Royz wrote:
ConanTroutman wrote:
Ryan wrote:
The problem is that the A-League can not stand on its own financially, not only do the FFA prop up clubs like the Jets but the TV money that is distributed to the clubs is actually money that Fox pays for the Socceroos, the amount that they would pay for the A-League is in single digit millions.
Hmm, is the Socceroos percentage of the TV deal really that big - do a handful of international games a year generate significantly more revenue for fox in advertising and/or subscribers than over a hundred A League games? I'm not saying they don't, just that on the face of it it seems like people would be more likely to subscribe to watch a whole season than they would to watch a couple of games every few months .
Its not just the Socceroo's its the Matildas and all women/men youth national sides that is part of the deal. Except the W-League which has its own deal with the ABC network and Olympic games football teams on FTA (Except FOX gets rights to show qualifiers).
I believe the only other Australian national football teams that has nothing to do with FOX money besides the above mentioned is Futsal / Beach football and Parra-Olympic football teams.
Yeah but age group games etc are not going to be worth much by themselves. I guess the thing is that all of this (national teams and A League) is worth much more as one package to the broadcaster than the constituent parts would be individually, as it means they can market Fox as the home of Australian football and football fans who want all that content, not just bits of it. So saying that the A League component is worth X% of the overall value is probably an oversimplification of how the deal is actually valued by Fox/the FFA. Split the package up and the total value of selling the bits individually may be less than the total value of the package as it is currently.
However, I don't think that the FFA subsidising the A League, if that's what is happening, necessarily means that the A League couldn't be governed by a separate board made up of representatives of the clubs and the FFA. Obviously the FFA would have to accept it though, which admittedly seems fudgeing unlikely.