Graphic: US arena naming rights

The following graphic shows the startling range of companies that have the naming rights for North American major league sports arenas, broken down by company market.  That is, each company is categorised according to its primary industry.

The category "other" includes all companies which sponsored only one arena, eg. Petco Park in San Diego is the only stadium sponsored by a pet service company.  Traditionally named stadia are those whose iconic status is enough to generate income rather than relying upon corporate sponsorship - for example, Candlestick Park or Arrowhead Stadium.  (It is debatable whether multinational sports companies like Fenway Sports Group or the Madison Square Garden corporation in fact "sponsor" their arenas; for this purpose, they are lumped in with "traditionally" named stadia.)

As you can see, Financial Service, banking and mobile telephone companies dominate the naming rights landscape.

Stanley Cup: Rome's suspension signals start of NHL concussion plans

Part six of our season-long series: An Australian on Ice Hockey

Aaron Rome's season has passed on. It lies on a gurney next to Nathan Horton's, the man whose Stanley Cup dreams now depend totally on how well he's able to recover from Rome's blindside hit. He was yesterday suspended for four matches by the NHL's temporary Arbiter of Justice, Mike Murphy, a decision greeted with disdain on both sides of the continent.

In encouraging signs for the NHL, they've got this one right. Just as they did so by turning a lemon into lemonade with the Thrashers' relocation to Winnipeg, when faced with two very tricky situations (this Rome hit and that relocation) a commission notoriously unpopular in Canada has made excellent, reasoned decisions. This comes on the back of the NHL All-Star Game breaking with tradition and opting for a "captain's choice" format. Three times, the NHL has faced issues which could derail or overshadow their season. On each issue they've come out on top. It would have been easy just to keep on trucking with the Great Southern Experiment and just as easy to suspend Rome for one or two games.

By levying such a heavy tax on the offender the NHL has announced they will no longer stand for blindside hits that endanger players. The penny, it seems, has finally dropped. Hockey, like the NFL and even baseball needs to minimise the effects of violent contact to the head. With such writers like Malcolm Gladwell weighing in on the area of concussions in sport, popular opinion has begun to swing from "entertainment" to "safety". With hockey and football, where mandated violence is such a staple, reduction in head-hits are best achieved through via punishment doled out by the league's HQ.

As much as it will upset the traditionalists, hockey's rules need to change. In the wake of Crosby-gate and the Zdeno Chara/Max Pacioretty hit, the league has to reinforce to players that hits to the head will not be countenanced. After the Chara/Pacioretty affair, we discussed the need for players of all sports - but particularly hockey players - to realise the need for a duty of care: a player's first duty should be to win, but not at the expense of their (or their colleagues') safety.

Rome's suspension is the first sign the NHL believes the same and are acting to clean up hockey.

Any suggestion that the game would suffer were they to penalise players for head-high contact is rubbish. People watch hockey for the game itself, not the surrounding hullabaloo - it's easy to suggest only a very small percentage of viewers would turn off the NHL were the league to crack down on head-high contact. The same could be said for fighting although hockey fights are more WWE than the die-hard fan cares to admit.

Many leagues have cleaned up their act and gone on to produce a better product. The NBA suffered from a poor popular perception during the 1970s and early 1980s. Fighting and cocaine were destroying the league, but when commissioner David Stern began his reign, heavy fines and suspensions were levied on fighting and drug use, which became more and more uncommon. Pro basketball was no longer seen as a competition for thugs and junkies. It is currently enjoying the end of perhaps it's greatest season in recent memory.

The same occurred for the AFL who, after several incidents like Leigh Matthews being charged with assault in the mid-80s, created a much more family-friendly league by instituting retrospective penalties for incidents in-game officials may have missed. The Australian Football League probably leads the league in family appeal and it's all-inclusive nature.

The second step forward for the NHL was taken today (Wednesday) when the League's collection of General Managers voted to take an amended "Rule 48" to the Players' Association - essentially penalising any contact to the head with in-game penalties or even suspensions. This is a great step by a league who's surprisingly made good decision after good decision starting with the All-Star game - but the ultimate responsibility for player safety depends not just on the league's head honchos, but also on the individual players themselves.

