Over the Christmas / New Year break, our family travelled back home to Melbourne to spend the festive season with our respective families. Having moved to Perth in August 2015, we haven’t had many opportunities to catch up with family since then, so we enjoyed our time back home for the week.
Whilst in Melbourne, we arranged to attend a couple of sporting events, including Perth Glory’s match against Melbourne Victory on Sunday 27 December at AAMI Park as a priority. At that match, Glory salvaged a point in a hard fought and controversial contest with the end result 1-1. A healthy crowd of 22,554 were in attendance, as is always the case at Melbourne Victory. Perth Glory’s marquee player, Diego Castro, recruited from Getafe in the La Liga in Spain was on display and who has hit some great form in recent weeks. The skill level displayed by Diego on the night was a delight to watch and every aspiring young footballer could benefit from watching this professional play football the way he does. He was clearly the best player on the ground against Victory. This is the quality fans can enjoy at A-League matches and also at that game, there was plenty of other quality on the pitch. There is always excitement around players such as Besart Berisha and his duel with our defender Michael Thwaite on the night was outstanding. Who could forget the controversial penalty decision for Besart and the reaction from our goalkeeper Ante Covic after the incident and also in the post-match interview.
That Wednesday, 30 December, we attended the Big Bash League game at Etihad Stadium between Melbourne Renegades and coincidentally the Perth Scorchers. It was opportune for me to return to a stadium where I spent seven years of my professional life and have so many fond memories. We saw our new home-town BBL team, the Perth Scorchers win and we were happy. The game itself didn’t really capture our imagination and whilst it was great to be there on a nice balmy Melbourne evening at a world-class stadium with the roof open, to us, the game wasn’t that exciting. There was a fan sitting near by whom for some reason kept on yelling to his mates really loudly, “This is way better than soccer lads, at least we won’t see a 0-0 draw here”. I am not sure as to why he felt compelled to repeatedly tell his mates this, obviously the cricket wasn’t exciting enough. Ironically, I was in my seats thinking similar thoughts of the Big Bash League and how uninteresting it was, in fact, I enjoyed chatting with former colleagues in the Medallion Club more than watching the game. I suppose it comes down to personal preference as I haven’t been a massive cricket fans since the Chappell days. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the evening experiencing the atmosphere and the jovial crowd. There’s a lot going on off the pitch engaging the crowd which keeps it entertaining.
Leading up to this BBL match, I was impressed and intrigued with the remarkable free to air television numbers that the Big Bash League was attracting on Network Ten, over 1.26 million national average to be exact. In comparison, the Hyundai A-League’s national average at present is 76,000 on SBS2 and 62,000 on Fox Sports, so when on the night of the BBL match we attended they announced a crowd of 28,000, I was not surprised at all. There’s a lot of hype around the Big Bash League despite their participation base compared to our soaring numbers. Even stadium management were pleasantly surprised with the attendance that had projected around 20,000 to attend in planning. It’s been well reported that event the Women’s Big Bash League is drawing a national average audience of 372,000. To me this is a strong indicator that if the A-League was on a free to air network, we would do very well. The numbers above are very hard to compare as they are not really apple with apple comparisons i.e. Free to Air television (BBL and WBBL) vs Fox Sports and the hidden SBS2 channels (A-League). Only 30% of households have access to Foxtel and 4 of our 5 games each week are televised on this platform only with the 5th one on the hidden SBS2 Channel, so there is not much to take from this statistic other than to see the opportunity we have if the A-League had a free to air broadcast partner.
Where the difference lies between the two competitions is the marketing and PR. The marketing of the Big Bash has been brilliant and it goes beyond just the great coverage Network Ten has been able to provide on the free to air network along with the promos across the network. In my short time in Melbourne over Christmas and New Year, the Big Bash League saturated the market with tactical marketing messages. It was almost impossible to not know that the the BBL was on in Melbourne. Personally I learned about the BBL via, emails, several radio stations we tuned into, television, outdoor advertising, plenty of editorial and advertisements in the press, radio and TV, targeted campaigns via Ticketmaster, Ticketek, social media, video content and it goes on and on and on. If you were in Melbourne over festive season and you didn’t know the BBL was in town that week, one game at Etihad Stadium and one at the MCG, a period where people are looking for something to do, you probably had your head under a rock. This marketing is costing millions, funds that are readily available to Cricket through their broadcast and commercial deals and they are prepared to invest heavily in their BBL product.
