The A-League Expansion Thread

Nothing good comes from willing bids to succeed. Didn't they learn that the first time? Have an open bidding process and go with the best ffs.

 

we dont need another team in Sydney, I went to the game tonight, and there was just over 10,000 there, good game but.
Put another team at Wollongong and one at Canberra, theres your 12 team comp

 

I agree... A west Sydney team at this point in time may kill Syd Fc... As the smith report has advised, its best to sit on the 10 teams for now...

 

No go to 12 teams, canberra and gong

 

I agree with you about Wollongong but given the recent news about the Brumbies financial state - and with both the Brumbies and the Raiders without a major sponsor, I don't think Canberra is an ideal market at the moment.

 

for 12 teams there is nowhere else left at this time, until Football grows bigger in peoples minds in this backwater of a country, Canberra and Wollongong are the only two options left for the A-League.

 

Well it could be Tasmania/Darwin/Sydney2/Canberra and Wollongong but I get your point...not many options.

 

I disagree most heartily. I actually think a proper WS team bizarrely could help SFC a little. It would energize a large currently latent support base for the game in WS and this would prod a few to finally choose sides. Its inevitable that a few would choose the Sky Blues. Finally the Daily Telegraph would have a hard time justifying its obvious editorial policy of ignoring soccer if the WS team were selling out Parramatta Stadium every second week and he Sydney Derby drew 60k to the Olympic stadium. A huge derby game 3 times a season would draw in curious Eurosnobs like moths to a naked flame if the atmosphere at the Melbourne Derbies is anything to go by.
I think a strong WS HAL team is essential to the growth and long term stability of top level domestic Soccer in Australia.more so even than a strong and viable SFC. Ideally they both would be strong & viable.

 

Darwin and Tassie are pipedreams and neither have suitable stadiums anyway.

Wollongong and Western Sydney would be the two logical next choices, barring a second NZ team.

 

I agree. A WS team may steal supporters off Sydney FC. But chances are the people who actually attend the SFC games won't jump ship, mainly because of the transport linking the west and the east. I'd hazard a guess and say that a large majority current game attendees for SFC would hail from the Eastern Suburbs with not many at all from the western suburbs.

If a WS team does come in, it's going to get locals who might be discouraged from going to SFC games (due to the travel from the WS area) attending their home games at, say, Parramatta stadium.

I think a WS sydney team is a must for the A-League in the near future, the bidding process just has to be done right the next time round.

 

Liverpool FC for west sydney

 

Tana Gets Cold Feet

what a saga

 

very annoying, but with my cynics hat on, could be a way of saying "well he was never that interested in the first place, this is the easy way to let everybody down."
Pity, I still firmly believe that a WS team done correctly will be huge and could make MVC' supporter numbers look like a corner pub team.

 

So it looks like Gold Coast is out for good next year, but this article is interesting.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story/_/id/1034932?cc=5901

Quick recap if you don't want to read the whole thing: Lowy says that the Canberra bid is not dead, their bid and the WS bid both meet multiple criteria that they want to see met, and their meetings with fans and business people who want to keep Gold Coast around are going well, but they don't think they'll make it for next year.

This could be good for the A League in a couple different ways. GC doesn't get it together to be back in for the next season, and has to go on hiatus for a bit (ala San Jose Earthquakes) while they get their new ownership together. WS comes in for the 12/13 season, then Canberra and GC get added for the 13/14 season after getting time to really get their act together. This means by 2014 you're looking at 12 team A League.

Not only that, but it gives the team with sketchy support, Canberra, and the team that needs restructuring and possibly rebranding, Gold Coast, time to really get things in order

 

A bit of wishful thinking there.

Canberra has a small transient population and no private wealth or companies. Gold Coast was struggling even before Palmer lost the plot.

The A-League can not afford another failed expansion to can not afford to take the risk of putting teams in Canberra and another team in the Gold Coast.

Western Sydney is the only possible option.

 

Honestly, I'd rather seen Furries resurrected.

 

The Furies were almost as bad as Gold Coast. In their two seasons they averaged 6723 and 4245, while GC averaged, 5382, 3434, and 3226. Bringing back the Furies is a non-starter, IMHO.

 

Is there no NSL team they could bring up? One that already has decent support but just needs some cash?

 

They did that: those teams are called Perth Glory, Adelaide United and Newcastle United. Even then, the NZ Football Kingz still went bust.

No other NSL teams met the criteria and seven years in the State Leagues hasn't changed that.

 

It'd suck to go back down to a 9 team league, but I'd rather that than have a rushed WS bid come in and end up screwing up. Any further expansion must be thoroughly thought through and should be well and truly ready.

 

I don't think attendances should be an issue when discussing north queensland. The Furries would've been a nice addition if it weren't for the financial side. Population under 200,000 and averaging close to 7000 in the first season (performed OK, finished 7th). The second season was a mess with dark clouds hanging for a long time so I can't take those numbers seriously, just like Clive's crowds now. If all was well they would keep that average and crack 10k for Kewell/finals. But the expansion was too gung-ho.

Melbourne has a population of 4 million and Heart are getting regular crowds of under 7000 but they'll build. Wellington is hanging around the 8000 mark with a population of 400,000. Gold Coast's population exceeds 550,000 but they have the Clive issue so it's hard to compare.

 

The Gold Coast rugby league team is up shit creek as well.