Desperate Times?

A-League clubs claimed they must invest more than $85M over the next four years "just to have a hope of growing the dwindling value of professional game’s broadcast rights." The figure was thrown into the public domain on the same day the players’ union "implored" Australian football’s fighting factions to find common ground on a breakaway A-League or risk the game “grinding to an absolute halt." Australian Professional Football Clubs Association and Western Sydney Wanderers Chair Paul Lederer said, “Our league needs to be immediately turned around and put on a growth trajectory, together with the W and Y-Leagues. ... Combined, the clubs will lose more than A$25 million ($17.8M) this year and we and the game will have little to show for it” (Sydney DAILY TELEGRAPH, 4/3).