Football meets recession

[alastair]

The way i see it AFL teams in this state will be most at risk as supporters need not renew memberships as they can watch most games on free to air tv, couple that with corporate dollars drying up as less sponsership money becomes available and it becomes obvious that some teams will need to relocate or go under.
What is in AFL's favour is the free to air programing and the lack of opposition sport during game time on any other channel, this ensures maximum dollar for their product.
The A-League is on pay tv and competes against a number of other sports played at the same time, in times of recession pay tv subscriptions will diminish and so may the value of A-League football(or will it)
Will a recession effect the membership numbers and dry up corporate dollars for the A-League to the point where the league becomes unviable?

[MDL]

Depends on the severity of the recession....if we do have one, every thing will be hit to a certin degree...but the league shouldn't fold. Football's venture into Asia, gives it an economic advantage over AFL. Companies that sponsor AFL might think twice during a recession.

[mrjones]

I think anytime you have something like a recession, or as was in the news this week, another increase in interest rates, households/individuals have to sacrifice something which is considered a luxury item.

For example, rather than buying a membership for both the Victory as well as an AFL club, you might only buy one. Or you may downgrade from a reserved seat to a general membership.

The Australian sports market is one of the most competitive in the world, but it is probably the 'weaker' AFL clubs which are probably in trouble. The AFL is a very sucessful sporting competition, but there are only so many people in Melbourne. It is not feasible for all clubs to attract 30-40 00 AFL members into the future, in order to stay afloat.