FC and Melbourne Victory are proof of that. After all, those cities are up there amongst Europe's largest cities which tend to have more than 1 football team.

Ok, so in that case, why did the Gold Coast team fail even though it was in not just an urban area, but Australia's fastest growing urban area? Well as I have alluded to before, the structure of Gold Coast United
was a shambles and failed to engage the locals despite signing some very good players. The Gold Coast is still very much a new era and most of the residents are either retired or from wealthy families who don't really follow sport - the Titans are also struggling too.

For me, the A-League went country far too early. North Queensland's dismal failure is a testament to that and Central Coast is a remarkable success story thanks to good coaching and management even though it is in possibly the A-League's smallest market. Australia's country is still very much either rugby league, Australian rules or cricket land and with not many football-mad immigrants, it was always going to be tough for the game from overseas to excel.

Heart v Phoenix, Morwell, Victoria

What they could have done is take one or two of the games from the cities into the country, like what the Melbourne Heart did by taking a game into inner Victoria, or Wellington Phoenix into Dunedin. People would definitely attend games but there is less of the financial risk of starting a team in a totally brand and untried market.

If the A-League is to be viable and grow into a profitable league, the league needs to look like this.

Melbourne Victory
Melbourne Heart
Sydney FC
West Sydney FC
Adelaide United
Perth Glory
Brisbane Roar
Brisbane United
Wellington Phoenix
Auckland City FC

As I said before, Brisbane could support another team given the success of the Roar as well as its growing population. It could also easily absorb the void left by the demise of the football club an hour south on the Gold Coast.

The success of the Wellington Phoenix also shows that there is demand for professional football in New Zealand and it's a travesty that New Zealand's largest city does not have its own professional football team especially given 2 out of 3 of New Zealand's immigrants live there.

Ok there was the New Zealand Knights but it was a poorly run organization based in the North Shore of all places with no credos and no marketability.

Auckland City FC

The best candidate for the 2nd New Zealand A-League franchise must be Auckland City FC who know how to excel on the international stage thanks to their experience playing in the FIFA Club World Cup and are definitely Oceania's best football team by a long stretch. They are also an established club and could easily transfer the organization across to the A-League - think Vancouver Whitecaps in the MLS. They should also really play at Eden Park given it is the city and country's premier sporting venue.

The A-League could learn a lot from how the MLS grew after hitting a huge low - they basically focused on the urban centres where all the immigrants are and built on that success and established their roots before expanding to newer markets. Look where the MLS is now.