FFA don't want to expand but the owners do ey? I'm fairly confident the current negotiations regarding the broadcast revenue distributions with owners suggests the opposite.

Foxsports want to hand over as little as possible, franchise owners want to take as much as possible (can't blame them) but both are driving the push for expansion? Meanwhile, FFA are allegedly reengineering the ownership model to drive down individual losses and reduce the hurdles of entry for ownership.

Meanwhile, the restructure of the A-League's operation and governance model will also be discussed at Tuesday's meeting with a view for the competition to be run semi-independently of FFA, and clubs to have an ownership stake in the league.

The move towards the restructure is to increase the value in A-League licences, generate more revenue in the competition, paving the way for expansion by the 2018-19 season.

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/ffa-to-inform-clubs-of-their-share-of-the-aleague-broadcast-deal-20170501-gvwl5y.html        

Well - it would have been discussed if there was no walkout.               

@ blessed

The suspicion of course is the ffa are not re-engineering anything other than to ensure they have sufficient revenues for their needs by selling off "rights" to the HAL. Can't see how that's going to go down with owners who have already put in millions can you?

The A League has stagnated, crowds are flat and TV viewership is barely what it was 2-3 years ago. The owners recognise expansion will help grow the game that's why they want it - and the HAL is not short of money, it's just the ffa keeps most of it. If you hand over all the money to the clubs there's enough for 12 clubs easily. And the Owners recognise the league is commercially underdone - their whole premise for independence is built on the principle they think they can run the league better than the ffa. The Hal is hardly overflowing with sponsors (can you name the official beer of the HAL?)

Fox are in the same boat - they want/need more content and want an invigorated competition that gets more people watching. They've already put more money on the table for expansion from 2018 and have named the three City's they want a team in Melbourne or Sydney or Brisbane.

The southern Sydney bid is out there and I recon is a shoe-in, CFG don't want another team in Melbourne and they're the political power behind the A League clubs so it ain't happening there, and as yet there hasn't been a credible second team proposal for Brisbane. But as soon as there is, south Sydney and BNE2 will get anointed as the next teams and I'm betting we won't be seeing any "criteria". This whole thing is being so stage managed the only reason it's not happening sooner is they all keep over their own ego's.

I've no idea whether the current standoff will lead to independence, semi or otherwise, but whatever happens we'll know the two expansion teams in the next few weeks: south Sydney and Brisbane2. Can't say SFC or Roar will like it but the push is coming from Fox and the collective owners who are both growing impatient.

@Waz

"I've no idea whether the current standoff will lead to independence, semi or otherwise, but whatever happens we'll know the two expansion teams in the next few weeks: south Sydney and Brisbane2. Can't say SFC or Roar will like it but the push is coming from Fox and the collective owners who are both growing impatient."

Massive call mate, I hope you're right.

As much as I think Brisbane II (along with Sydney III) makes a lot sense, the stadium issue will always be an Achilles heel. Fox won't want another 3/4 empty stadium 11 times year (+2 derbies). I wonder how serious the Western Pride/Ipswich Jets/Ipswich City Council bid is. They have recently talked about expanding North Ipswich Reserve into a boutique 10k(ish) ground to facilitate an AL club as the region expects to double its population by 2035.

Any successful SEQ bid will be dependent on them sourcing a home venue that is not Suncorp IMO.

I do agree that it is going to happen however a Brisbane proposal doesn't have to match the one from southern Sydney to be credible it just needs to compete with the Roar which shouldn't prove to be that difficult. Some things that would help a new club;
Owners that actually care about the team and our local football community would be a great start.
Employees from cleaners to Marquees being paid on time.
Superannuation being kept up to date
Treating the A-leagues greatest ever player with respect.
Employing a real coach.
Removing violent employees.
Being able to retain the serves of our best young coaches.
Playing some good football.
Playing in colors that are representative of Brisbane.

I am looking forward to the 1st derby.

with friends like this.............

@ clivesundies

Nice long list there lol. Not going to argue with it.

If we assume that Fox will get their way and two new teams will go in to the three big cities then I think the southern Sydney bid is a shoe-in (worse still, the FFA already know it) and we're just waiting for another credible bid like it to come along.

