i do not like the idea of having second adelaide or perth teams if it means a sharing of stadium.

i am however in favour of an ipswich team because of its geographical differentiation and since they will have their own stadium at north ipswich oval.

Agree with all that. No more failures like Melbourne Heart, you must have your own stadium and base yourself well away from the existing teams.

If FFA have any plan as to where they prefer the next teams to come from ,they should be pumping resources into those areas now to build up a support base.If Ipswich is a target area then now is the time to pour extra money in to build up juniors,engage the community and create a higher profile.The same goes for Canberra , Woolongong and any other area of interest.I'm not saying forget the rest of Australia,but it makes sense to target growth regions.
We have all seen how easy it is to fail if growth is left to millionaires who think they know everything.Furthermore there are lessons to be learnt from ALF's GWS mess.

I always had this theory...

Considering most A-league clubs have National Youth League teams for reserves. I have suggested this... Say if Canberra and Wollongong/South Coast Joined the A-league in 2016-17, they both should have NYL squads in the 2015-16 season.

Let the Youth League sides play in the NYL for one season to gell and get prepared for the A-league. It works both ways... If Both expansion clubs fail to lure any decent players from other clubs, they can just promote the whole youth side the following year.

I dont think it will happen though. I dont think expansion will happen in this current tv deal. As I said, I expect the next broadcast deal to be worth around 60 million a year minimum, 80 million at the max. Depending how much money the next deal is worth, We might see the League go from 10 team 27 round comp in 2016-17 to 14 sides and 26 round comp in 2017-18.

Agree with all that. No more failures like Melbourne Heart, you must have your own stadium and base yourself well away from the existing teams.

TBF, Victory are sort of having it both ways by utilising both main football stadia in Melbourne. IMO, Victory should stick to Etihad and Heart to AAMI.

Makes perfect sense to me.


That said, the FFA should have given the licence to South Melbourne and that would have alleviated this whole discussion. lakeside Stadium is a beautiful venue which could easily be expanded with a government grant/FFA funding.

In 10 years, you could have a south west sydney team playing out of a new stadium built in liverpool (bulldogs and wests tigers would be based there as well), while wsw would stay based at parramatta. However, having sydney fc, wsw, south west sydney, wollongong, canberra, mariners and newcastle is probably not viable. Im not sure mariners will be around in 10 years...ongoing financial issues...?
It all depends on the tv deal, and most people live around sydney or melbourne so thats where people will be watching..so perhaps a south west sydney team based out of liverpool in the future makes sense.

12 teams:

In NSW I'd have
Sydney FC (SFS)
WSW (Parra)
South West Sydney (Liverpool)
Northern Coast Jets (Newcastle)
Southern Coast Wolves (Wollongong)

State league
Central Coast
Canberra/AIS

What's the point in having a SWS in Liverpool when the majority of Unicorn fans come from that region. If you're going to throw another Sydney team in (which I don't think is necessary, 2 is fine) and you want it based in SWS, play it out of Campbelltown Stadium.

If WSW were Based in Blacktown then yeah in Liverpool SWS would work but there not they are in the center of Sydney and highly unlikely to move from there.

Sydney FC (Sydney)
Wanderers (Parramatta)
Mariners (Gosford, Central Coast)
SC Wolves(Wollongong, Illawarra)
4 teams for 5.5-6 million people with a 5th team would make WSW need move to Penrith or somewhere like that(because they are WS), and have a new team in central/southern sydney(WIN,kogarah/ Campbelltown stadium/ New ground in Liverpool/ Sharks stadium. But that all would be madness!

I'm not sure why you are including the Central Coast and the South Coast as part of the Sydney market. Looking at Sydney on its own there is a population of 4.3m with 1.3m growth anticipated over the next 2 and a bit decades. The population of western Sydney alone will grow by 1m bringing it to 3m. It would be madness not to consider a 2nd western Sydney team in the medium term. South Western Sydney will boom from 2016 when the South West Railway opens and it will reach a population of just under 1.4m from 0.8m now over the following 2 decades.

I'm not sure why yoshi is even suggesting that 6 teams in a 12 team comp should come from the one state never mind all within 2 hours drive from Sydney.