Read more "An Australian on Ice Hockey":

Part 5: The Psychology of Choking

Part 4: Canadiens vs Boston the Austin Powers NHL playoff matchup

Part 3: Chara's Pacioretty hit means a lot for NHL - and pro sport

Part 2: NHL All-Star Shakeup a great idea

Part 1: You make excuses for the Habs

Images courtesy: sports.yahoo.com and espn.com

Applying NHL Goalkeeper stats to the English Premiership

In the English Premiership, goalkeepers often face the most scrutiny and pressure. It's a simple truth of football that custodians need to maintain concentration during long periods of inactivity and then make a save, clear a ball or claim a cross. When they fail, often it costs their team a goal. In short, to have a reliable man between the posts is the foundation of a solid defence.

There are many methods of evaluating goalkeeper efficacy such as Goals Conceded and Saves but rarely with this position do stats tell the full story. As with statistical application across all sports, much depends on interpretation. The only GK stats readily available don't take into account things such as howlers (for which Tottenham's Gomes must be very thankful), nor aspects of defending which usually fall to the 'keeper such as communication, marshalling a defence or their (in)ability to deal with crosses. The one stat however which doesn't appear is Save Percentage.

Save percentage in football doesn't fully measure a goalkeeper's efficiency but it can provide some small insight into how the goalkeeper for each team performs. Often GKs are exposed to "no win" situations due to the size of their goalmouth, their defences' positioning and the skills or pace of an opposition player. Save percentage and Goals Allowed Average are key indicators as to an NHL custodian's performance, even though they still don't fully reflect a backstop's value.

To port those NHL numbers across to the Premiership makes for interesting reading. The following table is arranged by Goalkeeper Save Percentage. It shows (perhaps) why Fulham's David Stockdale got such big raps while covering for Mark Schwarzer earlier in the season and that Joe Hart's slight slip in form this year since returning to City from Birmingham is perhaps overstated.

For the full analysis, visit the Goalkeeper Stats page.

Top 15

Team	Goalkeeper	Games	Saves	Conceded	GAA	Save %
Fulham	David Stockdale	7	26	6	0.86	0.81
Tottenham	Carlo Cudicini	7	21	6	0.86	0.78
Man City	Joe Hart	36	107	33	0.92	0.76
Stoke City	Asmir Begovic	27	93	31	1.15	0.75
Tottenham	Gomes	30	115	39	1.3	0.75
Chelsea	Petr Cech	37	98	32	0.86	0.75
Man Utd	Edwin van der Sar	32	80	30	0.94	0.73
Bolton	Jussi Jaaskelainen	34	118	47	1.38	0.72
Fulham	Mark Schwarzer	30	91	35	1.17	0.72
Arsenal	Wojciech Szczesny	14	42	17	1.21	0.71
West Ham	Robert Green	36	154	66	1.83	0.7
Wigan	Ali Al Habsi	33	112	49	1.48	0.7
Sunderland	Craig Gordon	15	50	21	1.4	0.7
Arsenal	Lukasz Fabianski	14	36	14	1	0.7
Liverpool	Pepe Reina	37	96	43	1.16	0.69

Bottom 5

Team	Goalkeeper	Games	Saves	Conceded	GAA	Save %
Newcastle	Tim Krul	19	47	32	1.68	0.59
West Brom	Boaz Myhill	6	18	13	2.17	0.58
Blackpool	Paul Rachubka	1	6	5	5	0.55
Man Utd	Tomasz Kuszczak	5	6	5	1	0.55
Wigan	Chris Kirkland	4	5	12	3	0.29

Image of Mark Schwarzer courtesy: free-football.tv

Image of Carey Price courtesy: leshabitantssontmagnifique.wordpress.com

The Psychology of Choking

Part 5 of our continuing series: An Australian on Ice Hockey.

