Dont buy the smoke and heat argument for summer. Yes it is extremely hot a 3-5pm, but at 8pm it does drop and you're not in direct sun.
Smoke, while yes, absolutely terrible, it didnt affect everyday, depends on the wind direction. Lets hope its not frequent.
Moving to winter would self sabotage. Aleague has zero coverage as is in Aus. Moving it to middle of winter we wouldn't even get a mention in the paper with AFL and NRL
Sure you have a good point about viewership. but do AFL and NRL supporters even watch A league in summer ? Will it make that much difference?
Counter argument here is that grass roots football is played in winter, so that support base is football focused at that time of the year and more likely to tune into A league games, than summer when the kids are either playing cricket or at the beach.
I think there are pro's and con's to both options. But things like alignment with the rest of football in winter. Being able to introduce Pro / Rel more easily in Aus and getting more grass roots support at that time of year are good things.