Conroy: All Stars, English giants tour a "huge promotion" for the A-Leagues
APL chair Stephen Conroy says the league is doing "much better" than breaking even with the return of the All Stars but that the in-kind benefits would more than justify even a cost neutral event.
Australian Professional Leagues chair Stephen Conroy says that Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United’s men’s sides and Arsenal’s women’s side, and the associated return of the A-League All Stars, will provide a significant boost to the league.
Officially confirmed in Melbourne on Tuesday morning, the two Premier League giants will face off with each other on Wednesday, May 22 at the MCG, the first time that Melbourne’s own Ange Postecoglou will have coached in his hometown since he led the Socceroos to a 2-1 win over Thailand during 2018 World Cup qualifying.
That clash with the Magpies will take place just across the road from the former site of Olympic Park, where Postecoglou won the 1991, 1998, and 1999 NSL grand finals as first a player and then a coach with South Melbourne – the latter breaking the heart of his now assistant Mile Jedinak, who watched on as his Sydney United fell to a 3-2 defeat.
Following their meeting with Spurs, Eddie Howe’s side will then meet an A-League All-Stars side at Marvel Stadium two days later, before an A-League Women All-Star outfit faces WSL side Arsenal, the first time Australia’s women’s top-flight will have fielded a representative side.
The Gunners, meanwhile, will become the first side from the English women’s top flight to tour Australia, with Matildas trio Steph Catley, Kyra Cooney-Cross, and Caitlin Foord expected to join Postecoglou as star attractions across the week, which will end with the men’s A-League Men grand final on Sunday.
“It's a huge promotion for the league,” Conroy said. “So even if we were just breaking even - and we're not, we're doing much better than that - but even if it was breaking even, the publicity, the excitement this generates, it's worthwhile doing it.
“Obviously, it's a commercial arrangement. I genuinely can't go into the commercial details but we are getting a return.”
The last All-Stars game took place at the tail end of the 2021-22 season, when Barcelona faced off with an A-League Men team during the build-up to Western United defeating Melbourne City in the men’s grand final, attracting 70,174 fans to Accor Stadium – the then largest crowd in Australia since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Garang Kuol’s standout performance in that fixture helped kickstart a run of form that would eventually see him land a place in the Socceroos’ squad for the 2022 FIFA World Cup and a move to Newcastle.
"We've seen lots of young players use these kinds of games as breakthroughs in the past," Daniel Arzani, on hand at Tuesday’s event to represent the A-Leagues, said.
"They come off the bench or they start and they have a really good cameo and it really propels them, it pushes their career and they can push on from there."
While Australians are a rare sight in the Premier League, those from the Antipodes are a much more regular part of the WSL, with Charlize Rule becoming the latest player to make the jump directly from the A-League Women during the last offseason.
“People at home here will want to prove themselves against one of the best women's clubs and likewise, they're going to want to come in and prove themselves as well. So it's going to be really exciting," Lydia Williams, herself a former Arsenal player, said.
"It's gonna be a game that's full of talent on both sides, whether it's raw talent, or talent that's been produced in a club.
"But I also think what it's going to do for the women's game in Australia is everyone has a large following of the Matildas - we want to see that progress to club and not just support the Matildas when they're out here but support A-League Women's teams.
"To have that club culture that European countries have - we want to see that here in Australia and I think it's a really nice platform for that."
The A-Leagues attempted to stage an All-Star game during the 2022-23 season, with plans to bring Bayern Munich out to Sydney falling through in the final stages of negotiations.
That fixture was supposed to form a key part in the ‘Festival of Football’ surrounding the sale of grand final hosting rights to Sydney – a deal that has since been scrapped – but even with hosting rights for the men’s decider now up in the air, Conroy was confident the touring sides coming to Melbourne would build buzz.
“I can't predict where the grand final is going to be but this is gonna be a big lead and a big boost,” said Conroy. “When the original New South Wales deal was done, part of the deal was there was to be a week of excitement in the lead-up to the grand final.
“[The grand final] could be in Wellington, it could be in Adelaide, it could be in Brisbane, it could be anywhere. We've just got to work on the basis. We're promoting football, we're promoting the A-Leagues in the lead up to the grand final.”
The Central Coast Mariners are currently top of the A-League Men heading into the final weeks of the season, with their closest rivals for the Premiers’ Plate – which makes a side top seed in finals – being Wellington.
The Mariners' previous ‘home’ grand final was moved from Gosford to Sydney back in 2008 over commercial considerations, while a grand final has never been brought to New Zealand by the ‘Nix or their predecessors in the Australian national league.
Conroy, however, emphasised that discussions over potential grand final arrangements were only in their formative stages.
“If you look at the last year, it was a full stadium, to City's detriment, of Mariners,” said Conroy. “So the Mariners showed last year that they are more than willing, their fans, to come to Sydney to support their team and I think that was the X-Factor in helping the Mariners through to the victory.
“But the discussion is at the very, very early stage because you've just got to plan for every contingency.
“If it's in Wellington… I was talking to the chairman Rob [Morrison] and he reckons I could get 35,000 to a final in Wellington. So there's a lot of exciting potential at the moment.”
