The A-Leagues must make up for lost time in season 2022-23

Avatar
Melbourne Victory

This upcoming A-Leagues season is without a doubt the most significant in its 18-year history.

It’s been said countless times before, but with the Australian Professional Leagues (APL) now at the helm following an official split from the then-named Football Federation Australia at the tail end of 2020, there will be chances aplenty to confidently stamp the local game’s footing within Australia’s sporting ecosystem.

Contrary to the APL’s expectations, season 2021-22 was stunted by challenges off the pitch such as lengthy COVID-19 enforced delays, turbulent weather conditions, chaotic fixture scheduling, and a Perth Glory side left displaced from Western Australia. On the field though, the competition delivered a closely contested finals push, myriad of exciting youngsters, and a largely entertaining stack of fixtures. The surprise package that was Arthur Papas’ dynamic (albeit vulnerable) Newcastle Jets proved a suitable counter-cultural clash to the tactical pragmatism typically associated with the league, and Melbourne Victory’s committed rebuild reignited the return of the league’s best active support – reaffirming what is undoubtedly the league’s greatest asset.

Perth Glory

Understandably, the APL will be seeking to simultaneously make up for lost time and capitalise on the prospects that will arise from the Socceroos efforts at Qatar 2022 and the Matildas’ conquest to earn a trophy at a home World Cup in mid-2023. This will be no easy feat however.

As a result of what’s largely been identified as yet another rebirth year for the A-Leagues following last season’s perceived restart under new broadcasters Channel 10 and Paramount+, the same priorities of last season remain for the APL – they’ve now just been added to the ever-growing list of responsibilities for them to deliver on.

Worries from fans over the leagues’ broadcaster potentially failing to meet basic expectations ahead of the new season were far from allayed when 10 ViacomCBS’ streaming service Paramount+ confirmed the following through Twitter on Wednesday:

“Dear football fans,

“We want to be upfront with you, and unfortunately live pause and rewind won’t be ready for the start of the 2022/23 A-Leagues Season. We understand your frustration and we’re continuing to work on this feature. As soon as it is ready, we will let you know.”

Undeniably the deficiencies of Paramount+ are proving a much greater hindrance to the APL’s growth strategies and simple desire to make the game accessible for fans and casual supporters than they would’ve no doubt wanted. Alignment across the board requires a broadcaster that treats the A-Leagues with the respect it deserves, and the situation reeks of either a mismanagement of time or a pure disrespect for the competition it has taken under its mantle, or both.

Responsiveness and accountability will need to be well-honed attributes for the APL this season, and the first test of that has come from Paramount+ embodying the phrase ‘teething issues’ for far too long with its lack of refinement as a streaming platform. Whilst the APL would’ve hoped that 10 ViacomCBS would honour their end of the partnership, the onus is on them as a governing body to outline when answers will be provided.

Western United

Despite the issues with Paramount+, the release of ‘Sky Blue: Inside Sydney FC’ – a documentary which mirrors the fly-on-the-wall style made famous by ‘Sunderland ‘Til I Die’ and Amazon’s ‘All Or Nothing’ series – via the streaming service satisfies the exact craving for in-depth content that fans have been begging for here. And it does reaffirm that the broadcasting home of Australian football is looking to match the passion of its fans. It begs the question though of whether the priority for both the APL and 10 ViacomCBS is accumulating streaming viewers or viewing numbers on free-to-air? The move to push the A-League Men from its main channel to Channel 10’s more sports-based sister channel 10 Bold perhaps suggests the former.

Whether such a move is positive or negative is not the dilemma for now, in fact, the A-Leagues now hold in their palms the capacity to produce their own unique content and to dictate their own message. The recently announced A-Leagues All Access series is the first real show of this self-sufficiency as it will take fans into the behind-the-scenes of both the A-League Men and Women week-to-week in order to showcase its depth of characters and to provide casual fans with reasons for investment.

A series which plays out in such a manner will be rife with potential for bite-sized, accessible content that excitedly beckons virality. And that is nothing but a fortuitous result for the A-Leagues, especially in drawing in a younger, more tech-savvy generation of football adherents. The admittedly small pool of dedicated A-Leagues fans will undoubtedly grow if the right manoeuvres continue to be made by the APL who will be looking to translate high participation rates and a common love for the global game outside of Australia to fans attending and watching A-Leagues games.

