September 16, 2003
Failure of the WUSA and Lessons For Footy
As many sports fans have heard, the Women's professional soccer league, based in the US and known as the WUSA, has closed up shop just days before the [2003] Women's World Cup gets underway. So what does that have to do with footy?
Everything.
The lessons to be learned in this reinforce everything AFANA has been trying to communicate to the AFL and those working to popularize footy both inside and outside North America since 1996. The youth and young adult development programs in the US have brought millions of kids into playing a sport (soccer) which was unknown to most of my generation. When I played soccer in high school, we weren't even recognized as an official sport. All that's changed. So why didn't sponsors, TV viewers, and live bodies in seats keep the Women's league going? No, it is not as they will tell you, that they didn't get enough multi-million dollar sponsors, though that's true. (When you lose $90 million of an initial $100 million investment you were more than a few sponsors short.)
The failure is that since the late 1970's soccer in the US has concentrated on building the grass roots youth programs of the sport and done little to build a fan base. They are not the same. Depending on whose number you use and whether you include those above grade 9, there are between 7.5 and 11 million children in the US playing soccer this year (current estimates are 8 to 14 million in 2006). This makes it second only to basketball in participation in the country. So where do they go?
Create all the youth programs and all the leagues you want. Found all the teams you want. It's important to the future of footy in the US and Canada. But if the AFL and footy lovers stop there, we'll fail. Just like soccer has failed. The soccer youth give up the sport when they reach a certain age. After that they don't remain serious fans. They don't buy merchandise from sponsors. They don't watch it on TV. They don't buy tickets.
Central to the future success of Australian football on this continent is that we have to build a fan base. Television coverage of the AFL is key to accomplishing that. So are well organized exhibitions (not scheduled with no discussion and just a few months warning... are you listening AFL House?) (and marketed to Americans not Aussie ex-pats). Marketing of merchandise to fans here is important and the building of a sponsor base that is interested in more than simply attaching their name to the coverage, putting patches on jerseys, or providing free beer. (We do like beer though...)
The AFL's international strategy, whatever it is, must include a plan to develop and feed the interests of fans already here and to get more to follow the game every year. That way, when the day comes that Aussie rules is played even semi-professionally by Americans (born in the US or Canada), that tickets to matches will sell, sponsors will line up, and TV ratings will justify proper coverage.
The AFL ignores the fans at their peril.
-Rob (who wouldn't be doing this if he didn't believe in the sport)
