Soccer turning summer on its head

The atmosphere for the Sydney derby last weekend was incredible. Source: Mark Evans / DailyTelegraph

THE Australian sports world has been turned on its head by the A-League's summer competition in a few short years.

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In a month when we should all be talking up real summer sport, the A-League now grabs pages out of the sports sections of newspapers and commands precious minutes in television sports bulletins.

FFA boss, David Gallop, says his sport will soon be the number one football code in Australia. This, of course, is a nonsense because of the sheer magnitude of the AFL and NRL competitions.

It won't happen in his lifetime but Gallop has every right to feel some optimism when a derby game between two Sydney teams can fill a 40,000 seat stadium - in October.

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Soccer is no longer the poor cousin of football codes in Australia as Gallop has adopted a savvy approach to his work.

He knows how to attract publicity from his days at the NRL and refuses to concede an inch to the big two codes. His guest list for big matches reads like a who's who of Australia's business world, a far cry from the days when nobody would go near a match unless David Beckham was playing.

As ambitious as Gallop's prediction sounded, there are some serious warning signs for three major Australian sports, two of which are played in summer.

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We all know rugby union has been overtaken as the number three footy code in this country. Suffering from a chronic lack of success internationally, and managed diabolically in recent times, the Wallabies' brand value has slipped to almost nowhere.

Television executives who used to rely on rugby to deliver very healthy pay television audiences lament the day they signed lucrative deals with the code. The audience is disappearing before their very eyes, with the Super XV suffering a dilution of talent thanks to too many Australian teams.

The quality of the game in Australia has slid so badly in recent times that nobody quite knows how to fix it. Parents of rugby-playing boys found out the hard way last week just how debt-ridden the ARU is when they were asked for $660 each after their sons were selected in a Junior Gold Program.

This alleged representative honour went to 200 boys aged between 15 and 17 on the proviso they coughed up the cash first.

"This levy may decrease depending on the obtainment of sponsorship," the letters told them. Don't hold your breath boys.

Rugby is not the only victim of the A-League's success. Golf and tennis are struggling to gain notice in the lead-up to their Australian tours.

The world's most charismatic, handsome and successful golfer in 2013 is an Australian.

Adam Scott appears the one great chance for Australian golf this summer, with officials desperately hoping his US Masters win and accompanying green jacket will get the turnstiles ticking.

Outside of that, as world-class as our professional golfers and courses are, it's a hard sell to the uncoverted.

The golf and tennis hoopla of 20 years ago has diminished to a whisper. Both sports have suffered huge losses in audience in recent years, coming off the back of the year-round publicity footy attracts.

Tennis is the biggest loser. Golf will always attract the diehards, but with the exception of the Australian Open tennis at the end of January, the lead-up tournaments will barely rate a mention.

Even the Open, once the hottest ticket in town, has slid in popularity, particularly among young people. Have a look at the average tennis crowd now and most are over 40.

Arrogance from world tennis authorities, who made us endure 50 weeks a year of the sport, has resulted in a slide into mediocrity for what was once a sporting juggernaut. Young people aren't interested in two-week events.

They want the quick hit that footy can provide and the A-League now fills a breach in those barren months between October and February.

I met a Somali taxi driver in Melbourne last week who has three daughters and a son. He plays park soccer, follows the Melbourne Victory and his kids play both soccer and Aussie Rules.

He reckons Australia is only a generation away from being a genuine power, a day he sees coming because so many of our refugees view it as their first sport.

David Gallop is not quite under the skin of Andrew Demetriou or Dave Smith just yet but his code is becoming more than a minor irritant for sports who have sat on their hands for way too long.

The A-League has become the saviour of pay television and a handful of stadiums which suffered from poor league crowds throughout the season. You won't get me to too many games anytime soon, but I may well be the last one on the bandwagon that is gathering speed every week. 

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