In addition, re-engaging disenchanted fans who have had their passion for the league tainted by issues such as uncertain club ownership, over policing of active support, high ticket prices, and the seemingly endless disharmony within Australian football will only come from treating the league and these supporters with integrity.

A longstanding issue within the A-Leagues has been its meandering search for identity, something which is made all the more difficult by a franchise model that leaves clubs attempting to cultivate a tangible connection to the respective region or city they represent. During the league’s high of 2012-2016 active support was that answer to the question of ‘who are we?’. How well the APL and its 12 A-Leagues clubs have proceeded to reconnect with active support groups (whose relationship with the league’s previous administrator FFA became tarnished by an evident lack of a concrete ally) over the off-season will only be known once the season kicks-off, but what needs to be stressed for the umpteenth time is the fact that a healthy fan culture is everything to the longevity of the A-Leagues. The league’s highest average attendance came during the 2013-14 season with 13,479 and will likely take some time to get back to, and for the A-Leagues to meet Professional Footballers Australia’s achievable target of a 10,000 attendance average there needs to be a revitalising of active support.

Adelaide

Marquee players and coaches in the vein of Nani, Charlie Austin and Dwight Yorke are essential for bringing mainstream eyes towards the A-League Men, but for the even younger A-League Women’s competition there is significant potential to cultivate interest and growth in active support numbers even before the onset of a home Women’s World Cup.

With a men’s World Cup atypically scheduled mid-season as a result of unplayable weather conditions during Qatar’s summer, the opportunity will be ripe to convert rusted on A-League Men’s supporters towards the Liberty A-League. Particularly as the women’s competition will continue to run throughout the duration of Qatar 2022 when the men’s competition breaks for a month.

Furthermore, the move to play games in suitable stadia at family-friendly times and to provide free tickets for registered players under 16 will undoubtedly be conducive to a better atmosphere at Liberty A-League matches, but investment into the women’s competition and subsequent parity with the men’s competition must follow suit as the women’s game grows here.

A-League Women's

For many, 2022-23 will be that catalyst for becoming invested in the local game, such is the magnitude of a World Cup finals berth for the Socceroos and Matildas. To add to this, the men’s 2023 Asian Cup will begin soon after the 2022 World Cup concludes and will surely influence the APL and Football Australia’s thinking when looking further engross fans.

There is an abundance of opportunity awaiting the APL in season 2022-23, particularly with league heavyweights Sydney FC buoyed by a newly built Allianz Stadium and COVID-19 claiming less dominance within the collective Australian sporting fan’s psyche. However, uniting and ultimately satisfying both disenchanted and rusted on fans will go a long way toward making up for a nullified first year in charge and years of disillusionment under FFA. And truthfully, football possesses a greater chance of swaying the APL’s targeted youth demographic over any other sport in the country, its simply a matter of engaging.

Previous ArticleNext Article

Football’s Growth Is Outpacing Council Planning and Clubs Are Paying the Price

Avatar
One Nil

Football is growing fast in Australia, but the infrastructure and planning behind it are not. In a Soccerscene-exclusive survey conducted between 19 and 30 January 2026, distributed through our 31,000-strong industry database, grassroots and semi-professional leaders raised consistent concerns that council consultation, long-term facility planning, and funding priorities are failing to match rising participation demand.

The risk is bigger than overcrowded pitches and volunteer burnout. If the foundations of the game cannot keep pace, Australia’s ability to develop talent, retain players, and remain competitive, particularly against structured football nations like Japan and South Korea, becomes harder to sustain.

Football participation in Australia continues to grow at a rapid pace. Local councils frequently emphasise their support for the game and its contribution to community life.

However, feedback from those responsible for administering football at club level suggests this support is not consistently reflected in long-term planning, effective consultation, or infrastructure funding that matches rising demand.

A growing game facing structural pressure

The disconnection can be seen in recent survey findings gathered from across Australia’s football ecosystem, including administrators, coaches, club executives and volunteers working predominantly at grassroots and semi-professionals levels. The results point to a consistent pattern of concern around how local councils are engaging with the game.

When asked how well their local council understands football participation demand, almost two-thirds of respondents (64 per cent) said councils had either a limited understanding or no understanding at all. Only one respondent indicated that their council understood participation demand “very well”.

Concerns extend beyond awareness to process. Three-quarters of respondents (75 per cent) described council consultation with football clubs as either inconsistent or ineffective. This suggests that while engagement may occur, it is often fragmented, reactive or lacking meaningful follow-through.

