As the Big Bash League "sweeps like a torrent across the Australian summer landscape rival sports have tempered valour with discretion, battened down the hatches and opted to ride out the marketing and television tempest," according to Michael Lynch of the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD. Football's A-League is "the highest profile sport which is being staged at the same time" as cricket's hybrid game is taking place. As a consequence, "it is the one that is under the most scrutiny and given the crowds and hysteria the short form of cricket has generated, not surprisingly the FFA has conceded that this is an unequal short-term struggle." The A-League is "quietly trying to get on with running its own game in the knowledge that the BBL and its associated hype will eventually blow itself through." It is a strategy "that looks unambitious, given the enormous impact the crash and bash league has had and the acreage it is getting in the print media." But in reality, football's governing body "has little alternative." It simply does not have the cash to launch a "frenetic marketing campaign to keep the A-League's name in lights while the BBL is taking place." FFA does not "really have any money for marketing full stop." The Socceroos -- "astonishingly for a team that is now the Asian champions -- have lacked a naming rights sponsor for ages, and the new season kicked off without any fanfare." The "muted response to the BBL may be embarrassing for diehard" football fans, but FFA sees its task in growing the sport "as a marathon, not a series of quick shuttles between the wickets." Sources suggest Cricket Australia is "splurging" A$5M ($3.6M) of its marketing budget on the 35-match tournament. Who knows "what the value of the Channel Ten marketing and cross promotion on the tournament is worth." It is the "sort of money that FFA CEO David Gallop and his team can only dream of" (SMH, 1/4).