Part 1: You make excuses for the Habs

Part 2: NHL All-Star Game shakeup a great idea

Part 3: Chara's Pacioretty hit means a lot for NHL - and pro sport

Part 4: Canadiens vs. Boston the Austin Powers NHL Playoff matchup

When the Chicago Blackhawks scored with little over a minute remaining to tie their Game 7 first-round playoff match with the Vancouver Canucks last night, I got really excited. Not because I particularly like Chicago or dislike the Canucks, but because an upset was in the offing and the Canucks were going to choke against the Hawks again! I wanted to see Chicago come back from 3-0 down in the series to win; comebacks of those proportions happen once in a generation, if that often. That Alexandre Burrows shot the Canucks into the second round after only a few minutes of overtime came as a bit of a let down, but it prompted a left-brain/right-brain discussion for me.

The question must be asked whether it was again the much-feted Vancouver choke or just oustanding play by the Blackhawks that allowed their comeback. At this stage, no-one in the West of Canada cares much about anything else (it was stories 1,2 3 and 6 on the Vancouver news last night) as the Sedins-led squad has finally beaten their playoff nemesis, but is it fair simply to lay the blame on the Canucks being overwhelmed by the situation? Against an eighth-seeded Chicago, shorn of many of their Stanley Cup winning squad from a year ago?

The answer is that choking just isn't as simple as all that - it's a multifactorial occurrence, as for a favourite to lose to an underdog requires many different ducks to be in the right row. While it's easy to see one individual player become lost in the moment, for an entire team to choke depends on all the members of that squad - or a certain subsection, for example, the forwards - almost simultaneously losing their own collective consciousness.

Choking as a team isn't a favourite being outplayed. A team can be said to choke when they look at their lesser opponents (and there can't be any debate on who has the better team), and think "Hang on, we should be beating these guys", provoking a negative, rather than positive performance. Often a choke looks like a player/club trying not to make mistakes, rather than going out to win a match/series. Choking isn't just a one-seed being beaten by an eight-seed - it's when the favourite looks at their opposition and collectively soils themselves at the very concept of losing, by virtue of their opposition, the big picture or that they're already perceived as chokers.

Otherwise, San Antonio's probable series loss to Memphis in this year's NBA playoffs would be called just that, and it's not. In truth, Memphis have outplayed the Spurs after tanking their last couple of games during the regular season to make sure they met in the postseason. The simple fact is with a lineup featuring Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker and Antonio McDyess all playing big minutes, the club has the stones to come through in the clutch as all have proved themselves in the NBA Finals time and again. The Spurs are failing because they're being outplayed by a younger, hungrier and healthier team.

The suggestion - and I can't prove it - is that a team choking is much, much harder to do than is regularly attributed. The reason so many clubs are said to be chokers *cough* Vancouver, South Africa, New Zealand *cough* is because popular perception is that each of these clubs should be so good as to be untouchable in the playoffs. This is a flawed notion, because it completely disregards in most cases (cricket is perhaps the exception), the simple fact that it is the playoffs changes the game, perhaps to the benefit of a club (cf. the current Boston Celtics) and occasionally to the detriment (cf. the Canucks). Team choking - while it still does happen - depends on so many people "losing it" in synchrony, that it's become much more an issue of public perception than of a team's performance. Teams are said to be chokers because they bear the weight of public expectation.

The great, all-time chokes tend to come from solo sports: Greg Norman was famous for it, as was Slovak tennis player Miloslav Mecir, who was so overwhelmed by the moment on one occasion that he served underarm. In Rugby Union, any time the All Blacks fail to win the World Cup, it is deemed a choke. The same applies to South Africa and India during the cricket World Cup - although South Africa almost certainly performed the Team Choke when losing to Australia in the 1999 World Cup. These are unfair generalisations and dont't take into account the context in which each game - or tournament - was played.

While the Canucks mercifully move on to face Nashville, they may have shaken their "chokers" tag - at least for now. But hopefully, one of the overused terms in sports journalism is now starting to be applied more contextually.

The author of this post would like to put on the record that he is not a psychologist, and has only the most basic training in psychology, but thought the title was quite snappy, so stuck with it.