 

Long-term planning failing to match participation growth

The implications of this are most evident in infrastructure planning. Half of respondents said football facilities are not being planned with long-term growth in mind, with a further 19 per cent indicating planning is short-term only. In other words, nearly seven in ten respondents believe current approaches fail to adequately account for future participation pressures.

Funding priorities continue to challenge football’s expansion

Funding priorities also emerged as a critical issue. Almost half or respondents (47 per cent) identified the lack of prioritised funding as the single biggest council-related challenge facing football, ahead of poor facility design, limited engagement and slow planning processes.

 

Importantly, these concerns were raised by people deeply embedded in the game. The majority of respondents represented grassroots or semi-professional clubs, many holding governance, leadership or operational roles. Underscoring that these findings reflect lived, on-the-ground experience rather than isolated dissatisfaction.

Taken together, the data suggests the issue is not one of individual councils falling short, but of a broader mismatch between football’s rapid participation growth and the frameworks councils use to plan, consult and invest.

The reality on the ground for clubs and communities

The consequences of this misalignment are already being felt on the ground. Findings in a 2024 audit undertaken by Football Victoria affirm that across many municipalities, football facilities are operating at or beyond capacity, with pitches heavily overused across multiple days and codes, increasing wear, limiting recovery time and compromising playing surfaces.

For clubs, this pressure is most visible in how access is allocated. Women’s teams are increasingly competing for already limited training and match slots, often scheduled later in the evening or displaced altogether, despite participation growth being strongest in the women’s game. Junior teams, meanwhile, are frequently compressed into unsuitable or undersized facilities, with multiple age groups sharing spaces not designed for that level of demand.

In the absence of sufficient council-led planning, clubs are left to absorb the consequences. Volunteer administrators are tasked with managing participation growth councils did not anticipate, juggling scheduling conflicts, maintaining deteriorating facilities, and responding to rising expectations from players and families.

Over time, these pressures risk undermining the very outcomes councils say they value. Participation pathways become constrained, equity of access is compromised, and clubs are forced into reactive decision-making simply to keep programs running. What emerges is not a failure of clubs to manage growth, but a system in which demand has outpaced the infrastructure frameworks designed to support it.

How councils interpret and respond to these challenges ultimately shapes how football infrastructure evolves at a local level.

How councils view the challenge

Longstanding Councillor of Merri-Bek, Oscar Yildiz, acknowledges that funding football infrastructure remains one of the most complex challenges facing local government, largely due to competing demands across multiple sporting codes.

“We get requests from AFL, cricket, bowling and a whole range of other sports,” Yildiz said. “With limited funding, councils are constantly trying to balance those competing priorities and direct investment where it will have the greatest impact.”

Yildiz also suggested that funding decisions are influenced not only by council budgets, but by broader political dynamics between local, state and federal governments.

“If all three levels of government aren’t working together, you’re going to have fractures,” he said. “And when that happens, clubs lose, players lose, and communities lose.”

Consultation, another major concern identified in the survey, is an area Yildiz believes councils must continually improve. While he noted that council officers often maintain strong working relationships with local clubs, he acknowledged that bureaucratic delays and staff turnover can weaken engagement and slow progress.

“The biggest issue with any level of government is time,” Yildiz said. “Clubs want issues resolved quickly, whether it’s facility access, maintenance or funding, but processes can be slow. During that time, clubs can lose members, resources and opportunities.”

In municipalities such as Moreland, where football plays a significant cultural and community role, Yildiz believes councils have an added responsibility to recognise the sport’s social value.

“Football engages thousands of people across culturally diverse communities,” he said. “It’s not just about sport – it’s about connection, wellbeing and participation.”

What happens if councils fail to keep pace?

Ultimately, Yildiz argues that the cost of failing to invest in football infrastructure extends far beyond financial considerations.

“It’s about the return on investment for families and communities,” he said. “If clubs aren’t supported to continue operating and growing, the long-term social and health impacts are something we all carry.”

While councils face genuine financial and political constraints, the survey findings highlight a growing expectation across the football industry that infrastructure planning, consultation processes and funding frameworks must evolve alongside participation growth.

The question is no longer whether football is growing. The question is whether council planning is prepared to grow with it.

