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General 2024/5 A League Men's thread

melbcityguy said:
www.theguardian.com

A-Leagues seek to stop ‘arms race’ with strict $3m salary cap

Clubs would be permitted one marquee player outside cap from 2026 but PFA warn the proposal will limit potential to attract top players
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
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That seems refreshingly honest from Conroy. Not sugar coating a thing like the BS Townsend shat out at every opportunity.

Remarkable that with all the concessions, the clubs are doubling the current salary cap. The cap is between 2.25 and 2.55 but they're spending 4.8! Knowing this, it's actually subdued my calls for cutting the cap floor, it seems the clubs have no trouble going past it! Some of the points:



“What we’re seeing is what we frankly think is an unsustainable trend in terms of their performance, their profitability, their losses,” Conroy said.

The $3m hard cap replaces the current $2.55m “soft cap” with six concessional categories. The current arrangements have created an even competition, but have not prevented clubs from spending beyond their means.

“It’s one of the reasons why we look at the player-spend arms race, and we just scratch our heads and go, ‘Okay, so the Swiss cheese we’ve currently got, we need to change’,” Conroy said.

According to PFA, the average payments per club was $4.8m in 2023-24.

Conroy said his organisation is not suggesting a reduction in the salary floor, which has remained at $2.25m per club for several years.

“We’re currently in discussions with two different consortiums in Canberra, and unfortunately, a lot of good promises, a lot of good discussions have come to nothing,” he said.

No changes are currently planned for the A-League Women competition, though the APL was working with Auckland on their entry as early as next season. Macarthur remains the only A-League Men outfit without a women’s counterpart.

“It’s a requirement to have two clubs as part of the licence, but we’ve also got to make sure that we’re keeping the clubs afloat at the same time,” Conroy said.
 
HappyGuus said:
That seems refreshingly honest from Conroy. Not sugar coating a thing like the BS Townsend shat out at every opportunity.

Remarkable that with all the concessions, the clubs are doubling the current salary cap. The cap is between 2.25 and 2.55 but they're spending 4.8! Knowing this, it's actually subdued my calls for cutting the cap floor, it seems the clubs have no trouble going past it! Some of the points:



“What we’re seeing is what we frankly think is an unsustainable trend in terms of their performance, their profitability, their losses,” Conroy said.

The $3m hard cap replaces the current $2.55m “soft cap” with six concessional categories. The current arrangements have created an even competition, but have not prevented clubs from spending beyond their means.

“It’s one of the reasons why we look at the player-spend arms race, and we just scratch our heads and go, ‘Okay, so the Swiss cheese we’ve currently got, we need to change’,” Conroy said.

According to PFA, the average payments per club was $4.8m in 2023-24.

Conroy said his organisation is not suggesting a reduction in the salary floor, which has remained at $2.25m per club for several years.

“We’re currently in discussions with two different consortiums in Canberra, and unfortunately, a lot of good promises, a lot of good discussions have come to nothing,” he said.

No changes are currently planned for the A-League Women competition, though the APL was working with Auckland on their entry as early as next season. Macarthur remains the only A-League Men outfit without a women’s counterpart.

“It’s a requirement to have two clubs as part of the licence, but we’ve also got to make sure that we’re keeping the clubs afloat at the same time,” Conroy said.
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It seems like it's bad news and we're going back to semi pro
 
HappyGuus said:
Interesting times. Looks like it's heading towards a youth heavy league, which is also what the Championship sounds like too. There's a rush on youth!
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That's shite if the youth are good enough they'll play you don't want players getting a go for the sake of it you might as well watch park football
 
melbcityguy said:
That's shite if the youth are good enough they'll play you don't want players getting a go for the sake of it you might as well watch park football
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Agree, but in this case it won't be "for the sake of it", it will be just what we can afford.

It's like every league around the world. You have players you can afford, and the one's you can't afford go elsewhere. The players asking too much for the league won't be signed, simple as that. By default, the kids would be more affordable to fit within the cap. They aren't skipping any queues if that's what you meant. They will still be the best for what the league can afford.

Makes sense why Victory are now going nuts building academies all over the place.
 
melbcityguy said:
That's shite if the youth are good enough they'll play you don't want players getting a go for the sake of it you might as well watch park football
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The real danger is that if promising youth can't make a living, they will walk away from the sport.
One of the things that irk me about the AL is the number of journeyman playing (although no as bad as six seasons ago). This has the potential to end the careers of plenty of journeyman. The flipside is that too much youth means that they won't get hardened.
 
