The new Australian Professional Leagues chief executive, Steve Rosich, has declared his goal for the A-Leagues is to eclipse cricket’s Big Bash and see off the National Basketball League’s challenge to be the third pillar of Australian sport.
Four months into the job, the former Melbourne Cup boss has ticked off one milestone: attending a home game at every club. Next, his primary focus is ensuring the A-Leagues resonate with the country’s broader football community once more.
Rosich says he is working with clubs to arrest a stall in attendance growth, as they build next season’s draw around major rivalries in key time slots at tier one venues.
Those major fixtures will be marketed to fans with “ticket offers which are coordinated across the league, that showcase our game is accessible and affordable”, he says.
Even as the NBL boasts of record attendances – close to 7,000 per game – and the BBL anticipates an influx of overseas investment, the former Fremantle Dockers chief executive believes the A-Leagues have a unique opportunity behind the NRL and AFL.
“Everyone has their relative measures, but for a sport that is men’s and women’s, with a season that spans a significant portion of the year, that meaningfully engages with Australia and New Zealand, there’s every reason that we should have eyes on at least becoming No 3.”
The average crowd in the current men’s season is a little more than 8,000, well down on the record of almost 15,000 in 2007-8, and a decline of about 8% on last year.
“Is it at a level that we want to be at? No,” Rosich admits. “But [last season] was the highest season attendance for a considerable period of time, and we expect to finish close to that level this season.”
He cites challenges in Sydney, where the Sky Blues were forced to move from Allianz Stadium and the Wanderers’ on-field struggles continue, as contributing to the situation.
“Even with those factors in place, we’re going to go close to last season’s average, we’re also seeing significant growth of 15% in consumption of streaming minutes of the league, so that showcases an interest more broadly as well,” Rosich says.
The broadcasting deal with Paramount and Channel 10 ends after this season, and most within the sport expect those arrangements will be rolled over for the next campaign. That could extend to 2028, when the rights for Matildas, Socceroos and A-Leagues matches could be available at the same time.
Rosich says there is “multiple party interest” in the next broadcast deal and “conversations are going well” with the expectation they will be finalised “within the next month”.
Football in Australia, however, has a habit of missing deadlines. The APL has taken on ownership of the Central Coast Mariners, and Rosich has previously said publicly that a purchase would be concluded by the end of March. Approaching the end of April, he says “we’re on the cusp of finalisation and announcement”.
Canberra United’s future in the A-League Women also remains up in the air. Matildas forward Michelle Heyman was critical this week of the APL of failing to give players certainty about whether there will even be a club after this week’s home elimination final.
“Those conversations are really important and take time to make sure there’s the right owner with the right plans in place,” Rosich says. “But pleasingly, there’s also strong interest in Canberra and not just in maintaining an incredibly successful-on-the-pitch women’s licence, but extending that to a men’s licence.”
He says discussions with the ACT government over additional support for Canberra United, which would help the club survive another season without new owners, were “positive”.
The window for men’s club Western United – still formally in hibernation after their financial problems came to a head last year – is closing.
“There’s the practicalities of the season ahead, which includes a fixture that we want to finalise by June,” Rosich says, adding that conversations with Western United are ongoing. “We expect to have a firm understanding of where the club is at in the near term.”
Then there is the need for a new collective bargaining agreement with the players. APL chair, Stephen Conroy, said a year ago there would be a “hard cap” coming in next year which would limit club spending, but Rosich says that is still being negotiated.
“There will be a change in the parameters for the salary cap for next season,” he says, reflecting a softening in language from head office. “We’re hoping that we can work through that over the coming week so that it’ll allow clubs to start contracting players in a [more] certain environment in May.”
With A-League Women finals beginning this week, and the men’s later this month, Rosich believes the closeness of the competitions is a key selling point for the A-Leagues, and the finals period in a World Cup year offers a chance to celebrate what makes football special.
“The tribalism of fans is an important element of sport, and I think it would be hard to argue that our game doesn’t have the most tribal fans.” he says. “They bring much more to our game than attendance, they bring energy and vibrancy and entertainment that other sports just don’t have.”