Montreal Canadiens vs Boston Bruins the Austin Powers NHL playoff matchup

Part 4 of our continuing series: An Australian on Ice Hockey.

Part 1: You make excuses for the Habs

Part 2: NHL All-Star Game shakeup a great idea

Part 3: Chara's Pacioretty hit means a lot for NHL - and pro sport

Part 5: The Psychology of Choking

When it comes to sporting rivalries, the Canadiens/Bruins East coast hockey rivalry is amongst the most intense, challenging perhaps only the Spanish Clasico and Glasgow's Old Firm derby. Understandable too: both are "Original Six" franchises - one of the six teams who sustained the foundling NHL from 1943-1967 when the league first expanded. Both have had amongst the game's most iconic players - from the Bruins' Bobby Orr (inexplicably selected by insert redneck adjective here Don Cherry as the best hockey player ever - I'm not debating he's good, just that Gretzky was better) to the Habs' Maurice Richard.

Both teams are ranked first and fourth on the all-time list of Stanley Cup champions and both haven't won the big shamu since the early nineties. This matchup sees Montreal, one of the world's best-looking cities (seriously guys, if you're single, MTL's the place to be), playing a seven-game series against the ugliest city - and we're not talking landscapes here - on the face arse of the planet, Boston, only six hundred kilometres away. Both teams feature supporters who struggle to pronounce lots of common English words. To quote Doctor Evil - "we're not so different, you and I".

And they've got recent history too. When Zdeno Chara put Max Pacioretty into the turnbuckle at the Bell Centre in March, any recent thawing of relations went out the window. The hit - resulting in a fractured C4 vertebra for the Hab youngster - reverberated not just around the Bell Centre boards but the NHL, prompting calls for new concussion protocols and to protect the head. It was announced Chara would be investigated by the Montreal Police department, but thte SPVM is yet to draw any conclusions. In the midst of a controversial year, the Habs won the season-series 4-2 but lost the Division to their rivals.

What's amusing (and mildly surprising) is that similarities between the cities don't just end with their hometowns. Both clubs rely on their Vezina trophy-nominated goaltenders (Carey Price and Tim Thomas) and both clubs have a fleet of busy skaters, rather than sublimely-skilled ones: Montreal will pit Mike Cammalleri, Brian Gionta and Thomas Plekanec against a (probably slightly better) Bruin forward core of Milan Lucic, Nathan Horton and Patrice Bergeron. Both sides have strength in depth, rather than in superstars. The Bruins' don't counterpunch like the Habs, but that's a result of yet more injuries to Hab defencemen. While not a vintage year for either squad, this could be each team's most successful playoff run for nearly two decades. In the words of the Highlander - there can be only one.

It could be that - good-looking women apart - the cities are rivals not just because of their clashes during the 1970s and before, but because each city was the jewel in their country's crown until recent times. There are a lot of similarities between both cities: a working-class city dotted with pockets of "old money"; a history of sporting success; decreasing global importance and the fans' appreciation for hard work and spunk. Boston and Montreal will continue to fight it out on the ice.

And, as fans, we love it.

Chara's Pacioretty hit means a lot for NHL - and all pro sport

Part 3 of our continuing series: An Australian on Ice Hockey.

Part 1: You make excuses for the Habs

Part 2: NHL All-Star Game shakeup a great idea

Part 4: Canadiens vs. Boston the Austin Powers NHL Playoff matchup

Part 5: The Psychology of Choking

The sickening hit Zdeno Chara delivered to Max Pacioretty last week has escaped further sanction as debate continues over the Bruin defenceman's intent. The Montreal Canadiens, up 4-0 against divisional arch-rival Boston, lost one of their developing stars as 22 year-old Pacioretty was checked face-first into the turnbuckle, an area of the boards present in every hockey arena where the protective glass surrounding the ice takes a right-hand turn to allow for the player benches. The impact caused Pacioretty to suffer a fractured vertebra and severe concussion. Chara's penalty was classified as "major" and resulted in five minutes in the penalty box; it was also revealed late last week that Montreal Police have been asked to investigate if there are grounds for criminal prosecution.

