Where the A-League is at (Post Season 8) Part 1

PART 1 –GENERAL STATISTICAL PERSPECTIVE

The eighth season of the A-League has been lauded in many quarters as one of the best seasons yet. This is naturally debateable as will always be the case given there are many perspectives on what constitutes progress. 

What is undeniable is that given the problems that were afflicting the sport a year ago headlined with the highly public spat between the FFA and billionaire owners Clive Palmer and Nathan Tinkler, football has by comparison taken a giant leap back in the right direction.

Long story short, Clive Palmer who owned the Gold Coast United Franchise entered into a highly public spat with Football Federation Australia and this was soon followed by an aggrieved Nathan Tinkler attempting to hand back his license.

A quick visit to the bastion of sound Academic credibility – otherwise known as Wikipedia – reveals the statistical picture through the upturn in attendance figures.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-League as of 10/5/2013

What these reveal is firstly that in terms of the overall aggregate attendance figures the league has jumped from a total aggregate audience of 1,417,084 to 1,666,875 in terms of regular season figures. 

This is a attendance jump of 249,791. This is positive news and can be largely accounted for by the fact that Gold Coast has now been replaced by Western Sydney amongst other factors like the so-called “ADP” effect and an upturn in form by the Melbourne Victory – the largest team in the country. 

This is also a big improvement on the aggregate attendance low-point of 1,023,151 which occurred in the 2008-09 season and represents an increase of 643,724. 

The aggregate figures over time can be slightly misleading though in the sense that the competition has fluctuated in the number of teams over the past four seasons since the 2009-10 seasons when there were ten teams and then eleven teams in 2010-11. 

Indeed, it was interesting to observe the FFA would often start employing the tactic of citing the aggregateattendance figures as opposed to the average attendance figures when dealing with criticism of the state of the league during this time as a form of spin tactic.

Speaking of the average attendance figures, the 2012-13 average of 12,347 marks an increase of 10,497 on the previous seasons average and a further increase of momentum from what was the ‘low point’ in average terms of 9,793 in 2009-10 season as opposed to the aggregate low point that took place in the 2008-09 season.

The immediate increase from a year ago can be explained once again mostly by the direct swap that took place between the now defunct Gold Coast franchise and the new Western Sydney franchise along with the “ADP” factor on Sydney FC crowds most particularly and the continued rejuvenation of Melbourne Victory crowds as was the case in aggregate terms.

The only difference is the low point. Over the course of the eight seasons of the league there have been various factors that have influenced the statistics. This includes the fact that up until the 2008-09 season there were 21 regular season games played amongst eight teams and from the 2009-10 season onwards there were 27 regular season games played amongst ten to eleven teams.

So while there isn’t always a readily clear picture of trends occurring over the lifetime of the league it is nevertheless clear that the league is heading back in the right direction in terms of public interest struggling for the past few years.