A-League ‘heading in the right direction’ despite small crowds

This weekend ‘Big Blue’ is set to give A-League crowd numbers a much-needed boost.

Melbourne Victory players celebrate a “Big Blue” goal last October. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

Saturday night’s “Big Blue” between Sydney FC and Melbourne Victory comes at a good time for an A-League competition battling to attract sizeable crowds to matches.

Week 18 of the competition, which started with last Friday’s Mariners-Phoenix match in Gosford, and ended with last Sunday’s Roar-Glory game in Redcliffe, attracted an average attendance of 6231.

Perhaps of most concern was the Western Sydney Wanderers-Macarthur FC derby at CommBank Stadium drawing a crowd of only 7051.

Another worry was the AAMI clash between Melbourne City and Sydney FC, two of the competition’s glamour clubs who met in a grand final less than two years ago.

Only 5189 fans were in attendance last weekend, with City still struggling to attract a large supporter base despite clearly being the competition’s best team.

The biggest crowd of Week 18 was the 8838 in attendance for the “Original Rivalry” battle between Melbourne Victory at AAMI Park.

However, even that figure – despite restrictions which have been placed on games involving the Victory, following December’s Melbourne derby pitch invasion – was disappointingly low.

However, A-League boss Danny Townsend is adamant the competition is “heading in the right direction” in terms of crowd numbers following the toll Covid-19 took on fans.

2⃣ Days pic.twitter.com/2F6zpqzWlT

— Sydney FC (@SydneyFC) March 1, 2023

“It’s a rebuild (of the A-League) that we’ve started and it’s going to take time,” said Townsend added that the addition in recent years of expansion clubs Western United and Macarthur FC, who both struggle for support, affected average attendance figures.

This season, the total attendance number is 792,858, with a crowd average of 7410.

That is an average which has been aided by Sydney FC’s return to Allianz Stadium.

Across eight home matches this season, the Sky Blues attracted 141.508 fans at an average of 17,689 per game.

Despite the rain, a crowd of 21,840 attended this season’s first “Big Blue” – won 3-2 by Melbourne Victory – at Allianz Stadium on the opening weekend of the campaign.

The restrictions which have since been imposed on Victory fans will result in the crowd being less on Saturday night, but Sydney FC officials are hopeful of an attendance of around the 17,000 mark.

Sky Blues chief executive officer Adam Santo said several Sydney fans still regarded the Victory as their club’s greatest rival despite the addition of the Western Sydney Wanderers to the A-League in 2012.

“Many see it still as the biggest rivalry in the (Australian) game,” Santo said,

“There’s going to be a great atmosphere at Allianz Stadium on Saturday night.

“We spent a long four seasons away from there while it was being rebuilt, and everyone at the club has put a lot of work into getting good crowds back there.”

Originally published as A-League ‘heading in the right direction’ despite small crowds