Should Chara have been suspended for his action? Almost every NHL commentator and analyst has suggested the incident was unfortunate rather than malicious and as a result, the 6'9 Slovakian's on-ice conduct shouldn't be subjected to further inquiry. Pacioretty has said he wanted the Bruins' captain suspended but not charged criminally but NHL refereeing experts have trotted out the same platitudes: he's not that kind of player, he was just doing his job, it's hockey - these things happen.

But Chara should be punished. This isn't a Canadiens fan ranting at another perceived injustice at the hands of Boston, but simply an example of hockey becoming a microcosm of life. Chara - admittedly - was doing his job in taking an interference penalty to slow down a Hab break. But he did so clumsily and as a result, a player was seriously injured. Anyone who drives a car must accept the consequences of clumsy driving, be they suspensions, jail time or human costs. Chara, the largest player in the NHL, must accept responsibility for the results of his actions.

Just as when Sidney Crosby received two hits against the Tampa Bay Lightning in a January 5 match which cost him the season , a puck-playing skater has been hurt by the actions of a player who "played the man, not the ball". And as head injuries are forced to the forefront of sports administrators, hits to the head like this must stop or else leagues will find themselves in highly actionable positions.

As concussions become an increasingly large headache - pun intended - for hockey, the game's administrators, coaches and players all need to take actions to decrease the number of head injuries sustained. In all of America's major sports, concussions form a large portion of all injuries suffered and the NFL, NBA and NHL are now approaching the point where a standard concussion protocol is instituted meaning clubs, coaches and players have no say in remaining on the field. In this case, if the right boxes are checked, the concussed player is removed from the game.

This standardised concussion protocol is a big topic for NFL and now NBA franchises. After the spate of highly-rated NHLers being taken out and subsequently missing large chunks of time, it will soon be the same for hockey. It's insufficient to take an incident - or even fighting - and say "That's just hockey". For years, helmet-to-helmet contact has been "just football" and now more and more players, administrators and fans are becoming aware of the serious dangers of repeated blows to the head. The cost, both physical and financial has become too great.

Every single person involved in the NHL has a duty of care to the players. It simply doesn't do to have the game's biggest star MIA for six months (and allegedly considering retirement) because "that's just hockey". No one - fans, players or owners - should be robbed of Sidney Crosby for that long because of an avoidable incident. The same is true of Pacioretty: Canadiens fans shouldn't be wondering if he will ever be the same after his horrible injury.

It behoves the NHL to protect their players - their greatest asset - and as such, hits like those of suffered by Pacioretty and Crosby must stop. Outside the arena, the oft-touted example is that of the road-user: when getting behind the wheel of a car, a motorist takes upon themselves a duty of care for other road users. Should you run a red light with no-one around, chances are you will not be punished. Should the consquences of your running the red light be a car accident and a death, then you find yourself at the mercy of a jury of your peers facing serious driving offences. Sport doesn't happen in a vacuum - it reflects the mores of outside society and as such, on-field violence must be curbed.

When you watch the video again and again, you can tell (1.53) that Zdeno Chara knew exactly where he was on the ice when he shoved Pacioretty. He was aware they were near the turnbuckle and was faced with a decision - do the team thing or pull out and hit later. Either it didn't register or he didn't care that Pacioretty faced serious injury which makes his actions not necessarily malicious but negligent in any duty of care he has to fellow professionals. This lack of care in itself should be a sanctionable offence. Given the anti-concussion ruckus is (understandably) player-driven, it makes no sense at all - and is at worst hypocritical - for an athlete to cry foul about head injuries then go out and forcibly and negligently make contact with an opponent's head.

In Australia, the AFL has put into place a framework for administering justice to players where there is minimal room for personal opinion. Any hit is judged as negligent, reckless or intentional; contact is graded as mild, moderate or severe and the location of contact to the opponent's body is also considered. The severity of the injury isn't taken into consideration per se, but given the impact is acknowledged it falls under that category. Repeat offenders are given a percentage loading for past offences. Although inflexible, it has made every player in the league aware that their actions have consequences and as such, concussions have fallen markedly. It is time that such a framework is instituted in American professional sports before a player is hurt more seriously than even Crosby and Pacioretty.

