Yes, the FFA need to be innovative. Don't like your chances, though.

thats an aweful idea. you don't overtake other sports by treading water. sydney and melbourne are the hub of the a-league, they are the two markets we need to penetrate if we are to become a mainstream televised sports.

melbourne has the capacity to host 4 or 5 clubs. city with the cfg support will continue growing. there is huge potential in casey/dandenong and south melbourne are ready for the a-league.

as for sydney, there is potential for new sides in the south, south-west and north, each of these regions with their own identity.

in a 16 team a-league with 4 sydney teams that would mean each sydney side has 15 home games including: 3 sydney matches, 2 regional nsw matches, 10 other games. those 5 nsw matches will guarantee strong crowds, the other 10 will be average. proximity is our friend.

That post Williamn is just trying to ruffle feathers. The language used and pro afl speak reeks of a troll

Personally, I think both Sydney and Melbourne does have the capacity to get to four teams apiece, counting the Gong and Geelong as part of those cities respectively.

Love the Victory mate.  Just being realistic.  The city suck balls and I've been working at the MCG for t20, that game has the potential to grow all over the world.  All these things are what soccer's up against.  WSW, Syd, Victory are a beacon of light... 

:D Laugh my head off.

Four to five clubs for each Sydney and Melbourne areas (including the Gong and Geelong) for sure.

Sydney - Sydney FC, WSW, South Sydney, Wollongong in the near future, then a SW Sydney team for example in the longer term.

Melbourne - MV, MC, South Melbourne, Geelong in the near future, then a SE/Dandenong team in the longer term.

As for what Paddy is having to say, we'll just stick to focusing on the A-League thanks, T20 and AFL can blow their loads all they want, makes no difference how successful they are as to who and how many teams can be brought into the A-League.

Some of these a-league teams have been garbage.  The a-league wiped it's arse with GC, whilst the GCS in the AFL have been shit, T20 cricket can plonk a team on the GC and it will fill the stadiums out.  no shit, it'll get good crowds. 

Many a-league teams have withered and died and people are talking about plonking five teams in Melbourne.  Lets get City going first.  South Melbourne could be good but it could spell the death of the City, swings and round a bouts. 

The game needs to grow in Aus, but the past five years has been a disaster. 

It's a shame that people don't see potential in rivalries due to ethnicity. Some of the worlds great rivalries arise from ethnic hatred.

"Lets get city going first" is the war cry of people who don't think there should be expansion in Melbourne because MCFC haven't been successful at pulling crowds. that's the wrong way to think about it.

city hasn't pulled the crowds because the FFA completely buggered up in introduction of the second Melbourne team and brought in a team that was basically a carbon copy of MVFC (except the colours). Then the city group bought them out and new fans didn't jump on because they became very plastic and gimmicky. Not even the signing of the biggest football name in the country has helped with this.

As long as the next Melbourne team is done right (similar to how WSW was born), then I don't see a problem with future expansion here. The FFA should be more concerned if/when the day comes where the City group walks away from its Australian team... MCFC are stuffed if this eventuates (it also explains the massive sucking up the FFA directed towards MCFC in the early part of this season)..

The ffa at the time backed themeselves into a corner, they only gave the heart consortium the license just to keep south out, it had nothing to do with the strength of its bid which is why the heart concept died within a few years.

The mistake the ffa made was that if they didn't want south in they should have just stuck it out with victory.

You would hope lessons have been learned from that, going to Geelong or trying to force a south east team just to keep south out will give them the same result. They would be better off expanding elsewhere if they don't have the balls to pull the trigger on south.

EG, South Melbourne. If you think there is some WS sized vacuum to fill in Melbourne, then I suspect you are not from here

Even if City wanted out, which they don't, you're not going to see them sell the club before they get the rumoured 11-30 milion dollar fee for Mooy.

How is an AVE crowd of 10,882 ATM for home games and a membership base of 13007 a failure for a start up team playing out of same ground and no geographical difference....

Do that in any other state in Australia and they would've been dead in 6 months...

We have to Accept we will never be as big as MVFC but we still add value to the league and continue to grow steadily at our own rate.

John Ribot, one of the founders of Brisbane Broncos and Melbourne Storm, and former Brisbane Roar CEO, backing the Tassie bid on local TV.

Melbourne Storm vs Canterbury Bulldogs in their last preseason match at North Hobart Oval last weekend:





The pitch looks incredible!

