Pre-game as the Sydney FC hosts Perth Glory:
Cute stadium, a lot of MLS teams would love to have this facility. One thing that the A-League has going for it is the plethora of soccer ready stadiums due to the popularity of the Rugby League and Rugby Union. (Yes, there are two types of Rugby both with their own leagues and rules and such.) But Soccer is a definite outlier in the terms of popularity amongst most Australians. Here is a picture during the game, attendance 6,654.
Keep in mind that the opposition, Perth Glory, has Australian legend Robbie Fowler on the team. This was supposed to be a big game attendance wise. The Sydney metro area has approximately 4.5 million people, the game was on a Sunday at 3 PM in beautiful spring weather (November is akin to May for us) and to only draw 6,654 was pretty disappointing. Especially when you realize that probably 1,000 of the fans were tourists like us checking out the A-League for the first time.
Here is kickoff at the Perth Glory at the North Queensland Fury match from Townsville. Attendance, 4,471:
Sitting on the end zone, beers were flowing:
As you can see, footy in Australia is definitely a work in progress. Talking to people here in the bars and such as far as I can tell the Australian team sports priorities are: Rugby League, Australian Rules Football, Cricket and Rugby Union. Soccer and also Basketball are definitely lower tier sports.
From my limited experience, the A-League is doing what the MLS did Pre-Seattle. (Random tangent: Every MLS reference should be BS or PS, Before Seattle or Post Seattle. Or maybe Pre-Cascadia after next year when Portland and Vancouver join the MLS. I know it’s arrogant as a Sounders supporter, but the goal was moved over the last two years by Seattle and Qwest field.) They are catering to families and the ‘soccer moms’ as their main target market. Time and again, this just does not work. The supporter culture at both matches we went to did exist and in Sydney it lent a tad bit of atmosphere to the stadium, but the F-Troop in Townsville was hard to pick out. I only knew who they were because they were the only ones standing and our resident 8 year old was bugging her “mummy” to ‘go see the F-Troop’. Supporters drive tickets sales.
But the Aussies really love their Olympic sports. In fact they have a great system to discover the next swimming prodigy. In grade four, 9 years old, every child is required to participate in a swimming meet. Each kid has to do at least one race. The top 3 in each distance and discipline per school go to the town meet. The top 3 in each town meet qualify for regional. The top 3 in regional go to State and the top 3 in each state (6 states and 2 territories in Australia) go to Nationals. Keep in mind, this is mandatory participation. It’s a very efficient way to discover those latent swimming talents.
In fact, the Aussies love almost all sports. If we went to a bar during the day (a likely occurrence, have we met?) the telly was always tuned to sports. Whether it was English Premier League, Cricket, Rugby, motorsports or anything else they were used to watching sports at odd hours and always had them on.
In summary, Soccer is down in Australia. But every day a lead on the national news segments is the World Cup 2022 and Australia’s bid chances. Currently at the bookie’s, Australia pays $2.35 for $1 bet. The USA is the favorite at $2. So they have more than a chance, they are almost co-favorites with the USA. A World Cup here would be great to attend and would do wonders for Aussie Soccer. Almost as much good as it would do for the advancement of footy in the US, ALMOST.
1 comment:
I was finally able to check your blog and Australian adventures. How fun! Love all the pictures. When are you back in the U.S.? Hugs...Miss you, Ale Castaneda
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