Proessional sport in the USA needs to raise it's conscious levels about concussions lest they find themselves in a litigious position. The excuse that "hockey/football's always been played that way" is bunk: though the collisions have always been there, the athletes our society now produces are a relatively novel phenomenon and the athlete/collision combination (generally) causes greater damage than in days past. If this is not corrected, then sport will suffer due to the lack of stars available.

A-League's declining crowds need addressing

Though streets ahead of the factional National Soccer League, peacefully and thankfully euthanised in 2004 after a fraught reign as Australia's national football competition, failing supporter bases for the A-League means once again the FFA is faced with the challenge of enticing and maintaining supporter interest.

In the NSL days much of the public was alienated by violence and the overly patriotic fans boasted by each club. Clubs were divided very much along national lines: if you were of Greek parentage you supported South Melbourne Hellas. Even 1/16th Croatian heritage meant a Melbourne Knights fan. It's the way it was. Furthering the league's violent image were the stories told by old security guards of the old Olympic Park: the most galling I heard was punters making sure their flares got into the game by hiding in a stroller beneath a sleeping baby. The A-League's come a long way just by renouncing the nationalistic culture endemic and integral in the NSL's supersession.

Shortly after the Perth Glory's Nik Mrdja banged in the winner that snared the 2004 NSL Cup, the twenty-seven year competition ended mercifully and without complaint - as pros say about retirement, "it was just time". The football public was promised more: an eight-team league. Partisan, but friendly crowds. The sport would burgeon Down Under.

But NOOOOooooooOOOOO! (Channeling John Belushi). The A-League, encouraged by a smart and sustainable start decided on expansion. The initial eight teams though each had enough recognisable faces and interest sufficient enough to support a reasonable fan base. Spurred on by the Melbourne Victory's incredible second season - on which laurels some argue the Victorian club still rests - where 50,000 regularly appeared in their Docklands home base, the A-League included franchises from North Queensland and the Gold Coast. The struggling Auckland-based New Zealand Knights, horrible nickname and all, were reborn on the South Island as the Wellington Phoenix.

While Melbourne and Adelaide have continued with strong crowd number, other A-League clubs have struggled - see the chart below. Last year the Victory boasted average crowds above 18,000 , Adelaide United drew 11,000+ and the Melbourne Heart with nearly 9,000. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the Queensland franchises struggled; the appallingly-monikered North Queensland Fury's attendance barely reached 4,500 and Gold Coast FC appealed even less. The latter club's owner, mining magnate Clive Palmer, even caused controversy last year by locking out some Gold Coast fans rather than spend extra money opening other stands in their stadium. It's telling that in all of last season, the Melbourne Victory - with identifiable stars Kevin Muscat, Archie Thompson and Danny Allsopp - featured in eight of the ten highest-attended games. However they are not immune to the malaise which has engulfed football in Australia; their declining crowd numbers this year can be attributed to several factors, most notably the Melbourne Heart emergence as a second franchise for the city.

After last night's debacle, the FFA and A-League must acknowledge that change is needed for the A-League to retain its credibility. The 17-11-1 Brisbane Roar (sporting an awful mascot) defeated hapless North Queensland in front of only 1003 spectators. True, North Queensland has been devastated by a combination of natural disasters usually only seen in movies like 2012, but 1003 fans attending what is ostensibly a top-flight league is embarrassing and harmful for the A-League's future. It seems the Gold Coast fan base is to blame: they have also turned out record-low crowds on two other occasions this season. For a team playing such delicioius football as the Roar to draw such a pitiful crowd should finally close the book on the experimental expansion franchises North Queensland and the Gold Coast. They no longer deserve their teams.

