Harry Kewell Joins the A-League

[Troy]

It was announced yesterday that Harry Kewell had signed a three year deal with Melbourne Victory. This is by far the biggest name to sign with the A-League since he is one of the top Socceroos of his generation and he is still in good form. This should be massive for the league because it will draw in bigger crowds who will want to see Kewell play. Be very interesting to see how the crowds go this season after dropping regularly the past few years.

Will this be the start of more top Australian stars coming home? Will this help take the A-League to the next level? Will Kewell be the top goalscorer this season?

 

[Andrew]

BEST!

Super excited, going to go to every Victory game possible next season.

This is a huge boost for A-League

 

[Troy]

It should be massive for the game here. It is now a mainstream sport but it struggles to draw in big crowds regularly. This should help ensure that wherever Victory plays fans will turn up to see Kewell. Might get some new fans interested in the league as well since if they can sign a big name like Kewell hopefully the quality increases and more top names sign on.

 

[Andrew]

Brett Emerton announced today that he has quit Blackburn to join Sydney FC in a 3-year-deal.

HOLY F**K. A-League is just going to be epic next season

So going to Sydney vs. Victory

 

[Troy]

I am actually more shocked at the Emerton deal than the Kewell deal. Emerton was still playing top flight football in the Premier League and he still had one more year at Blackburn if he wanted it. Emerton is still in great form and he will be a huge addition to the A-League.

I can't wait to see him play and set off on one of his bursts down the wing. Victory vs. Sydney needs to be booked into the ANZ stadium since I am sure tens of thousands of fans will show up to see those two on opposing teams. Hopefully in the next few years more Socceroos stars will finish their careers in the A-League and continue to help it grow.

 

[Andrew]

I am so going to the Etihad Game...

I reckon we'll hit 50,000 easy. We've done it before, good move by not doing it at AAMI Park.

 

[Troy]

As long as they put in in a stadium large enough that they don't leave thousands of fans out of the stadium. The atmosphere will be incredible. I know that Adelaide United are trying to move the games against Melbourne and Sydney to Adelaide Oval since it can fit more than twice as many fans as Hindmarsh stadium. They won't be able to move the first game against Melbourne because a cricket match is played the next day but hopefully a couple more of these big games will move to bigger stadiums to get more in the gates. TV ratings this year will be interesting to watch as well as I expect them to break records.

 

[Andrew]

If only A-League was on ONE HD instead of Foxtel.

Big boost there, they should do it like what AFL does just to spread the A-League soccer in Australia (via Media)

 

[Troy]

They are contracted to Foxtel until 2012 so once this deal expires I am sure that they will try to have a shared deal with some matches on FTA and some on Foxtel. Foxtel was helpful in starting the league because they pumped a lot of money in but now that it is established I agree that they need to get some matches on FTA to expand the game even more.

Will definitely get an A-League thread posted once we get closer to the start of the season.