The way its going the A League will soon be offering spectators binoculars so they can see other spectators in the ground 
Yeah it certainly seems to have lost its "shine" this season
Crowd numbers down across the board. Melbourne's numbers are still the best though in the comp but are down none the less
Don't think the billionaire owner of the Gold Coast is helping things, wanting to cap the crowd numbers - bizzarre stuff indeed 
Palmer is an deluded idiot. He's the guy that was on 60 Minutes a while back claiming his billions would turn soccer into the No.1 sport in the country. The reason he is capping crowds to 5000 is so he can avoid some Qld state tax or something like that. It backfired as people on the Gold Coast told him to go forth and multiply by not showing up at all.
The problem for soccer is while the AFL which can now fund expansion itself thanks to massive tv rights $$$, soccer has to resort to relying on soccer's equivalent of the Dr Eddleson's at the Swans in the 80s to find the money to fund it. As we know these guys are impossible to deal with and this usually ends up in tears thanks to their own self-interest taking precedence over the best interests of the sport. IMO the FFA is getting ahead of itself and falling into the trap that the old NSL did. Putting teams into areas that will struggle financially through lack of support when it doesn't have the money to prop them up until the support base rises and the team can become self-sufficient. Plus unlike the AFL and NRL, there's no Free to Air TV rights.
The FFA needs to realise that the domestic comp. is a niche summer sport and that the main popular support for the sport comes via the Socceroos in Australia. It was working well with 8 teams in soccer popular cities and regions. I'd doubt though they'd want to accept this given they want 14 teams eventually. The sport is still controlled by a Sydney-centric board who just as deludedly believe soccer will overtake Aussie Rules and NRL. You hear it on SBS on Sunday afternoons. That kind of talk has been coming out of these soccer-only idiots for decades yet Aussie Rules is still easily No.1 and bigger and richer than ever.
As for crowds the early season start competing with AFL and NRL, more teams and fixturing 5 matches per round (=weeknight games) and a longer season (= more costly membership) would be having an affect on crowd numbers. Apart from Adelaide, Perth, Sydney and Wellington which are up on crowds the other original teams' crowds are down by around 2000-4,000 each. With the big city clubs Melbourne and Sydney now getting a slight break at the top of the ladder on the others you'd expect their crowds to rise as we go deeper into the season. Next week is only the halfway mark of the season.
Anyway a good win by the Victory tonight over in Perth which has been their bogey side. Hernandez would be arguably the best player in the A-league right now.
