i think the massive downfall of the A-League (which was the same downfall of the NBL) was selling out to pay tv. there is a lot of interest in A league but pay tv coverage is shocking at best, specifically referring to when it had the NBL and unfortunately the audience dramatically drops when it comes to pay tv. A league really needs to be on free to air along with NBL and i think we would see both leagues doing well. i personally believe that with NBL back on FTA we will see one of the best seasons in a long time in relation to the audience size in both the stadiums and on TV. if A league got the same exposure we would see similar things.

The problem with A-League is that its a model (as was the previous NBL) founded upon the generosity of wealthy benefactors.

Australian sport needs to understand that, with the exception of Rugby League and AFL, all of our professional sports leagues are essentially minor league teams. While they can be and often are entertaining and profitable in their own right, the notion of them ever having 'world's best' competition is a nonsense.

Minor league baseball in the US exists in a very similar way - as a feeder system and training ground for MLB clubs. Yet most of these clubs are profitable and popular within their own markets. Fans get to lay claim to stars on their way through - I remember when Jawai played for us before he went to the NBA sort of stuff, while also enjoying the competition right now.

The key is being profitable. I have never seen the A-League model as successful and while everybody has been quick to bag basketball over the years, and hail the A-League as a model of how to re-invent a sport, frankly I don't think 'football' can hold a candle to basketball in this country in terms of either international results or the quality of the local league (but I may be a tad biased). Particularly when you consider the resources poured into the sport by both individuals and governments. Imagine if Con Constantine had spent $15 mill on the Newcastle Falcons over the past six years rather than the Newcastle Jets?

I do think the A-League does need to go more down the path the NBL has with club ownership.

SRT, I am not sure that "pay TV coverage is shocking at best" is inaccurate as it relates to soccer. Foxtel covers ALL A-League games live. That is a hell of a lot better than the NBL has ever achieved. I agree that sports will have a better chance of attracting an audience if they are on FTA TV, but as far as Pay TV deals go, the A-League one is pretty comprehensive. I have paid for Foxtel for the better part of 12 years now, and granted sometimes I wonder what the f*ck that $110 a month is for, but you do get value for money with sport. Cricket, Soccer, even AFL games that would otherwise appear on OneHD at 3am on a Tuesday, plus a bunch of other sports I couldn't care about.

It is actually the fault of the networks, who prefer their low-budget, lower-brow bullshit reality programmes and horseshit soaps. I just can't see Channel 7 for example, ever being willing to forego Home & Away at 7pm to cover an NBL game.

Yeh i agree with the A league coverage Mutley. but when they had NBL they did nothing to promote it and only showed melbourne tigers game if they were to show any. i have had foxtel and realised im better off spending that money on my internet plan and download/stream everything i watch as our TV channels and Pay TV channels are just stupidly out of date. if you want anything on time you have to go out and get it yourself. but yes A league is always on foxtel but unfortunately i got rid of it and cant watch it anymore and i cant justify the money just for a league. but i do get your point mate.

I will also agree that Foxtel's treatment of the NBL coverage was garbage. You are dead right too, I couldn't justify Foxtel just for the NBL, even at the height of my love for the game.

TV rights have nothing to do with the financial troubles of an A-League Team. A similar problem exists as to why the NBL was restructured a few seasons ago in that private owners with more money than sense were allowed to purchase licenses.

Business plans are one thing but it is the achievement of them that determines if a sporting team is successful or just an ego trip for the owner. Unfortunately in both the old NBL and the A-league it is the newly rich owner that usually makes a hash of it and the players suffer.

Of course, nbl on fta has to work yet. It might appear to be a panacea, but the facts are that it never worked before - not on seven, not on ten and not on ABC, when the NBL ws paying for it to be there. BA is working very hard on NBL at the moment, and doing virtualy nothing on anything else from what i can see.

As for a-league, it was not too long ago on this forum that you were all preaching a-league reform as the way to go for the nbl. i was always one of the doubters for a-league and its model. All that glitters....

Important to remember that netball crowds are about the same as NBL crowds.

But yes, I think what HO means is that it didnt bring in the dollars like a magic solution, and other work needs to be done to capitilise on it being on FTA and make sure it stays there once the five year deal is up.

Actually no, I believe youll find the averages are very similar.

Netball do not generally publish their audiences unfortunately.

Sorry anon, my reference to NBL's failure on FTA was specifically referring to ratings. The NBL was a rating disaster on FTA almost the whole time it was there. In fact, what kept the broadcasters interested enought to stay around was that crowd figures were strong in key markets ... for most of the commercial FTA period crowds drove TV coverage, rather than the opposite. The broadcasters took the view "crowds are strong, we must be able to find a way to make this work as a TV product" - they failed.