Might be a moot point with plans for a new stadium hopefully to be announced soon (see the video in my last post), but if they can provide a carpet like that it's a great sign.

Here's Mat Ryan's team, Genk's logo. Something this cleanly branded would be perfect for an AFC Geelong to start building their identity from.

Zzzzzz

how would south melbourne kill off city? if all the south melbourne fans were supporting city in the first place then the melbourne derby would have exploded by now.

@pala pitch looks good at NHO. I think that picture depicts well how far from the pitch you would be.

I also found it intriguing in the news report that a stadium proposition is in front of council at the moment.

Same reporter broke that news a couple weeks back, hopefully we'll hear more about it soon.

Honestly, Ribot did little for the Roar. Oh wait, yes he did. Set up stadium hire at a cost to the Roar even more than what the Broncos paid.

A-League restructuring won’t hamper our bid, Andrew Wilkie says

INDEPENDENT Denison MP Andrew Wilkie believes proposed changes to the A-League will not affect Tasmania’s chances of securing an expansion club, with a significant announcement surrounding the state’s bid expected in about three weeks.

The FFA wants to expand the league from 10 to 12 teams, with Tasmania in the mix.

However, there has been a delay in FFA circulating criteria­ for admission to the A-League as the organisation and clubs continue to discuss changes to the ownership and operating model of the league.

Mr Wilkie said he had recently­ spoken to Tasmanian A-League consortium member Robert Belteky at “some length”.

“The proposed expansion is in no way affected by the uncertainty­ surrounding the restructure,” Mr Wilkie said.

“Mr Belteky is confident that they will get this over the line and the proponents judge that they still have the most advanced and developed proposal.

“We are probably still two or three weeks away from any significant new announcements.”

MORE: BELTEKY SAYS TASSIE’S A-LEAGUE BID TOO STRONG TO FAIL

An FFA spokesman said analysis for the expansion of the A-League had revealed the operating and ownership model of the league needed to be changed to attract more financial investment in the game.

“Without this, expansion will not be commercially sustainable,” he said.

“FFA intends to work on options for a new A-League model with the existing clubs and expansion will be considered in parallel with that work.”

Meanwhile, Hobart City Council general manager Nick Health said there had been no formal application to council from the consortium for plans to build a 10,000 to 15,000-seat rectangular stadium on the Domain near Clearys Gates just off the Brooker Highway.

MORE: DOMAIN STADIUM FOR A-LEAGUE ‘REMAINS A RUMOUR’

The stadium would cost up to $40 million and be funded by state and federal contributions as well as from the consortium, which is in talks with the State Government about the proposal.

A spokesman for Premier Will Hodgman said speculation about State Government funding was premature.

http://www.themercury.com.au/sport/local-sport/aleague-restructuring-wont-hamper-our-bid-andrew-wilkie-says/news-story/678f60ef24271df02ea03fcecf397a9f

Hope Belteky and co really stress to the government that a rectangular stadium is a must. If we don't have that our bid is an even longer shot.

12 years in still only 10 teams.  there is no excuse for this shit.

http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/article/2017/02/24/exclusive-grella-throws-his-support-behind-dandenong-casey-expansion-bid

I know South Melb fans get defensive over the Dandenong Casey bid but in the long run they have a lot going for it in terms of potential and essentially growing the game in a place where it's exploded at grassroots level in the last decade.

Whether or not the bid will be ready by the time the league actually decides to expand is all up in the air at this point until we actually see some direction from the FFA.

It's been proven with Victory that casting the net wider for owners has been the way to go, hopefully Memeti is right in saying there's so many locals willing to put in for it, but the support of the three councils is huge, as well.

FFA don't release criteria so we don't know anything really.

FFA have not stated a target for the max A-League number (teams).

FFA have not shown any interest in a national 2nd division.

Let's say the long term aim is 32 professional teams (16 & 16). The way Australia is populated we would most likely need 7-8 teams in Sydney and Melbourne, unless we get more teams from NZ or SE Asia.

Of course not all teams have to be the same size.

It's not so much being defensive about it, it's more so when they come out of the woodwork claiming to be a football heartland, it's an insult to anyone who has followed the game in this state for an extended period of time, they then trot out 1-2 players that came from there, skoko Geelong, grella south east to try further those claims. Then they claim they will be the next Wanderers which has become the expansion throw away line.

I also believe 2 of the 6 clubs supposedly joining forces were involved in an all in brawl a fortnight ago that will see heavy sanctions handed down lol.