I don’t mean to startle anybody…
BUT THE FOOTBALLS BACK. YEAH BABY!
Friday Night: 7.55pm
Australia’s Shame v Central Coast
Saturday Night
3pm Auckland v Brisbne
5pm Newcastle v Melbourne City
7pm Favelas v Us
Sunday
Wellington v Western United
Macarthur v Perth
Adelaide -BYE
AS
Auckland
Draw
Wellington
Macarthur
BYE
Filth 2-1 CCM
Auckland 1-1 Brisbane
Newy 1-1 CFG
Western Subs 1-2 Sydney
Wellington 2-0 WU
Macarthur 4-2 Perth
Shame
Draw
CFG
Wellington
Draw
Away win.
That’s a big Saturday! Auckland’s first home game and a Sydney derby is pretty big stuff.
Friday and Saturday are looking good, even the EPL is an hour earlier. Sunday is a bit meh
Shame.
Draw.
Draw
Wellington
Macarthur.
I’m glad they didn’t line up the NZ derby for the first round.
Draw (more in hope than expectation)
Orcland
City
Draw
Welly
Macarthurt
Apparently 20k tickets sold for Auckland’s first game, probably close to selling out. With Parra also being a sellout or close to it, should be a very healthy Round 1 average attendance across the league.
Brings back memories when we used to count opening round attendances, or other rounds for that matter because they often were quite large and record breaking.
But these days broken records are just dreams. But I do love not talking about crowds at the same time, maybe I’m older and just don’t care anymore
Well you’re in luck because it will be the record for the highest attended expansion teams’ first home game (quite easily). So dreams come true sometimes!
There’s also a shot at this round being the highest Round 1 total attendance ever across the league but it’s more likely to be like 5-10k off that record, but that record was set in the first season so that’s not bad.
Auckland’s introduction into the league will help attendance stats a lot. It seems like they will be a well supported club and the derbies between Wellington & Auckland should lift averages further. I doubt there will be much travelling contingent but apparently there is a good rivalry between the cities.
What do you keep inside your fridge? 
A pre-season warm up video lads. It’s been missed.
While good for the league I’ll still fucking hate that it validates their scheduling of marquee fixtures way too early.
So keen to flick the telly on tonight, deal with inevitable P+ issues, settle in with some cold brewskies and watch some football.
A-Leagues back baby
But of course there is
I don’t understand. We’re not playing tonight.
A few months back it was very much doom and gloom for the A-League, and when it was announced that the broadcast distribution to clubs had been reduced down to $530k, I thought this season was going to be a real low-point, with clubs not spending much at all in terms of decent signings during the off-season. I was blindsided by the Costa signing, and then again by the Mata signing - arguably two of the biggest signings in years, at a time when it seemed like the league was in dire straits.
Now, a few hours before the first game of the season, I actually think this is going to be the best season in recent years, easily the best since COVID, in terms of attendance and general interest. The pull that Costa and Mata can’t be underestimated, they’re big enough names to penetrate past the standard A-League fans into the general football community (those who follow EPL, Socceroos etc.). The derby sellout is an example of that, there will be a good percentage of fans there to see either of those players due to connections with their previous clubs or national team. ADP was a bigger name, but it was clear the lasting impact that his tenure had. You’ll see bigger crowds at Sydney and WSW home and away games. And, of course, there’s also a brand new team in a location that actually makes sense, with the opportunity for a good, proper derby to develop from it (unlike the “derbies” that involve Macathur or Western United).
I’m excited.
