is the colours and design exclusive for the cats??? if not, they can use what ever they like

CCM have struggled for much of their existence financally really but have really outperformed many larger clubs on the park. Their community engagement has been a real model for others to follow, and the initiative to build the CoE puts others to shame.

Whether we need to target markets the size of Geelong and Wollongong though at this stage is something that needs to be handled very carefully though.

I still think Canberra could well be a struggle given the levels of competition in that marketplace, but it is likely the best fit for an expansion club at this stage.

They should make:
4 teams in Melbourne
6 teams in Sydney
2 teams in Adelaide
2 teams in Brisbane
2 teams in Perth

With promotion/relegation of the state leagues

That way all the support is diluted and we can be the NSL again with 3k crowds and worthless TV deals, yayyyyyyy!

wouldnt mind a team in the campbelltown-liverpool area :D

Edited by heyitsrobbie: 7/1/2013 09:11:39 PM

Love your work. An NSL Mk II using the same formula as back then is bound to be a success judging by the comments of a few :)

33,500. It was going to be bigger if we won the World Cup bid.

The whole Barwon Region is the same population as Central Coast but Central Coast has twice the number of registered players and even with that they have to get a lot of their players from Sydney. Could Geelong sustain itself from its juniors? No. Is there enough players in Victoria to sustain it? Probably not at this stage.

Edited by gyfox: 7/1/2013 09:38:08 PM

Wrong time of the year for them. ;)

FNQ were sacrificed because the FFA were obligated to Fox to keep Brisbane alive. GCU I prefer to think of as euthanasia. ;)

Actually that didn't end up happening because we didn't win the World Cup bid, although the AFL still got almost 40 million taxpayer dollars to up the capacity to 34,500 and add new lights.

Kardinia is only 115 meters wide (compared to Dockland's 140m) and as one of the 8,500 people who saw Victory play the Jets in pre-season (Carlos Hernandez's first game for us btw) I can say that there's far worse places in Australia to watch football.

The council will probably get behind having a team there too; when the AFL's Geelong Cats had an event to show off their Premiership trophy, they had to do it in the car park so the grass in the stadium could be fresh for a Melbourne Victory training session the next day! :cool:

Geelong has the Wiltonian Trinity of a fanbase for football: young males (it's a uni town), ethnics (lots of Dutch, Italians and Croatians; 1.1% speak Croatian at home compared to the national average of 0.3%) and suburban families (especially growing fast as a dormitory city of Melbourne).

Just off the top of my head Josip Skoko, Adrian Leijer, Matt Spiranovic, Joey Didulica and Steve Horvat all hail from the area. The Croatian North Geelong Warriors have been in the Victorian State Leagues for donks, and are currently one division below the VPL, coming 4th last season. The Melbourne Knights were even once based in Geelong.

The 300,000 people in the G21 region love their Cats, but they're very parochial for their city in general and would, like regional cities across the country, get behind anything representing them on the national level.

The possibility of co-branding exists with the Cats; their basketball team is called the Geelong Supercats and no one seems to mind.

As I posted in an article earlier in the thread, Geelong-born, London-based media mogul Darryn Lyons, worth $100 million, has stated he will back a Geelong team: "Whatever I was asked to do. I'd do 100 per cent."

TL;DR: Geelong has a suitible stadium, a supportive council, a sizeable fanbase, substantial playing stock, footballing history, local branding and at least one potential investor. If any regional city is ready for expansion, it's Geelong.

Kardinia Park has an infield 184m x 125m. It is really too big for football. As a comparison it is the same length as ANZ but 34m wider when ANZ is in rectangular mode.

Do you have a source for this? Wikipedia has 170 x 115m. Either way it's thinner than Docklands, and I've seen games at both venues myself.

I would keep it at 10 teams forever, West Sydney was the last piece of the puzzle and whilst its been an early success it wont be a true success until it finds long term viable investment outside the ffa. Overall i'd say the expansion potential of the league has been exhausted from a major market point of view, all you really have left is a few regional centres which would be an incredible financial burden for pro football.

Keep it at 10, introduce the cup comp and shut up shop. Anything more is playing with fire. Geelong is only an hour from Melbourne, an afl hotbed with a known anti soccer-slant (billy brownless, sam newman etc) yeh they have ethnics but who doesnt:lol:...simply not sustainable and would be another NQ Fury.....regional Victoria doesnt work, morwell/gippsland/ eastern pride proved that.

Edited by southmelb: 7/1/2013 10:16:14 PM

Work for the FFA by any chance?

No doubt Geelong has a big enough population, but what concerns me is that the more dedicated fans are probably already doing the weekly trip into Melbourne for the Victory games. Yes it's a good idea to start a Geelong side and over time the support will grow, but for that reason I think the APL will work best as you then move to the A-League as an established club.

