Ahead of the A-League Men return this weekend, Australian Professional Leagues CEO Danny Townsend spoke to Kick360 regarding the various initiatives the league has planned for the re-start of the competition.
The Socceroos triumphant and unexpected run to the Round of 16 of the FIFA World Cup Finals captured the hearts and minds of those within the Australian public, with thousands upon thousands attending live sites across the country.
The sea of red smoke and exuberant display of support in Melbourne’s Federation Square brought to light the true football culture embedded within the depths of contemporary Australia.
A simple question of “how can the APL harness this support” doesn’t lend itself to a simple answer, however.
“I think it’s about it’s about taking advantage of the foundational strengths we’ve built over the last 18 months since unbundling,” Townsend said.
“We’ve been through a difficult time with the pandemic like many sports and companies have, but fortunately, during that time, been able to secure the future of the game through our capital raise with our partners and feel like and also the commercial broadcast arrangements with those foundational strengths.
“Just simply expecting those fans who turned out to support the nation will turn up this Saturday at Allianz Stadium is not that simple. It’s about luring them across and ensuring that we can harness their interest in the national team and the patriotism that goes into supporting those same players who were very good in Qatar.”
Of those who paraded Federation Square within the World Cup phase were groups of teenagers and young adults who possessed a burgeoning passion for the game, with supporters playing a focal role in the amalgamation of the Australian football community.
Townsend deems these modes of expression crucial to the re-start of the A-League Men.
“We’re the number one sport in the country for under 35s, the active support that our game enjoys is unique, it’s something that skews to that age group. We’ve got to harness that opportunity and strengthen our game and make it more accessible , make it more safe for them to express themselves inside our stadiums because that’s what will keep them coming back.
“That active support is what young fans are attracted to and the football on the pitch is exhilarating. The atmosphere is just as engaging and that’s something that we’ve always worked hard to harness in the 18 months of being at the helm.
With the three goal-scorers of the Socceroos World Cup campaign, being Mathew Leckie, Mitch Duke and Craig Goodwin, all having plied or currently are plying their trade within the A-League Men, the core Australian footballing zeitgeist have focalised on the importance of the competition at developing future Socceroos.
For the APL, this is the key driver of their newfound marketing campaign as demonstrated in a social media post yesterday.
Entitled “Where Socceroos are made”, Townsend stressed the importance of the competition acting as a globally recognised league.
“It is the future stars of the Socceroos and Matildas into playing in the A-Leagues. We want those fans that enjoy the experience supporting them these last months to support them week in week out because the quality of the A-League is proven now to be up there as a globally recognised league.”
In discussing the immediate initiatives that will follow in the coming rounds, Townsend expects an uptick in support yet has told supporters to temper expectations.
“I sort of want to temper people’s expectations. You’re not gonna get the 25,000 at Tumbalong Park suddenly turn up Allianz Stadium on Saturday night, that’s just unrealistic, but we certainly will see an acceleration of the engagement of our core fans.
“Equally we’ll be doing our best to entice those those fringe fans who really got behind national interest in a way and may not necessarily be committed football people. But there certainly are a lot of people that love our game that we need to attract. And we’ll do that with our short term campaign to bring them across, we’re obviously going to celebrate the returning Socceroos, we’ve got eight of them that will be all playing this weekend.
“We will be setting up signing sessions on the field with players postgame to encourage those to turn up in Socceroos or their favourite club kit to get to meet the heroes that they’ve been cheering this past month.
“We really encourage all those fans that came out in support of our national teams to pick a club, start with picking an A-League club. As they pick that club, they begin that fan journey that all of us who have supported the A-Leagues for many years.”
Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images
