get in there.

i hope they get it.  but we all know the current ffa only have 2 options they will consider. brisbane 2 and sydney 3.

dandenong and canberra would be my choices.  looks like the nix are going to give us sydney 3 anyway.

Appears to shaping up as the best bid. 

Dandenong has the advantage of being in the Melbourne TV market.  Victory fight with Sydney FC to have the top average rating each season and City is not too far below them in 4th spot a bit behind Wanderers even though they don't get big attendances.  I think Dandenong will match City in those "metrics".

Canberra has about the same population as the Lower Hunter and is in a regional TV market so I'd expect ratings similar to the Jets which are the lowest of the Australian clubs.  Its that same issue that works against Wollongong too as far as generating central revenue.

im hoping Team 11 and the Brisbane City get the nod. Brisbane deserve a derby at least

Then the next wave, one team must go to Perth

Team 11 "secures" $23m is a bit strong...  The Casey Council is making a submission for state government funding of a project they were trying to get off the ground way back when Heart said they were going to be based in the south east suburbs...  IF they get the funding this time, they will put a portion of it toward the franchise HQ.  So, a promise of funding conditional on the state government providing that funding...  Better than nothing, but not exactly set in stone.  And still not $1 assigned to their boutique stadium.  So home games 35km away at Etihad for at least a year, most likely longer. 

City of Casey is pretty active in this sphere though. They shelled out for training facilities for AFL teams even though one of them shafted the city and returned to Moorrabbin (the precious players couldn't handle driving from the inner city).

That news is a huge plus for the team 11 bid. I don’t know much about the area though. I really feel there are three spots open for these bids, with Wellington likely to be replaced at one point. If that is the case I really hope they go two big city bids to please fox and then a smaller bid like Wollongong, Canberra, Geelong of Tasmania.

A goal of expansion should be to take over some uninhabited territories, like Geelong and tassie.

Geelong is the most damned overrated town of 200,000 people in Australia. 

Melbourne has more Greeks than Geelong has people

Another metrics winner for SMFC lol

There has been talk that they will build a temporary rectangular ground at Casey Fields like what the Nix did.

But if that doesn't happen, I'm assuming they can't use Lakeside over summer due to Athletics or will Souths just block them?

Not sure if South would need to block them - the irony would be enough.  The side that's allowed in playing at the home ground of the side that wasn't allowed in...

in qld nrl townsville vs brisbane is considered a local derby

melbourne had more greeks than any city other than athens at one point. it was the 2nd biggest greek city.

Think you'll find that this comment has been promoted to the level of myth but actually has its roots in a throw away joke by a politician back in the day. But it is true that Melbourne has a bloody large ethnic Greek population numbering in the hundreds of thousands. This is what forms one of the exceptions in the arguments of not "limiting" a club to an ethnic supporter base as opposed to a broad based club. An ostensibly Greek oriented club in Melbourne is still a huge market and arguably larger than a broad based market like Adelaide where there are more Greeks likely to follow football in Melbourne than people in Adelaide likely to choose football over Aussie Rules. And also more Greeks in Melbourne than total population of places like Geelong (definitely), Wollongong (arguably), Central Coast (arguably). Not to mention they would also stimulate more away fan sales playing in places like Adelaide with a large and committed Greek community. David Gallop talks about being "brave" - why doesn't he be brave and contemplate the limits of his own mono ethnic bias? Why doesn't he see the marketing potential? He can't figure out how to market a league in one year, SMFC has had a whole country marketing it and mobilising its support base for the last 3,000 years. Free marketing FFS.

Local my ass :laugh::laugh::laugh:

No that would be thessaloniki, its a bit of an in joke amongst the Greek diaspora where they all clsim to have the largest amount of Greeks outside of athens, i even heard this in Toronto a few years back. 

Whilst its a factor, and a key contributer as to why Victory want no part of SM in the A league. I think its selling the club itself a bit short.

Team 11 seems to be all the rage right now, but ultimately theyre still waiting on a hail marry from the state government. What SM already has in place should make it the leading candidate by default. If lakeside stadium was in Dandenong right now team11 would be a shoe in.