Aloisi uncertain of next rights distribution, offseason plans

As he attempts to begin planning for the offseason, Western United coach John Aloisi says he's uncertain at what kind of TV rights distribution his club will receive from league administrators.

With his side’s final game of the A-League Men looming, Western United coach John Aloisi says uncertainty surrounding what kind of distribution the club will receive from league administrators is factoring into his club’s ability to plan their offseason and 2024-25 preseason.

After ensuring that they would avoid a wooden spoon with a 4-3 win over Perth Glory last week, United will return to Melbourne for the final game of their 2023-24 campaign against Melbourne City this Sunday – a fixture in which, should Western Sydney beat Melbourne Victory the week prior, they could end City’s decade-long run of finals. 

Aloisi is contracted for next season and has indicated he will return for 2024-25 but, for now, just what kind of offseason and preseason he and United can plan remains uncertain – their planning efforts still not yet fully able to account for what their budget will look like. 

Incertitude reigns surrounding just how much clubs will receive in broadcast deal distributions from league administrators the Australian Professional Leagues (APL) for next season, with the league denying recent claims in News Corp that it was to be more than halved and fall from an approximate $2.35m to “just over a million dollars”. 

Under former chief executive Danny Townsend, the A-Leagues negotiated a five-year, $200m deal with Network 10 and Paramount+ ahead of the 2020-21 season. Reports in the years since, however, have claimed that missed performance targets had resulted in a reduction in payments. A confirmed renegotiation of the deal moved a previous free-to-air Sunday game of A-League Women off Ten’s free-to-air channels, with the competition’s fixtures moved onto free streaming service 10Play — which features a limited production — as part of this horse-trading. 

Townsend departed for a role in Saudi Arabia at the start of the 2023-24 campaign, replaced as league boss by Nick Garcia, while a new, independent chair arrived in the form of former parliamentarian Stephen Conroy. In the months that followed, the APL shed a significant chunk of its workforce to reign in costs – including shuttering its ill-fated attempt to establish a media arm in KEEPUP – and began a pivot towards a more streamlined ‘football-focused’ competition with a focus on development. 

The league was then thrown into crisis in late March by the collapse of broadcast partner Global Advance – which was established in 2020 and whose first major client was the A-Leagues – but was, somewhat miraculously in the middle of AFL and NRL season, able to secure a deal with NEP to produce the rest of the A-League Men and Women seasons. It is not yet known if NEP will continue to produce coverage of the A-Leagues in 2024-25, with the APL obligated to foot the bill for production under the terms of its deal with Network Ten. 

“Not to a great deal,” the United boss said of the information coming his way. “I'm not sure exactly what the club will be getting from the APL. 

“We're going off a sort of budget at the moment that the club is giving us, in terms of the playing budget. Then there's also the football budget that we have to look at… there's a lot to budgets. 

“Even preparing for preseason. Can you go away? Can't you go away? Can you play friendly games? Can you get different people in to help your preseason? All those things that we're still working through and that's a little bit because of uncertainty about the APL budget I suppose. They're things that we're discussing internally and hopefully, we get a bit of an idea of soon.”

Of course, with United and six other men’s sides about to commence their offseasons and all bar four A-League Women's sides having already reached that point, answers will be required – or are at least hoped for – sooner rather than later. 

United has already begun the process of re-signing some of its key figures – Alana Černe and Matt Grimaldi recently announced as re-signing for the women’s and men’s teams and Kat Smith agreeing to return as A-League Women coach for 2024-25 – but it still has several contributors off contract such as team captains Chloe Logarzo and Josh Risdon. Creative fulcrum Daniel Penha’s loan from Brasileiro Série A club Atlético Mineiro is also set to end.

“For us coaches, for staff in the football department and the people on the board, [the offseason is about] preparing and making our preseason is right,” said Aloisi. “Because if we can get that right, I believe we'll have a good season.

That’s why we have to make sure when we have an idea of what we're doing in terms of budgets, then we have an idea in terms of recruiting, how much we have to spend, and how we can prepare for preseason. 

“Normally, if you can get everyone in on day one of preseason, or pretty soon after preseason starts, then you get off to a good start of the season. 

“We were unfortunate this year with a few of our players, either departing pretty late in the preseason, signing players pretty late or having players come in that were a little bit underdone and injured. The season started slowly.”