Hyundai A-League Season 11 saw some impressive numbers across the board. Things are set to be even bigger in Season 2016/17?
Goals, goals and more goals
Hyundai A-League season 2015/16 saw some thrilling football and it lead to record numbers when it came to goals.
There were 444 goals scored during the season at an average of 3.2 goals per match scored during the campaign, the most in any of the 11 seasons of the Hyundai A-League.
Melbourne City were at the centre of a few of those records, scoring a record 63 goals during the regular season while having three players (Bruno Fornaroli, Aaron Mooy and Harry Novillo) score more than 10, the first time that’s happened at one club.
Western Sydney Wanderers 5-4 semi-final win over Brisbane Roar was the most goals scored in a Finals Series match in Hyundai A-League history.
Fornaroli finished with a season high of 25, while Jamie Maclaren’s 20 for Brisbane Roar was the most ever by an Australian player in the Hyundai A-League. Will we see a similar trend in 2016/17?
Crowds and memberships on the rise
The Hyundai A-League was the 17th most attended league in the world in 2015/17, with a total of 1,777,359 fans going through the gates for an average attendance of 12,695 per match.
The Sydney Derby – arguably the biggest sporting contest is the Harbour City now – led the way with all three clashes between the clubs sold out in Season 11.
The highest regular season crowd of the season also came in that fixture, with 40,539 attending the round 3 clash at Allianz Stadium, which the Sky Blues won 1-0.
The 2016 Hyundai A-League Grand Final was sold out for a sixth straight season, with 50,119 turning out at Adelaide Oval, the largest ever crowd for a domestic football match in Adelaide.
The 10 clubs combined had a total of 109,710 memberships in 2015/16, capping a rise of 74% over the last five seasons.
TV viewership booming
The 2015/16 season saw the Hyundai A-League broadcast into 86 countries, giving the competition a truly global audience.
There was an average TV audience per match of 79,829, which is an 86% increase for TV audience since 2011, with 11% of the Australian population watching the Hyundai A-League in 2015/16.
On average more than 7million consume Hyundai A-League related content each day, while more Australians watched the Hyundai A-League last season than the EPL (11% to 9.4% respectively).
Social media growth
It’s not only TV viewership which is on the rise in the Hyundai A-League but social media channels are also soaring.
There was 518,860 fans that took to social media channels in season 2015/16, which over 123% growth in the last three seasons.
The Hyundai A-League saw a 10% rise in Twitter followers over the season, while there was a 30% rise in followers on Facebook.
Refereeing in the Hyundai A-League
For the first time ever in the Hyundai A-League, three referees were appointed as full-time officials for Season 2015/16.
Whistle-blowers Chris Beath, Jarred Gillett and Ben Williams were the officials who earned that honour, with Gillett going on to be named the competitions best and take charge of the decider between Adelaide United and Western Sydney Wanderers.
Seven of the Hyundai A-League referees were appointed to international panels, while there are 13 FIFA assistant referees amongst the Hyundai A-League ranks.
During the 2015/16 season it was found that the referees got 73% of key match decisions correct, higher than two of the previous three seasons.
