As he hangs up his boots as Football West chief executive, James Curtis talks to Business News about the world game in WA.
A capacity crowd at Optus Stadium for two away teams at this year’s AFL grand final left no doubt, if there was any, about the dominant football code in Western Australia.
It was a historic event for WA, attracting a national average television audience of more than 4 million people.
The state’s two AFL teams have more than 150,000 members combined, with almost two thirds of that amount belonging to four-time premiers the West Coast Eagles.
By comparison, the state’s A-League soccer team, the Perth Glory, has about 10,000 members. And club memberships throughout Australia total just more than 70,000.
But Australian football doesn’t rule every state’s sporting market, with rugby league the dominant player in Queensland and NSW.
In terms of player numbers, however, it’s a different story.
According to federal government-funded survey AusPlay, more than 1.2 million Australians participated in soccer in the past financial year, ahead of Australian rules football, with 622,000 participants, and other team sports like basketball (990,000), netball (594,000), cricket (572,000), and hockey (181,000).
However, soccer has room to grow in WA, where it attracted 141,000 participants in the past financial year, compared with 181,000 participants in basketball and 167,000 in Aussie rules.
Raising the profile of soccer in WA has been the focus of the sport’s governing body, Football West, in recent years.
In 2018, the association released a five-year strategic plan to set the direction of soccer, with improved facilities, strong partnerships, and a blueprint for growth key focuses.
Football West is the state’s fifth-largest sporting and recreational association, according to Data & Insights, based on its most recently reported revenue of $9.6 million.
That figure has been on a steady incline in recent years, with Football West reporting revenue of $7.9 million in 2019, $6.8 million in 2018, $6.3 million in 2017, and $6 million in 2016.
James Curtis has led the organisation as chief executive during those years, with Sherif Andrawes appointed chairman in 2019 when Liam Twigger – the former managing director of PCF Capital – stepped down from the role after six years.
In October, Football West announced Mr Curtis would be stepping down from the board as part of the association’s succession plan, with the search for a new chief executive expected to wrap up before the end of the year.
It was his experience in strategic direction that caught the attention of Football West, which approached Mr Curtis in 2016 to deliver significant reform and establish a new direction for the West Perth-based association.
In addition, he was tasked with increasing the relevance of Football West in both the WA and international markets, as well as assisting in the game’s grassroots growth.
“I didn’t know much about football,” Mr Curtis told Business News earlier this month.
“There were some key goals that were pretty exciting.
“[With] the lack of historical investment in the sport, whilst being the number one sport in terms of participants, there was obviously something that needed to happen.”
Mr Curtis’s experience includes as a director and consultant of national children’s program Grasshopper Soccer, where he assisted with growing the organisation’s WA presence and developing a franchise network across Australia and in New Zealand between 2003 and 2011.
After that, he was director of strategy and performance at the Department of Aboriginal Affairs for two years, and then an executive director of community development with the same department for three years.
Since joining Football West, Mr Curtis has taken on a non-executive directorship role at mental health organisation Richmond Wellbeing.
He’s also a non-executive director of Football Futures Foundation, the charity arm of Football West, which aims to deliver football programs to disadvantaged communities.
“One of the things we know and have been proud of is increasing accessibility to the game, but there’s still such a long way to go,” Mr Curtis said.
“We needed to make sure we had a separate entity. “A lot of people want to play the game, but there might be barriers or accessibility [issues].”
Former Perth Glory owner, and club founder, Nick Tana, is chair of Football Futures Foundation, having been appointed in July.
A month earlier, Football West had recruited former state government trade commissioner Stuart Crockett to drive the organisation’s Asian engagement strategy.
Perhaps the biggest recent win for Football West was securing the remaining funding for the long-mooted State Football Centre, which has found a home at Queens Park after almost a decade in the planning.
The $32.5 million centre is intended as soccer’s home in WA, with its facilities and fields to be made available to participants at the grassroots, community, and elite levels of the game. It will also become the new home of Football West’s day-to-day administration.
Meanwhile, international and A-League matches will continue to be played at HBF Park or Optus Stadium.
Mr Curtis said the State Football Centre was part of a 40-year vision for the sport in WA. He said nearly 50 locations were considered, with Ashfield the former frontrunner.
