First Harry Kewell, then Brett Emerton. After time in Europe, both Socceroo stars are heading home to finish their playing careers. Is this the beginning of a surge for the battling A-League, and a turning point for soccer in Australia? If that is the case the NRL shouldn?t worry about AFL in it?s back yard, they will be both swamped by the one true ?world game?.
The health of any sport is always measured by the numbers of participants playing the game. Soccer in Australia has long eclipsed all other sports in terms of how many kids are playing. To get a snapshot of how they will feed into professional competitions you have to look at the participation in club based activities for individuals who are 15 years and older.
This is the age of players, that if talented enough, will be selected for professional teams in their various sports. You would think it would also be an indication of the sport?s popularity in general, and how many people would be following the game week in and week out.
According to the Participation In Exercise, Recreation and Sport Survey in 2010, the club-based activity with the highest total participation rate was golf, interestingly enough. Over 520,000 people played at least once in the prior 12 months. Other sports that had relatively high numbers of club-based participants were soccer (460,000), netball (380,000), aussie rules (367,000), tennis (341,000), outdoor cricket (324,000), lawn bowls (305,000), touch football (280,000), basketball (248,000), and martial arts (179,000).
What is very alarming for rugby league is that aussie rules had the largest increases in total participation between 2001 and 2010. The participation rate in 2010 is the highest it has been in the ten-year period. Also without even trying, soccer participation fluctuated between 2001 and 2007, but began to increase in 2007 and has continued to do so in the period 2007 to 2010.
What is going to happen now if there is heightened interest in the competition due to the Socceroo stars coming back to play? And what if we really do well at the next World Cup? Now there is a worrying thought for all those NRL and AFL executives.
Source: http://www.sportsweb.com.au/2011/08/26/is-this-the-new-wave/
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