However, when the FTA thing blew up, and the research for the move to summer was revealed, we discovered why crowds were so strong - teams like Brisbane and Magic were papering their houses, in some cases giving away thousands of tickets per game - building a house of cards.

You cannot simply say that NBL crowds dropped when it went off FTA. Crowds were in dramatic decline while it still had FTA deals. Its as silly as saying the NBL dies because it went to summer - crowds were in decline before it went to summer. Clubs were folding etc etc.

FTA is not a panancea. The clubs have to work distinctly hard at their grassroots connections, they need to build creative corporate relationships. I desperately hope FTA works and brings crowds back to the league, but basketball is not an FTA product in virtually any country in the world now.

HO, interesting final point. Hadn't thought about that.

sorry anon (for the essay as well as disagreeing).

I appreciate your optimism, I do want the NBL on FTA, and I desperately hope it helps - corporately, awareness etc etc.

But, if the NBL does what it did before, and rates 2's and 3's or at a high 5's or 6's, then it will be consigned to the currently marginalised One HD, rarely shown on Ten, and that will not be good news. I repeat, it is not a panacea.

Call me dumb if you like, but the facts do not support your argument. There has never been a causal link established in the NBL between crowd support and FTA coverage.

I repeat, TV chased the NBL because crowds flourished, TV left the NBL because it could not convert crowd support to commercial viewership - its speculative only to say crowds dropped even more rapidly because it lost FTA. Its speculative indeed to say that NBL crowds dropped rapidly at any point - nothing the NBL saw was as dramatic as a-league's downward spiral.

For a little while there was even an uneven marriage of both FTA and PTV - the perfect mix if you like of revenue and opportunity - but in the end FTA's inability to convert the sports audience boom to a TV audience boom is what caused FTA to abandon the product.

The NBL went off the boil, it started in the mid-nineties, when it was still on FTA. Thats a fact, not an assumption - it ha a number of years of decline while on FTA - and I acknowledge some of that was marginalised FTA on ABC.

A-league has never been on mainstream FTA. 18 months ago (not just a couple of weeks back) i predicted that crowds in the 2009-10 would barely top 10,000 people - poeple here booed me, said i was wrong because the start of the a-league was caught up in the AFL finals etc etc and that at the end of the season world cup interest would boost crowds.

Guess what? A-league averaged just on 10,000 per game last year, dropping 3000 per game.

This year a-league looks like dropping another 2000 people per game on average. Nothing to do with FTA, they never had it.

They had bursting crowds, as many as 15k per game, just 3 seasons ago - on PTV. They grew their crowd based year by year from 11.5k, to 14k to 15k on PTV. They are now in rapid free fall on PTV - and look like they will easily have their worst season ever - while on PTV. None of this to do with FTA.

They are still getting considerable print space, blog space and SBS based coverage along with PTV support, specialised shows and like.

Again, I hope you are right. History (that is the recorded stuff not the fanciful stuff, does not support it).

The FTA landscape is a little different now with ONE, as ratings dont need to be nearly as high to be a success on ONE as the mainstream channels.

Ten will show some marquee games, but I think it is a long term project to be a regular on there, and that is a luxury to have. The fact that the Aus v Argentina games were a big success for ONE is a great sign.

As for FTA = crowds, it isnt a magic bullet without the grassroots work as HO said. But when the NBL went off FTA there was a noticeable drop in average crowds above what had already been happening since the mid-90s, with crowds levelling at approx 3500-4000 the last 8 or so years on Fox.

How much of that was due to Perth moving away from the PEC, Melbourne to the Cage and the Titans folding I dont know. But FTA does have some impact, how much is dependent mostly on other factors in my opinion anyway.

Simply saying FTA coverage(or lack of) is the root cause of the sports success or failue is way to general, there are so many other factors which are involved

I personally think that the increased interest in the league this year is due to the quality of the actual product more than just having a FTA TV presence.

After years of having what was percieved by many as a mickey mouse leage where rich owners (Groves/Cowan/McPeake etc) did what hey wanted and changed the rules to suit themselves in the pursuit of "Success" and therefore consigning the other clubs to being unable to compete, we have a tightly contested high quality competition. On any night any team can win and the clubs have reigned in their outlandish spending and are now viable concerns. (Sure there is a way to go but we are heading in the right direction)
The league itself is now seen to be stronger than it has been for years and running itself professionally.


These factors are what is generating increased interest and now complementing the improved product with increased media exposure can only do good things.