“If you look at Queens Park … and the demographics of the area, there are a lot of football fans that might not be participating in clubs,” Mr Curtis said, noting the lack of facilities in the suburb.
About 60 per cent of Queens Park residents are from overseas, according to the City of Canning, with the most recent available data showing those from England comprise the largest block (13 per cent).
More than 11 per cent are from China, about 10 per cent from India, and almost 5 per cent from the Philippines.
Mr Curtis said there had been little investment in Queens Park until recently, referring to new road and rail infrastructure and the removal of a level crossing, as part of the state government’s multi-billion-dollar Metronet program.
“There’s this broader precinct plan that’s coming in on the back of the State Football Centre,” he said.
In November, the City of Canning released a master plan detailing how it would best make use of the open space in the suburb.
That process began shortly after the state government announced it would match the Commonwealth’s $16.25 million contribution to the State Football Centre.
It’s expected the centre will be ready in time for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, with Perth one of nine host cities across Australia and New Zealand.
International teams headed for WA are expected to train at the State Football Centre, while the tournament’s matches will be held at HBF Park (known as Perth Rectangular Stadium for international matches).
The East Perth stadium, which hosts Perth Glory games, as well as Western Force rugby matches and concerts, can hold 20,500 spectators.
HBF Park is undergoing a $35 million redevelopment. Photo: David Henry
Earlier this month, FIFA released the 64-match schedule for the Women’s World Cup, with Perth securing five group stage matches – the equal lowest of all the host cities – but no Matildas games or knockout matches.
The Australian women’s team, which includes WA-born captain Sam Kerr, instead will play in Brisbane, Melbourne, and Sydney. Hamilton and Dunedin in NZ were the other host cities to miss out on knockout matches.
However, Mr Curtis welcomed the schedule in an announcement from Football West, noting there was a chance WA could have missed out on the tournament altogether.
“Instead, we have five matches involving some of the best teams in the world,” he said.
Sport and Recreation Minister Tony Buti said it was a good result for Perth, noting the tournament was the biggest women’s sporting event in the world.
More than 1 billion people are expected to watch on television, based on the record 1.12 billion viewers of the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, held in France.
The 2023 tournament will run from July 20 to August 6, with FIFA to confirm pairings and kick-off times at the end of 2022.
Representatives from the sport’s international governing body travelled to Perth last year, as part of a visit to Australia to assess football-related infrastructure and facilities.
That includes HBF Park, which will undergo a $35 million state-funded redevelopment ahead of the tournament, with the pitch, lighting, bench areas, and power supply among the planned upgrades.
Football West also received around $1.8 million in government grants in the 2020-21 financial year, including for COVID-19 relief and regional funding.
“COVID hit us when we had only reached about 10 per cent [of our] revenue levels for the year,” Mr Curtis said.
“Because we don’t have a facility we’ve got no asset base, and from a cash perspective we rely on that yearly revenue to come through.
“At the end of the day, our model is funded from the bottom up; we don’t receive any funding from Football Australia.
“That’s different to a cricket and footy model, so we have that added pressure.”
He said much of Football West’s growth could be attributed to sponsorships.
The association’s major partners include state government entity Healthway, which contributes between $275,000 and $300,000 to Football West each year, and the Insurance Commission of Western Australia, which has gifted more than $540,000 since 2017.
The ICWA partnership was recently extended by three years, as was a partnership with mining company Gold Fields.
The Healthway funding is separate from a partnership with Tony Sage-owned Perth Glory, which received $600,000 in the last financial year for its community and A-League programs.
Meanwhile, Football Australia is considering a second A-League division, which means WA could be represented by a second team.
Mr Curtis said it was likely a national second division wouldn’t roll out until after the Women’s World Cup, noting a review was due for release within the next year.
In terms of his own future, Mr Curtis said he would continue on the board of Football Futures Foundation, as well as on the boards of other community and non-for-profit organisations.
He said that, as Football West embarked on its next phase of growth, the next chief executive would be required to have a different skillset.
“We’re all going to have different attributes, some are strategy based, some are operations based,” Mr Curtis said, adding the role of chief executive would now focus on customer experience.
“I love strategy, so I’ll probably shift across into some more corporate commercial sectors again,” he said.
“I’m pleased that, with the foundation, I’ll still be able to maintain that [role] … and make an impact where I can.”
