The Children are Our Future

Phill Chadwick takes a glimpse back at his childhood and reveals how the youth of today are the lifeline for the game he now cherishes.

A long, long time ago, I was 9 or 10 years old, living in the UK. My little brother, always a Chelsea fan, though no-one knows why, begged my dad to take us to the football. Proper football, not just the local team. As it happened, Chelsea were drawn to play Everton at Goodison Park the next week.

My dad got us tickets, somehow, and we made our way to Liverpool for the game. At this point, I was not committed to any team. A day out with my dad was reward enough and I hated Chelsea just on principle due to my brother's support of them. All the same, I had heard of Everton, and seen them on TV, but I was no fan.

There we were, in the ground, the place full and noisy with the joyful singing of the Everton faithful. Our seats were towards the Gwladys Street end, about in line with the edge of the penalty area. A few rows from the front.

It must have been about 15 minutes before kick-off when several ladies dressed in blue began a lap of the ground carrying wicker baskets and tossing handfuls of something into the crowd. When I asked my dad what was happening he told me they were throwing out toffees, because Everton were nicknamed "The Toffees".

That sounded pretty good to me and, glory of glories, one of the handfuls came our way. Shane Warne never clasped a slips catch more firmly than my hands clutched that toffee. From that very instant, before the game had even started, I was an Evertonian. It was that simple. Any club that could give me a free toffee had to be the one for me.

And so it has been ever since. On such simple things are lifetime commitments made.

The A-League clubs need to make this sort of connection with tens of thousands of Nintendo generation kids. Believe me this is not going to be as easy as easy as hurling boiled lollies at the Grandstands.

There is plenty of unused capacity at A-League Stadiums. My rough tally says that the total capacity of all A-League grounds is about 215,000. Because only four of the eight are in use each week, let's say on average the capacity of grounds in use each week is about 100,000. The average total attendance so far this season is about 11,200 that is a total of (say) 45,000 for four games. A pretty good turn out, but it still leaves an average of more than over 55,000 empty seats each week.

Now an empty seat is more than just lost gate takings. There is also lost food and beverage sales as well as merchandising not sold. But more importantly, it is a potential football fan.

In atom bombs there is a thing called critical mass. If you put enough uranium together in a small enough area, you get an explosion. Likewise with football crowds. There comes a point where the atmosphere in the stadium feeds on itself and everyone, not just the club faithful, become involved. That critical mass is what we need to achieve at most grounds, on most weeks, if the A-League is to prosper and not just survive.

There are several ways to do this. And, like Conservationists, we need to think globally and act locally.

First, if you are a member or season ticket holder go to every home game! If you are seriously ill, or can't make it, give your ticket to someone else. If you are interstate, go to a game there.

When you do go, take someone with you. Preferably someone new to A-League football.

Educate your friends. My friend asked me the other day which ethnic group Sydney FC represented. And this was someone who is interested in football! We need to get the message out. We cannot rely on mass advertising.

Talk about the football at work or at school. Tell everyone how good the new league is. Invite them along. Put notices up on the notice board about the next game. Drop a reference to the A-League in your emails.

But here is my main point. Get more children involved. Take your kids. Take your neighbour's kids. Get your kids to bring a school mate. Get the kids interested and the critical mass will form.

At Adelaide United games, there is a whole tribe of young teenagers, I would guess 12 to 14 year-olds, who endlessly wander around, chatting to their friends, meeting new ones and eating the food. I don't think they watch much of the game. This may happen at other grounds as well. I love it. Some might say they should watch the football, or go elsewhere. I disagree.

These kids are at the football because it is cool. It is trendy. Some of them will get over it and go to nightclubs instead in a few years, but some of them will catch the bug. And then, they may be addicted for life.

The whole point is to fill up the Stadiums. And at this stage, any attendance is good attendance.

I don't know the A-League's or the Clubs' attitude on this, but those 55,000 empty seats may as well be filled by someone. Every junior football club should have an allocation of free tickets to give to registered players. Every school should have tickets for their football teams. Give away free tickets to under 12's and they will have to bring at least one adult paying customer.

Give radio stations tickets as prizes.

As I said before, the idea is to fill up the stadium, whether they all pay or not. Then the critical mass will be achieved and the popularity of the A-League will explode.

The Jesuits used to have a saying "Give me the child until he is seven, and I will show you the man."

My version would be "Take the child to the football at seven, and I will show you the fan".

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