That though process is kinda contrary to how football works generally, which is typically club based and tribal. 

In areas with low low populations it might work eg townsville but in areas with large football populations eg Football Brisbane you already have half a dozen teams with A League ambitions and under the NPL another dozen teams wanting promotion. 

The key to expansion though is timing.  It need not all happen in ten years although I do believe if we can put growth in to club football then we can expand quicker than where we are now. 

If we blew up the A League the starting point will be a stand alone league with one team per city and strategic regions represented. There would be a salary cap to avoid a Scotland type situation with two regions having significantly more buying power than the other regions

In other words we would end up with the A League again

The A League is a necessary starting point but once you take the product out of the box, you throw the box away. This is where the FFA went wrong

The FFA not only lacked the ability to take the A League to the next step, but the later half of the FFA even showed resistance. Even lecturing us about why we had to keep things the way they were and the next step would be catastrophic

Whether you want to fly to Hobart or England, you still have to go to the airport first. Sadly for our sport, our destination was the airport itself

Reform is likely required but it will be more structural/model based, not a destroy and rebuild approach. 

This has libel written all over it lol

-PB

It all comes down to planning. That means actually having a plan and not just bumbling along and hoping things change. We have seen the Asian leagues improve steadily while we stagnate as a direct result of them planning for their future. We need to do the same. Goals need to be set so they can be worked towards. If P&R is in our future, then they need to set it as a firm goal and work towards it. We always seem to have this attitude of 'we'll talk about X when we are ready for X' and then 'ready' never comes. We need to be saying 'we want to achieve X, what steps do we need to take to be ready for X'. There also needs to be some proper analysis of the league to date, just like Jack Reilly proposed to do when he was at the FFA before they gave him the boot.

The NPL + HAL teams must be separate and funded without  Regional Association time or money. These Regional Association will find it easier to fund from within football than go out and find independent sponsors -  which would cripple grass roots football with levies 

Waz

I am all for two div's with 16 teams each...

That means adding 20 teams... 

The first say dozen almost pick themselves... but the next 8 hhhmmm... anywho... for me you are right Hal needs to merge into the top level of Australian Football... in part Team 11 & Campbelltown both have formed close alliances with local associations... I still think the answer lies with the associations... making both Hal & NPL teams extensions of regional associations... 

No salary cap will keep 6 teams in the top 6 and you will end up with 10 teams (If we get to 16 target) fighting for the minors.
With no cap you will need a minimum number  locals in each squad.
It could end with all clubs foreign owned.

I said it on another thread, but the first thing that needs to happen is to fix the salary cap issues. and it needs to happen now or else it will be too late for next season. 

There is no starting again.
We have to make this work somehow.

It is a question that can’t be answered in isolation imo. 

HAL
Championship (NSD) 
NPL
Capital/City/Regional Leagues 

should form the four layers of our pyramid climbing from amateurs to semi-pro to elite professional levels of the game. 

The HAL has to exist within that framework and, even if it’s not automatic, promotion between layers needs to happen 

(it’s comical to hear NPL sides argue for pro/rel in QLD when they themselves don’t allow the Queensland pyramid to connect) 

You have missed the point.... to get to where you want Football to get too...

Do we develop and modify / change Hal... or do we blow Hal up and start a fourth attempt to start again... 

HAL needs to get to 16 teams and play Home and Away for a season or two (until HAL 2 is sorted)
The top of the ladder is Champion
Bottom 4 team should play off - (Home team drawn at random) to select bottom team
They then go into  promotion and relegation game with top team from HAL 2 home n away.

Well said.

a few slaps in the face should do it

I don’t think the HAL is that bad that we need to blow it up and start again.

Despite other codes and limited interest, there is enough money in our game to make it viable

WU paid over $15m for a licence just recently and are looking at building a venue (and they were one of 16 bidders). We also have international interest as seen with CFG. We have global sources of revenue other codes can only dream of, and a global audience others can only dream of


Yet our league has been painted into a corner by the way we have to do things. Myths of Australian sports fans and culture that see a standard template applied to everything we do. How to balance the playing field (do we even know what sport is?), how to make things more entertaining, how to maximise metrics, etc...

To me this is the biggest killer of the game. The only way forward is to ask FIFA and the AFC for help. Get them to do for us what every other league except for MLS has done. And the decent amount of revenue and interest will ensure it is a success. Not the most popular, not sold out venues every week, but enough to be viable and internationally competitive

Until then we'll just see this continual loop of failure and arguments over which handful of entities gets the money

Yer.... there are some on here who seem to believe we should be rid of Hal and start afresh again... be interesting to hear their arguments and any counter arguments... 

Good luck with this one Mid ... 

Three times key stakeholders in Australian Football have applied a scorched earth policy and destroyed what was there and set up a new.

In 1955 in the Sydney competition,
The NSL in the 70’s
Hal in the 00’s

Frank Lowy was a key player in each revolution, all started with a bang and ended badly. Well Hal has not ended but declining.

It leaves two questions, do we want to destroy Hal and start again ? or Do we develop and change Hal ?

Personally for me I think the various fractions if Hal fell over would have trouble putting in place a commonly agreed format… So for me I would prefer to develop and change Hal for whats needed and with the new governance model, clubs now in charge of Hal, a second division forming, new CEO of FFA seemly coming from Football.... Change is happening the speed can be argued but you can't argue change is not happening.

 Open question , scorched earth and destroy Hal… or Develop and change Hal