The AFL and NRL will dominate for a long time yet

And, while football fans mock the lack of international interest in the AFL and NRL, it remains to be seen how prepared both domestic and international fans will be to part with their cash to watch the A-League given that football fans have so many better football leagues to choose from. 

With the A-League television audience having dwindled badly in recent years, having averaged around 80,000 at its peak, it was reported in August 2019 that Optus had 700,000 Australian accounts subscribing to the Premier League.

Football is indeed “the most popular sport on earth”, yet I cannot see football making easy headway in the near future to reverse declining domestic crowds, although I personally would like to see the A-League succeed.  

Whereas past migration patterns to Australia did help boost football crowds from the 1950s, despite its high and low years over the decades, the high reliance upon southern Europeans and British has now given way to mostly Chinese and Indian immigrants in recent years who may have much less affinity to watching or being involved in the football codes.

While many Australians of African backgrounds are now featuring at the highest level in the AFL and football codes, with many Pacific Island immigrants culturally attracted most to the rugby codes, it remains to be seen which football code will succeed most in terms of attracting the growing proportion of Australians with Asian backgrounds in coming years.

Thus, attracting new Australians of Asian backgrounds is now an issue that confronts all football codes.

As a 2020 article highlighted, at a time when just one man and two women in the AFL had Chinese backgrounds, Chinese Australians were among the most underrepresented ethnic groups also in terms of AFL club membership, thus requiring a concerted effort- by the AFL to engage all new migrants.

Although the A-League is a league that has the potential to set up a truly national competition with location possibilities in all states and larger cities, it remains far behind the AFL and NRL with regard to attracting greater fan and corporate interest in the key cities and regions where most Australians live (namely Melbourne and Sydney and its nearby towns).

With the AFL and NRL likely to remain the most popular football leagues for some time yet, in a climate where big broadcast deals are decided mostly by the extent of interest through crowd numbers and viewing audiences, I suspect that rugby union and football are going to have some tough years ahead if recent trends are to go by.