Melbourne Heart battles to draw a crowd in bid to avoid wooden spoon Melbourne Heart Brazilian player Fred after a loss to Adelaide United. He is currently the club's highest paid player. FIVE weeks ago 13,752 turned up to AAMI Park and saw Melbourne Heart dismantle Sydney FC to consolidate its spot in the six. Tonight Melbourne Heart faces Central Coast Mariners fighting to avoid the wooden spoon. Plenty of questions for the football department to ponder but it's also forced Heart's hierachy to reassess its long term strategy. That sunny Sunday afternoon would've got Heart's board thinking, how do we draw this type of crowd more regularly? Heart's crowd average has dropped this season, due to the fact that it hosted just one Melbourne derby compared to two. But it could be argued that half of the crowd for that Sydney FC game - a record non-derby home crowd - was driven there by one man. Granted the Lucas Neill saga helped spike interest but ticket sales were already tracking for a 12,000-plus crowd. Just as Dwight Yorke did in season one, Alessandro Del Piero has helped lift crowds home and away and along with Shinji Ono and Emile Heskey has shown what effect a quality marquee can have with unprecedented interest in the A-League. Heart chief executive Scott Munn refused to discuss marquees specifically but revealed that the owners would be loosening the purse strings next season. "The board have agreed to invest greater funds on the football budget next year and we expect that will result in an improved performance on the pitch," Munn said. That's predominantly for the playing budget. But marquees a completely separate conversation. Were we happy won the field? Off the field were we happy? We continue to rank in the top three for commercial revenue, our membership grew and continues to be in the top five of the A-League and we think there are some good things there. We think we got some things wrong, but the world hasn't ended. We're not going to throw the baby put with the bathwater, we'll continue and we have re-signed every young player that we've wanted. While Heart's shop is in order - the club says it will break even this year, an extraordinary feat in its third year - it"s the shop window that needs tinkering. The Del Piero effect and the unprecedented wave of publicity Heart received during its ill-fated pursuit of David Beckham suggests this could be what the club needs getting more people through the shop door. But with Brazilian Fred currently its highest paid player (believed to be on just under $300,000 a season) it would take a large strategy shift from the board for this to happen. Lou Sticca, who was involved in the Yorke deal back in 2005, is the man who brought Del Piero to Australia and looks after Ono"s Australian affairs. Sticca believes he knows what constitutes a good marquee and Heart, by virtue of its location, is in prime position to capitalise but concedes Sydney was lucky with the Italian. "A true marquee needs to be an iconic player in the right city at a truly professional club,"" Sticca said. There have only been five genuine marquees in the history of the A-League, the three this year, Dwight Yorke and Juninho. "You could probably throw Robbie Fowler in however going to North Queensland diluted his impact, it wasn"t the right place to put him. "Had he gone straight to Perth Glory (he joined after the Fury), Sydney FC or Melbourne his impact would"ve been significantly greater. If you want the biggest impact from marquees the clubs from the two biggest cities are ideal choices, so if Heart gets the right one it could make a huge impact. They play at a fantastic stadium in front of a small but passionate supporter base with a tremendous rival across the road. Results no doubt play a part and it's interesting to note that Heart's biggest crowd of the 2011-12 season was just after New Year's when over 8000 turned up against Adelaide United off the back of a five-game winning streak. It begs the question, where would Heart be now had Curtis Good, Brendan Hamill and Eli Babalj (he ended up returning) stayed and Aziz Behich and Michael Marrone not been sold in January? One would suggest firmly entrenched in the top four. While it"s difficult holding back a middle-aged player like Marrone from earning a big payday in China, the other four"s departures are at the heart of the club"s developmental ethos. With Jeremy Walker, Ben Garuccio and Sam Mitchinson coming onto the scene this season, Heart has continued to nurture young players incredibly well. But fans are wanting to grow an attachment with these players before they depart, in other words see them stay a little longer - Behich was the exception having notched 65 games in two-and-a-half seasons. Tonight will be a battle of the A-League's two lowest budgets and while Heart has assembled a very good squad for $2.5m, change is in the air.