Perhaps the same was already true for potential GC fans traveling into Brisbane? After all it's not THAT far, at least not by Australian standards. As a kid living in the Dandenongs it was not unusual to make the trip into the city for a footy match at the MCG/Waverly/Victoria Park for example.

Wiki gives the pitch dimension not the infield dimension. If I can't find a source I measure off Google Earth which is reasonably accurate.

not sure if troll post by one of the 10 south melbourne fans who camp on 442

sticking with 10 teams would be too boring to continue with. we've seen from the nrl and afl that 16 teams would be the idea number and it would allow all teams to play each other twice each season.

canberra, wollongong, tasmania, auckland, north qld, geelong are all cities that are capable of fielding their own team in the a-league.

If the APL gets off the ground,we will get a good idea where potential HAL temas will come from.

i think a reasonable target is to plan for 2 new teams by 2020, and nothing before 2017

+1

Promotion of clubs that demonstrate they have the ability to operate in a professional manner, perform well and can garner community support will see many less failures.

May as well just get a proper system going.

I just think it would be such a fascinating turn for the A-league to take, to just jump straight at Geelong. It's the kind of bold move I think that would really work in the A-league's favour. No idea whether the co-branding would be what they'd want down there, but my goodness it would be a fascinating away trip! Would love for it to happen, would be a fairytale.

I assume that your comment is in reference to a promotion and relegation system. You are aware no doubt that neither FIFA nor AFC regulations require an automatic system. They both, however, require that where a system exists that the primary decider is on football merit but allow viability issues to be considered.

I would have Geelong fairly low on my list of possibilities behind Canberra, Wollongong, a second Qld team and an Auckland team if the AFC were amenable. Victoria needs to be able to sustain two teams before it goes to a third one.

Would much rather, canberra, wollongong, Tasmania and a second queensland team to make up the 14.

The one thing the Geelong side would have as an advantage over other bids would be a good stadium deal. Im not quiet sure who owns Simmonds Stadium (Gyfox might help me out here) but i know for a fact that the Geelong Cats in the AFL have one of the best deals in the league when they play there which really has made them a powerhouse in recent times.
With the ground being completely vacant over summer, the owners of the ground would want to give a good deal to another tennant which would help pay off the recent upgrades that have been made.
It wouldn't be unrealistic for them to get a deal of say needing 5,000 to break even. Geelong Cats also make big money on food and drinks etc at their games.

Here are some recent photos of Simmonds Stadium from skyscraper city.
As you can see the gradients of the newly built stands would actually be far more suitable for football than level 1 is at Etihad.







My recommendation would be to have the ground closer to the above stands as these are the newest ones with the best facilities and it would reduce the capacity to between 15-20k creating a more intimate atmosphere.

Kardinia Park is publicly owned, it’s on public land. The city council are the effective owners, they control it.

The Cats have a very good deal, it’s effectively their ground though and always has been. I don’t know if they even pay rent, they’re the only permanent tenant and hence they operate it. That makes it a clean stadium so they take all profits from match ticketing (the ground’s share anyway), catering contracts etc. They clear something like $700k for every home game they play there (it’s always full though).

As the ultimate owners I’m sure you’d go to the city council and become a co-tenant. I know a few years ago there were a few waves because the council was approaching other AFL clubs about playing home games there, which I’m not sure how happy GFC was about. They’d charge something but as it’s pretty much empty during summer, might get a good deal. The more people who wanted a club there and supported it, the better deal they could command, obviously councillors are interested primarily in votes. Probably why the Cats have such a great deal, they could turn just about the whole city against the council with one press release if they wanted to.

I had a feeling they made around that much a game there but didn't want to say it as i couldn't confirm it.
Either way if a Geelong HAL side could even make a guareenteed profit as Simmonds they are already doing better than 90% of the current sides.
The council would make it's money back in tourism anyway, Geelong is a very nice place :)

As for the cricket club they have a few other grounds at Kardinia Park that they could play on. I wouldn't see it as a problem.

The cricket club plays on Geelong Cricket Ground and the west oval, not on the main stadium. They’re within Kardinia Park. There hasn’t been cricket played on the main stadium for years, only proposal was when they floated the second Vic T20 club being based there but that didn’t go ahead.

The cricket club rooms and social club are within the main stadium stands I think, that shouldn’t be a problem on match days however.

bring carlton fc back :)

Edited by heyitsrobbie: 8/1/2013 03:04:08 PM

Geelong are pushing for a Big Bash team, not an A-League team. It would be great if a Geelong A-League team succeeded but it is a big risk to take right now. The key is to align itself closely to the Cats. The Cats run Geelong and any new possible A-League team would be smart to piggy back off that sense of town pride that the navy and white hoops embodies.