It is clearly evident that the BBL marketing is integrated with a good mix of above the line and below the line tactics and a world class digital strategy which drives the large attendances. The marketing is over-arching across the competition with localised components, a top down and bottom up approach. Conversely, I did not notice much of a tactical marketing presence for the A-League at the same time and maybe it was drowned out by the noise around the BBL. Network Ten pushed the games very had on the network. We clearly have some work to do in this space and as a collective we recognise and are addressing this as a priority. What football has that cricket hasn’t is a large participation base from which we can draw upon. It is here that I believe we can make a massive difference. Linking the grassroots to A-League Clubs and driving them to our matches is a key.
On the following Saturday night, 2 January, after watching Perth Glory unfortunately go down to Brisbane Roar on Fox Sports, we made our way to AAMI Park to watch Melbourne City Vs Sydney FC, a match I predicted would be a great spectacle. We weren’t disappointed, as we witnessed a fantastic game of end to end football with four goals scored ending in a 2-2 draw. The crowd was bigger than the normal Melbourne City crowds, however, at the same time, the twitter newsfeed was also telling me that a huge crowd was rolling up to the Big Bash League derby between Melbourne Stars and Melbourne Renegades across the bridge at the MCG. When the final attendances were announced at the respective venues on that evening, there were over 80,883 at the MCG for the Big Bash League and 10,140 at AAMI Park for the Hyundai A-League. In the earlier A-League match we watched on Fox Sports from Suncorp Stadium attracted 17,696 fans.
80,883 attending the Big Bash League is astounding! Across the Nullarbor Plain in Perth, the Scorchers also attracted 20,444 at the WACA. Two (2) games of BBL attracting 101,327. Across our five matches in the corresponding week, the A-League attracted around 70,000 fans to our matches. Granted the BBL is a much shorter competition and we run over a 27 week period, but clearly we have to review what we are currently doing and how we can better market the A-League. A-League is currently averaging 11,904 fans attending each game (9% down on last season) whereas BBL is averaging around 30,000 fans at their games at present on the back of last year’s 22,776.
This got me thinking on the way home. What are Cricket Australia doing right and what are we as football not doing right? It has been top of mind since the other night and I cannot fathom how this could happen. Afterall, the Hyundai A-League is in its 11th season and the Big Bash League is in its 5th season, our participation base is soaring and cricket’s is not so and subjectively, I think our “organic” product is better than theirs.
To me it all comes down to marketing and PR.
Too often we hear, if only we football was on free to air television??? This may be true to a certain extent and we will definitely improve our broadcast numbers significantly on free to air television, however, we cannot look at the broadcast situation in isolation as the the solution to everything as I believe the big difference comes down to the way the Big Bash League is marketed compared to the Hyundai A-League. The price of tickets is another learning from the BBL.
Cricket Australia has a powerful marketing division at head office and abundant in resources. Perhaps an investment in our marketing capability is something we need to also review. Of course it comes down to money and it is a cart and horse issue. A better and more lucrative broadcast deal (as per the BBL’s with Ten) would provide much needed additional funds and resources to market the league more widely and aggressively.
The product on display at AAMI Park that we attended between Melbourne City and Sydney FC, was outstanding. The match was a fast, end-to-end, hard fought contest with plenty of skill and vigour on display and with four great goals scored. Earlier on Fox Sports, we watched another great game between Brisbane Roar and Perth Glory with three goals scored. My two sons and I were pretty satisfied with the two matches we had watched having seen seven goals and some great football, despite our disappointment at Glory’s loss who had shown some great endeavour and were unlucky not to secure at lease a point from our visit to Suncorp. Both these games deserved much bigger attendances, particularly the match at AAMI Park.
In Perth, our crowds have ranged between 7,000 – 9,000 this year and we have a lot of work to do in this regard. We have had some challenges around scheduling given our unique circumstances in this market with heat, however, we now have Saturday night kick-offs at 6:40pm and are looking to building upon these attendances in the coming weeks. Our results over the last 5 weeks should hopefully help the cause where we have won 2, drawn 2 and lost 1. This Saturday night for our match against Adelaide United at nib Stadium, all kids come free with a paying adult and hope to see as many people take up this opportunity for what should be a fantastic game between two clubs coming into the game with strong recent form.
We have a busy few weeks coming up as the January transfer window opens on Tuesday 5 Jan as we try to bolster our team with some new players, so watch this space.
Peter Filopoulos
PETER FILOPOULOS Blog Spot #SportsBiz insights & views 
Hi Peter
I think we need to look at what the Perth Wildcats do in Perth as well. With back of bus advertising and banners in St Georges Tce etc. Although they have a great venue, it is a pretty dud product but despite the overall competition struggling, the Wildcats continue to boom.
They must be doing something right.
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Hi Simon, a good point indeed and what has also helped the Wildcats is success. 29 years consecutive finalists is quite a record….
