the point that a lot of people in this thread have missed is that the a-league didn't exist 4 years ago ... it's a start up comp with new teams that came with no fan base . And then they try to compare it to comps that have run for 100+ years .
* the crowds have increased 50% since season 1
* the pay tv ratings increased 23% last season
* there's a heap of private backers trying to buy a-league franchises across the country at a time when RL is struggling to find 1 .
why are they doing that ? because RL has sat on it's hands for the past 100 years and is barely played outside NSW & Qld .... whilst Football's links into Asia has opened doors that RL can only dream of .
The regular socceroos qualifiers either for World or Asian Cups mean that the FFA is no longer broke . Those coffers will overflow when the Asian Cup is held here in 2015.
RL won't die . It will always have it's place although people should stop deluding themselves about it being "the greatest game of all" .
In time the corporate dollar and the best athletes will go to a sport that offers more away trips than Auckland and more earning potential on a world stage .
Bravo!
Finally some truth! Same with you ANT. Well done.
I can answer your questions about why league is bagged right now:
Its about pain. BIG PAIN. What are the greatest human motivators? Pleasure and Pain.
They want to inflict a huge dose of pain onto the rl populace. This will get people moving. (and you know in spite of all the negativity, few fans have left never to be tempted back)
Why not use pleasure? It doesnt sell newspapers. Plus, its not as strong a motivator.
So here we have the A League contract in another kick in your guts league story.
Anyone feeling REALLY motivated right now to put the wind up your nearest RL administrator?
Sure not much in the article is based off facts, but who cares!
This kind of thing is going to drive RL upwards. So when it comes time to change, we dont change a little and be a little bit better, we change a lot, and be a lot better.
And as rl history shows, the game doesnt know head nor tail off the feild a lot of the time - especially now. So a big kick in the *ss will get yers moving!
Kind of clever from news. League in the next 30 years is going to explode. Not much momentum just now, but watch it take off after all the sorting out has gone on.
Pain. Pain in the minds of league fans (payback too?) and the great motivation to come from it. Motivation to change.
