Which A-League club needs fans most?
The COVID-19 pandemic is putting home advantage to the test.
The A-League is gearing up for the long awaited restart, and while it’ll be so damn good to have Aussie football back on our screens, for the interim football will be just that. On screens. While NZ and some Oz states have shown hope with their tackling of the virus, there’s also Victoria. It’s possible we’ll have the stadiums full by season end, but who knows. For the moment, it seems most likely that the immediate restart will be in lifeless stadiums. Even if/when fans return a NSW hub means only NSW teams will benefit.
Therefore the question now is how can clubs hope to fare with their home advantage stripped from them? While there’s a multitude of factors to consider, I’ve plotted the amount of away games clubs won as a percentage of the total victories in 2019/20 to show how well a side performs away from fans.
Due to Google Sheets’ plotting of the graph, it’s easy to overlook how Western United and Perth Glory have won 50% of their away games. But the main attraction and shock is how the Western Sydney Wanderers stand atop of this table despite their lowly league standing. For whatever reason the Wanderers hate pleasing their fans with a solid 58% of the wins coming away from home. That said, the Wanderers’ have just won seven times all season, so don’t expect zero spectators to result in Western Sydney lifting the toilet seat.