Three totally unrelated and random moments over the last few weeks have made me reflect on the A-League's plight, reinforcing my opinion that the turning point is near.

Without going into too much detail, so as to not to bore you, the three moments were:

Firstly and most mundanely, watching Cricket Australia's Big Bash League launch; a code trying to sell new (plastic?) franchises as it wipes the slate clean, creating its own version of the Indian Premier League to cash-in on the rise of Twenty20.

Secondly, a visit to Adelaide City's impressive clubhouse in the suburb of Oakden, gazing at the trophy cabinet overflowing with NSL and state league trophies and memorabilia.

Thirdly, a pub lunch with an old friend, reminiscing on the glory days of City during Zoran Matic's reign - Milan Ivanovic, Damian Mori, Alex Tobin and co - growing up in the terraces at Hindmarsh Stadium and the morphing of allegiances from City to Adelaide United.

What do they have to do with the A-League's turning point? They reflect one of the greatest underestimations the football community made when the A-League was created: how long it would take for the masses to truly embrace its new clubs.

When the NSL clubs were swept aside into their respective state leagues and the new clubs born, we should have expected that it would take a generation at the least for the A-League to truly imprint itself on psyches.

My generation (Generation Y) and older grew up with the NSL. So our impressionable youth and Australian football heritage lies outside of the A-League, unattached to the current clubs.

Loyalty and attachment, like in any type of relationship, takes time to build. While there's an inevitable embracing of a club that represents your hometown, it takes longer to embrace a club and its own particular and unique culture. Having a shared history is the key - and that only comes with time.

It's why the ties that bind AFL and NRL supporters to their clubs are so strong. Loyalties have been handed down from previous generations; kids, at the most impressionable stage, are raised with these clubs; and there's no disruption or deviation from that shared history.

Codes like football and basketball, which have had a revolving door of franchises come and go in their elite competitions, have struggled for consistent crowds. For all their many administrative failures, this factor has surely hampered the attempts to win hearts and minds.

Cricket Australia will find the same growing pains with their new franchises. All the razzmatazz they can muster in their fancy launch won't mask the fact that fans have lost their connection to the state teams, replaced by teams, new names and colours that bear no resemblance to what came before (and will co-exist with in the Test and one-day arenas).

(On those names, while the A-League has its share of shockers - Fury, Roar, Victory etc - the Bash League has surely trumped them with Scorchers, Sixers, Hurricanes etc.)

Shared history is of the essence.

One cannot fail to notice the number of teenagers hanging around A-League matches - school kids who tend to come out in big numbers around the summer holiday period.

This generation holds the long-term hopes of the A-League's growth. They will grow up only knowing the A-League, Adelaide United or the equivalent. They will grow up unburdened by the disrupted, messy handover from the NSL to the A-League - City to United, for us in South Australia.

Once they grow into adulthood and start introducing the next generation to the league and their clubs, then the handover will be complete. The ties that bind and the shared history will have started from youth and evolve naturally.

It just takes time - and this factor cannot be underestimatedÂ