Back in 2013-14, the A-League hit an attendance peak in the men’s competition. An overall number across both the home and away and finals seasons of 1,889,525 set a new bar and one that was not to be surpassed in the immediate years that followed.
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The COVID-19 pandemic messed up just about every sporting league on the planet a few years later and coming off the back of some rather ponderous times where the domestic competition did little better than tread water and take in gulps of dangerous water in the process, recent seasons have been steps forward in the right direction.
After gradual drop-offs had overall attendance down to around the 1.5 million mark by 2018-19, the pandemic-affected seasons that followed made it tricky to establish the state of the A-League, especially with a reduced salary cap and an uncertain future.
Since COVID, the football played in the men’s competition has been simply brilliant, inspired by the vast number of young men that stepped into the spaces occupied by the many foreigners that left for home as soon as it was permitted.
Graham Arnold and now Tony Popovic’s Socceroos have benefitted from the phenomena, with a host of new and young players having come into the national set-up and demanded a long-term investment.
In the season of 2022-23, as people began to venture out more confidently than they had since 2019, 1,309,087 people attended the A-League. The following season, 1,434,307 made their ways to A-League matches, with the increase falling just short of ten per cent.
As things stand midway through the current campaign, the average attendance of 9201 across a full season of 169 games would see a total of 1,554,969 people through the gates. That would represent a near 19 per cent increase across two seasons and another eight per cent increase on a year to year basis.
Both the football being played and the numbers are pleasing, even considering the trouble in Perth and Brisbane that have seen the teams representing those cities continue to struggle and the fans of both grow ever frustrated.
Moreover, the once supported Western Sydney Wanders continue to play in front of very poor crowds and the City Football Group’s expansion into Melbourne has added little or nothing to the league.
Auckland FC players celebrate (Photo by Dave Rowland/Getty Images)
Elsewhere, A-League fans are buzzing. Adelaide, Central Coast and newly founded Auckland lead the way and the big derbies between traditional rivals continue to pull fans in solid numbers.
If it all ever comes together at once for the A-League Men, the result could be astonishing, yet of course, for someone to be first, there must be someone last and there will always be swings and roundabouts.
As the men’s league has battled with lower budgets and a reliance on exciting domestic youth, the women’s side of the competition was reported to be about to explode.
The FIFA Women’s World Cup in the middle of 2023 was supposed to bring long-term and sustained growth, money and success to the game in Australia. They told me there would be a boom in participation (which was actually already occurring) and clubs and facilities around the country would benefit in kind.
The people in the know informed me that, as a result, the Women’s A-League competition would receive a shot in the arm and became a force that alongside the men’s game, had football bringing in numbers across both genders that would rival all bar one code in the country.
After its best ever season in 2023-24, where 307,989 people attended A-League Women’s matches at an average of 2248, the prophecies have proven untrue, as the men’s competition continues to hold up the secondary league that, despite being entertaining to watch, is done so by far too few.
Indiana Dos Santos (Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)
The current 2024-25 attendance figures represent a 29 per cent decrease off the back of the season prior and an obvious bursting of the bubble that some, myself included, predicted.
Dragging stacks of screaming and emotional young girls to games in search of a pair of players’ boots is one thing, and far from sustainable. Rebuilding post-COVID and showcasing the young talent present in the country and creating a quality product in a competitive league is another.
Right now, the men’s competition is growing and building, with further expansion set to parlay the last two seasons. Whilst the Matildas might still be the talk of the town when they are in it, the A-League Women remains something far distant from it and lessening in support.
Football Australia needs both competitions humming, especially considering the fact that as long as the disparity exists, it is the men’s game that subsidises the women’s.
The solution is simple and if 100,000 women supporters got out to matches and support their teams this weekend, along with the men and women who are already doing so, the situation could well be reversed.