The world is full of uninformed and illogical people making outrageous comments and usually it’s best practice to ignore them.
However, sometimes someone writes something so insulting to what you are passionate about that your blood boils and you know you have to reply.
Such was the case with Jesper Fjelstad’s comment piece titled “Adelaide Needs Footy on Saturday” on Page 55 on last week’s (June 14) Adelaide Sunday Mail.
Normal web protocol is to do a link to the article so you can read it, but Adelaide Now didn’t deem it worthy of posting on it’s site so I will summarise here and include in full later on.
In essence Jesper believes that for the good of “football in this state” we should have all AFL games in Adelaide at AAMI Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
The points he raised to back this proposal include
- Adelaide needs to “grow up and put football in a prime time slot – Saturday afternoon”
- This is needed because the Power are bleeding and “for football in this state”
- Counter arguments have been tabled and are flimsy
- Survey results showing a dislike for football at this time are not a “true response” and are because we’ve “been brainwashed that way”
- SANFL is the tail wagging the dog protecting the local league “to the detriment of the biggest show in town”
- Having the SANFL hold the licence “is like the Manangatang thirds being in charge of Collingwood”
- The SANFL is a “worthwhile competition even though it is not so healthy”
- There is little conflict to withhold the public from AFL in this time slot and most “Church league” football fans won’t be able to have two commitments because their better halves won’t let them.
- Saturday is better than Sunday because on Sunday people want to stay close to home especially those with kids.
- Saturday afternoon football would boost Power attendances.
- There is little conflict and those involved elsewhere won't show up anyway.
To be fair to Jesper I will list the full article a little later in this thread in case I have misrepresented what he wrote.
With so much to respond to, the hardest thing is knowing exactly where to start and keeping within a word limit but here we go.
1) - Saturday afternoon may be a “prime time slot” for a Sunday newspaper but it isn’t for almost all elite levels of Australian Sport. The NRL, Super 14 Rugby, A League and NBL don’t schedule any games at this time. Whenever there is a public holiday or a split round it is a Saturday afternoon game that is moved.
2) - The article insinuates that the SANFL is stopping Saturday afternoon AFL at AAMI Stadium. “There is little reason to withhold from the public the best time to watch the best football” Well over the past five seasons (2004-2008) there have been 23 AFL games at AAMI Stadium played on Saturday afternoon, that’s more than a full minor round season and over 20% of all games scheduled at that time.
3) - Anyone reading the article would think there is some sort of ban that the SANFL has implemented on AFL in Adelaide on Saturday Afternoon. With 23 games played this is surely not the case so why is Jesper so deliberately misrepresenting the SANFL’s role in this? After all the AFL decides the scheduling of games, the Crows and Power have some limited say with a small wish list and the SANFL has no input.
4) - Saturday afternoon AFL football in Adelaide has been tried (again 23 games over the last four years) and has proved to be the worst timeslot for attendances for both clubs. Consider these “flimsy arguments”.
EXHIBIT A - Over the past five seasons (2004-2008), the Power average 27,182 for its 50 non showdown games. Whilst the most popular time slot, Saturday night, averages 28,845 per game, its least popular slot is, you guessed it, Saturday afternoon with an average of 24,937 per game. This few hours difference sees a drop off of almost 4,000 per game or almost 14%. Take that difference over a full 11 home games and that’s a drop off of over 40,000 people.
EXHIBIT B - When it comes to Showdowns the results just as bad. Again from 2004-2008 the non Saturday afternoon Port hosted Showdowns average 40,688 per game, the sole Saturday afternoon clash drawing just 36,959. Again almost 4,000 less in a match the Power relies on so much to generate stadium revenue.
EXHIBIT C - For the record the results are similar for the Crows. Again from 2004-08 Saturday afternoon is the least attended time slot with an average of 40,279 per game compared with 42,914 for Friday nights and 42,337 on Saturday nights.
EXHIBIT D - Many would remember last years Elimination Final when the Crows game against Collingwood (considered the biggest supported club in Australia) scheduled on a Saturday afternoon drew less than 37,685. Remember this was Adelaide’s biggest game of the year and only some 3,000 more than the SANFL Grand Final four weeks later. This final some 3,500 less than the Crows average minor rd game average over the past five years.
EXHIBIT E – The Advertiser run an annual Footy Fans Survey (the 2009 one has just been released). One of the regular questions relates to preferred time slots where fans can list multiple choices of when they want AFL games in Adelaide. When you compare Friday night, with Saturday afternoon, Saturday night and Sunday the least preferred option is Saturday Afternoon for both Crows and Power fans. In 2008, almost 60% of Adelaide Fans and 63% of Port fans do not prefer this time slot.
EXHIBIT F – Furthermore the more fans have experienced Saturday afternoon AFL the less they like it.
Comparing the 2006 & 2008 footy fans surveys from The Advertiser dislike for this “prime time” slot has risien from 55% to 60% for Crows fans and 62% to 63% for Power fans. So after so many games in this time slot people have tried it and still don’t like it.
CONCLUSION - With an average of over four Saturday Afternoon games scheduled per season over the last five years South Australian football fans have had plenty of opportunity to vote with their feet and claim this “prime time” slot as their own. Alas these figures all prove that far from being a miracle cure for crowd ailments scheduling Saturday Afternoon AFL football at AAMI Stadium is a poisoned chalice.
5) - The article shows the writers lack of knowledge and respect for the South Australian football community as a whole, its structure, culture, tradition, history and achievements.
