Good list, but I don't understand why you list Geelong or Dandenong, as opposed to Geelong and Dandenong. There's almost 100km of water in between the two, so it's not like they'd detract from each others supporter base!

Chuck in Christchurch for an even 20 ;)

Why does everyone seem to think dandy thunder is a good idea. Have no stadium, bad off field behavior and other than being based out of dandegong nothing really pushing them promotion.

I agree dandegong is a good location for a SE Melb team I would only take a bid to the A League(direct) if they had plans to get a stadium built out there and found new training facilities etc. Would be a lot of work.

Anyone can be, but few are - Gold Coast and WSW have been effective, Fury, Heart and Nix were all well off the pace in their first season(s). WSW sitting top of the table is a new benchmark for what can be achieved.

Dandenong is a good idea, Thunder isn't (although if you could take the coach and most of the squad you'd have a good starting point for a football department).

Don't believe you need a stadium out there - games could still be played centrally so long as they trained in the SE and clearly identified themselves as such (much like all AFL games in the city are played centrally).

If it's canberra, i'd like to see a name like Canberra Athletic or something similar to make some clear ties to the AIS program. No to United as we already seem to have heaps and no to cosmos because it just sounds like galaxy, and the last cosmos was a failure.

GCU were top at the same point of the season, if memory serves me correctly.

Edited by GCU till I die: 6/3/2013 11:39:42 AM

+1. I'd support that idea.
I'd also back a revamped Gold Coast side. They just need to be better managed off the field obviously. (Although if you use other codes as a yardstick, the crowd averages for the Titans and the Suns seem to be falling away every season)

I think the sooner we have at least 12 stable clubs in the A-League, the better.

Edited by JayEss: 6/3/2013 01:48:51 PM

Correct, GCU were top of the table until the last two games late in their inaugural season, 2010/11.

I agree the squad and coach would be a welcome addition to any new franchise. Re location I believe they could play centrally but would long long (long long) term a stadium around Dandegong area be worth considering? I lean towards yes but I agree it is a pipe dream that may not even be necessary.

Just odd how people have somehow got it in their heads that the Thunder are all of a sudden a model club to be promoted.

In 2017, I'd say the next two teams to enter the A-League should be Canberra and Northern Fury.

IMO Northern Fury can represent Townsville and Cairns. Please excuse my ignorance PB, I do know that it takes around 4 hours to drive from Cairns to Townsville (and another 4 hours to Mackay), but if you share a team between the two you're expanding your catchment area from a population of around 200,000 to over 350,000k.

With 12 teams in the comp, if they continue to play eachother 3 times that's 33 games, so 16 home games; Can the home games be split between the two cities, say 9 in Townsville and 7 in Cairns or 10 and 6? They'd then play a regional game in Mackay to get them involved too...that's anpother 75k population added to the catchment area bringing it to over 425k ;)

Outer South East suburbs and winning a treble is all it takes. A year ago few would have suggested them.

And yes, a boutique stadium out in the S-E would work better than a long trip in the city - creates a greater sense of identity, etc. The problem at the moment is the insistence that ALL A-league home venues meet ACL standards - it would be a lot easier if the venue could simply be a suitable size for the particular side playing in it. If you need 8,000 seats, build a 10,000-12,000 seater, etc. 10-12k venues DO cost money - but not nearly as much as a 20-30k venue.

Edited by Benjamin: 6/3/2013 03:22:47 PM

2017/18 (11 x 3 = 33 rounds. Over 4 years = 132)
11. Canberra Athletic
12. Northern Fury

2022/23 (13 x 2.5 = 32.5. Over 4 years = 130)
13 Illawarra Mercury
14 Auckland United (Auckland City to remain in the ASB and be a feeder club)

2026/27 (15 x 2 - 30 rounds. Over 4 years = 120)
15. Gold Coast Glitter(?)
16. Geelong Gunners

2030/31 (17 x 2 = 34 rounds. Over 4 years = 136)
17. Tasmanian Timbers (should finally have a rectangular stadium)
18. South-East Melbourne Eagles (Lakeside Stadium will be upgraded to be Fox friendly)

2034/31 (19 x 2 = 38 rounds. Over 4 years = 152)
19. Perth Pumbas?
20. Adelaide Asteroids

2038/39
Begin Promotion/Relegation, keeping the A-League teams at 20.

Notice apart from 2017 - 2022, the rest of the teams entered into the A-League are every 4 years because they're on World Cup/Asian Cup years. I think it is paramount that new teams are entered during the World + Asian Cup years because there will be increased interest and hype assisting in the growth of the new clubs.

Sadly enough, these aren't even the worst names I've heard bandied around. Now there's a reflection for you 8-[

Too depressing to imagine that it would take that long.

There was talk of critical mass in The Roar this week - make no mistake there will be a tipping point at which expansion becomes much easier. Once the majority of teams are breaking even the interest in owning a team will jump. If WSW goes successfully into private ownership I can imagine the FFA may be willing to play a stronger part in expansion as well (because whilst the West was the most obvious expansion target in the country, the way it's been handled has been excellent).

Once the NPL is up and running I expect some teams will rise to thetop as contenders for spots in the HAL.So it might be better to look at all those teams and guess which ones could draw significant crowds and become dominanat forces.As a smokey I wouldn't rule out the Qld Sunshine Coast.They have a boutique stadium at Kawana.There are good freeways for access and the area could draw in people from as far south as Caboolture.Then there is The Ipswich area covered by Western Pride..In four years time we may all be surprised where growth areas emerge.In South East Queensland at least these two areas are growing rapidly.All with young families.

