Point is, the league is barely viable. And includes Nix ‘showcase academy’ team too. League quality is poor. Too many journeymen players going nowhere.
I don’t have an answer but I’d be far more excited about footy in NZ if we had a second (Auckland) A league team, the Chatham Cup and the local park footy leagues than anything the Handa Premiership offers.
Agree that I'd love to see a 2nd A League team in NZ. I think the crowd at EP, a few weeks back, shows there is some appetite for an Auckland team. An A League game in NZ, every week (depending on the draw) would be great.
From 27th Jan to 20th April (almost 3 months), there will only be 3 A League games in NZ (2 Wgtn & 1 Akld), thorough a combination of factors this season. That's pretty shark.
Time to switch some of the local football focus on qualifying a Handy team for the CWC, to getting a 2nd A League team. Apart from ACFC's great run a few years ago, TW and ACFC have been gone after one game at the CWC. So you have one week of sports media stories pre & post game and then it's all forgotten for another 51 weeks.
An Auckland A League would be in the general sports news (for better or worse!) for 30 odd weeks of the year.
A National League (franchise or club based), will never grab the attention of anyone but the true football tragics. The tiny size of your average Handy Prem crowd says that.
Sure 23,000 at EP, could be double what an Auckland A League team would achieve in regular season games (dependant on form, venue, blah blah blah) - but to grab the attention of the casual sports fan, increase the media content for NZ football, and really grow the game in NZ, it's a must.
