Arrogant AFL can't kick goals in Sydney
SYDNEY Swans fans at ANZ Stadium on Saturday night stayed until the very end, despite miserable weather and a predictable last quarter. Give them this: they are devoted supporters.
The problem is that there are so very few of them. Only 19,127 turned up, the smallest crowd for a Swans final since 1924.This was both a slap in the face for the AFL and a wake-up call to arrogant AFL bosses about the Sydney market.
Nothing demonstrates the AFL's arrogance better then the multi-million dollar campaign to celebrate the league's 150-year anniversary, built around the theme, "The Game That Made Australia".
The AFL could not have come up with a better way to alienate Sydney if it tried.
As great as Paul Roos and the Swans have been in reaching six consecutive finals series and winning the 2005 premiership, Sydney is still a league town.
As far as most Sydneysiders are concerned, league is the game that made Australia. For the AFL to tell us otherwise is not only disrespectful, it's destructive.
Imagine if the NRL ran the same "The Game That Made Australia" campaign in Melbourne to promote their code. They'd be laughed out of town and the Melbourne Storm rugby league team with them.
But the AFL think their marketing campaign will resonate with the people of Sydney by simply inserting vision of Swans co-captain Brett Kirk diving on the footy or flashes of Adam Goodes' brilliance.
What the AFL must do and should've done years ago is engage someone like Sydney advertising guru John Singleton to market the Swans and AFL in this city.
They need someone like Singo who understands the Sydney market, knows how Sydneysiders think and is tapped into the soul of this city.
Every AFL marketing campaign since the, "I'd Like To See That" ads have been a total failure in Sydney, leaving most Sydneysiders including die-hard AFL fans scratching their heads wondering what it was all about.
The AFL's best selling point in Sydney are the Swans but the league is yet to build a marketing campaign around the team.
If the AFL doesn't start listening, they will be flogging a $100 million dead horse when a second team is introduced to Sydney by 2012.
At a dinner before the Swans elimination final, AFL boss Andrew Demetriou was quick to remind everyone that the AFL were cashed up, debt free and ready to fight for the hearts and minds of the people of Sydney.
The AFL acts like they are still drunk on their phenomenal $780 million television rights deal which has helped make them the most powerful sport in Australia.
Sorry, but the hearts and minds of sports fans in Sydney simply don't go to the highest bidder. It's not an auction between AFL, NRL and rugby union.
The AFL could invest $200 million into starting up a second Sydney team and it still would be a white elephant unless the head office changes its strategy when it comes to marketing the game here.
The 60,000 empty seats at the Swans elimination final was a lesson for the AFL who tried to blame the wet weather, the Swans' poor run into the finals and a lack of marketing by the club for the dismal crowd. If the weather was a factor then why did the game bomb so badly in the TV ratings?
Channel 10's live coverage finished a dismal fourth in its timeslot with an average audience of 185,000 viewers - easily beaten by Seven's double movie rerun of Freaky Friday and Pretty Woman which attracted an average of 334,000 viewers on Seven followed by Channel 9's movie double of Zathura - A Space Adventure and Hellboy (273,000 average audience) and Wild At Heart and The Bill on ABC (247,000).
But the Swans problems don't just end with membership numbers down, TV ratings down for a third consecutive year, sponsorship down and crowds down.
The AFL believe the answer to the Swans' problems is to introduce a second team into the market. At its grassroots, Australian Rules has never been stronger across Sydney, with the game booming in most areas thanks largely to the success of the Swans - especially under Roos in legitimising AFL in this town.
You don't get 500,000 Sydneysiders turning out for a tickertape parade in the centre of the city to honour the Swans' 2005 grand final win for nothing.
However, you also don't see a city turn their back on a successful team like the Swans for nothing either.
Hopefully, Saturday night's pitiful Swans crowd will prove to be the turning point and force the AFL to finally recognise that Sydney is a totally different market and not just approach it with a money can buy anything attitude.
