On Friday night with very little promotion and certainly no razzamatazz the NPL-WA season for 2018 kicked off. A competition that is fast fading into anonymity. Why is that the case and what can be done to arrest the decline in interest in the highest competition in the state? These seem to be the questions on the lips of every follower of the game.
What has probably exacerbated the situation is the amount of promises that were made to the participating clubs that have been left unfulfilled. Marketing of the league was raised regularly at meetings before the NPL commenced, those asking the questions were told that this would be a “work in progress” by the former CEO. Yet the warning signs were there when the same man advised that there was no budget for marketing in the first season.
It is fair to say it has not been a smooth transition from the old State League to the NPL. Whereas the NPL was an opportunity to revitalise the game at this level in Western Australia, hindsight will show that it was an opportunity missed.
When clubs nominated to be a part of the NPL there was a criteria that all had to meet and points were awarded based on how they met the criteria. Yet the whole process was questionable. Two of those carrying out the assessments had actually been advising clubs on their nominations. Then there was the situation claimed by one club in which the video recorder recording each presentation was turned off while one question was posed to them and then restarted. The final outcome was only one new club broke into the top flight, Subiaco at the expense of Bunbury.
Then when Subiaco was “relegated” a season ago they challenged the decision claiming that the game’s governing body had not abided by their own competition rules. They were legally correct and avoided relegation. However because a club had earned promotion, if they did not promote the club then Football West faced another legal challenge, so the league was expanded by two teams. It will be reduced by two teams this season. Incredibly we are only in the fifth season in the NPL and already so much has happened and yet so little has happened to take the game higher.
In fact it has been left to the individual clubs to try and promote not only themselves but the League. In fact credit must go to some of the State League clubs in the competition below, as they were the ones to innovate the streaming of live games, with the Western Knights being the first in 2015, Wanneroo City and Gwelup Croatia following suit. This year Forrestfield United become the first NPL team to head down this path, three years on.
Inglewood United it has to be said have been one of the most professional since the start in terms of on-line presence, followed latterly by ECU Joondalup.
It was therefore fitting that Inglewood United should host the season opener, and their pitch was a credit to the groundsman and the club. It was in pristine condition and of a quality one would expect in the A-League.
The game was played on a Friday evening. There are some who like the Friday evening game, others who don’t. When trialled in the past it was a game coaches and players did not like. With a kick off at 7pm and players required to be there at least an hour before kick off some found it stressful fighting traffic to be there in time; which put them in the wrong frame of mind come kick off.
It has to be said that Friday night at Inglewood looked to be a success, with a fairly reasonable crowd, with as mentioned very little information that the season was commencing. Inglewood looked to pull out all of the stops to make the evening a night to remember.
First of all entry was free. All spectators were asked for was a gold coin donation with the proceeds going to the Children’s Cancer charity Canteen. It was however disappointing to see the man ahead of me with his teenager daughter enter the ground and opt not to make any donation to the charity.
Once inside the ground Inglewood had set up tables and chairs in front of the club rooms. To the right of the club rooms was a corral of food trucks. The selection was varied and it was the perfect set up for people who had rushed from work to be able to make a choice of what food they were in the mood for, and then sit at one of the tables and take in the match.
The club is to be credited for being innovative and trying to make the match day one to remember. As one club official stated they have to do something to try and bring people back to the games. Hopefully local residents will hear of the food trucks and wander through the gates of the club on their doorstep and new relationships can be formed with a new generation of residents.
As good as it was to see Inglewood making this bold step, there is still the big question as to why people are no longer attending NPL or State League games. So we have complied the poll below to try and gauge your reasons for not attending, or attending less than in the past.
There are some who say that the whole league needs to be remodelled. They may be right. Certainly there is a strong argument for the clubs to self govern their own league; and if the A-League clubs get self governance the NPL clubs will be sure to follow. Yet looking at the way the Standing Committee has operated in the past 12 years one has to ask whether they have the expertise in-house to take on such a task. Certainly there needs to be a more co-operative approach. Money pooled for promotion of the game, standards set as to what each club must deliver in terms of their own promotion, and the promotion of their league; programs with correct information, websites, fixture promotion etc.
Live streaming is definitely the way forward for watching sport. As with anything new there are pros, cons, risks and wins. Reaching a large number of eyeballs in a cost effective way is a key win, but with this comes the risk of inconsistent or unclear reporting. Digital media offers up a lot of metrics and knowing which metric to report on across a variety of platforms – YouTube vs Facebook vs Vimeo vs Instagram and so the list goes on – is going to be the key to ensuring sport can attract sponsorships based on trustworthy data. Get this wrong and the game will get itself in more trouble.
Some will argue that Football West should be doing all of this. Maybe they should, but let’s not forget that if they do this for the NPL clubs then they need to do it for the State League clubs as well. Then they should do the same for the junior, women’s, social and amateur leagues too. The NPL may well be the showcase competition, but it is not the only competition under their control.
Realistically it would appear that unless the NPL clubs take more of an interest in not only their own survival as a club, but also that of their rivals, they are going to find the future extremely hard. Sadly it is still only one or two clubs leading the others who are stuck in a spinning hamster wheel with no idea how to change its direction.
A number of clubs, but certainly not all, have chosen to do some form of promoting & marketing because they have finally come to the realisation that a) The senior game is dying and b) the administrative body (FW) certainly won’t do anything other than ask the West to include a paragraph regarding the weekends fixtures. Some might say it’s a little too late.
The other factor that isn’t in the poll nor mentioned in your article but is certainly a contributing factor in the decline of the league is the fact that the competition has become stale. It has been played out by largely the same teams over and over for decades and making up these teams is largely the same tired old players that have done the rounds season after season after season. Same players, different shirts and you can even extend that to the coaches.
Punters see this Ashley, they are not blind and it’s something that neither draws their attention let alone gives them the motivation to attend a game.
The A League is simply a professional version of the various NPLs. It’s afflicted by the same problems and the lack of interest both corporately and by the footballing public has resulted in a notable drop in attendances numbers. Add to that the poor standard of football and it doesn’t paint a bright picture at all.
Not sure what the answer is mate but if promoting and marketing the same tired old product hasn’t worked for the A League I’m not sure why people would believe it would work at NPL level.