The examples of league overinflation are obvious, patent and alarming. The NBA went from the ultimate in excitement to uninspired within a period of five years as undeserving cities received franchises: Vancouver, Memphis, Charlotte, Atlanta, Oklahoma City and New Orleans each have done enough to receive a team, but not enough to justify an owner spending money to create a winning team. The NHL is similarly afflicted: the Bettman Masterplan of expansion into the USA's southern reaches has been enough of a failure that several franchises are investigating selling their home games to cities who regularly sell in order to balance the books. By starting their Gold Coast and West Sydney franchises this year, the AFL should be heeding the FFA's mistakes even though their own brand is infinitely stronger.

It's time for the A-League to fold or relocate North Queensland. Unfortunately, there are limited options as to landing spots for the Fury - Auckland perhaps? The reality is that with North Queensland recovering from floods and the effects of Cyclone Yasi, football is likely to be the last of their priorities. The warning signs were there for the club after Robbie Fowler wasn't able to collect his paycheck and forced to move to Perth: now, as the Hornets did to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, it's time the Fury bid farewell to their home base and perhaps even to existence. That they don't have a major benefactor like Palmer, crowd numbers notwithstanding, is why they may be doomed.

The Gold Coast, funded by one of Australia's wealthiest men, is a different story. They should have the population base to fund a club yet have struggled for attendance since Palmer bought the rights and recruited stars Jason Culina and Shane Smeltz. It's embarrassing that such a vibrant area draws so poorly and both Palmer and the A-League must take their shares of the blame for their failure to thrive. The A-League needs a base in the Gold Coast as it's Australia's most rapidly growing "city", yet Palmer's reluctance to spend means task of growing football's identity in South Queensland becomes the responsibility of the FFA and the A-League.

When compared to other sporting codes in Australia, the A-League does poorly in almost every aspect. Only the Victory and Adelaide have crowds with average attendance over the lowliest Rugby League crowds, the next lowest draw in the Australian sporting hierarchy. FFA should aim for a leaguewide average of 10,000 fans which would ensure a healthy competition as well as room for growth. Before any expansion can be considered, clubs need to be certain that they themselves can survive.

Hope though can be drawn from the struggling Scottish Premier League. The SPL includes twelve teams, with only two ever having a chance at the title, Celtic and Rangers. The remaining ten clubs have voted overwhelmingly to reduce the number of teams in the top division from 12 to 10, meaning each team receives a greater percentage of the league's TV rights money. A ten team league nearly indistinguishable from the current setup where the only interest is who will be relegated. The mooted Scottish setup, no matter how broke the clubs are, proves an allegedly elite league can exist with only a few teams. With Australian sport looking more to American models than to European, it appears unlikely that the SPL model will be adopted.

There has never been a more crucial time for the A-League.

NHL All-Star Game shakeup a great idea

Part 2 of our continuing series; An Australian on Ice Hockey

Part 1: You make excuses for the Habs

Part 3: Chara's Pacioretty hit means a lot for NHL - and pro sport

Part 4: Canadiens vs. Boston the Austin Powers NHL Playoff matchup

Part 5: The Psychology of Choking

The NHL All-Star Game is scheduled for Sunday 29th of January in Raleigh, North Carolina, and has changed format this year. Rather than the traditional fan-selected East vs. West match typifying All-Star games across the major sports, this year the league asked fans to select six players only. Those players, four from Pittsburgh and two Chicago Blackhawks, will be joined by players that the NHL's Hockey Operations department has selected to bring the number of players up to the Adamsian forty-two.

Here's where it gets interesting. Two captains will be selected from that shortlist of forty-two and each captain will then choose his own squad as if they are playing hockey out back on the pond. Rumour has it the NHL's most marketable players - forwards Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin from the Penguins and Capitals - are likely to be given the honour of selecting their own teammates.

Click here to see the full roster as selected by the fans and NHL.

While Gary Bettman has had a controversial and chequered career as the NHL's commissioner, this is a win. The NHL is a clear and distant fourth in America's sporting hierarchy and this change of direction for the league showpiece, while revolutionary, allows its millions of followers not just to see the best hockey has to offer, but also makes the game more approachable for the everyman. Every single hockey player in Canada has played pond hockey - perhaps even every single person. Pickup hockey is one of the nation's great pastimes and for a league facing as many struggles as the NHL does - chiefly issues of legitimacy outside Canada and the North East US - it stands to gain both notoriety and new fans by adopting such a novel approach. While playing in the NHL - or any pro sport - is out of reach for most of us, this concept of bringing the apogee of the game back to the grass roots allows Joe Public to identify more with the creme de la creme of Ice Hockey.

