Brisbane City aren't a member of AAFC and can get f*****

It appears they are already approved for AL via City Gladiators

What's Olympia's home ground like these days? Either way, they were one of the teams on the tip of my tongue that didn't come to mind the first time. No problems adding them to the list. 
I included Hobart Zebras since they've expressed interest and on the assumption that KGV Park is one of the places I know of that would be suitable for a second division club in Tasmania, but anyone with more expertise on football in Tasmania can provide better insight than me on whether that's correct or not.
Launceston is a tricky one. On one hand I think the city could sustain a club in the long run and I think that the rivalry with the Hobart clubs would do well, but on the other hand perhaps it would be better to leave them out for now until they can be sure to be sustainable. Launceston is definitely one to consider for the future though.

Swap Hobart Zebras for Olympia Warriors and drop Launceston City. I can't speak for them(LC) but unless they go and get a 'sugar daddy' in my opinion I don't think they could afford it.

Finding 32 teams that are willing to participate wouldn't be too hard, here's what I can think of:
1) Blacktown City
2) Leichhardt Tigers
3) Sydney Olympic
4) Manly United
5) Sydney United 58
6) Wollongong Wolves
7) Bonnyrigg White Eagles
8) Sutherland Sharks
9) Marconi Stallions
10) Gold Coast City
11) Brisbane Strikers
12) Brisbane City
13) North Queensland Heat
14) Western Pride
15) Northern Fury
16) Southwest Queensland Thunder
17) Redlands United
18) Sunshine Coast Fire
19) Adelaide City
20) West Adelaide
21) Adelaide Blue Eagles
22) South Melbourne
23) Heidelberg United
24) Bentleigh Greens
25) Green Gully
26) Hume City
27) Bulleen Lions
28) Melbourne Knights
29) Devonport City
30) South Hobart
31) Hobart Zebras
32) Launceston City

That's 32 without even touching WA, ACT,  NT, NNSW, or any of the prospective new clubs like Patriots (Geelong) and Dandenong.

@ holding bidfilder

I've a feeling if you keep going you'll come up with CTRL ALT DEL which would amuse the computer nerds.

The naming convention has changed to Premier and Championship in England/Scotland - I never heard the logic for that but can't say it bothers me but maybe they'd go that way? I'd hope we'd avoid NPL though, let's leave that at state level.

HAL, HAL2, A3 whatever, but 3 x 16 team divisions seems sweet whatever they're called

Exactly, and treat them the same way that League One and League Two are treated in England. Heck, we could even call them Australian League One (abbreviated as ALO or AL1) and Australian League Two (abbreviated as ALT or AL2). Simple and easy to remember. Also, it would differentiate the competition from the A-League and remove any connotations of being a second division (in reality it is, but it can be dressed up nicely).

It won't be easy but it will be perfect.

Agreed. Perfect. and 16 for the HAL and p/r between all three

Literally 16 in each. Perfect.

Second-tier soccer clubs have hand up

Soccer clubs below the A-League have prepared a shopping list of concerns to FFA, with a national second division for both men and women among the highest priorities.

The inaugural board of the Association of Australian Football Clubs (AAFC) has met for the first time in Brisbane.

The organisation has pledged to fight for representation on the next FFA Congress, which is being reformed at FIFA's behest.

AAFC chairman Rabieh Krayem said support for a multi-tiered soccer system with promotion and relegation in Australia was palpable.

"We know that so many players and fans are interested in a second division ... it shows just how passionate people are, and that's a good thing," he said.

The organisation will undertake financial modelling to support the introduction of a second division and will report back in October.

©AAP2017

http://wwos.nine.com.au/2017/07/16/17/48/second-tier-soccer-clubs-have-hand-up

If there are 32 interested teams then we form Div 2 and Div 3. Promotion between the two immediately.

Can someone please paste photos

http://www.australianfootballclubs.org.au/uploads/9/8/8/1/9881717/mr-160717-final.pdf

you dont have a sense of humor do you

Rofl. In what? A divisive first tier. What happens when it all falls apart? 

Wonder who they will blame?

let me stop you right there - the man said Souths should be in, I'll take it

If your relegated team has the opportunity to get promoted back up immediately I don't see why you would stop supporting your team, it's not like you take the year off and switch allegiances, or do you?

If you get relegated and have no chance of getting promoted you end up with what you have now, the npl with crowds in the hundreds hoping you pick up some scraps via the ffa cup.