My two cents: I lived and played football in Canberra for four years. They definitely have the potential to be popular there (plenty of people play and follow the games). Bruce Stadium (located in the suburb Bruce) is poor for atmosphere (although some of the Brumbies games I saw managed some good atmosphere ... very open though). A big failing of the Cosmos was that they played the season in winter (I saw a few of their matches ... night games were freezing). A lot of Canberra's population are uni students too though (so would lose a little support during their summer holidays). Canberra is also a very spread out city, Bruce Stadium is in the north-west. The main population centres are more to the south (they may be able to share a rugby stadium, the Vikings are a big club in Canberra). Believe the women's team plays south of the city.

Canberra also makes sense because it is close to existing teams (therefore doesn't increase travel costs significantly).

I think Tasmania and the South Coast are great markets to explore (as neither have national sport teams, other than cricket for Tassie). Both are strong football areas.

A side note: The idea of "conferences" for me doesn't make sense at the A-League level. Instead I think it would be better at a minor league level. That is the State Leagues actually become state leagues (not city based). You could have say four conferences based on geographical locations (as travel will be the big cost for any minor leagues in my opinion). They could play most games within their conference (maybe play other conference teams only once each). At the end there is a playoff series between the best teams from each conference. The finalists (two) are promoted to the A-League. You may run into an issue that a particular conference has too many promoted and none relegated (or vice versa) ... so this could be an issue perhaps.

An issue would be that you would have to limit the clubs that play in the conferences ... i.e. a conference couldn't just consist of Sydney/Melbourne based teams.

My big concern: Any relegation style format would be almost unfeasible for some teams (and would the owners still keep ownership of them) ... can you imagine Sydney FC having to play conference football (even for a season). The club would go broke.

Other big concern: Teams are currently struggling for crowds (or over priced/sized stadiums) and many struggle financially (even the AFL which gets by far more money and support have 3 or 4 teams that are financially supported by the stronger clubs). Is expansion feasible?

Last note: A WA team south of Perth would be great (Cockburn FC???) ... but only because I live south of Perth. Although Perth does have the fourth biggest pop in Australia, and has a huge football fraternity. The sprawl of Perth is a big issue with game crowds ... although the Eagles have a six year waiting list to become a member. nib Stadium is in the middle of the city ... the majority of Perth live north or south of the city.

That's a newspaper.


Surely there's a strip club with that name :lol:

:shock:

1 A-League player to date (and none in the first 7 and a half seasons).

Exactly, although it must be said he is one of the more promising young players league-wide. Then we get into registration numbers, AFL-entrenched sport market, stadiums or lack thereof etc. Lets not go there haha

Gotta be Canberra and Wollongong for the next expansion in my opinion. Interest is there and the stadiums are there.

Aim for 7-10k home averages.

Support can be bolstered by the close proximity with the other NSW clubs. I believe these are sustainable teams. However it would become a strongly biased NSW based league.

I would love to have the Fury back in the top tier one day! They have an awesome community feeling in that football club, and brings a tropical feel to their home games lol.

If player registration was the major issue then Tasmania would be ahead of North Queensland, Gold Coast and Geelong but the major issue for Tasmania is that the economy is shot.

When we expand next I think it should be two teams from different states. New have 4 right now we can't have 6 and every other state have one or two (Victoria).

I'd like to see a sth coast team come in, good stadium and good area and I think you could get a solid fan base down there but if Canberra come in I'd rather see a fury or tassie team be the other expansion team. So for me it's Canberra or sth coast and tassie or nth Queensland.

I still think expansion is 5 seasons away Atleast.

What we have Learnt from the wanderers is that Franchises should let fans decide or suggest name colours, strip and logo. That needs to be a must for every new expansion team.

The success of the league over the next, 4 year, tv deal will decide the next expansion. The current deal was heavily reliant on a minimum 10 team competition - I'd assume that in order to get a significant increase the competition will have to grow, as a result I would expect that if things go well over the next 3 years, with attendances and more importantly viewing figures rising, then we'll have at least 2 new teams join in the season in which the next tv deal is signed.

I'd love to see the FFA putting down a long term plan to bring in 6 new sides - 4-5 years out, to say that these are the markets they want to service, and this is what they want to do in each year building up to that point.

Take key markets like Canberra, Tasmania, South Coast and North Queensland, add a couple more options for second teams in either Perth, Adelaide or Brisbane, or third teams in Sydney or Melbourne - then build on that in a very deliberate way - starting with youth teams, womens teams, semi-pro affiliations with state league/NPL sides, etc., and build up to a specific target date to add these sides to the competition. Assuming the new tv deal comes in better than the current one, there's no reason these sides couldn't be at least partly funded along the WSW model, and the long lead in gives time to do the careful public consultation properly.

You never know, Walker's success in the A-League plus the Victory investing in football there, things may swing in the not so distant future

I've felt for quite some time that the first code to genuinely include Tasmania could reap major rewards.

:lol: You haven't spent much time in Tasmania, have you.

:lol: maybe in the whole state, but how many are we really expecting to attend football week in week out?

Have you?

I've visited several times when Victory played, a couple times in Launceston as well as the game against the Tassie XI in Hobart. I myself overheard multiple people talking about the latter game by just walking in the city centre. Seems a team representing their state really lights a fire under them.