Brisbane is the obvious choice but it lacks a stadium unless someone does something with Ballymore or Dolphin stadium. Strikers proposal to use Suncorp is just stupid, and Ipswich is not Brisbane and even if they built a stadium its five years away. But even so, all the prosiectives in Brisbane lack the detail of Sydney and if they're waiting for the FFAs guidance I think they'll be waiting a long time.

So if all the bids out there so far only southern Sydney smacks of a genuine bid and not a "go on, give us a go and see" kinda bid; Casey-Dandenong shapes as a possible runner but it's still very abstract and lacks the detail of the Sydney bid, and nothing out of Brisbane has any detail on it at all.

Plenty of discussion on how a second team will affect Roar, I'm sure the owners would like to think that fans are wedded to the Roar but if someone comes out with a top-drawer bid, and does pretty much the opposite of Roar over 12 years off the park then Roar would have some real competition for a limited pool of fans. A club done properly would give Roar a real challenge and I'm not sure the current owners care enough nor would understand what needed to change. But even as a Roar fan I'd really like to see a second team up here - if only to kick the bakries up the backside to see what happens?

Brisbane Red Bulls

hahahahahaha

Maybe not so funny Red Bull head office is a short corner from Perry Park home of Brisbane Strikers.

south-east melbourne and southern sydney sydney would be the 2 that brings the most excitement.

the a-league needs a new super-club that can rejuvenate the a-league much like wsw in 2012. unfortunately geelong, canberra, wollongong, tasmania, even south melbourne wont do that.

for about half-a-season (See Cahill)

Then what ?

As you can see i dont post much , but i find this talk of expansion quite funny to be honest and will throw in my 2 boobs worth .
firstly what really does 2 extra teams bring to the table ? short term excitment and long term teams with average talent.
i personally find the A league frustrating to watch and struggle to ever watch a full game, with way to many players just making basic errors , poor ball control , passes missing the target, lack of ability to beat a man , lack of imagination with the ball , poor decision making .
so if i find it hard to watch ( and i have played football my whole life and still play at 56 yrs old i love the game ) how does the average non football person view it then ? 
ask someone you work who are football people to name a gun player from the league someone who they would say i definitely go to see play as i have heard of him , bet you hear crickets or maybe they might say tim cahill .
the A league needs to become more dynamic with what teams they have now with a major capital funds injection , before they expand it needs to attract the average aussie who doesnt normally follow the game now
everyone talks about fox sports this and that well i am sure they get real excited when they see bugger all at a game , bums on seats generate income and if there is nothing to grab the general public's interest well its just going to be more of the same
heres alittle test ask someone who is not really an a league follower who jamie maclaren is and ask who gary ablett is 
there are only 5 teams with memberships over 10,000 and only 1 over 20,000 ( mv at 26,000 + )  roar , ccm and the jets combined are still short 5,000 compared to victory and until all clubs have big name players and players who can perform above average to get near full houses expansion teams are only going to add to the misery

njdevil, no offence but that's fucking stupid.

Your argument is that the a-league is frustrating and doesn't capture the imagination of the Aussie public. Then you say that we need to consolidate before we expand? Basically stay the same and keep trying the same thing that isn't working?

I'll give you a hint: Both Melbourne Victory and Sydney are far better off that there exists a second team in their city to compete against. Rather than detract from Victory/Sydney's support, the presence of Wanderers and City have emboldened it due to the renewed interest that new teams and new rivalries bring. 

You're never going to get Dazza from the local interested in wogball, so stop trying. We don't want or need these people at our game, bringing their racial abuse with it. 

However, there's millions of prospective fans out there that engage with local football but just don't have a team. Although we give the FFA stick, the whole Yoshi thing atleast show that the FFA recognize this potential market and are trying to tap into it. However, an advertising campain won't do it. What will do it is new teams and new rivalries. Wanderers (and City to a lesser extent) renewed the interest in the league after those god-awful 2009-2011 years. I fear we are heading down that path once more if nothing is done. 

Totally agree.
Imagine how much more tumoil the league would've been in if we didn't have City or Wanderers come in.
They've ticked the boxes for most of fox's metrics

@ njdevil

If you struggle to watch a whole game how can you judge an entire competition? And if you love football surely you can love park football, the NPL, A League and the EPL. It's all football isn't it?

