NSL / A-league comparison

[BrisRecky]

I guess we have all been reading the Errorgraph lately and how the Mariners ( along with everyone else) is doing it tough.....so anyway a question crossed my mind as relates to aussie football.....how did the NSL ( in its various forms) run from 1977 till the early 2000's, with a decidely larger amount of teams and i'm guessing the same wage bill , spread over all the NSL teams, in total as to what the HAL has today, and yet the HAL is struggling after 6 seasons, I suppose the global economy is a large part of the issue...maybe a winding back to a smaller wages bill would help...I dunno...anyone got ideas

 

[adz]

I didn't really follow the NSL so don't really know, but I think it was a semi-professional league? Meaning that the players had full time jobs elsewhere and played NSL on weekends?

 

[style_cafe]

I`m sure you`re right Adz.

I (like you) found it hard to get enthusiastic with the old NSL.
My local team was Marconi, who I had hated from chilhood & other ethnic clubs did nothing for me or football generally.

The Hal awakened my passion for top grade football in Australia.

 

[curious]

I guess we have all been reading the Errorgraph lately and how the Mariners ( along with everyone else) is doing it tough.....so anyway a question crossed my mind as relates to aussie football.....how did the NSL ( in its various forms) run from 1977 till the early 2000's, with a decidely larger amount of teams and i'm guessing the same wage bill , spread over all the NSL teams, in total as to what the HAL has today, and yet the HAL is struggling after 6 seasons, I suppose the global economy is a large part of the issue...maybe a winding back to a smaller wages bill would help...I dunno...anyone got ideas

The running costs of an nsl club were tiny in comparison to the aleague. As adz said, the nsl was a semi pro league only, with the vast majority of players forced to work full time outside football because of very low salaries. The clubs were generally community clubs with much of the club duties undertaken by volunteers and the stadium costs were minimal.