How does growth in the Australian League compare to MLS?

Ive been following the A-league quite closely since it began. So far it seems they have made a great start and things look v bright for the future.

Some of the major (allbeit ageing) players are also returning home to play. As MLS have also proved it is essential to have good quality local players in their country's league to help pull in the crowds.

The J-league of Japan has been probably the best example of a 'new' soccer league and MLS and A-league should both look to it as an example of how to do it right.

 

The A-league definately gets more attention in Australia then MLS does here, but MLS has far more potential due to having muich bigger markets in the US, and not being completely isolated from other footballing countries.

 

china-korea-japan-australia-usa are the "new" soccer leagues, may a "super 5" or "super10" between the 5 leagues could be an excelent way to improve the soccer in that countries.

 

http://education.yahoo.com/reference/factbook/as/popula.html

I just looked up the population of Australia and its about 20,090,437 (July 2005 est.). The potential for the league is limited at best with such population. I dont know how Fox executives give a new league with a low population 130 million dollars. I understand the league gets more attention than MLS but the potential to get good ratings is very low. Any one know what tv ratings they get??? I think it was uncle Rupert Murdoch throwing his home country a bone. Hey Rupert thanks for ripping off MLS on the tv deal...

 

rio de janeiro state in brazil have 18 millions of people, portugal 10 millions, then, population isnt a great limit.
unless you want to put australia in the top 4 soccer leagues of the world.

 

They have an Asian champions league, it's not very popular.

 

And the A3 cup (with 2 japanese clubs and 1 korean and 1 chinese).

but in think it need time to be popular.

 

From what i've heard, the Asian Champions League's popularity is practically limited to the Middle East, where there are strong club rivalries. Even when Korean and Japanese clubs face other, crowds are minimal and media coverage is non-existant.

 

Frank Lowy, who now controls Sydney FC, suggested the other day that his ideal is to eventually take the top teams from the A-League and form an Asian super league. Here are his comments from the Sydney Morning Herald:

It is an interesting idea still in its infancy obviously, but the idea of taking some of the new leagues and creating a super league -- a true champions league, in effect, could have tremendous appeal to fans and advertisers.

Link:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/football...ian-superleague/2006/08/21/1156012474942.html

 

is a good ideal, may be work with a huge sponsor.

 

http://www.a-league.com.au/

Interesting thing: they don't include attendance numbers on their website as far as I can tell and, they also include visible links to the FFA.

One thing that always made me wonder is why MLS doesn't have a more prominent link to US Soccer on their site.

For those wondering about attendance, from what I've heard its about on par with MLS or slightly lower.


Anyway here's hoping they announce a CONCACAF Champions League soon!

 

Their league only started yesterday and the first two games had the following attendance

Queensland Roar v Perth Glory - 20,606
Melbourne Victory v Adelaide United - 15,781

There are more games today

 

Fixed your post.

By the way, av attendance for opening week here this year was something like 19,300.
Season openers are always well attended, thats in any league i think...

here's last year's season's A-League numbers:

Team City Region Home Ground Capacity Avg Crowd

Adelaide United FC Adelaide SA Hindmarsh Stadium 16,500 10,947
Central Coast Mariners FC Gosford NSW Central Coast Stadium 20,059 7,899
Melbourne Victory Melbourne VIC Olympic Park 18,500 14,157
Newcastle United Jets Newcastle NSW EnergyAustralia Stadium 28,000 8,486
New Zealand Knights FC Auckland NZL North Harbour Stadium 25,000 3,909
Perth Glory F.C. Perth WA Members Equity Stadium 18,450 9,734
Queensland Roar FC Brisbane QLD Suncorp Stadium 52,000 14,785
Sydney FC Sydney NSW Aussie Stadium 41,159 16,668​

 

This has been said (by me) OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN, but I'll repeat it once again here.....


MLS, nor the A-League, cannot be compared to the J-League. AT ALL. The J-League is simply not a "new" league in the sense of MLS or the A-League. That would be like calling the Premiership "new" because it was formed in the 90s. Get my drift now? Many J-League clubs have been around for decades, whereas all of the MLS clubs have been around for exactly 11 years.


No comparisons, please.

 

There were plenty of teams in America that were decades old, no-one forced MLS to invent some new franchises with no history.

 

Sydney FC drew 19,274 at Aussie Stadium for their opening match.

 

What's your point?

 

nice crowds.

 

Actually three A-League teams were already playing in the old NSL: Adelaide United, Perth Glory, and Newcastle.

 

I like the fact both MLS and the League attract big immigrant crowds, very rare to see that in the rest of the world.

 

I'll be the first to say it


Move New Zealand!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Yeah, they should move to Tasmania and they can change the name to something X-TREME like "The Tasmania Maniacs".

 

Or the Tasmanian Red Devils.