Melbourne City’s on-field fortunes have taken a positive turn, but questions continue to hover over lamentable crowd figures.
When struggling Melbourne Heart was purchased and rebranded by the City Football Group in mid-2014, it was hoped the fledgling club would soon match the pulling power and on-field success enjoyed by crosstown rivals Melbourne Victory.
Backed by the immense financial clout of its new owners, Melbourne City was finally in a position to build a championship-contending squad, a far cry from the early days when promising youngsters were sold to improve the club’s bottom line. With success seemingly looming, crowds would inevitably flock to AAMI Park.
Midway through the club’s second season under the City banner, this has not been the case. Despite the relative success of the 2014-15 campaign (a fifth-place finish and a semi-final appearance), Melbourne City’s home crowd average after four games is a lowly 7,370, ahead of only Perth Glory, who sit ninth on the A-League ladder.
On 2015-16 form, Melbourne City is not a hard sell. Aaron Mooy, Bruno Fornaroli and Harry Novillo are proving to be the league’s most potent attacking trio, former Sunderland goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen has been a rock despite the lack of stability in the back four, and the early season inconsistency that sent shivers through Heart diehards appears to have been banished.
Why aren’t the fans filing through the gates?
Granted, there are two home derbies to come against Melbourne Victory, and the club’s four home games so far have been against Central Coast, Newcastle, Perth Glory and Western Sydney Wanderers, with only the latter boasting any notable travelling support, but City can’t rely on away fans to boost attendance.
To a degree, the fans that City have yet to win over simply are not interested in the players on display. The likes of Mooy, Fornaroli and Novillo are sublimely skilled footballers, but they are not going to bring people through the gate as David Villa and Alessandro Del Piero have done. Melbourne City is better equipped to sign a high-drawing marquee than any other A-League club, and yet a spot is currently wasted on Robert Koren. Competition exists in the form of Major League Soccer heavyweights, but City needs to do better.
Melbourne Victory has built formidable support among casual fans and diehards alike, but their success has not come as a result of big spending on overseas stars. Besart Berisha, as skilled, entertaining and ruthlessly efficient as he is, will not convert local fans of overseas football that are yet to embrace the A-League. Melbourne City has an opportunity to corner that market, and cement a position as the A-League’s new ‘bling’ club.
Another issue that continues to plague the club is its ongoing lack of identity.
Michael Cockerill wrote in Fairfax Media on Sunday that wearing the sky blue of Manchester City would present Melbourne City as “a feeder club – no more, no less”, and that to do so would be “market poison”.
Cockerill is right. While fellow Premier League clubs Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester United enjoy considerable support down under, the same cannot be said for Manchester City, and for a young club that should be attempting to win over local fans of European teams, narrowing their market to one relatively unpopular team would be utterly counterproductive.
That is not to say Melbourne City needs to start again. Critics often panned Melbourne Heart for a lack of identity beyond “we’re not Victory”, but if the red and white were integrated with City’s finances and resources, the end product has potential to be a strong club with a strong individual identity, beyond that of a City Football Group “feeder club”. It could also work to win back disenfranchised Heart fans lost when the takeover occurred, beyond the token gesture of retaining the colours on the away jersey.
If Melbourne City is to make a meaningful contribution to Australian football, it must have the unwavering financial support of its owners, when it comes to both development and the recruitment of superstar footballers, but it must also have the chance to be its own club, rather than merely a far-flung outpost of a brand more concerned with Manchester and New York.
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