Falling attendances

[mikeewanuk]

There has been a lot written on the subject on football forums but very little on mainstream media as they don’t really care. I thought I’d add my two pennies worth as I’ve only been to two games this season. I’ve been a member since 2007 and usually go to every game.
Firstly, Covid. I don’t feel safe mixing with large numbers of people even though we are vaccinated.
Secondly, Can’t see the action. I usually sit near the halfway line in the eastern stand. It’s impossible for me to see what’s going down the other end of the ground.
Thirdly, don’t want to get wet to watch sport anymore. It’s an age thing.
And most importantly. Fourthly, I don’t to watch seventeen year-olds play in a men’s professional league. Too many A-League teams are padding out their rosters with juniors in a bid to keep wages down. Adelaide are experts at this and it ruins my match day experience. Young players have been called off the bench to hopefully snatch a point or win a game with a moment of brilliance. But it doesn’t always work and older, experience opposition players know how to deal with youthful naivety.
The over reliance on young players will have a negative impact on the league. I honestly believe that the NYL is the place for youth and the ALM should be for 20+.
United’s match day squad consists of two very good players ( fortunately one is a goalkeeper). Five good but ageing imports and roughly ten average/squadies making up the numbers. Not an exciting roster.
Where are the likes of Flores, Van Dyck, Carrusca, Dodd and Cassio?
We had quality once and all within a salary cap. That’s probably the real reason why I’ve not been to more than two games this season.
Rant over.

[Stuckey]

Totally understand your first point. I think it will take time to adjust back to feeling comfortable out and about. Sadly in this instance, I think there will be a lot of people who get the taste for the hermit life and going out of the house for some people will become a rare event. Second and third point I'm certainly beginning to understand as well!

As for the age thing, As you say AU have done this for years so nothing has really changed here. Its just a case of the rest of the league being as financially strong as AU have been basically since Nick Bianco left. If people aren't going to games this isn't going to improve. But considering the club has won 13 points this season on the back on players aged under 20 scoring late on, I think there is a lot to be happy about in this area.

I think with the money AU has made from selling McGree has made the rest of the league stand up and notice they have been ignoring an enormous potential revenue stream here with selling on talented youth. The more this occurs the more the league will be viewed as a development league much like Portugal and Belgium are for the big Euro leagues. Unless the league actually continues with this project of actually offering youth decent game time so they are actually able to develop because the 9 game NYL season couldn't event really be considered anything more than a token effort.
Sadly the league has let their biggest potential player market basically slip thru their fingers, being China as the cash being splashed there has well and truly dried up.

As for attendances I think COVID is certainly still the main cause both due to people either being unable or unwilling to attend games. But also thanks to how tough COVID has been the club and league doesn't have the funds to roll out massive advertising campaigns to lure more fans and highlight games are on to wider audience.
Personally I'd still love to see the club look at incentivising their members to lure fans along. Not that members often need incentivising to do so. But more to get people thinking about how they can do it.

[bpowell454]

There has been a lot written on the subject on football forums but very little on mainstream media as they don’t really care. I thought I’d add my two pennies worth as I’ve only been to two games this season. I’ve been a member since 2007 and usually go to every game.
Firstly, Covid. I don’t feel safe mixing with large numbers of people even though we are vaccinated.
Secondly, Can’t see the action. I usually sit near the halfway line in the eastern stand. It’s impossible for me to see what’s going down the other end of the ground.
Thirdly, don’t want to get wet to watch sport anymore. It’s an age thing.
And most importantly. Fourthly, I don’t to watch seventeen year-olds play in a men’s professional league. Too many A-League teams are padding out their rosters with juniors in a bid to keep wages down. Adelaide are experts at this and it ruins my match day experience. Young players have been called off the bench to hopefully snatch a point or win a game with a moment of brilliance. But it doesn’t always work and older, experience opposition players know how to deal with youthful naivety.
The over reliance on young players will have a negative impact on the league. I honestly believe that the NYL is the place for youth and the ALM should be for 20+.
United’s match day squad consists of two very good players ( fortunately one is a goalkeeper). Five good but ageing imports and roughly ten average/squadies making up the numbers. Not an exciting roster.
Where are the likes of Flores, Van Dyck, Carrusca, Dodd and Cassio?
We had quality once and all within a salary cap. That’s probably the real reason why I’ve not been to more than two games this season.
Rant over.

This matches a lot of my thoughts on the matter too. I haven't been to a game this season and it's mostly the seating with the eastern stand closed, then covid, then the quality. The atmosphere at games has nearly completely diminished since making active support pre booked and not organic at all.

The war on atmosphere by the FFA doesn't seem to be something that the new governing body wants to fix either and that's a real shame.

I'll be back when the grandstand reopens and the world is a little bit more normal but I used to happily pay for a reserved gold membership even if I knew I couldn't go to every game. Now I get a GA 8 game flexi. Atmosphere and quality is lacking atm, not just at Cooper's.