In a 12 team comp, there should be the existing teams as well as two of Canberra, Tassie, Auckland, Vic (whether it's Sth Melb or a Geelong based team), Wooloongong, Central/Nth Qld (coastal based). That's enough viable options to look at a 16 team comp. That's also not even considering a second Perth side or the potential viability of a NT/second SA side. And thats ALL before even considering a 6th NSW team.

for long-term sustainability, if the a-league is to really compete against the other codes we would need a strong-hold in nsw and victoria,

Roncato's northern girls



THE Northern Fury have started kicking goals in their quest for W-League admission, hiring the national league team's coach.

North Queensland women's football icon Catherine Roncato yesterday joined the club as their head of women's football - a role that will see her take charge of female player development from junior through to senior level.

In the long term, the club's hope is for the former Australia junior representative to coach Northern in the W-League.

"That would be ideal for me," Roncato said. "But even if I wasn't appointed to that role, I'd like to help the pathway happen.

"I'm all about developing players in the North. I'm very excited to come on board."

The reborn Fury, axed from the A-League in 2011, have a five-year plan that culminates with a return to the men's national competition.

Before that, the aim is to create National Youth League and W-League teams.

Roncato will work alongside legendary Scottish footballer and respected coach Ian Ferguson.

Northern's director of football said hiring the Ayr product was a significant step in providing a pathway for NQ girls to national level.

"It's very important that we get the girls' structure right ... and getting Catherine on board is a huge coup," Ferguson said. "(A W-League team) is very important to the Fury."

Roncato, 35, captained Australia during her junior days and was on track to play at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games before a knee injury robbed her of the chance.

But the silver lining was that it turned her focuses to coaching.

Roncato has her coaching B-licence and has been coaching Queensland teams for eight years.

I'm not sure why you are including the Central Coast and the South Coast as part of the Sydney market. Looking at Sydney on its own there is a population of 4.3m with 1.3m growth anticipated over the next 2 and a bit decades. The population of western Sydney alone will grow by 1m bringing it to 3m. It would be madness not to consider a 2nd western Sydney team in the medium term. South Western Sydney will boom from 2016 when the South West Railway opens and it will reach a population of just under 1.4m from 0.8m now over the following 2 decades.

I still don't get why you want to rip apart the Wanderers fan base.

I don't want to rip apart Wanderers fan base. What I want in about a decades time, after Wanderers has fully populated an upgraded Pirtek Stadium, is to capitalise on the population growth and the geographical and cultural difference between two separate regions in the biggest city in Australia. That city also happens to contain 40% of the registered players in the country. By capitalising on the growth of Sydney you also maximise the benefit of this critical mass of players. Are you aware that over the next 2 decades an additional population equivalent to the Gold Coast/Tweed will be dropped into South West Sydney? Are you aware that over those same 2 decades an additional population equivalent to Newcastle/Maitland will be dropped into North West Sydney? In all 1 million people will move into the region that have no affiliation with Wanderers. Wanderers can't hope to accommodate the potential fans (68k as measured by Repucom late last season) from the region as it exists now let alone in a market that is 50% bigger.

Spot on. There is real future in South West and North West Sydney with Campbelltown and Blacktown as the home bases. Statistics don't lie.

Wanderers will have a massive catchment area to draw upon anyway with everything west of Homebush and right up to Penrith/Blue Mountains. A kind of "Central West".

I am talking a decade or two away.

As NSW continues to grow, down the track NSW teams could be:

Sydney FC (East/St George/Lower North Shore/Inner City)
Wanderers (Centre - Homebush to Blue Mountains)
SW Sydney (South West)
NW Sydney (North West)
CCM
Newcastle
Wollongong/South Coast

+ Canberra, which isn't that far away. Gee that's a whole bunch of close away games!

I still say more Qld teams is imperative.

ive always felt that blacktown city demons would be a perfect club to have in the a-league if they were able to connect with the people of the north-west, given their suitable name, nickname, relative history and colour schemes.

south-west don't have a team equivalent that would be suitable.

There are 5 teams from south-west Sydney in the NPL2. Macarthur Rams came 2nd and Mounties came 3rd and a joint team from those would be quite a good option especially if either or both get promoted to NPL1. Then you have Bonnyrigg White Eagles who came 3rd in NPL1 that can also be a feeder club.

There is a site identified for major sporting infrastructure on the south side of Bringelly Rd about 2 kilometres east of the new Leppington Station that would be ideal for a 25k stadium. Not far from Cowpasture Rd. Not far from Campbelltown Rd. Not far from Camden Valley Way. Not far from the freeway and motorway. A few stations away from Badgery's Creek Airport if its built and direct link into Sydney and Sydney Airport.

Dunno the area too well but what's wrong with the stadium Wests Tigers play at?