Brisbane 1 v CCM 0 - hacktonberry

This game was all Brisbane. A margin of 3 or 4 was there for them. Perhaps a little over cooking of their lead up. And some miss firing from new forward Issy the artist Nakajima showed some great touches but overall made the classic mistake of trying to win the game with every touch. Of the new players, I enjoyed Besart Berisha and Kofi Danning. Kofi came on late and showed real class down the far right.

The man of the match was Mitch Nichols. CCM were content, disappointingly to take turns getting yellow cards hacking down Broich - I thought that they would have more talent than they showed.

The first half was all Roar. In the second, CCM got the ball into the Roar half more, but this led to Mitch's goal and lay bear their limits.

Brisbane's weather for Saturday...

Saturday

Showers, thunderstorms.

Min 14

Max 26

Sunday

Fine.

Min 14

Max 27

Monday

Possible thundery rain.

Min 15

Max 27

Tuesday

Fine.

Min 13

Max 26

Wednesday

Fine.

Min 13

Max 26

Thursday

Mostly fine. Possible shower.

Min 14

Max 25

Wild A-League guessing WAG only thanks

Top group:

Favourite - Adelaide - amazing recruitment

Victory (Kewell factor?)

Roar

Bottom group:

Perth, Wellington, Heart, Newcastle (great start guys:) )

Question marks:

Sydney (will Emmo make the difference), CCM (will their Roar style no marquee approach pay dividends?), Gold Coast (will their Dutchmen payoff? Great Culina handoff so far).

Brisbane Roar v CCM - Saturday 7:45pm

Here we go...

Grassroots: who they are, why they come and where they went...

Soccer clubs all over Australia see themselves as masters of the grassroots and sit waiting in their club houses for their local A-League team to see the apparently obvious and come knocking. In the absence of this knock, they carry on.

The A-League grassroots are the untapped crowd potential.

Families that enrol their kids at the local have taken a step that indicates that they are interested in watching the sport. But for most, after a few years it becomes a fleeting interest, as they waver from watching their children play, to dropping them off and leaving a bare skeleton of people to run the club and show support for the team on game day. Some clubs appear to be run by people who once had children playing there, but now are grown up and off doing other things.

Beyond the very early teenage year or two, the soccer clubs lack their own grassroots. But hope that the A-League will bring it.

Live game A-League fans have their own lifecycle. Some come and go for one match of one season, perhaps riding the success or star attraction of the local team. The grassroots fan base commence as parents, or teenagers draw into the game. For children their special dedication to the sport may start by being taken to games by an enthusiastic parent or two, then breaking out with their teenage mates to enjoin the tussle of a supporters group, before dropping out as other priorities take over. The A-League is not old enough to see whether they will bring their life partners and children back to re-live their early experiences. Perhaps this cycle is 5 to 10 years. We are now getting to the upper limit of that timespan.

The foundation A-League teams have touched most of the potential fans in their cities. The Roar, for example, has probably has had more fans than other A-league teams have fans - remember the 30,000 plus fans for Roar v Sydney games in season one? A mass of people have come and gone.

Melbourne Victory have perhaps held onto its fans more effectively than other teams. Roy Morgan's research shows Melbourne's fans are most likely to support more than one sport. And Melbournians seem more likely to go to games.

The Roar churns its fans, holding only a very small base of members. These poeople are really season ticket holders rather than members.

In Brisbane the grassroots are out watching the rugby league. These are the people likely to buy and stick to a local team. They are also more likely to watch only one sport.

Around 1.3 million people support the Broncos, a group larger than the city (1 million people) and 240,000 of them go to a game each year. The Broncos have been around for about 20 years and are owned by News Corporation. Only 60,000 of the Bronco's supporters will go to any form of soccer game in a year - and that is probably to watch the kids or the national team. This is a very small base for Brisbane's grassroots to convert to regular Roar fans. Having said that NRL is struggling to keep its fans (see Roy Morgan research).

The NRL has experienced growth of 3.8% of fans in 10 years. But this is after recording 930,000 new fans in Townsville, Gold Coast and South Sydney, and it is interesting to see that the Gold Coast and Townsville teams have around the same number of fans. Looking at the detail shows that the NQ Fury did well relative to the early days of NQ Cowboys (114,000 total fans in 2001) and that the Cowboys fan base is well down on its 2006 peak of 613,000 fans at only 376,000. Otherwise the NZ Warriors are an NRL success story going from 109,000 fans in 2001 to 204,000 in the lead up to today's grand final.