[Stuckey]

Not sure what stage of life all of us are at. But I wonder if that has a lot to do with it?
When AU was formed I just left high school and got into the work force. At that stage of my life I had ample time and money to spend on the club I bought memberships and attended most games, I would be on here daily chatting about every aspect of the club. I recall season 07/08 I think it was where AU played a majority of their games on a Friday night. Those nights are some of my fondest memories knocking off work heading to Hindmarsh via The Wheatsheaf Hotel.

I'm now a dad with 2 kids and a large mortgage to pay off so money and time isn't as available to me as much anymore. I don't even get time to watch games live very often. Which is why I'm not on here as much as I find time to watch the matches back without spoilers.
My point is that I think there is a large segment of the early days fan base that are at a similar stage of their lives as I (not everyone obviously!) who just don't have the ability to support the club as much as we used to.
This begs the question what are the club/game doing to welcome in new fans at the stage of life I was at the early days? I think a lot of the early Red Army members would be of a similar age to me. I wonder if their numbers are as strong as the early days?

Obviously this is a very general point but this could be one of several contributing factors as to why attendances are in decline.

[mcjules]

I'm an eastern stander that's not particularly enjoying behind the goals either. I reckon I caught covid at the second city game so I definitely get the hesitancy there as well. However, in general terms attendance at matches seems to be pretty consistent for us and no where near as bad as other teams.

As for the squad, is it really that dire? Goodwin is a pretty good Dodd analogue (experienced south aussie, loves the club, scores plenty). Flores, Cassio and Carrusca weren't household names (in Australia anyway, Chelo had decent pedigree in Argentina) until they made a name for themselves here. Van Dijk is probably the only "coup". To me, there's a lot of looking at the past with rose coloured glasses. Check out our squads of the past and there's not a lot different. I've certainly enjoyed the football a lot more than some other eras of the club.

Everyone wants different things out of the club and that's fine. Just my perspective.

[EdDog]

I look at Sydney FC and used to envy them because they just bought anyone they wanted. Now they're languishing in 6th with an ageing squad and no youth coming through.

I agree having a squad full of youngsters does at times feel like watching the youth team, however I do feel that we have the right balance and would much rather watch the likes of Toure, Irankunda, Popovic, Bernado et al do their thing. These guys are all A-League level so should be playing. It's a much more sustainable approach for a club with limited coffers.

Separate point entirely but we are doing much more for the national team than say Sydney with production of players. National team is in dire straits at the moment and could have used a few more youngsters getting game time in the league over the past 10 or so years.

[MartinAUFC]

I think the major underlying issue with the attendances is being missed here. Covid was just the knock out blow for a league that was already on the ropes. The game just isn't entrenched in the national psyche here in the way it is in other parts of the world, and therefore isn't equipped to cope with the affects of a pandemic. Look at the other leagues around the world. Crowds have come flooding back since lockdown because it's more than just a sport to them.

Football in this country was resurrected in 2006 with the World Cup performance of the Socceroos and the start of the A League. Since then it's been in a steady decline with a couple of peaks in amongst the downward slopes with the Sydney and Melbourne derbies reviving the novelty temporarily. But in this day and age of live streaming and countless home entertainment options, the sport just doesn't have the rusted on support that it enjoys overseas to keep the turnstiles clicking.

Adelaide United are my team and I buy a membership every year and get to every home game if I can, regardless of where I can sit, whether I have to wear a mask or how old the players are. It's a big part of my life but that's just the way I was brought up. I can totally understand if others have different priorities.

[otto62]

I can only make Friday and Saturday games. I’ve been getting an 8 game pass for the last 6 years. I’ll turn up & support the team whatever the players & whoever the coach.

I think it’s very much a Covid thing, made worse by the building works. But we’re not the only ones.

The AFL are bemoaning their crowds being down by tens of thousands (around say 30% or more).

It’s also different in Australia than in Europe. We’ve only recently reduced our restrictions, and a lot of people of people aren’t quite ready to get back to normal yet. I was at a recent private function with about 100 people, not masked & singing away. All perfectly legal. But I just wasn’t ready, so kept my mask on the whole time.

I think we’ll get there. It’s just going to take longer.

[MartinAUFC]

I'm hoping that the new roof on the eastern stand holds some of the sound in and improves the atmosphere a lot next season.
This year was always going to be a bit of a write off from a crowd engagement point of view, even though we've still had some good noise at a couple of games.

[Rojos]

I think Marin is bang on here.

In Europe, and here with the AFL it's an inter-generational thing, so whilst covid was a knockout blow for the ailing ALeague, other competitions are going ok because it's more than just sport.

I'd suggest if it was still Adelaide City and West Adelaide in the national comp, they'd have crowds of 2-3k before the pandemic and 2-3k after, again because it was more than just a game, it was cultural (which was also their limiting factor).


I think the Reds are doing as well as can be expected, hopefully next year less ALeague journeymen and more local products, it helps with the rusting