As we approach kick-off for the A-League season we must acknowledge that the A-League offseason is simply too long and something must be done. In the best case scenario, some fans only need to wait four months to watch their team play between a Grand Final and a strong Australia Cup run. In a worst case scenario, some fans must endure a six months gap with potentially only a single Australia Cup game in the case where their club miss the finals. Considering that the global standard is only a three month offseason, the A-League must address this issue.
The Australia Cup
In an ideal world, the A-League would be able to extend its season by adding new teams, however this is not a real possibility in the short term. Recent improvements in the Australia Cup format though offer an interesting lesson for administrators to consider. For the past few years, the Australia Cup has been held between August and October in the lead up to the A-League season. As well as opting for this new condensed two month format the competition has been experimenting with weekend timeslots to great success. The result has been meaningful football content in the offseason which has helped improve the offseason experience for fans.
For teams that make it far into the competition, like Melbourne Victory and Macarthur this year, their fans have enjoyed something close to a European-style short offseason numbering around four months. Unfortunately though the competition is limited by its knockout nature. Although this delivers drama and conversation, it means
That A-League clubs that are knocked out early are still faced with a long offseason devoid of content for their fans. So the Australia Cup is solving part of the offseason problem, but some clubs are missing out, what can be done for them?
The first question to ask is what are they knocked out clubs already doing? Some like Sydney FC and Central Coast are playing in meaningful Asian competitions, and in fact all the clubs are still playing matches – many fans though simply don’t realise! The simplest way to reduce the A-League off-season would be to elevate the matches that club are already playing so that fans can fend off their boredom and stay engaged with the league. The great news for administrators as well is that to do so would be simple, cost effective and potentially have a big impact to fan engagement and even potentially the wider community.
The A-League Community Series Proposal
A-League clubs played over 50 matches this offseason excluding the Australia Cup. By simply brining these games under a single banner, the APL can effectively shorten the offseason at face value by two months for all clubs. Out proposal is a competition call the A-League Community Series which sees each pre-season result by an A-League club contribute to a single table, with the top team receiving a modest cash prize which would be donated to a charity of their choice. Our proposal would see this competition run along the same dates at the Australia Cup to create a two month football content ecosystem that works for all A-League clubs.
If such a competition was held this year, the final table would have seen Adelaide United win.
Club considerations
The big benefit of our proposal is that it does not disrupt club’s existing preseason plans. They are still empowered to arrange their pre-seasons as they wish. The only additional requirements from clubs would be to register applicable friendlies ahead of time with the competition administrators, and practically to film games so that highlights could be uploaded later. It is critically important that the first iteration of the competition is essentially, a branding exercise of existing pre-season games so as not to impact club commercial arrangements or team preparation plans.
Competition features
Key to the story of the competition will be the cash donation to the charity of the winner’s choice. The community nature of this will allow clubs to elevate charities in their communities, generate good news stories for the A-League and create interest in the competition without being overbearing.
From a branding perspective the competition would require as a bare minimum a separate page on the A-League website to track results, the table and share content including match reports and highlights which clubs are already generating. The new competition identity is also important and has been done already by other competitions. The AFL has branded its pre-season matches as the Community Series, the NRL has branded its pre-season matches as the Pre-Season Challenge, and they have done so to great effect. The brands help media and fans prepare for the season and facilitates league wide conversations instead of club specific ones.
To a lesser extent UEFA did the same thing by replacing international friendlies with the Nations League, a competition which has attracted a lot more attention, without pressuring players and teams in a way that a new A-class tournament would. In the Nations League people invest in the stories and results but teams still have the ability to experiment as they would in international friendlies. The A-League Community Series would play the same role, increasing fan interest due to the potential prestige and charity donation, whilst not being taken as seriously as the Australia Cup (which offers AFC club opportunities ) so that they can use games as they would for pre-season.
Conclusion
We believe our proposal offers an impactful solution to address the A-League off-season length without being disruptive or a financial burden. The competition format is simple and engaging, compliments the existing calendar, and reflects what other leagues are already doing. It’s time the A-League considered this too!
The Beautiful Game 