Despite a turbulent few years on and off the pitch, support for the A-Leagues is on the rise ahead of a big season for their respective competitions.
According to recent findings from Roy Morgan, over 3.6 million Australians now support an A-League club - a yearly rise of more than a million new fans.
COVID-19 is pointed to as one reason for the increase with both AFL and NRL also experiencing rises in fan numbers.
But despite a solid rise, the A-Leagues still have millions of Australian football fans yet to embrace the local competition.
"A-League clubs have enjoyed a substantial increase in support over the last year in line with the increases seen for other football codes such as the AFL and NRL," Roy Morgan Industry Communications Director Julian McCrann said in a press release.
"Over 3.6 million Australians now profess support for an A-League club, an increase of over 1 million (+38.3%) on a year ago.
"As we have seen across other football codes the COVID-19 pandemic has forced many sports to be played in front of empty stadiums but live on TV to supporters stuck at home in the many lockdowns we have seen over the last 18 months around Australia.
"Looking ahead, the challenge for the A-League will be to continue to grow the league in an increasingly competitive sporting market and find a way to connect with the millions of Australians who love their football but don’t presently engage with the A-League.
"There are over 2 million Australians out there who watch high quality football competitions, such as the English Premier League, who are yet to become fans of the A-League. This at-hand market of 2 million Australians is a significant market for the A-League to target during the recovery from COVID-19."
Roy Morgan's research found Sydney FC to be the A-Leagues' most popular club with 640,000 Australians aged over 14 supporting the Sky Blues.
Melbourne Victory were a close second with 632,000 fans followed by Brisbane Roar, Adelaide United and Perth Glory.
Every club saw a yearly increase in fan numbers between 2020 and 2021 with Central Coast Mariners experiencing the biggest percentage rise of 90.1%.
Despite only taking into account Australian-based supporters, Wellington Phoenix were deemed to have 1,000 more fans than Western United, who are currently the A-Leagues' least supported side.
Wellington were forced to relocate to Wollongong for much of last season due to COVID-19 and clearly won over a few Aussies in the process.
The new A-League Mens season will kick on November 19 with every match this season to be shown live on Paramount Plus.