Do it

I believe the argument is that Heart are struggling due to a lack of clear identity, whereas SXFC's affiliation with SMFC was well known and would have provided history/identity. As many would have been turned off by this as would have been turned on - however it would have provided a marketing point. Also, with so many disliking South, there's a good chance that certain elements would have followed South games in the hope that we'd lose (in much the same way as the only AFL result I look for is Collingwood - in the hope that the black-and-white-bas***ds get smashed).

But there are no guarantees that would happen. For your Collingwood analogy, does your hate make you go to Collingwood games or buy their merchandise? How does the league benefit from that? How would SMFC benefit from the hate? And would it be the wrong kind, the kind that makes the news?

someone mentioned a few pages back that to this day Perth Glory and Adel Utd highest regular season attendance was against smfc

Is there a deal in the A-League where the visiting team get a cut of gate takings? If not, then I don't see how this helps you.

Wrote this on the SBS facebook page:
Melbourne Heart fans, expect to be the target of disdain and abuse by people who think a football club is judged by its commercial value. Then expect your emotional attachment to be disregarded as moot due to that commercial value.

Welcome to the A-League, where we are football until you're not worth it.

I believe the argument is that Heart are struggling due to a lack of clear identity, whereas SXFC's affiliation with SMFC was well known and would have provided history/identity. As many would have been turned off by this as would have been turned on - however it would have provided a marketing point. Also, with so many disliking South, there's a good chance that certain elements would have followed South games in the hope that we'd lose (in much the same way as the only AFL result I look for is Collingwood - in the hope that the black-and-white-bas***ds get smashed).

+111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111

-PB

Melbourne Heart can no longer afford for the idle speculation linking the club to David Beckham to be just that – speculation. They need him. Badly.
Maybe even that’s understating it. The club’s very future may, perhaps, depend on his signature.
We all know that expecting big-name marquee stars to act as cure-alls and problem solvers is a silly, silly thing to do.
And it hurts to say this, because Melbourne Heart are an extremely likeable club – probably the most popular ‘second team’ in the A-League.
But without Beckham, the red and white outfit might be hurtling towards a fate that was perhaps eerily dictated by their selection of a Stoke-inspired home shirt – mediocrity and irrelevance.
Or worse still, extinction.
Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that – any fan with a soul shudders at the thought of a club closing its doors.
And, besides, we should really have gotten all our fascination with morbid grave-dancing out of our system when North Queensland and Gold Coast were cut.
But the truth is the Heart’s troubles have been bubbling under the surface for some time now – only disguised by Melbourne derbies, Clive Palmer’s endless jibber-jabber and the romanticism of the Del Piero era.
Yesterday’s terrific article from jamesb once again put forward the question that has been asked of Melbourne Heart since day one, but never really answered – who on earth are they?
What does this club mean? Who does it represent? Does anyone really know?
There are a few points of difference, we’re told. One – they’re not Melbourne Victory, which is actually a pretty good start.
People hate Victory and Kevin Muscat and their combined arrogance and so by positioning themselves as the nice guys of Melbourne, the Heart curried a bit of favour from neutrals from day one.
That, and the club’s commitment to playing ‘attractive football’.
What that is, exactly, remains unclear – but it is highly likely Ange Postecoglou will reach that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow before John Aloisi does.
Just by signing Postecoglou, the Heart’s arch-rivals blew that so-called advantage to smithereens. So there’s that gone. And neutrals don’t pay the bills.
What else… Young players? No, Newcastle have that covered at the minute – besides, you can’t sign Vince Grella and Richard Garcia and then claim ‘academy’.
Location? No. Anything socio-economic? Not yet. AAMI Park? Now we’re clutching at straws.
When the Heart joined the league, there was skepticism from the outset that they weren’t different enough to the behemoth that is Victory.
That skepticism was hushed by assurances that there’s a growth strategy in place and that crowds will eventually grow to an average of 10,000 in three or five or however many years and so on and so forth.
Well, after this past weekend, it’s pretty clear to see that if there is any growth at all, it is not coming quickly enough, with the expiry date of their ‘sweetheart’ stadium deal at Swan Street is fast approaching.
Especially not when Postecoglou is across town fiddling with a false nine system that is showing glimpses of stunning functionality.
So what now?
The Heart need not be a powerhouse but they can’t survive like this. If crowds don’t pick up immediately, if not sooner, then their stadium deal will eventually eat them whole.
It’s okay to offset that every now and then with the transfer fee from the sale of a rising star – but then Melburnians can see through that, and the cut-price appointment of Aloisi, as an admission of defeat.
And we’ve seen what can happen to the A-League when the poisonous stench of ‘uncool’ left behind by low four-figure crowds hangs about.
Which brings us back to David Beckham, still one of the world’s most marketable athletes and the very embodiment of cool.
It isn’t smart to pin your hopes on a marquee but maybe this is the Heart’s best and only opportunity to bridge the gap with Melbourne Victory.
There just isn’t enough room for the Heart to tell its own story with the suffocating influence of the other mob in town.
With Beckham in red and white, however, the whole planet will suddenly be interested in what goes on at La Trobe University.
That wouldn’t fix everything. And yes, people will probably stop caring the minute he jets back to the US.
But what it would do is give Melbourne Heart a voice that it otherwise would not have and an opportunity to bring about the growth that was promised but never delivered.
Then it has, at least, a chance. A foot in the door. The alternative is frightening.
Without Becks, the rich in Melbourne – Victory – will get richer.
And the Heart will either hold onto a tiny corner of the market and become perennial off-field grafters, or disappear altogether.
Neither is a deserving outcome for a club run so well and founded with such admirable intentions.

I think, in hindsight, SMFC (or an FFA variation of it) should've been the second team in Melbourne.

I can understand why it wasnt, I can understand why it would've been risky - but at least you would've almost guaranteed a solid hardcore support base to rival others.

My only concern is (and maybe SMFC supporters can enlighten me) but if FFA decided to include SMFC into the competition, but "filtered" it so that it no longer had the affiliation to the Greek community etc but maintained the spine of the squad/back room staff - would you guys still support it? Or would it need to be 100% as it is now, unedited by the FFA in order for you to accept it?

The FFA is not stupid, if they believed they could "filter out" as you put it, the Greek affiliation of course they would have included SMFC.
The SMFC supporters here misrepresent the reality that the supporter base remains mon- ethnic, they actually suggest that support is broad based, but a visit to any SMFC proves nothing has changed.

SMFC is being subjected, to death by irrelevance, and threads like this are the last skirmishes of resistance by a small number of loyal, passionate but misguided zealots.

Err so that is why we have exclusivity at the ground or the next 40 and 4.5 million in handouts?

Edited by chris: 12/12/2012 08:30:39 PM