And if quality is comparative then even the EPL is technically inferior to German and Spanish leagues, yet people accept it for what it is. And that should be the approach with the A League - it's Australia's top league and only is as good as it is. You don't see football lovers in Iceland, Norway or Siberia giving up on their league because it's not as good as the EPL. That would be madness

And the English football system is technically inferior to others and has produced a generation of footballers at national team level that are a laughing stock. They're an absolute joke. But you don't expect the English to give up on their league.

So if you love football accept the HAL fir what it is. It's football. Expansion here is needed because we have only 9 clubs and over a million current players. Expansion is needed for the players if nothing else. Forget false comparison of "quality" otherwise we can go around the 200 nations of the world and condemn their leagues bevsyse they're not as good as La Liga; if we invest in the HAL it will grow and improve - slagging it off because it's not as good as some foreign league is just silly.

@ Waz,

 looks like you've got your wish of a genuine Brisbane expansion bid coming. Cheers!

@ Footballkingz55

It looks like it. The South Sydney bid stands out as the one with the most detail and everything that's come out of Brisbane has nothing of substance behind it.

My guess is the backers behind this are the local consortium rumoured to be interested in buying Roar last year, but buy Roar for $20m or start up new for $10m should be an easy question to answer.

Let's see if there is any major detail behind this one, Ballymore addresses the major roadblock of any Brisbane bid st least and presumably there will be more news later today?

You'd hope they'd put 4 teams in 18/19 - South Sydney, South Melbourne, 2nd Brisbane and the last being fought over by Casey/Dandenong, Geelong, Canberra, Wollongong or Tasmania 

But the FFA don't use logic so we'll have two more capital city teams and miss out on a better competition  

well waz it is ! frustrating but you are missing the point quality gets bums on seats not quantity !! look at the end of the day people can walk around with their rose colored glasses on and believe what they want and i think that some of their ideas a fucking stupid too humm , now epl considering the amount of high quality players from other leagues cant say its inferior particularly when you look at la liga 3 teams and forget the rest and as for the rest finland norway etc they are competing against aussie rules , rugby league , rugby union , cricket for a dollar maybe i am just an old - oops, I just ate my own poop... that expects full time professional players to pass better , think better , and score fucking goals better anyway we will see what happening 

@ njdevil

I'm actually not sure what your point is?

If quality puts bums in seats how come Sunderland just got relegated with an average crowd of over 41,000? There's no quality there .... just a love of football maybe?

And it's the same in the lower leagues in England, thousand of people turn up each weekend to watch Div 2, Div 1 and Championship games not because of "quality" but because they love football.

You'll see what you want to see in the A League, if you don't think the quality is good enough for you that's fine. Your call. But I'd like to see you have the same discussion with fans of millwall or Doncaster or Torquay and not cop a real slagging off for it - because they love their football clubs for what they are not for what they're not!

FFA's A-League expansion delay continues to confound

Date: 5 May 2017 15:13The number of groups interested in Australia's top tier has reached 12 and yet head office says football can't afford to grow

