It truly is a little bit of everything.
The pandemic, for one, has undoubtedly contributed to a selectively restrained economic climate – families are wary of where their dollars are being spent and it doesn’t help that venue ticket prices have been a sore point for years.
Perhaps the ultimate crescendo came in the form of this season’s debutants Macarthur FC charging an eye-gouging $50 per person for Sydney FC active fans to attend Bulls matches, which club director Sam Krslovic attributed to COVID and an unanswered voicemail.
But Australian football’s problems existed well before the COVID-19 outbreak - all the shutdown period did was put our longstanding issues under the microscope.