That’s a problem in every sport unfortunately. How many Socceroos fans go to A-League games? How many Baggy Greens fans go to Big Bash games? How many Boomers/Opals fans go to NBL games? How many Wallabies/Wallaroos fans go to Super Rugby games? The only sport that perfectly reflects country and club support is rugby league with the Kangaroos/Jillaroos, State of Origin and NRL, since few countries outside Oceania care about league.
Support for the A-League Men should in theory be higher though and the Big Bash League runs during the wider summer of cricket so would be attracting greater viewership anyway.
That I do agree strongly agree with, and I think Libelous would too. We need more games. We send players to play more than 22 games a season in the top leagues overseas, so we need to catch up so they’re staying fit. This goes for the ALM too, probably more so given EFL clubs play 48+ games a season.
It hasn’t attracted a reasonable following for the ALW.
Exactly.
Even though we are keeping the status quo by retaining the current ten teams in the Dub the separation from the A-League Men and unbundling from the APL in favour of creating a new entity is essentially the same as sacking the board and starting afresh.
That’s assuming that the current teams, which are tied to ALM clubs, will find owners willing to continue as offshoots of clubs that they no longer are connected to.
It's not necessary to find new ownership for the current Dub sides though because they can retain the same owners as the men's teams whilst the APL cedes control of the league to the new entity which follows suit with the current model used in England.
But that’s my point, many of the owners feel that the women’s teams are a financial burden that they can do without.
If the vast majority of owners feel that women's teams are a financial burden then there needs to be an incentive to encourage them to retain the Dub sides in addition to the process of transitioning from the APL to the new entity controlling the women's game in Australia.