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Hi Peter.Well written I think the main reason glory aren’t doing so well to get great crowds.The price of tickets are too high and glory should push more coming to the game at the kids and teenagers more Tv and radio,social media advertising would help.👍🏻⚽️.
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Thanks Mark
We will be reviewing our ticket prices next season taking following some quantitative research we will be conducting.
The approach has been to encourage people to buy memberships first to derive better value and also encourage non-members to pre-purchase tickets to gain a saving. However, we will review the price at the gate to ensure it’s palatable.
PF
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I think the success of the BBL marketing has a lot to do with the players at the centre of these campaigns- they are internationally renowned and are widely known throughout the non-cricket community. Talking about Chris Gayle, Kevin Pieterson, Mike Hussey, Kumar Sangakkarra etc. They may be a bit past their prime, but people know them and are still prepared to pay cash to see them play.
Unfortunately the A-League doesn’t have anyone as recognisable, which really hampers your ability to attract the general sporting fans that have been turning up to the BBL in droves.
It’s a bit simplistic to say a big-name Del Piero-style marquee player will fix the problem, but a recognisable and respected player would certainly make things a lot easier.
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What arrant nonsense. Kumar Who? I’m no cricket fan and I haven’t a clue who is who in that sport. Whereas I can give you, Hugh, dozens of football names who have enthralled football fans week in week out over the last ten and a half seasons. I guess it’s all about what interest you have in any particular sport, eh Hugh?
Afaic it all comes down to the almost neglible marketing efforts by @FFA. As a football fan I have plenty of ways to know what’s happening from week to week. That is because, as a football fan, I’m interested enough to make the effort to find out. I wouldn’t be relying on the @FFA to get my information. They’re as good as invisible in their marketing efforts. There are 100,000s potential fans who probably never go see an A-League game, let alone watch them on television. Despite the fact that more kids play football at school or in any of the 100s of football clubs around Australia. Those fans don’t because they are simply not enticed enough to make the effort via brilliant marketing campaigns.
There have been noises about football on FTA television. All well and good for those who suffer short memory and have forgotten previous efforts to bring that about. The fact is that the major FTA channels (and I don’t include the SBS and ABC networks) have commercial reasons to push AFL, NRL and cricket ahead of football. For the very simple reason that those sports attract far more fan interest than football. Those channels are prepared to pay huge monies to get those sports on their screens. Their advertisers get good value for their advertisers’ money. They know they won’t get anywhere near the viewer figures for football (and the free to air SBS figures sadly prove that week in week out), so why should they bother showing an A-League game in preference of any of the other sports?
Two words. David Hill. Remember him? He was the boss of Soccer Australia back in the NSL days. He also thought that getting soccer (in those days) on FTA would be a good thing. Off he goes to Channel Seven and sold them the rights to show NSL games. For $10 million dollars. Ten lousy million dollars. And what did Channel Seven do? They thought “suckers” and never showed one game. Ten million dollars? Pocket money for them. But they made sure that soccer would not be shown on not only their screen but on any of the other FTA channels neither. And the AFL, NRL and cricket administrators thanked them for it. And the name David Hill will forever be a stain on the rich pages of football history in Australia.
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You may not know who he is, Ted, but thousands of regular Aussie sports fans do. These are the fans the A-League is missing out on- people who follow all sports generally, and attend games across a variety of codes each year. For these fans, the prospect of seeing the best in the world is a strong attraction- the BBL has this, but the A-League doesn’t. It’s not an anti-football thing, because they are the ones who fill out the crowds for Chelsea, Liverpool, Man U/City etc when they come to town.
Not really disputing anything else in your post, for sure that’s a big factor. But the fact remains that the BBL is in possession of names and faces that are recognisable across a far greater section of the broader sporting community (even if you yourself don’t fall into this), than anyone the A-League can offer.
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Hi Peter,
Nice article but I think you are comparing apples with oranges here. To me, bearing in mind I’m a football fan above all else, have no reason to go to an A-league game or follow the league as it is a 3rd rate league at best. The last 2 people I actually knew in the A-league were Alessandro Del Piero & Emile Heskey, both significantly past their best & still head & shoulders above their competitors. The Big bash has some of the best up & coming players in the country as well as big name legends & current greats from around the world in every team & is a globally competitive T20 league. The A-League just isn’t there.
I think Free to Air TV would improve the numbers the A-league because that’s obvious, but the general public needs to be more engaged with the sport at a grass roots level to generate lifelong fans (& players) that can help the league & clubs grow.
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Thanks Alan
You raise some valid points.
Thanks for reading the blog an sharing your views.
