FFA Should Stick With Summer

I am generally a fan of Scott McIntrye’s blog but his latest posting is way off the mark. Sometimes you really do have to wonder if the folks at SBS are locked in the past.

Scott seems to be suggesting that the FFA needs to re-look at the timing of the A-league with a view to move the League back to a winter competition. I couldn’t think of anything more absurd. One of the major reasons for the success of the league to date has been the alignment of the League to the Europe Calendar and the resulting Summer timing here in Australia.

And what does Scott use as the major reason for the decision? The introduction of Townsville may result in a need for them to play the majority of their games at an 8:00pm or later timeslot to avoid the heat and humidity that will be present during summer up there. I don’t think Townsville are going to complain too much if all their home matches from November onwards are scheduled for a Friday/Saturday Night at 8:30pm.

Of course the AFC Champions League entry issue is one that causes concern. The fact that the AFC closes entry to the league in December is a problem that impacts us but the solution is not to change our league timings. Rather we should be working with the AFC to change their entry rules to allow for a later draw. If Japan do change their league timings this will only help to convince the AFC to take a look at this and I am sure we will find other leagues following the Japanese lead.

To me the positives in a summer league far outweigh the negatives.

To date the FFA has been able to position the timing of the league to perfectly to coincide with a finish before the AFL/NFL season kicks off and thus are able to maintain a reasonable level of exposure at the pointy end of the season. But I fear a move back to winter would once again place our sport on the periphery and result in us becoming invisible. There is also the question of stadiums. At the moment with the timing of the league nearly all teams enjoy exclusive use of their stadium during summer, a move back to winter would be a backward step in playing conditions as pitch conditions are impacted due to the sharing.

Now there is no doubt that a 10 team league will present some challenges for the FFA as this will likely result in the need to conclude the competition after the AFL/NRL seasons have kicked off. I feel though that we would still be better off targeting the culmination of our season for a March finish rather than going head to head with them.

Scott touches on the other major benefit of an August to March timing though he doesn’t give it enough importance. The ability to align our season with Europe transfer windows allows us to position ourselves as a launch pad to Europe and ensures that the clubs get a clear run at obtaining and keeping players for the season. As our league grows and develops we should see more and more quality players willing to come here if they believe it is a pathway to Europe.

A summer league positions us well in a crowded market place. If as expected the TV rights increase significantly when they become available again in 2013 this will be due in main to the summer timing. We also get a clearer run at sponsors in summer when we are not competing against AFL and NRL clubs for the corporate dollar.

Finally a summer league encourages bigger attendances. Like it or not the warmer weather and the lack of AFL/NRL to compete against means that the crowds are bigger. Families are more likely to take their children along to a match on a 24oc 5:00pm start than a 11oc night here in Melbourne. Sure the weather is not true to the history of the game but I couldn’t care less if it continues to result in crowds of 30,000 at Telstra Dome (and soon the new Swan Street Stadium).


For me there is no discussion to be had here and hopefully the FFA concur.

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