So he will start his sentence early in a penal colony LOL

Agreed.
An “away derby” at Marvel would be utterly dreadful 

who cares. its only for 2 years. and it increases the possibility of Victory doing a deal with WU so members can gain entry. 

Yeah, I'm hardly gonna complain about more Victory games in Melbourne.

They had two home grounds and they are literally a 1 minute walk from each other.

Western United definetly have a lot of problems but I don't think playing derbies against Victory at Marvel is one of them. It makes the most sense for them, easy to access from the West and will easily be their most attended fixture.

You're in the wrong thread, too much common sense in that answer. This is the 'hating on Western nowhere thread'.

You jumping ship Pal;)?

Apart from the fact that its essentially an away game? Victory have won 2 grand finals at that very stadium. Then again its designed to ensure Victory fans pack it out rather then risk MV fans not travelling to Geelong.

I'll leave that to Girt lol

If Western United are to based in Melbourne, which they will be passed these first two seasons, it is not an away game. Is there anything wrong with wanting a packed crowd? It's also the most accessible stadium in Victoria. If you want to get the casuals to a game that is how you would do it.

Depends on what the motivations for the packed crowd are. In this situation the motivations are almost certainly designed to essentially juke the stats.
If we look at the example of WU playing a home game against MV at Marvel, the mindset would be primarily to get as many MV supporters to the game as possible. Attracting WU fans would be a distant secondary objective. Holding the game at a venue that guarantees a high number of MV fans only serves the purpose of increasing the attendance averages of WU and the league as a whole. The numbers are falling and the FFA are attempting to plaster over the cracks rather than address the underlying issues. 

Oh hail jimbo the saviour of football

Lakeside Stadium is pretty central and accessible as well.  If it was all about that, then South Melbourne would have been a shoe in.

Who gives a rat's?  10 Victorian AFL teams play out of 3 stadiums (mostly at 2 of them).  Seems to work OK.  Plus, the two SA teams and the two WA teams share the same stadiums.

Don’t bring afl into this, WU hosting Victory at Marvel is purely an excercise to ensure Victory fans come out in force and pad the “home crowd” figures of WU. Rain, hail or shine the roof ensures one teams fans are going to come out in force, western United are a complete afterthought here, wasn’t the whole point of this teams existence to not play in the cbd?

Another case of the wrong expansion club chosen. 
FFA knew very well Western United wouldn't have their stadium built for at least another 3 years. 
They could have simply gave them the lisence to enter the league 3 seasons from now, and basically pick a new club that was ready to join next season. 
Now that the shocking decision has been made you have Western United deciding to play most games in Geelong ( not Melbourne ) and at an oversized fucked up oval stadium not suitable for football. Then with the derbies they make another stupid decision in playing at Marvel Stadium over the better suited AAMI Park. 
But like many have mentioned the FFA are going to be praying Melbourne Victory fans come out in numbers and help boost Western United's average crowds to something respectable. 
I must say for all the shit Melbourne City cop from us fans I must say at least they've got one thing right, which is to play in the best stadium suitable for football, regardless of how much bigger a crowd you can get at that fucked up Marvel Stadium. 

In the MLS, they award an expansion licence, but then they have two or three years to build or renovate their stadium and create the team from the ground up.  This process is happening at the moment with Miami, Nashville, Cincinnati and Austin.  They were actually nominated BEFORE Western United, but they will start  playing games much later.  This is the benefit of having megabucks at your disposal. You have time to get things right.  The FFA inadvertently did Macarthur a favour by delaying their entry.
Unfortunately, teams here need to start generating money straight away, so they have to patch things  together quickly and cut some corners, like playing at an AFL stadium an hour away down the road for two seasons.

And AFL is utterly bland for doing that. It killed the idea of clubs being reflective of the communities they represent. Now the only thing that separates clubs is what colours they were and barbershop quartet song is played. 

Having your own home ground is everything to building a strong club identity and tribal following.

Of the many things we should not be copying from the AFL, this is one of the most important. 

Haha barbershop quartet song 

besides the stadium didn’t West Melbourne also promise a big name marquee like a del piero?

It’s very hard to get the bigger names to come here when China and the Middle East in particular have been splashing the cash.

The stadium is key. If they can get that started soon and be ready by their 3rd season, I think they will do fine. Any longer than that though and things get harder to see gaining any traction.

In saying that though, I still hear the WU management talk about engagement but I’m yet to see anything tangible. Is there a disconnect in what they consider to be engagement? Seems odd.

The FFA is never going to allow traditional clubs into the A League.  

Correct, sort of why I posted it, and also why we shouldn't hold out any hope for open P&R any time soon.

Simple, we can the FFA lol

-PB

Given that a club like South Melbourne likely would eat into the existing 2 clubs in the inner city area, the logic is likely sound.

South Melbourne should have been the 2nd club instead of Heart, but that mistake was made at that time and now we have to try and make things work.

WU has the chance to capture a new market out there if it gets it’s planning right, but I do think that Team 11 had a stronger overall case for entry. 

There is no inner-city base, everyone comes from everywhere to watch sport in Melbourne's CBD.  South Melbourne's location was nesr perfect in that respect, but anyway, it's got nothing to do with anything, South melbourne was not going to get selected under any circumstance.

One wonders if the FFA has put pressure on WU to play some games out of Marvel for the reason of inflating crowd numbers? WU have stated that they wanna limit the amount of away fans at Tarneit Stadium so they don't get outnumbered at home derbies like City do. Playing Victory at Marvel contradicts this, so maybe it wasn't their call?

Marvel is in the perfect location transport wise for their "fans" from the Western Suburbs catchment. If it wasn't so massive they probably would've liked to play all their games there prior to the completion of the stadium. Playing home games against the other Melbourne teams are the only chance they have to make playing at Marvel affordable. It will also be their only chance to attract Melbourne based fans because there's no way people will travel to Geelong and Ballarat multiple times a year to watch A-league games against even more rubbish teams. 

Zero pressure.  WU have 8 games at Kardinia Park, so need to find a home for 5 more games.

Realistically, you'd have to have rocks in your head to play those 5 games in Ballarat.

I have no doubt that the FFA put some pressure on WU to ensure that they looked 'viable' with good crowd averages. Only way to do that is to have more derbies with Victory, and if that means having 20k Vuck fans at Docklands, than so be it.

I personally think it sends the wrong message - if they wanted to setup a 'fortress' mentality, they'd play it in Geelong and limit the Victory away bay to 1k fans. Lock the fuckers out, let Victory know that they're playing down there on their terms. At least that way the crowd shouldn't be outnumbered by a vocal Victory fanbase, helping to generate a proper home game feeling. Otherwise, they risk making the same mistakes that Heart/City did - a franchise with no identity.

But of course, we all know the FFA shits the bed when it comes to the prospect of having fans locked out of the ground for whatever reason, so we'll see WU derbies at Docklands with 20k Vuck fans.