''Certainly the marquee players have been part of the success story this season. The fact is that they came with big reputations and lived up to those reputations by the way they played on the pitch,'' Gallop said. ''The game was broadcast internationally wider than ever before. That's an enormous opportunity to showcase our competition and could see more marquee players taking an interest in playing in our competition.''

An Australian club record audience of more than 296,000 people tuned in to watch the Mariners clinch their maiden A-League title and that figure to swell beyond the 300,000 mark in the coming days once other measurements are accounted for.

The ratings for Sunday's grand final surpassed the previous record set in 2007 by 14,000 and are a 38 per cent increase the number of viewers from last year's grand final, between Brisbane and Perth. A-League television audiences have increased by 23 per cent throughout the season and in terms of stadium attendances, the crowd of 42,102 was a record for a NSW grand final.

The arrival of the new TV deal next season is expected to draw more than a million viewers for the next grand final as the A-League will be broadcasted free to air television for the first time, in conjunction with Fox Sports.

"Going forward, we add free-to-air coverage through , which will lift our television audiences and general interest in the competition. It’s foreseeable that we will have over a million viewers of our grand final next season," Gallop said.