That dynamic will change with P & R especially after a few years. As A league fans we should ask ourselves an honest question, would you support your own A-league team once relegated in a second tier that is well run. 

Its a general observation that a lot of people are knocking a second div back purely on crowds. 

@ TSF

I didn't say they were the "most important"

Crowds are a non issue for me, let big clubs be big clubs and small clubs be small clubs.

Clubs growth needs to happen organically. Put a basic framework in place and make sure clubs meet xyz, give them time to Grow finances and infrastructure, whilst participating in the division. It won't work if clubs are forced to overreach for the sake of a national division.

This is all under the assumption a second division gets given sweet fa by FFA.

I really like what you emailed to the AAFC Scott. Solid and sensible.

Are crowds the most important thing these days?

Moving beyond the structure and the geographic location of clubs, the division needs to give some thought as to how it's going to jump crowds significantly? There's some clubs putting their hands up for this that play to 100-150 every week and, as the HAL jumped average crowds from 3k to 11k, what can the Div2 do to achieve a major jump?

Personally I don't think the marketing sizzle will be there as it was for HAL1 and it probably comes back to selection of clubs - a few are going to be able to draw a few thousand (Souths?) and it would seem logical if they meet the criteria they should be in on the basis of crowds and therefore sustainability, tv appeal, sponsor appear etc.

I think of Brisbane City, Strikers and Pen Power, will they be able to get crowds out of the few hundreds in to the few thousands? I'm doubtful.

I'm not sure about other States, but Queensland has been losing at least a few players every season to the VIC NPL already.  Create a National 2nd Div that only includes NSW and VIC and you'd see a huge movement of ambitious players who think they can make it at that level.  

2nd tier and expansion can happen concurrently. 

My main issue is we have more than enough bidders who are willing to invest in the A-league. If they think they are A-league ready and all the costs associated with that then surely they are ready for a 2nd tier. The second tier doesn't need a conference system. It needs 12-14 clubs who want to push to get to the A-league. I'm sure travel costs won't be an issue. National tier 2 or nothing.

The main issue with any conferences is that that the two strongest regions (VIC and NSW) are in separate conferences. They need to be playing each other on a regular basis to get the best playing against the best.

On the topic of using conferences, I was trying to conceptualize how it would look to start with and this is what I could think of:

The teams are just examples based on those that have expressed interest and the breakdown is based on trying to split teams geographically to save on travel costs. The big question is where to put the ACT in this since they could realistically be in any conference or none at all, and then there's the matter of WA, NT, and NNSW, all of which I have excluded because there are uncertainties about whether any clubs from those regions will participate.
The positive thing is that even with 24 teams there's still plenty of clubs that come to mind, so there won't be any problem in getting the numbers. It's going to be a matter of what works.

Personally, I'd be happy if we started with a single national league of 12 to 14 teams (mainly drawing from NSW, VIC, QLD, etc.) and then took it from there. No need to dilute the quality or cause lots of dead rubbers at first. 

Another option is starting with two tiers (League One and League Two) of 10-14 teams (for a total of 20 to 28 teams) with promotion and relegation between them to start with, and then P/R down to the State Leagues and - in the long term - up to the A-League. It would essentially be our own version of England's "Football League", with parallels between the A-League and the English Premier League as entities above them.

It is conservative  but I really think it's not worth gambling on. Both models get to wherever the end goal is the conservative model just means we don't get ahead of ourselves. 

If we start at 12 or 24 or whatever people have been proposing and it fails we could scare a lot of investment and sponsorship off the idea of a second teir for good. For me it's just too much of a risk. Start slow and build towards the end goal.

I will concede that a joint VIC NSW league will give them a leg up on the rest of the country. I still believe it to be the best place to start. I soibt many players would come from interstate in a semi pro league so it will just be the best players from the city which should naturally happen in every city with a team in the second div.  It may only be for a year or two so may not have too much impact. 

I don't mind second teams being in the national set up but to start they need to be excluded. Maybe keep them in NPL and they can work their way up (1 team per league only). No reason to exclude them, especially if a youth team is doing better than other senior teams.

My view is a Div 2 should remain clear of youth/B teams. We need it to be a proper comp with real credibility so I'd say keep the youth down at NPL and maybe create an expanded NYL when Div 2 catches up (say 24 youth teams playing 23 games .. starts to feel like better youth development as well)