Five years after he took control of the club, Sydney FC Chair Scott Barlow "pledged to sustain his club’s investment in marquee stars," and set a target of "attracting average crowds of more than 20,000 next year," according to Tom Smithies of the Sydney DAILY TELEGRAPH. Speaking on the fifth anniversary of his father-in-law, David Traktovenko, becoming the club’s majority shareholder, Barlow said that he and the club’s board "had not had their faith in coach Graham Arnold dented" by last year's seventh-place finish. He promised the club’s A$2.5M ($1.9M)-plus investment in marquee players "would not be watered down." Barlow: "I don’t think we've ever wavered from that in our 12-year history. We've led the way time and again on investing in marquees, whether in one high-profile figure or two, the likes of which we've seen this season. We won't change that strategy." Barlow insisted that he was happy with Sydney’s crowds for the season, which in the regular season "have almost exactly mirrored" last year's average of just over 16,000, but said that he expected the team’s success to have a "significant" impact next year. He said, "I'm confident we'll see them next year go to another level. Off the back of the season we've had, we're forecasting a significant uplift in memberships" (DAILY TELEGRAPH, 5/4).