6) - The labelling of the SANFL, the best state sporting league in the nation and a Top 50 South Australian company as the “Manangatang Thirds” and a “Church League” is demeaning, and does nothing to enhance any attempt at an argument his proposal. Maybe he needs to inject these insults to cover for the lack of any substantive facts backing his proposal? Maybe it says more about the writers credibility and the sports editor that allowed these comments to go print than it does about our favourite league.
7) Not content with lambasting the local league, Jesper than has a crack at the opinions of local football fans saying we are "brainwashed".
- Brainwashed to prefer SANFL, Suburban or Country football on Saturdays Afternoons and VFL/AFL at some other time? Well I guess over 130 years of proud local football history and tradition will do that.
- If South Australian football fans prefer local AFL at anytime but Saturday afternoon it’s because that’s our tradition. Anyone over 30 would remember the weekends during the 1980’s made of up live local football on Saturday, a rush home to see KG;s Footy Show and then BIG Replay on Saturday Night. On Sunday we would have the Channel Seven VFL Saturday highlights at noon followed by a live Swans game from the SCG, tied up nicely by The Winners on ABC hosted by Drew Morphett in his tan and power blue suits. It was SANFL, country & suburban football on Saturday then VFL on Sunday, a great balance that enabled us to enjoy the full football spectrum.
- It should be a source of pride and achievement that South Australian’s have managed to generally embrace two new national league teams whilst still maintaining strong support of the traditional state league competition. It’s an achievement that should not be derided.
- South Australian’s footy fans are far from brainwashed, we are just broad minded enough to get behind our Crows and Power whilst still retaining interest in our old SANFL side.
7) - Jesper believes the SANFL is not healthy and uses the 7 out of 9 clubs making a loss last year as his sole argument to back this up.
- Yes the financial results are a concern however they need to be put in the following context
a) - Clubs by definition are non-profit organizations, their aim is to win premierships not retain massive surpluses.
Clubs spend any extra money pre-profit figure gaining an extra edge whilst companies spend a lot of their post profit figure as dividends to shareholders.
b) - The 2007-2008 was a double edged sword financially for most clubs, the introduction of the non-smoking legislation for clubs meant most undertook expensive & extensive renovations of their social club and gaming facilities to prepare for the changes. Then when introduced trade reduced substantially anyway for the first few months before returning to normal if not stronger levels in the newly improved facilities.. In summary there were a lot more one-off issues last year and the financial picture for most will be much better in 2009.
c) - In reality there are probably 3 clubs that have serious long term financial issues, another 3 that have short term challenges that they are overcoming and a final 3 that are doing very well anyway, a similar breakdown you will find in the competitive environment that is most sporting leagues around the world.
- Finances aside the SANFL in recent years continues to grow in stature and support. For example
- Memberships, a fugure that indicates the size of your true supporter based, has across the 9 league clubs over the past decade (1999-2008) grown by 41%.
- Attendances have grown by over 18% since 2005. Last year attendances
- Last years SANFL grand final between Central and Glenelg drew more people than any Power home game last year include their hosted showdown.
The final myth that need disputing is that scheduling AFL football at AAMI Stadium head to head with SANFL and grassroots games will have little conflict for any of these organisations.- It is generally accepted that of all the pre-AFL state leagues the SANFL has done the best in maintaining its integrity as a competition in its own right and a strong supporter base.
- This is backed up by The Advertiser Footy Fans Survey of 2008 which indicates that amongst the AFL fans less than one in ten had no interest in the SANFL. Indeed almost 35% indicated a strong interest and over 90% said they maintained at least a mild interest. These are percentages any other state league would kill for.
- Going head to head with the AFL certainly affects SANFL crowds. In 2008 the two rounds that had no AFL to compete with in Adelaide averaged 19,565 each. The other 21 rounds going against the AFL averaged 12,218. That’s a 60% increase for the SANFL when there is no AFL in town for the weekend.
- This works both ways and you can refer to my earlier figures on how crowds drop for AFL games in Adelaide when scheduled for Saturday afternoon. I should add this is despite the SANFL moving most of their games to Friday and Sunday, bar the one allocated for ABC TV purposes. Alas for most suburban and country clubs moving matches from Saturday are too difficult.
- Many people are critical of the Power for their Port Adelaide heritage focus which they believe disenfranchises those in South Australia who hated the old Magpies. On that basis why would the AFL deliberately go head to head with the SANFL and “countless others involved in suburban and country football.” Why disenfranchise thousands of people who already love the game of Australian Rules Football? Isn’t there enough of a battle to grow support against other sports and entertainment options without cannibalising those already sold on the sport.
10) - Jesper attempts to make the claim that this proposal will help the Power but nowhere is there any argument listed about any benefits for the rest of “football in this state’ Even if (and it doesn’t) help our 2 AFL clubs what about the rest of “football in this state” ie the 9 SANFL clubs and 270 country and suburban clubs across 28 affiliated leagues. Even if it helped (and it doesn’t) just 0.7% of football clubs in South Australia should it be at the expense of the other 99.3%
In conclusion if this idea is implemented it will be the ultimate lose/lose/lose for the entire South Australian football community. From country clubs to the Crows there is not one organisation that will benefit from forcing football fans to choose between the local level which they have greater access and some degree of ownership with and the elite entertainment that is the AFL.
The crew at Outside 50 on RPH have offered Jesper to come on air and discuss his article further. Tune in Wednesday morning at 7am on 1197am 5RPH to see if he takes up the invitation.
Cheers
Phil Herden
