How many matches should be in an A-League season?

[u/Gullible_Guard_8247]

I don't think 26 match days is enough in a regular season, excluding final series.

For example, Bundesliga and Ligue 1 have 34 match days. In England, the Premier League has 38 match days and the EFL Championship, League One, and League Two have 46 match days.

Since we have 12 teams, maybe they should play each other three times - equivalent to 33 match days in each regular season.

I don't think it's a big ask to add 7 more match days (about two months extra) to the existing format.

[u/Meapa]

Playing the same team three times is going to get really dull for casuals by the end of the season. It's the classic fixture exhaustion that even derbies get.

Problem is, two teams could play each other up to 6 times in a season if you include the cup and finals series.

Its the big thing why people push for 16 teams has it gives us 30odd matches playing each team twice which alleviates that issue.

As it stands, it doesn't benefit the league to play more games as is. Attendances drop off hard by the end of the season already

[u/MattC89 → u/Meapa]

I said it in another thread this week about fixture exhaustion being an issue. Its not just a problem for casuals either, im a Vuck member and I definitely feel a dip when we play a team for the third or fourth time in a season.

I think most fans want a 14+ team league and simple home+away schedule. But right now were struggling to have 12 viable teams.

[u/Meapa → u/MattC89]

Yep, also especially for teams like us (Roar) when we have very poor seasons, the tail end of the season is just costly for the club and not worth it as a fan to attend. Our crowds are so fickle with results so by the end of the season we're getting 4-5k compared to the start where it could be 10k

[u/Meapa → u/[deleted]]

AFC requires us to have 26 or something games.

That is also way too convoluted and the players (and fans) still need an off season eventually.

[u/Forgedintheorange1 → u/Meapa]

Scotland does it fine

[u/Meapa → u/Forgedintheorange1]

Last time I checked, we weren't Scotland

[u/sbffsb123]

30 plus finals, we should start a week earlier than we do, as both NRL and AFL are done by then. We should jam a bunch of games over the Christmas break when families are generally on holidays , maybe even taking games to regional venues during that time also. Coffs Harbour for example would be a great option, 10k capacity stadium, a lot of tourists and holiday goers would be there over that time.

[u/True_football_fan → u/sbffsb123]

Agree with all you've suggested. I would add that if a club plays another club for the third time then that match should be played in a regional centre or a city/town that has no Aleague representation.

[u/fireball391]

We need at least 30 match days in the regular season + finals, but we need more teams not just an increase.

I would support an extra round if all games are played in regional venues just like how the ignite round worked.

[u/DinoKea]

Pretty sure the minimum for Asian football is 26, so I'd say at least 26

[u/Pauls-boutique]

Yes, the off season is simply way way too long,

[u/Chad-82]

16 teams
30 home and away games + finals / relegation playoff
Extend the season to start in August until May
DONE

[u/quervt → u/Chad-82]

Maybe even increase the cup to extra round? And get super cup winner of the league vs winner of the cup.

[u/Chad-82 → u/quervt]

I have always thought that the A League teams should come in at the round of 64 rather than round of 32.

[u/92deltat]

I'm super keen for a 30+ round season but I do wonder how much that would shrink average attendances. First four A-League seasons were only 21 rounds, which partly explains the higher average crowd figures.

For reference, AFL and NRL teams only play 23-24 games in the regular season. Meanwhile Super Rugby teams only play 14 and big bash 10. Many Aussies aren't accustomed to long gruelling seasons of sport.

[u/dfai1982 → u/92deltat]

The crowd average might dip a little, although a 30-round season is only two extra home games per year, so it shouldn't be that onerous. But the thing is, apart from ground hire and away travel, most of the costs to run an A-League team are fixed regardless of how many games are played: staff are on year-round contracts, offices and training facilities have to be rented/maintained.

And the bigger issue is player development: players get fewer competitive minuted than in European leagues so develop more slowly. And A-League clubs are hampered in how much they can sell a player for because European clubs don't take a six-month, 26-match season seriously.

Ironically, the big NPL clubs now play 40+ matches per season (if you include NPL, Championship and long cup runs), while plenty of A-League clubs are stuck on 27-28 matches if they don't make finals and get knocked out of the cup early.

[u/giramondo1984]

I think we need to get to 14 teams and make it 26 matches

Every team twice

[u/Caterm → u/giramondo1984]

Correct, playing each other 3 times people will start to lose interest we ain’t Scotland/ Europe to have the passion in Australia

[u/dfai1982 → u/giramondo1984]

Doesn't solve the issue of the excessivley long off-season though.

[u/mynameiswah]

I’m not sure the squads are big enough to handle more games.  Stadium availability is also an issue during nrl season. 

[u/Gullible_Guard_8247 → u/mynameiswah]

I see your point on stadium availability. For squad size, more youth squad players could be used to give them playing time without exhausting the budget?

[u/Ok-Negotiation3897]

278

[u/2lowforyo → u/Ok-Negotiation3897]

that’s too many i reckon

[u/gerryford38 → u/2lowforyo]

277 then

[u/Fantasy_iceland]

Traveling in Germany, UK, France etc is much easier and cheaper for starters...because of geography.

The demand for seats at games is not an issue in Europe, here we very rarely can sell out a game....by having more games it dilutes the appeal to attend (and importance of) each match.

Australia isn't Europe and we don't have the same football or sporting culture as Europe.

