2. Marquee power

Sydney FC drew fewer than 10,000 people to their 3-0 win over Adelaide United, despite showcasing Bobo smashing the A-League record for most goals in a season. The classy Brazilian was lining up alongside Adrian Mierzejewski – an actual possibility for the Polish World Cup squad – and Johnny Warren medallist Milos Ninkovic. But if you think that’s enough to attract your average Sydneysider, think again.

Despite a record-breaking second successive Premiership, Sydney’s average attendance this season has been 4,000 people fewer than their first season with Alessandro Del Piero, when they finished seventh.

Yes, marquee signatures are competitive, but it’s also worth remembering that practically no superstar retires before 40 these days, so there’s no shortage of them knocking about.

Australian football fans are some of the widest-reaching in the world, strongly supporting leagues all over the globe. They had footballing heroes well before the A-League existed, so if our biggest clubs can't tap into that, they'll stick to watching them on TV.

They're used to that by now. 

Marquees are more than just a face on a billboard, they're the point-of-reference for fans when they think about their team. If you love Barcelona, you don't love the Barcelona crest, you love Lionel Messi and everything he represents. 

If 85,000 Australian football fans will happily shell out three-times the price of an A-League ticket to watch Arsenal’s ‘B team’ waltz around Allianz Stadium, spending the extra-money on marquees is a risk the A-League’s biggest clubs are mad not to take.

3. Free to air coverage

331,000 TV viewers tuned into December’s Women’s Big Bash League fixture between the Sydney Thunder and Melbourne Renegades on Channel 10. On Channel One at the same time, the Sydney derby only attracted 55,000 viewers.

Does this mean the WBBL is six-times more popular than the A-League? Well, given the WBBL attracted 8,726 fans for four of its competitions first six matches – a significant increase on the previous season – while the Sydney derby alone attracted 36,433 people, that seems unlikely.

A reasonable assumption would be that scheduling the Sydney derby on a secondary channel at the same time as a rival sport on a station’s main channel is a certain way of securing poor television ratings. While Channel 10 accounts for 10% of Australian audiences, Channel One accounts for 2.8%.

The A-League’s previous home, SBS Viceland, accounts for 0.8%.

As it’s so often said, more Australian kids play football than any other sport. But only 30% of these kids have Foxtel and it's fairly clear the rest don’t watch Channel One or SBS Viceland, they watch the major television stations. 

Interestingly, the Big Bash provides the perfect example. Originally, Foxtel had the sole broadcast rights and the ratings and crowds were poor. When the competition moved to Channel 10, there was a massive increase across all metrics.

There's no doubt there is waning interest in the A-League, but prime television exposure is a crucial way of engaging the Australian public in football.

If FFA’s broadcast negotiations can’t ensure that games are shown on one of the four major television stations, then – apart from it being a failure of governance - they should bite the bullet and approach a streaming service like Netflix.

The current deals are just further damaging the A-League’s brand.