Attendance and Atmosphere: Maximising the A-League’s potential

Avatar
Sydney FC / Facebook

While many A-League clubs boast some of the most impressive sporting venues in Australia, maximising their potential and drawing in consistently high attendances has remained challenging. As highlighted in the PFA ALM Report 2024-25, only three clubs – Auckland FC, Adelaide United and Western United – reached over 50% of stadium capacity on an average matchday. 

There is a clear infrastructure problem facing the A-League – so how can we tackle it?

Attendance trends in the ALM

Attendance issues and questions over stadia utilisation were revealed in the PFA ALM Report released in November 2025. The findings showed that, were it not for the introduction of Auckland FC and their impressive crowds throughout the season, average attendance in the A-league would have marginally decreased from the previous season. 

Five A-League clubs also saw their attendances fall last season, including Western Sydney Wanderers, Wellington Phoenix, Central Coast Mariners, Perth Glory and Melbourne City. Of these, Melbourne City saw the largest drop off with a decrease of 27%. 

While Auckland should be commended with their ability to attract league-high crowds in their debut A-league season, it must be acknowledged that such reliance on one club to bring up the numbers is not enough. If the league is to continue growing in the years to come, we should encourage all clubs to make efforts to bring local support from the community into the stadium. 

 

A ‘less is more’ approach?

Planning how to maximise stadia potential and utilise facilities effectively will be vital in future seasons. Unfortunately, the discussions which began at the turn of the millenium with the PFA’s 2002 blueprint ‘For the Fans’, has largely failed to materialise into concrete plans of action. 

The blueprint called for smaller-sized, soccer-specific stadia able to hold 10,000-15,000 fans. In the past 24 years since the blueprint, not a single stadium of this nature has been built. Instead, as the report explains, stadia capacities across the league have excessively increased and strayed beyond the ‘Goldilocks zone’.

Consequently, many clubs have struggled to follow ambitious stadium upgrades with consistently high matchday attendances. For example, of the A-League venues with a capacity of over 30,000, none of them managed to achieve a utilisation rate of over 50% in the 2024-25 season.

In comparison, 22 of the 27 MLS clubs with a stadium capacity of 18,000 to 30,000 achieved a utilisation rate of 79% in 2024, and over half almost always achieved sell-out crowds. It proves that, if clubs want to attract supporters and create intense matchday atmospheres, constructing high-capacity stadiums isn’t always the answer.

Reducing the ‘gap’ between players and supporters

The benefit to ‘soccer-specific’ stadia is that the distance between players and supporters is both physically and figuratively reduced.

“Compact grounds intensify the atmosphere from a given number of people and, close to their limits, create a scarcity factor that drives sustainable support regardless of results or other conditions,” the report explains.  

By having ‘Goldilocks zone’ capacities in purpose-built stadia, home supporters are brought closer to the action and feel more immersed in the matchday experience. As fan engagement grows and attendances increase, clubs can maximise ticket sales, creating new avenues for merchandising and unique matchday experiences to continue establishing connections with local and loyal supporters. 

Multi-purpose, high-capacity venues can rarely match the intense atmospheres and physical proximity provided by a smaller stadium. In this way, building soccer-specific stadia can help fans feel a true sense of unity between themselves and the players, leading to distinct club identities and a contagious passion for the game as a whole.

And as football fans all know, catching the football-fever bug is nearly impossible to shake off. 

 

Is there still cause to be optimistic?

The A-Leagues are at a turning point in 2026. As a new era begins under the guidance of recently-appointed CEO, Steve Rosich, it is vital that questions are addressed over stadium utilisation and fan engagement. But while many may look abroad for inspiration, it is also important to remember what football fans in Australia are already capable of.

In the 2016/17 season, the Sydney Derby saw an incredible 61,880 fans packed into Stadium Australia, a feat which still stands as the record attendance for an A-League game. The very same fixture took place last weekend, drawing in over 33,000 fans to the Allianz Stadium, more than double their average attendance last year according to PFA Men’s Report (15,282).

It is evident that, when it comes to finding passionate fans of the beautiful game, Australia certainly isn’t lacking. The key, however, will be to ensure that all A-League clubs have the appropriate infrastructure to engage with these fans and maximise their valuable support. 

A stadium is far more than a commercial venue – it is a place for fans to come together and find a collective identity and voice. Perhaps, however, it should be remembered that a stadium with 10,000 filled seats is far more influential than a stadium with 40,000 empty.

 

Most Popular Topics

Editor Picks

Send this to a friend