LOL at your conspiracy theories. 

Instead of of blaming everyone else for their ills, why don’t you encourage SMHellas to broaden their base and grow into an all encompassing club for other communities as well. One day it may be treated seriously if it does.

I get your frustration but weve been waiting 16 years whats 2 more? If thats what it takes to have the kind of system that they should have looked to set up back in 77 with the first inklings of a national league then it will be worth the wait.... This is a big step for the sport here megale, much bigger than the unbundling you keep mentioning, maybe not for the professional side but clubland and the national teams of all ages both mens and womens will greatly benefit from this if it goes ahead imo.The major hurdle, as always, will be the cartel Lowey the bastard set up in 2005.  JJ and some at FA may want this to go ahead  but there are still Fat Nick and dumb Greg to contend with and uncle scumbag Frank has his hand deep in their pockets squeezing their tiny ballakia. My personal conspiracy theory is that they engaged the AAFC to create a financial report for this thinking the wogs will tear each other apart before agreeing to anything and so they can always state they tried a second division but it failed at the gate. Ask yourself this,  its been 2 days now and, unless I missed it, not a peep out of FA, APL or PFA.....not even an acknowledgement that a significant report has been drafted in line with their 11 principals and as per the committee the FFA established to create an evaluation task force for such a thing.... What about or famous soccer journos, Especially that arsehole Rugari?  They are quick to jump on any A league feel good story and love to write about those nasty NSL clubs that cause all the riots, dont pay their players, are un-Australian and want a national second division that they cant even afford ... well AAFC have "shown them the money" why dont these f#ckers reply??? 

Ella mate, it takes too long to do their research. Clubs are keen to come in. Malakes always looking for red tape.
Turn my attention to something else, if something ever actually happens good for football.
Go Hellas!

So you don't want this to happen now? Why mate?
Agree 2023 winter is a bit long to wait but the upside is that at least it gives the NPLs two full seasons of "data" so that performance on the pitch can be used as one of the criteria for the first 12 clubs. Also allows clubs that may not be "strong" enough now to at least get their ducks in a row and make a push for inclusion.
What is the alternative to this, nothing?

Well almost all the bids in the running for the last A-League expansion have regularly indicated that they would be interested in applying for inclusion in a second division (except "Southern Expansion" and Fremantle, and I guess Team XI has now partnered up with City). What's in it for places like Canberra is the city would then have a team in a national sporting competition that the entire city can unite behind, which would be capable of battling for promotion to the top flight (and with decent backing would have a credible chance at achieving this).

I get what you are saying and ofcourse the financial implications of a serious backer willing to throw money into "creating" a team in Canberra would certainly be hard to turn down but why would any investor do this? Why invest in a second tier comp that is going to have minimal revenue generation and probably zero return on investment and no guarantee of ever being linked up with the Aleague? The NSD isnt ultimately about generating profit or revenue and being accountable to shareholders and investors as the clubs pushing for this are all not for-profit, volunteer run clubs and any income stream goes straight back into the club which in turn creates an ecosystem of aspirational clubs that can better their coaching systems, administrators with more experience and professionalism and more importantly player pathways that can lead to the betterment of our national playing pool.

 Sure if this is a commercial success the money will improve professionalism to the point where regular NSD power teams may well become similar to Aleague clubs but I think that is far far into the future if ever. Its not so much who supports it if that makes sense (although obviously a bare minimium of support and interest are needed to pay for the bloody thing) as that is what function the Aleague serves, its more important that it exists..

Dont worry about little Canberra Olympic they may or may not be up to the challenge of national tier soccer but at least the path will be open to them. Of course there are supporters of other NPL clubs that hate Olympic, thats the beauty of it.... If none of the NPL clubs in ACT manage to get enough support behind them AND ambition to make it to the  NSD then clearly there is no market or appetite for national soccer in that market....  Your analogy of South and the Bergers is valid in that we both lost fans to the Victory but not all of them, many Iike myself in the early days, just switched off altogether and didnt pick any team... I know old friends that havent been back to the soccer for 16 years  but this talk of rejuvination has them excited to come back to Hellas. Well, for a club like Canberra Olympic they dont have to loose their fans to a new entity, they can keep their local rivalries and if good enough or strong enough they can ve promoted... Do you not think local ACT soccer will benefit wirh having  3 or 4 clubs all bashing in each others heads to get to the "top" be the big club, attract all the sponsors and best players? Competitiveness, it's a son of a bitch but it creates wonders.

Let's say the A-League doesn't expand to Canberra, and the NSD is taking bids for clubs. It receives a bid from the CRFC group, with major financial backing, the promise to unite the region's footballing community (like Newcastle or Adelaide have done) and push for promotion to the A-League, and a bid from Canberra Olympic. No matter how ambitious the latter is, and how well they've done on the park, the NSD would be mad to pick it over a broadbased bid. Why? Because Canberra is such a small city that it needs a club that unifies the entire football support base, whereas Olympic can only ever reach at best 10% of football fans in the ACT, since the rest already owe their allegiance to other NPL clubs, and probably hate Olympic with a passion, so will never switch over, much as South Melbourne fans wouldn't go over to supporting Heidelberg if they had managed to get a spot in the A-League (for example).

These kind of rivalries can work in the big cities which will be represented by a multitude of clubs regardless. But places like Canberra, Hobart, Wollongong, Gold Coast, Geelong, etc. need to have a one team-one town model (with lower level clubs in the area playing at NPL level or below). Wollongong and the Gold Coast already have this by dint of playing in large NPL divisions, but Canberra and Hobart are inhibited by the fact that they have their own state leagues, so are structurally prevented from having a unified team until they can play in a nationwide tier (short of playing in larger neighbouring states' NPLs, which maybe they should consider as an interim measure).

Forget 2nd div in 2022, in a Winter comp it would min be 2023. Galatas made that Clear!!! on SBS talking with Lucy Z and Nick S. Well, they can shove it whether they have it or not. If the choice is going the long or the short road, it's always going to be the long road.

Let's say the A-League doesn't expand to Canberra, and the NSD is taking bids for clubs. It receives a bid from the CRFC group, with major financial backing, the promise to unite the region's footballing community (like Newcastle or Adelaide have done) and push for promotion to the A-League, and a bid from Canberra Olympic. No matter how ambitious the latter is, and how well they've done on the park, the NSD would be mad to pick it over a broadbased bid. Why? Because Canberra is such a small city that it needs a club that unifies the entire football support base, whereas Olympic can only ever reach at best 10% of football fans in the ACT, since the rest already owe their allegiance to other NPL clubs, and probably hate Olympic with a passion, so will never switch over, much as South Melbourne fans wouldn't go over to supporting Heidelberg if they had managed to get a spot in the A-League (for example).

These kind of rivalries can work in the big cities which will be represented by a multitude of clubs regardless. But places like Canberra, Hobart, Wollongong, Gold Coast, Geelong, etc. need to have a one team-one town model (with lower level clubs in the area playing at NPL level or below). Wollongong and the Gold Coast already have this by dint of playing in large NPL divisions, but Canberra and Hobart are inhibited by the fact that they have their own state leagues, so are structurally prevented from having a unified team until they can play in a nationwide tier (short of playing in larger neighbouring states' NPLs, which maybe they should consider as an interim measure).