It's concepts like this match and the Winter Classic, where a match is played outside during the depths of winter - this year Crosby's Pens hosting Ovechkin's Caps at Pittsburgh Football stadium - which could bring a whole new relevancy to the national game of Canada. Hockey is facing a tough battle to remain in the US national consciousness as expansion waters down the talent pool and US cities find themselves unprepared for athletes speaking little English. (A quarter of the NHL's player pool comes from outside North America and many newcomers don't have a great command of the language). Soccer and Mixed Martial Arts (!) are rapidly gaining ground in the chase for the NHL's title of "fourth most identifiable sport in the continent" so it's encouraging from a position north of the border to see measures being taken to support the visibility of the league in the southern United States, no matter how few people play - or even care about- hockey there. Bettman's infinitely debatable strategy of relocating small-market Canadian teams and expanding south of the border - sometimes waaaaaay south - was aimed at growing the game in warmer climes and has achieved only mild-to-moderate success. To encourage that growth, there has to be exposure as to why and how the game is so loved in northern regions.

Where perhaps the NHL has dropped the ball - sorry, puck - with this new All-Star concept is the logical extension of this "pond hockey" idea: while the captains are obviously important, maybe there's too much emphasis placed on the skipper's role. To really capture the spirit of pond hockey, the essence of the grass-roots, perhaps it'd be preferable to suit the players up on All-Star Saturday and get them to throw their sticks in a pile to be picked at random onto one of two teams just like when playing pickup. It could be done according to position as well to ensure parity and so rather than relying on a captain's personal preference, another level of mystery to the game is added - no matter how they feel about each other, how would Malkin play with Ovechkin? Or Carey Price with Zdeno Chara?

Television cameras north and south of the 49th would love to see Bettman out on the ice, picking up a stick and throwing it into one team or the other's pile at random. It would just be magic publicity for the league - a draft of the best 42 players in the world and an All-Star game in the one weekend. I can't imagine this being anything other than a major boost for the event, and for the league as a whole. Perhaps that's the future direction of the All-Star game.

Perhaps the next generation All-Star game could follow the same lines that Australia has used recently for the AFL's one-off revival of it's State of Origin concept. In that 2008 match, the state with the largest number of clubs - and thus grass-roots players - competed against a team made up of players who played junior footy outside Victoria. The same could be done with the NHL, with a US/Canada combination being pitted against an International All-Star squad coming from Finland, Russia, Sweden and the Czech Republic. To make the numbers even more square, it could be players who played their juniors in Canada (Out of the 962 NHL players in 2009-10, 520 were Canadians) against The Rest. I'd pay money to see either match and, along with the Pond Hockey idea, it's perhaps more sustainable and easily regulated than two captains picking their own teams, probably rife with friends and brown-noses. This option may be unlikely as it divides players along national lines and could tread on the toes of the IIHF, but is at least worth considering.

There are a few other wrinkles to this game make it even more interesting. Identical twins Henrik and Daniel Sedin, of the league-topping Vancouver Canucks, have never played against each other during their NHL careers and could wind up on different teams. Brothers Marc and Eric Staal may find themselves playing alongside or against one another. In a game where knowledge of one's comrades is vital to good team play, it would be great to see Crosby not selecting m/any of his Pens/Team Canada alumni so as to increase the levels of uncertainty and make the event even more of a spectacle: let the public see how he would go against Marc-Andre Fleury. It's crucial the teams are really shaken up and the NHL should encourage the star-cross'd captains just to have fun and pick guys they'd like to play with, rather than know intimately. As usual there are questionable selections and "milk cartons" - players missing from the game for unknown reasons - which adds another level of intrigue to what is already shaping as one of the most interesting hockey games of the year.