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  COMMENT

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Ahead of Sunday's A-League grand final, two more groups have officially declared their intention to one day compete for the title of Australian champions.The widespread interest in joining the A-League is unquestionable - FC Brisbane City have become the 12th group to publically launch a bid, while Casey-Dandenong have received local government support at an official event this week.FC Brisbane City joins A-League expansion raceLast week, a Canberra consortium threw their hat into the ring alongside the likes of Southern Expansion, FC Tasmania and Wollongong Wolves.So why exactly has FFA put expansion on the backburner?Having previously made expansion "a strategic priority", FFA CEO David Gallop declared at the start of March that the A-League and W-League need a "new ownership and operating model" before the competitions or the governing body can afford to grow.That statement remains puzzling considering the deep pockets of some of the bids' backers.FFA target new A-League model before expansionSouthern Expansion is backed by Chinese property mogul Shen Yuxing, Sunshine Coast Fire are in discussions with Indian entrepreneur Nirav Tripathi,  and FC Tasmania's investors Harry Stamoulis and Rob Belteky were former owners of Melbourne Victory.Victoria Patriots, which is looking to bring the A-League to Geelong, and Southern Expansion have both made public pledges to build new stadiums, while Goal understands FC Tasmania are also looking into that.Why is the governing body's board that includes high-level business people with experience at the likes of Westfield, Caltex, National Australia Bank and Commonwealth Bank unable or unwilling to harness this potential investment?With the focus on the A-League's championship decider, this week could have been an ideal moment to either reveal FFA's long-awaited expansion criteria or - if the governing body had prepared better earlier - even announce the successful bids.FFA: A-League funding proposal includes 26 per cent increaseInstead, FFA continues to battle governance issues - earlier this week, A-League club owners furiously rejected a funding model for next season - and has failed to provide a sense of progress for football in Australia.As has been argued before by Goal, FFA could exploit this incredible interest in A-League expansion and give the game in this country a huge shot in the arm.An expanded competition will provide more opportunities for players, coaches, investors, broadcasters, administrators and fans.In fact, the ongoing buzz around joining the A-League, which many pundits consider is limping along at the moment, could also be used to simultaneously expand the top tier and create a national second division.A-League second division for 2018-19 'a realistic goal'But to do that requires brave and bold leadership, with a sense of confidence and panache that Gallop and FFA chairman Steven Lowy appear to lack.Every new expansion bid promises the possibility of a more exciting and interesting future for the A-League, while simultaneously reminding us that this opportunity is being squandered.

http://18news.com/news/34607/ffa-s-a-league-expansion-delay-continues-to-confound.html

Mate you going off on a tangent and missing the point , i was one of first 200 people to buy a membership to melbourne heart and have followed ever since , Van schip was a great coach but over the years the same thing they frustrated the hell out of me as they had players just not good enough , brought about by the limitations with lack of money . Australian football just cant be compared to other leagues , and i can bet london to brick that theres plenty of people at sunderland who are pretty pissed of with the quality of their squad and their coach over seeing them into the championship but this has no relevance to what happens in australia , so in essence you are happy for the league to just roll along with only average fan attendance at games ( and melb city is one of them ) throw in a couple more teams with average players and dont need to attract or want the non following football public to help boost income through the gate .
And i am passionate about my teams Richmond , Liverpool and city have followed richmond and liverpool for over 40 years but i still expect them to get better players play better .
And at the end of the day the A league needs more bums on seats more full houses which leads to more sponsorship $'s and high quality players who the general public recognise and want to come and see if it wants to grow in my opinion , but obviously your happy for your club to not get better , increase membership , not buy in high quality players to improve but hey thats ok you see it differently to me.

This league is run by fear. 

Canberra and Wollongong rule out A-League super bid through joint venture

Canberra and Wollongong have ruled out combining their A-League expansion efforts to form a super-bid, with each party adamant their proposals are strong enough to stand alone.

The groups said they would happily provide elite pathways for the other, but refused the idea of a joint venture with neither willing to compromise on having an A-League franchise in their city.

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/act-sport/canberra-and-wollongong-rule-out-aleague-super-bid-through-joint-venture-20170504-gvytt3.html

A-League bosses walked out on a meeting with the FFA last week after the governing body offered the 10 teams a $3.25 million slice of the $57.6 million-a-year broadcast deal.

A-League sides currently receive the salary cap - $2.6 million - but with that set to increase to at least $2.92 million next season clubs were expecting closer to $4.5 million.

Good news

 Gallop says its first step will be to move to 12 teams – although it is yet to release A-League licence expansion criteria, a result of the governance negotiations dropping a spanner in the game’s cogs. After that, he says, a 14, even 16 team competition seems viable – “but that is long-term ambition,” he says, later clarifying that even a 12-team competition wouldn’t happen until after the new, still-in-negotiation operating model comes into effect for the 2018-19 season.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/may/15/football-in-australia-as-big-as-its-going-to-get?CMP=share_btn_tw

Winner of Official 442 Comment of the day Award -  10th April 2017

Yep, we are waiting 3 years to take our next step. Glacial move or what!

I love the Lowy Model. 

posted in the rumour mill but aleague.com.au just added an 11th team to their drop down menus called TBC (to be confirmed)

probably nothing but you never know. They might have heard something