Should we retain it, or is the league at a stage now where we can afford to drop it? http://www.news.com.au/sport/footba...8/news-story/9f582067bd4499e016e3e3396d031b2c
For me, I love the fact that it makes it an even playing field. You just won't have those big 2-3 clubs playing for most of the honours every year. We've had 6 out of the 10 teams become champions, and that is down to the cap, and getting the most out of your teams, rather than buying your way to a title.
I'm a little leery of lifting the cap in A-league, if only because the disparity between what a team like the Victory can afford and what a smaller club like the Phoenix can afford is pretty large. I'd be concerned that the smaller clubs would be relegated to second tier status in fairly short order and those clubs are already on fairly shaky ground. I get that the cap is just notional with the exceptions, but overall, the middle of the rosters are being kept relatively close together in pay and quality. Remove the cap and the big clubs will start to suck away the better players in the league and they'll have a pretty clear advantage over the rest of the league.
They're nowhere near dropping the salary cap. Give it a few more decades, at least, for the league to mean enough overall that it doesn't have to rely on keeping things equal.
It would make things a lot easier if there was no cap and clubs were allowed to spend what they want. I'd personally prefer a cap but relevant to what each club earns so instead of punishing the Victory, they should be rewarded for being successful and making a profit.
No way should we remove it any time soon, especially as we're expanding the league. Thanks to the new TV deal, the salary cap is set to increase.
We need promotion relegation bad. It is clear the FFA cant be bothered even expanding. Sent from my LG-H850 using Tapatalk
Looks like the A-league has finally really made it on BigSoccer. You've finally got a clueless, delusional type pushing traditional nonsense like pro/rel in a league that doesn't need it/can't support it right now and likely never will.
I'm not sure about never.. Doesn't AFC include it in the point totals they use to determine the number of teams a country gets in the AFC CL? If my memory isn't faulty, that could become a driver to implement pro/rel if A-League teams start to take more interest in the competition.
The thing with promotional and relegation is that if a club goes bankrupt cause of mismanagement, it isn't a big deal because they can get replaced by a team below. We should be giving teams an opportunity to prove themselves in the top flight. It is called survival of the fittest. This sort of reminds me of politics. Western countries have fought against communism for decades but our league is a football equivalent of communism. What happened to democracy and an open market?
How on earth would pro/rel work if the NPL clubs not named South Melbourne don't have the money, fans and infrastructure to play in the A-League? Besides, talk of pro/rel is impossible until 2034 when the HAL club licences expire. That doesn't mean NPL clubs and new bids can't start working now to build up their teams, mind you. You're kidding. Expansion will happen in 2018/19. In February, they will release a criteria a bid will need to satisfy in order to join HAL. On the top of my head I can think of 14 bids proposed since the 2016/17 season began; two of them being serious bids.
Why would NPL clubs have a big supporter base when they don't have an opportunity to play at the highest level in Australia? Every A-league club started from zero and have all built a supporter base. Why? Because people want to see the best. Look at the crowd figures of RB Leipzig in Germany as the progressed up the football period. A club that didn't exist 5-6 years ago. How do you explain the crowds for NPL finals? I think Sydney United vs Blacktown had over 4000 people in the final hosted in the inner west despite both teams being from the west. The NPL final in Victoria pulled a bigger crowd. I would rather go watch my local team play then travel an hour to go watch Sydney FC. The problem is that my local team doesn't have the opportunity to play at a higher level.
Not just supporters, but money and a up-to-standard stadium are also imperative. Can't really compare to German clubs. Football is a lot more popular in Germany than here. Btw which region of Sydney do you live in (if you don't mind me asking)?
No A-league club owns their own stadium so to me that is an irrelevant argument. What's stopping APIA from winning promotion to the A-league and playing out at Leichhardt Oval instead of Lambert Park? There are stadiums all over the place in Australia. I've lived my whole life in the Inner West (Marrickville, Dulwich Hill, Canterbury, Campsie and a short period in Bankstown) but I've just moved out to Parramatta. I'm about 5-10 minutes drive from Pirtek Stadium.
They each have their own individual stadiums to play in, aside from MVFC and MCFC who share AAMI Park. APIA could play at Leichhardt Oval but ugh at playing in oval stadiums. What would stop them from playing in the HAL is money. If they don't have the money then they can't play. There was a Belgian club (I forgot the name) a few years ago who got promoted but did not want to join the first division because they didn't have the money to afford being able to do so.
Does your franchise need a safe space to stop it going under? Thats a bit pathetic. Sent from my LG-H850 using Tapatalk
Leichhardt Oval isn't actually an oval. A-league clubs don't have money either.. most clubs bar Victory (and now City) are running at a loss. What you've suggested about a Belgian team could apply here.. if clubs don't meet a criteria or financial criteria, they can say no to being promoted. Having a criteria (and nations like Germany have a criteria) will ensure that the club facilities and finances are appropriate to the A-league level. For me stadiums is an easy issue to solve. As I've said, clubs can always hire out stadiums if there's doesn't meet the criteria and they don't want to fix it.
So maybe thats red light flashing if 80-90% of the clubs are running a loss. Clubs like South Melbourne, Melbourne Knights, Sydney United all survived the big bad days of the scary NSL with and without promotion relegation. How about we analyse our set up and cost analysis and our hiting of ridiculously oversized venues. Sent from my LG-H850 using Tapatalk