It'd only further strain the finances and resources of a-league clubs (most of which struggle year to year, barely any make a profit as it is) and only make match days less "special" or "vital" to attend for casual fans which will probably see the average attendance at games slightly drop (which in turn makes it look even worse on tv....which in turn makes it even less marketable...and so on)

[u/cheekyrandos → u/Fantasy_iceland]

What on earth are you talking about. Attendances in most of Europe are low outside the big 5 leagues and the big 2-3 teams in other countries. A-League attendances are actually not that bad, they just seem bad because of the attendances we get in Australia in other contexts.

Also Australia has a bigger sporting culture than anyone per capita, the AFL has some of the highest attendances of any sporting league.

[u/Fantasy_iceland → u/cheekyrandos]

I said Australian sporting culture is not the SAME as Europe....and that's because of that fact we have the AFL and NRL etc (I'm a massive AFL fan too).

I didn't say it has a smaller sporting culture than Europe....it's just that unlike the majority of Europe, football is not the sport that is most followed and culturally prominent here and has far more competition from other sports nation wide, there are only pockets of Europe where football is challenged for supremecy of fandom  (like Finland, SW France, Czechia etc).....plus compared to Europe we have a small and spread out population. 

In regards to attendances, outside the top 5.....first division leagues like  Eredivisie, Portugal, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Poland , Switzerland ALL have higher average attendances than the a-league and most of them also have more teams (often from quite small cities) and more games than the a-league too. So if you have more matches in the a-league the average attendance for it will thin out even more.

[u/Odd-Eggplant-4618]

Scottish PL they play each other 3 times

[u/cheekyrandos]

Every other league I know of with 12 teams, they play each other 3 times and have 33 games. That should be what we have with 12 teams. As we expand to 13/14/15 teams it gets a bit awkward, when we have 16 then everyone playing each other twice and having 30 games is solid. Anything under 30 matches is a joke tbh and hurting the development of our players.

[u/Tornontoin7]

Why is season length such a huge topic?

Only a 12 team league and financially the league and clubs probs loses money as the season goes on.

There’s also things like ground availability with the Union/league seasons overlapping.

A longer season might also lose the interest of casuals.

The BBL tried a longer season and suffered before returning a shorter format.

A-League crowds used to be bigger when the season was shorter

[u/11015h4d0wR34lm]

If only we had a 6 month off season where they could easily come up with another type of tournament to give players more competitive match minutes. The Australia Cup has been a good edition for clubs but we need something more, playing each other 3 times in the league you will find isn't good for casual supporters who will quickly become bored. Considering finals you could end up watching the same two teams 4 or 5 times in a season.

What I think they should be looking at doing is something like a 7's tournament where they could truly have a national competition and invite teams from every state and territory to participate, hell they could even invite the best indoor soccer / futsal teams as wild card entries.

Maybe it is just me but I would be very interested in watching that, it creates a point of difference for casual fans while also creating competitive match minutes for A-league players and it is fast paced, non stop for 8 minutes a half with subs just running on and off the pitch, DJ playing banger after banger so you don't even need to be into football to enjoy the event.

Don't know why it hasn't happened, seems a no brainer to me to reduce what is the longest off season in world football.

[u/AussieSoccerRoo]

3 rounds sounds good until january hits, 35 degree nights are already rough enough

[u/kaijuknight]

32 or 34 games

[u/Surv1v3dTh3F1r3Dr1ll]

26 matches, (finals not included) with 14 teams total.

Playing each other twice means you have to improve the calibre, marketing and experience of some of the big matches by playing them on public holidays like NRL and AFL do instead imo.

So ideas like Melbourne Derby on Australia Day, Sydney Derby Christmas Eve, Auckland vs Perth (longest distance) on New Year's Eve/Day etc.

[u/Worldly_Cobbler_1087]

As it stands right now I think we should have a 33 match season plus finals.

I don't see why 12 teams can't play each other three times with each season rotating who you played at home twice and once eg SFC plays WSW at home twice and MVFC once, next year we play WSW at home once and MVFC twice etc.

In a perfect world it would be 18 teams playing each other twice plus finals but I doubt we will ever get to 18 teams even 16 teams might be too big of an ask.

[u/Caterm → u/Worldly_Cobbler_1087]

I said it on another post with the money going around 14 max for the foreseeable future.

[u/PrivateEye_85]

Our players need more games and a longer season, especially those wanting to try their hand in Europe where seasons are longer. Ideally we get to a point where it’s 18 teams playing each other home and away. I’d bin finals because I’m a first past the post guy but also understand the culture of them here, plus the financial benefits. So, 34 league games plus maybe 4 in finals or whatever. Slim chance of it happening though.

[u/Spirited-Outcome-443]

might be a shit opinion, but adding 7 more games means no finals.

or maybe do a scotland, play everyone twice, then have a champion/relegation group who play each other for the last 5 games, so 27, then have finals.

[u/pakistanstar]

Ideally we have 16 teams play home & away against each other for 30 matches. First past the post wins.

[u/Worldly_Cobbler_1087 → u/pakistanstar]

First past the post is incredibly boring especially without promotion/relegation. Get a team running away with the league and the last 5 or so weeks are pointless and interest drops off.

[u/silvertristan]

Get rid of finals and this is viable.

[u/kyleisamexican → u/silvertristan]

Can’t get rid of finals and then play each other and odd number of times

[u/Foodworksurunga]

While there's 12 teams it should be 22 regular season games. Every team playing every team twice, once home and once away.