Quick correction, Forsyth Barr Stadium is in Dunedin, not Napier. Phoenix are yet to play in Napier IIRC.

I imagine most people came to that first game as it was the inauguration of the stadium.

The two games at Eden Park in Auckland drew 20,078 and 11,566 over the last two seasons, and the Nix drew 19,276 and 14,108 in the old Lancaster Stadium.

If these numbers can stay consistent with today's number, Auckland and Cristchurch must both surely be seen as options.

Populations:
1   Auckland   1,397,300
2   Wellington   395,600
3   Christchurch   375,900
4   Hamilton   209,300
5   Napier-Hastings   125,000
6   Tauranga   122,200
7   Dunedin   118,400

Quick correction, Forsyth Barr Stadium is in Dunedin, not Napier. Phoenix are yet to play in Napier IIRC.

I imagine most people came to that first game as it was the inauguration of the stadium.

The two games at Eden Park in Auckland drew 20,078 and 11,566 over the last two seasons, and the Nix drew 19,276 and 14,108 in the old Lancaster Stadium.

If these numbers can stay consistent with today's number, Auckland and Cristchurch must both surely be seen as options.

Populations:
1   Auckland   1,397,300
2   Wellington   395,600
3   Christchurch   375,900
4   Hamilton   209,300
5   Napier-Hastings   125,000
6   Tauranga   122,200
7   Dunedin   118,400

Auckland City and Christchurch should be in, they'd make sky nz pay up as well as making wellington more viable, but the former needs a new ground. Eden Park is the only ground near the city, but it is an awful shape and would be hosting cricket as well during summer. Mt Smart is too far out of the cbd and north harbour stadium is half the reason NZ Knights failed.

Nux played the Jets in Napier a couple of weeks ago. They got 9,020.

This game in Christchurch today only got about 500 more.

My bad, you're right, they did play in Napier, and I assumed you were talking about the super funky Forsythe Barr Stadium.

I also posted before the crowd figure came out, although I'll stick to my guns in saying that's a pretty good figure and consistent with their previous good crowds, and given Christchurch has triple the population of Napier I'd still say that they and Auckland are the best candidates for expansion in Middle Earth.

I never said otherwise. I was just questioning why you were saying Napier didn't turn out for their match.

57 pages.

The answer is Wolves.

I'm just sitting here laughing reading this absolute shit. How does a New Zealand team add anything to Australia? If you want expansion, look at home, not abroad.

I'm just sitting here laughing reading this absolute shit. How does a New Zealand team add anything to Australia? If you want expansion, look at home, not abroad.

Australia only has a small population and limited population centres, it's daft ignoring New Zealand because you have a city like Auckland with a bigger population than Adelaide getting 20000 people to a club game showing a clear demand for football.

And surely you can't argue that players like Rojas, Brockie, Smeltz, Barbarouses haven't significantly added to the standard of the league

They're stealing our jerbs!

as ive posted on another thread, 27 a-league teams split into 2 divisions that i have so far

1. melbourne victory
2. melbourne heart
3. sydney fc
4. western sydney wanderers
5. adelaide united
6. perth glory
7. central coast mariners
8. newcastle jets
9. brisbane roar
10. wellington phoenix
11. wollongong wolves
12. ipswich pride
13. canberra cosmos
14. geelong galaxy
15. dandenong thunder
16. auckland city


17. hobart tasmans
18. sunshine coast fire
19. townsville fury
20. liverpool
21. gold coast
22. blacktown city demons
23. launceston
24. freemantle
25. south melbourne
26. 2nd adelaide
27. christchurch

Page 57 of this thread is the biggest waste of space (that resembles something half intelligent) I have seen for a long time.

57 pages.

The answer is Wolves.

Page 57 of this thread is the biggest waste of space (that resembles something half intelligent) I have seen for a long time.

Australia only has a small population and limited population centres, it's daft ignoring New Zealand because you have a city like Auckland with a bigger population than Adelaide getting 20000 people to a club game showing a clear demand for football.

And surely you can't argue that players like Rojas, Brockie, Smeltz, Barbarouses haven't significantly added to the standard of the league

Awesome contribution.

Forget about Perth expansion.

Perth game which didn't feature another AUS team got 33k(tv ratings), the lowest so far for the season. Not only that but Perth constantly get the lowest amount of ratings in the 5 cities for SBS and Socceroos games. The A-league truly is tiny here and much work needs to be done to lift its profile here for the good of Perth/WA football and the A-league which needs more "big" clubs.

The points raised are completely irrelevant.


Australia's population is small. So what? New Zealand only add up 4.2 mil as an entire country. It would be easier just to dump a whole lot of A-League football on their tv. The result would probably the same tbh after counting all the travel costs.

So we have a few good players that play here from New Zealand. Why don't we have a team in England, or even China or Japan. The fact is we have a national league for Australia. We don't owe anything to New Zealand. They can develop on their own.

On top of all that, their teams and players aren't counted as they are not a part of our confederation. And they never will be.

You realise that game was shown at 11am Live at WA time?

Try and show A live A-league game at Melbourne, Sydney or Brisbane at 11am in the morning and see if Foxtel will get 150,000 viewers.

Edited by Razor Ramon: 10/11/2013 04:48:07 PM

Ambitions to have an A-league licence in five years in Townsville are very real



FOOTBALL Queensland chief executive Geoff Foster will deliver a glowing review of the Northern Fury's A-League ambitions when he meets FFA boss David Gallop next week.


Foster was in Townsville this week, scrutinising the first year of the club's rebirth and he liked what he saw.
FQ are fully behind the Fury's five-year plan to resurrect following their controversial axing from Australia's premier competition in 2011 and aren't about to let FFA forget.

"Our ambitions to have an A-league licence in five years in Townsville are very real," said Foster, who will meet Gallop in Sydney on Thursday. "I'm very impressed with the work the Fury are doing.

They (FFA) have already said there won't be an A-League review in the current broadcast period, which has another three years remaining, and we accept that.

"But when the opportunity comes we want to be able to present a compelling case."

To do that, Northern have started from the ground up, with all representative programs from under-12s to Queensland's National Premier League teams running under the Fury banner.

Foster was a realist, conceding the Fury's maiden year wasn't without fault.

"But I love the fact that they have recognised some of their failings from last season and are very actively putting processes in place to make that better," he said.

One has been the recruitment of former A-League coach Ian Ferguson as the club's director of football.
Ferguson has quickly gone about tightening the club's coaching structures, demanding minimum B-licence qualifications.

"It's positive and it's a real investment," Foster said.

"We've got a program that anticipates a (Fury) National Youth League licence for 2015, a W-League licence for 2016 and a full A-League licence at the first opportunity of FFA Review."

But Foster said it would be unrealistic to expect that would mean guaranteed entry. He highlighted that franchises in Canberra, Wollongong and even Gold Coast were vying for admission.

"My board has decided that in Queensland our priority is North Queensland," Foster said.

I don't believe FFA have a full understanding or appreciation about the tyranny of distance and the difficulty (FQ) have in providing opportunities for advancing athletes (from its Brisbane base).

"It is absolutely imperative that we have a northern advanced player base and we will work to achieve that end."