I've got the feeling people are insecure in what they want the a-league to be about? If people want the a-league to be a premier league in Asia then it needs money, alot of it especially to get the best players and coaches.

If that is not financial unsustainable then become a league where it focuses on developing and selling young players overseas and therefore they hope the clubs can become more financially sustainable that way.

Personally ive got no problem if the APL decide if the a-league mens should be about developing and selling young talent if they feel its the best way for these clubs to be financially sustainable, after all there isnt a major broadcaster that is going to pump big money into the a-league so if can challenge the egg ball codes and the best leagues in Asia.

Which makes the PFA stance a bit baffling, they feel we will miss out in competing in Asia but where is the money going to come from and ultimately what should the a-league be about? I think all parties need to decide that first before anything else they discuss, otherwise I feel all parties are not working together for the benefit of the league and the sport.
 
Barca4life said:
I've got the feeling people are insecure in what they want the a-league to be about? If people want the a-league to be a premier league in Asia then it needs money, alot of it especially to get the best players and coaches.

If that is not financial unsustainable then become a league where it focuses on developing and selling young players overseas and therefore they hope the clubs can become more financially sustainable that way.

Personally ive got no problem if the APL decide if the a-league mens should be about developing and selling young talent if they feel its the best way for these clubs to be financially sustainable, after all there isnt a major broadcaster that is going to pump big money into the a-league so if can challenge the egg ball codes and the best leagues in Asia.

Which makes the PFA stance a bit baffling, they feel we will miss out in competing in Asia but where is the money going to come from and ultimately what should the a-league be about? I think all parties need to decide that first before anything else they discuss, otherwise I feel all parties are not working together for the benefit of the league and the sport.
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It needs to be in the middle imo

It can't just be kids playing because then there the quality goes down and we're just watching an academy where winning and losing doesn't matter as long as players get sold.

My most fun time supporting city was with mooy Bruno kisnorbo etc so we need older players there as well
 
melbcityguy said:
It needs to be in the middle imo

It can't just be kids playing because then there the quality goes down and we're just watching an academy where winning and losing doesn't matter as long as players get sold.

My most fun time supporting city was with mooy Bruno kisnorbo etc so we need older players there as well
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What does that mean exactly?

It varies from club to club so why have a salary cap when clubs can’t choose to do what they want?
 
melbcityguy said:
My most fun time supporting city was with mooy Bruno kisnorbo etc so we need older players there as well
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That was a decade ago. That era has long passed us by. In recent seasons it's been all about the young upcoming stars breaking through. Experience is important, but we haven't seen a new Bruno or Berisha for a while now. Especially not one that sticks around. If/once the proper NST is up and running, the young players should be performing at a much higher level.
melbcityguy said:
The pfa are a bit of a pain no? Aren't they also blocking the transfer system
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Every group is blocking something. APL don't want the transfer system either and also block P&R. Problem is FA have zero balls to actually implement anything.
 
someguyjc said:
That was a decade ago. That era has long passed us by. In recent seasons it's been all about the young upcoming stars breaking through. Experience is important, but we haven't seen a new Bruno or Berisha for a while now. Especially not one that sticks around. If/once the proper NST is up and running, the young players should be performing at a much higher level.

Every group is blocking something. APL don't want the transfer system either and also block P&R. Problem is FA have zero balls to actually implement anything.
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I think we need to give up on big crowds and TV ratings then. Because the casuals and majority of people don't care about seeing young players play then piss off overseas.

This forum is hardcore Australian football fans who understand it but most don't.
 
melbcityguy said:
I think we need to give up on big crowds and TV ratings then. Because the casuals and majority of people don't care about seeing young players play then piss off overseas.

This forum is hardcore Australian football fans who understand it but most don't.
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I guess thats the tradeoff of this 20 year experiment of getting billionaires to run huge deficits to get fair weather fans at the sacrifice of producing good roos and keeping out the most passionate fans

We haven't figured out how to have it both ways, but I'd prefer a stronger roos to big crowds in the a league
 
melbcityguy said:
I think we need to give up on big crowds and TV ratings then. Because the casuals and majority of people don't care about seeing young players play then piss off overseas.

This forum is hardcore Australian football fans who understand it but most don't.
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In a way we do need to drop the focus on crowds and ratings. It's an unsustainable chase. Any sugar hit that might get the casuals attention is fleeting and a false positive. Organic growth over time is the way to build crowds and ratings. The Aleague is two decades old now. The shiny factory paint is long gone. The numbers we are at now are pretty much where it has levelled out to. Now the individual clubs need to start building.
 
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