The ASBP has been a step upwards from the club based winter national league, certainly for the top four sides. Most of the old club-based outfits went bust trying to compete in a national league - look at North Shore, Gisborne, CHCH United, Mt Wellington etc today. I think going back to a winter national league, would be a very backward step. It would also plonk it in direct competition with all the other winter club competitions. You think that's going to attract more people to rain-lashed games in uncovered facilities when the calendar is chock full of other winter games?
The ASBP simply needs NZF to pull its finger out and seriously invest in its summer national league. Proper promotion, TV coverage for the best games and decent sponsorship funding would do wonders to boost interest at the gate.
Invest what money in what? More detailed proposal needed, if it was as simple as you say it would have happened by now
Bluemagic, you are also ignoring the fact that the ASBP already has a budget of approx. $3m (roughly a third of NZF's entire budget). That's plenty of money to do all the things you are talking about but there's too much self-interest and short-term thinking. The franchises need to show a bit more agency, self-determination, and working together for the common good. Stop waiting around for NZF to solve problems when the capacity is already there to solve them. The one thing NZF needs to do is maybe hand some of the control over to the franchises.
Of course, this would require an ongoing heavy reliance on pokies, which I don't particularly like or think is a sustainable model. But fuck, if we have pokie money in the game let's at least coordinate and prioritise it for the betterment of the league.