PF
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More arrant nonsense. 3rd rate League? Says the bloke who obviously applied the apples and oranges argument by comparing the A-League with European leagues. Some absolutely top quality games thus far this season as opposed to quite a few EPL hack games I bothered to watch on Foxtel. Only knows two way past it players who impressed him, yet ignores the many terrific up and coming players in the A-League in preference to some in a sport that leaves me stone cold and I wouldn’t bother to watch if you paid me. You’re not an Australian football fan, Alan, you’re a Eurofile. One with a convenient short memory too.
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Interesting article and valid replies above. And as much as it pains me to say it, Alan is correct with his “3rd rate” comment. Not that I agree that it is, but that is the general consensus of the majority of football playing public in Perth at least. Having been born and brought up in a northern England industrial town, I grew up to follow my home town club, Scunthorpe United. At school I was in a minority, most of my peers were Liverpool, Man United, Arsenal shirt wearing kids. Indeed, I used to don a Liverpool shirt until I realised that I had no connection to the city at all, and yet I had a professional club just down the road. Yes the standard was below the EPL, but this was MY club in MY home town. Since relocation to Perth to be with my WA born wife and son it’s following my beloved Scunthorpe United around England that I miss most from home. Since arriving in Perth I am yet to miss a Glory home game. Perth is my home now and Glory is my adopted home town team. Despite feeling angry and disappointed at last season’s salary cap scandal, at 35 years old I’m too in the habit of ‘if there’s a game on I’m going’ to be able to carry out a boycott, as much as I wanted to at first! In a nutshell, the A-League and clubs such as Glory, Central Coast Mariners, Wellington Phoenix and Adelaide United have the same problem as clubs like Scunthorpe United; the majority of the public (and in Australia where it’s 5th/6th in spectator sports makes it much tougher) look at football beyond the Premier League as an inferior product.
And can we really trust the free-to-air networks other than SBS to really promote and push our local World Game at the detriment of other sports in Australia? As a recent arrival to this country, I have major concerns about that. The best we can realistically hope for is this new generation of Aussie “soccer” players benefit from grassroots investment that will inevitably improve our product and clubs need to capitalise on the playing youngsters with offers and incentives to get them (and their parents) through the A-League gates at an early age, as I do with my son – three and a half years old and he’s already been to five Glory games!
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Hi Peter, Very good and very interesting article. You hit the nail on the head when you said the price of tickets. A family (of four) could spend upwards of $200 to go by the time they buy food and drinks along with entrance fees. I’ll admit I was an avid fan from day one and a Golden Member for many years. This membership (some years) gave me a polo shirt, badges, stickers, programme, year book, socks, tie, cap, key ring, pen knife, player cards + playing cards and my undercover seat in the members area. Over the years this gradually dwindled down to virtually nothing, so seven years ago when we were having a poor run (although I still loyally went along) I enquired about a WACA membership. To my surprise a DUAL membership was only slightly dearer than I was paying for my Glory one. You can guess where my money has been going for the last seven years. If I attend all 5 days of the Test series held each year, everything else I attend is virtually free. It now has to be a really BIG game for me to attend a Glory match but should the prices come down I would certainly reconsider.
Good luck for the rest of the season and the future
Steve P.
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Peter, if you think 80k went to the MCG because of “marketing and PR” and not because they like the game, you are deluding yourself. If the former were true there would’ve been 80k in season one and none now. No doubt marketing, PR and FTA TV coverage play a strong role, but only because there is a strong product that is liked by a large majority of the population.
Soccer is a popular sport, but the ALeague is not a popular competition. As previous posts have said, why would a “3rd rate” competition appeal to a wide audience who are used to seeing the best of the best when attending other sports?
The challenge is to not use match attendance as a comparative success measure as this will guarantee failure for a long time. FFA should develop a different measure of success that takes into account some definition of fan engagement. The large participation numbers point to a high proportion of young people. FTA TV not necessarily the key to long term engagement. This is the “digital native” generation. FFA should invest disproportionately in live streaming of every game, tie up with communications provider, eg Optus and provide good value “game passes”.
Win the Internet generation and you win the future, regardless of what crowd numbers turn up in the next 3-5 years.
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As a person who lives and breathes football it is refreshing to be able to read the opinion of someone who is CEO of a football club, so thank you for creating the blog.
I believe the biggest problem we have is the lack of penetration within our own market (football fans). How many people do you know that support European clubs, but don’t support a club in the A-League? Personally I know a large amount of people like this. We know the A-League is that it is an inferior product to the European leagues, therefore the key to getting these people through the gates is to offer an authentic football experience. The only two clubs that offer something close to an authentic football experience is Melbourne Victory and Western Sydney Wanderers and it’s no surprise they have the two largest member bases in the league and the best crowds.
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Some very good points George and hence why I stressed we need to connect more of our participants with ALeague Clubs and I agree we need to do the same with the broader football fans.
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