The release of the 2019-20 A-League draw provides an insight into plans for resurgence, writes Tom Smithies

The release of the A-League draw for next season is the first hint of the furious activity going on behind the scenes to arrest the competition’s decline now that its clubs hold the levers of power. Though formal separation of the competition from Football Federation Australia is still going through legal formalities, and could be months away, in practice it’s the club owners now running things, with the blessing of FFA. A six-hour owners’ meeting on Wednesday was the latest instalment of intensive discussions since August 1 about reinvigorating TV viewing figures, crowd numbers, stadium atmospherics and myriad other factors. Three owners, from Sydney FC, Melbourne City and Wellington Phoenix, have been mandated by the FFA and their fellow owners to build a strategy for the competition’s future, over weeks, months and years. They’re not hanging around. The draw is the first example, with clubs agreeing to elements such as deliberate scheduling of big games in smaller stadiums and at family-friendly times to build the brand as a whole. In contrast with last season, where an FFA Cup semi-final added to three league derbies to offer some 200,000-plus seats to Sydney FC v Western Sydney, this year the derby will be played at BankWest and Jubilee Stadiums, more than halving the number of spectators. It’s a deliberate bid to create ticket scarcity, even though Sydney will forgo ticket revenue. Four club owners with backgrounds in marketing will oversee the season launch, two years after we reached the nadir of schoolchildren at a suburban ground in Melbourne giving the air of launching a school fete. Families will welcome the earlier kick-off times, and the scheduling of some marquee games in the late afternoon. Get kids excited about going to games and their parents will come along too. The release of a fixtures list is usually a dry product garnished with a few bells and whistles, but for once the draw is indicative of a wider shift. After years of dry political infighting over who runs the game, at least now there is a sense of a focus on the football, and making it as attractive as possible to as many people as possible.