The other NRL standouts since 2001 are the decline of the Newcastle Knights (minus 39%) and Cronulla Sharks (minus 43%). The Knights and the Jets share the same owner.

@BrisbaneRoar #Fanforum scratchings...

The standout for the night (19 July at Griffith Uni Southbank) was the brilliant performance of Roar CEO Eugenie Buckley. Eugenie's appointment is more evidence, if more is required, that the A-League should be centrally run. The FFA has found for its staff, then nurtured, and now provided to run a club, a highly skilled professional, who understands the game, its fans and the mechanics of a sporting club.

Eugenie, a Queenslander, ran the show, and Ange was at his sartorial best, baited, shrugged and offered what insider information he could get away with (Roar's new shirt is Puma), to jointly entertain the gathering of the most dedicated of Roar fans. The result was a less cynical and more pro #Aleague evening than SBS and @SydneyFC could muster.

Ange, when Michael Zullo and Tommy Oar return, will they play for us? We will pick the players that suit our style of play.

To follow that up, did we look at Dario? Only briefly. It isn't about money. It is about whether players want to come to Brisbane. They 'must really want to be here'. In Dario's case 'it was not the time for us.. how we want to play'.

When we play in Asia at the end of the season, fans will be encouraged to travel, 8% of the away venues will be offered to Roar fans (not that with the ACL history will seating be a real problem).

The Roar spends more time in the community and at schools than any other code in Brisbane.

Brisbane is perhaps the world's most competitive market for 'football' with 4 mature codes competing.

Suncorp costs twice as much as any other @Aleague stadium.

Ange 'would have loved Kosta to stay one more year'. They were happy with the money they got. But the salary cap limits what they can do. Then what about a marquee? Not unless they play the way we want to play. Someone from the audience coined the phase 'a marquee team rather than a marquee player'.

Thomas Broich's film will be screened in 6 weeks - with English sub-titles - Matt McKay said it was screened in Germany while the Socceroos were there - Thomas was a hero. There will be a special event for Roar fans.

Matt made the point about 'hype' of back-to-back titles but the Roar does have 'certain goals' and they are learning to play new systems. Ange added that there will be more 'recruitment over the next few weeks'. I found out elsewhere that apparently lots of youth players from other clubs have made their way up to Brisbane to see if they can learn from Ange.

The reason season ticket holders can't get their own seats for finals is because they are claimed by sponsors and their guests.

The talks on the sale of the Roar are going well. The press is saying the Clem Jones Group plus an Asian businessman - back to the strikers?

@SydneyFC signed players just for the #ACL and it impacted both their season and their performance in the ACL.

The @FFA's PR company is based in Brisbane and Roar is making the most of that connection.

Brisbane Roar members/season ticket holders are up 65% - so still under 1,000? Compare to the AFL Suns on the Gold Coast that have 12,000 members.

Football fights back... I can smell the taste of Victory (I'm almost with you)

The winter season can be quiet on the media front. Not this year.

The news from the World Cup has been bad, particularly on corruption at FIFA. However, Ben Buckley and the clubs have followed this up with a truck load of good, OK and other news. So soccer is staying there on the sporting pages, reminding families that it is an entertainment option for next season. And when it is, AFL and NRL will not be on. Only the falling over itself - once great - cricket.

Harry Kewell needs to play in the A-League more than the A-League needs him. Yes we need him - a lot. He will be a massive boon. But how many people in other countries buy shirts because they see an advert with Harry in it? Really, if he can stand out here, Harry should make massive amounts of money without taking the much needed extra gate-take that he will bring. The only benefit in paying him is the encouragement for others that they could make a fortune in Australia.

Marcus Flores was the best player last year, but he has given Adelaide the opportunity to find another this year. More spark. Their management has a great attitude.

Ben Buckley was great at the SBS fan forum. SBS are promoting the game in Australia which is great. Thanks for coming back guys. Craig Foster has written a great book so we can now understand this 'come to play football' stuff. And Les Murray also has another book out.

Archie Thompson has a book - the first for a current player?

Newcastle has been brilliant in their ticket prices, $8.85 for adults!

Heart have Fred. Their coach has bagged the league and says he wants to leave. But that sounded like what it was - an excuse for his own under-whelming performance.

Brisbane got their season tickets out early and well priced.

Who knows what is in stall for the A-League in 2011-12. But given the current environment strategic map options, the best has been made of it.

Now it is up the fans.

Come on Miron, yell a bit louder.