Victory in Melbourne 

With much being made of the crowd numbers during Melbourne Victory’s disastrous 2010 ACL campaign surely some responsibility lays at the feet of both the FFA and the Melbourne Victory administration.

Knowing full well that there would be ACL campaign at the end of this season surely it wouldn’t haven’t been too hard for the Melbourne Victory administration to include the three group games as part of your membership package. Even having it has add-on to the membership should have been an option. Contrary to what Kevin Muscat had to say, Melbourne fans weren’t disuaded from attending due to the antics of opposition teams it probably had more to do with the tickets. With General Admin tickets starting at $27, when compared to $20 for a regular season game you can see why a number of fans stayed away especially after forking out significant amounts of money for finals tickets.

However, the FFA must foot some of the blame as well as they continued the trend of the regular A-League season by putting little or no effort into promoting the game to the general public. If the general public doesn’t know about it, how do you expect them to turn up to games.

With this in mind, when it all comes around next year let’s hope it’s handled better by all parties involved because as Melbourne Victory fans we do like to watch our team play.

The FFA released its draw for the 2009/10 A-League season today with Melbourne kicking the season off with a clash against the Central Coast Mariners on the 6th August 2009. And before you go rushing off to your diaries to check what day that is - its a Thursday. It’s not the ideal way to start off a season with it being a “school” night for many spectators and thus a smaller than expected crowd to kick off the season.

Another bone of contention is the fact the finals series has been extended to include six teams. So now, its more difficult to not get in the finals that it is to get in. With the expanded competition, the finals system should have stayed as is at four or at most five. At six, it is a bit of a farce and demeans the whole process. Maybe its a ploy to ensure new boys Gold Coast make the finals.

Speaking of the new boys, Melbourne will play North Queensland for the first time in Round 3 at Dairy Farmer’s Stadium and get their first glimpse of Gold Coast United in Round 8 at Skilled Park.

Bring it on!

I was asked to comment in my previous post about the announcement last week that the FFA has become talks with a consortium to create a second Melbourne team for the 2010/11 A-League season. I provided a brief response but I thought I would elaborate.

Initially I was skeptical of the idea of a second team in Melbourne, mainly because there was probably other areas in Australia that could be better served by an A-League team rather than create a second team here in Melbourne. But after some thought I personally can’t wait for the inclusion of a second team in Melbourne. The A-League in order to continue to grow needs to great some serious rivalries. Whilst Melbourne Victory has fairly intense rivalries with Sydney and Adelaide - a city rival would be so much better. I can’t wait for the sold out crowds that will surely be the envy of all other states.

I’m not too sold on the name “Melbourne Heart” but it is my understand that this is just a consortium name and is more likely to Melbourne City or Melbourne United. And as for colours for the proposed new team - I reckon they should be red. Why red you may ask? When you think of all the city rivalries around the world, more often than there is a red half and a blue half. Think of Liverpool and Everton, Manchester United and Manchester City, AC Milan and Internazionale, Lazio and Roma and Bayern Munich and 1860 Munich just to name a few.

My only concern with a second team in Melbourne is their proposed target. With the Victory already well established as one of the best supported teams in the country it will be initially difficult for the new team to attract their own audience. Their has been talk of this team targetting or basing themselves in the ever expanding south eastern suburbs of Melbourne. For me I don’t believe this is a wise move, they should just aim to be an alternative to the Melbourne Victory.

Bring on 2010 I say - I can’t wait for the derby games. Plus it gives me the opportunity to go and watch football every weekend.