Garcia: sustainable fiscal foundation 'critical' as A-League charts latest new course
Tasked with leading the A-Leagues through turbulent times, commissioner Nick Garcia says securing financial sustainability from which a new ‘football focus’ can be built stands as a critical priority.
Tasked with leading the A-Leagues through its latest period of existential dread, commissioner Nick Garcia says securing financial sustainability from which a new ‘football focus’ can be built is a critical priority for the league.
Garcia first joined the APL in February of 2023 as chief operations operator before being named commissioner in June. He assumed primary responsibility for the competitions in October following the departure of former chief executive Danny Townsend for a position in the Middle East. The latter ascension came a month after former parliamentarian Stephen Conroy was appointed as the APL’s first independent chair.
While there have been some wins, notably the confirmation of Auckland’s entry into the A-League Men in 2024-25, it’s hardly been smooth sailing for the new duo since. The ongoing saga surrounding Canberran expansion and attempts to sell the Newcastle Jets’ licence (the former the domain of the APL and the latter a group of A-League owners that took over custodianship of the club) has cast a long shadow, as have fan protests at perceived over-policing at games, and a general sense of malaise that permeates the leagues’ fanbase.
In January, the APL announced that it was significantly reducing the size of its workforce, with its attempt to establish its own media KEEPUP among the most notable casualties. This augured what was described as a shift towards a greater shift towards a ‘football focus’ by the organisation, which Garcia told ESPN this week centred around developing talent that could go onto greater things in Europe and, in the case of the A-League Women, serve as a destination for some of the league’s best.
“For me, consolidation is about looking at everything that has gone, capturing the fan base, and working out something better but, critically, it's about financial sustainability across the whole ecosystem,” Garcia explained to JDL Media. “That's the thing we need to drive for and then you build from that.
“We can't just say that A-Leagues is all moving forward in one direction. We're gonna look at everything differently as we go forward and plan.”
In these initial stages, per the executive, much of these efforts centred on arresting mission creep and focusing on the league’s core aims surrounding football. Not so much doing new things for the sake of doing new things with a new direction, but focusing on doing what they’re already supposed to be doing — and doing it well — while ensuring new endeavours don’t distract.
The rebranding of the league’s online channels from KEEPUP was an example raised.
“I’d say we’re more consolidating,” Garcia explained. “If you think about KEEPUP, it was really good for bringing in a broader fanbase and it probably has helped drive our metrics, it just wasn’t financially sustainable at the time.
“The other feedback that we got, it’s possible that we didn’t do enough to speak directly to the core A-Leagues fans. So they go onto KEEPUP and they can’t really find the ladder or the results. But A-Leagues.com.au, it’s a work in progress, but the stickiness is much higher than KEEPUP ever was, which is good because people would just bounce off KEEPUP. [A-Leagues.com.au has] 33% longer visits.
“Not trying to be all things to all people but being more focused on the A-Leagues product than global football fans.
“We’re going to continue to create platforms that help our product both from a performance point of view but also a monetisation point of view. Unite Round is a really good example. How can we create that? Year one was always going to be tough on the numbers but we wanted to see if the concept worked and if we can build on it.
“It’s good really good feedback so that’s something we’re going to continue to invest in. We announced the All Stars, which is a really good thing because it engages the broader football audience, it creates a great event that we can monetize, and it’s an amazing shop window for our players globally.”
Another of the key areas of improvement for the APL is strengthening its existing relationship with the competition’s regulator, Football Australia.
While saying all the right things in public, the two party’s divergent goals and fiefdoms inevitably mean their visions, or how they go about pursuing them, don’t always align. Some level of tension, therefore, is inevitable. Football Australia chief executive James Johnson, for instance, sees football as a winter sport, a view those in the A-League don’t exactly subscribe to, while Townsend before his exit bemoaned the A-Leagues effectively being locked out of the Women’s World Cup.
Conroy told JDL Media that building on the relationship between the two bodies had been a primary focus of his since assuming his chair positon, praising the work Garcia had done in stabilising the organisation. Garcia, for his part, speaks with his counterpart Johnson at least once a week as the two organisations look to work better in sync.
“When I talk about alignment, I talk about organizational alignment, fan continuity -- we've got that massive participation base, how do we engage them in the professional product week in week out rather than, you know, just for the Matilda's and Socceroos?
“That alignment is really important. But of course, as you start to build that relationship, that trust you look at football [matters such as promotion and relegation and season staging] But, we're not there yet.
“There's a load of stuff that we can work on. And I think the first bit is really about working closely together. So there's continuity in how we talk to fans but that whole participation-based thing and supporting them it's gonna be really important.”