No it will be a failure for aome wollongong ppl that may choose not to support it, but the club will pick up some fans from the area and the  have a tonne more from the other two. And if they play all their games at shark park u can rest assured the whole of the shire will start to back them too. Whether a few thousand ex nsl or wolves supporters get a little upset will make lil difference. If anything it will.improve football.in the future if the wolves ever get in via merit through peomotion. The passion and the rivalry will be palpable.

5-10% is quite a bit when u consider they are 2 hours away. Imagine how many it will be when its 5 mins away? Sure it wont be as many as wolves going alone, however u will.also have fans from other areas. 

I think ultimately it all comes down to where they will be primarily based. If they split it 3 ways in the 3 stadiums then i can see this struggling big time. But if they choose the one stadium, i dont think the name or who they claim to represent will stop people from the near vicinity supporting the club, especially if they do the right things with their grassroots and the fact that the football associations will work together will.only help their cause.

Its just lots of ppl on forums like this that are way too heavily invested in football and think that all other semi casual fans think the same. 

Don't you not think the club would be more successful if it represented the southern area of sydney or the shire exclusively? Im not saying there shouldn't be a club in southern sydney necessarily, but combining with the south coast doesn't bring anything extra to the table. You also run the risk of diluting the identity of the team too greatly and then not attracting enough of the supporters from your core areas because they don't feel represented. 

Yet a couple if thousand of them travel two hrs to watch either wsw or syd fc. Whats with that? What makes them feel attached to a team so far away if they have nothing in common with them? Yet a team that would actually represent them but shared with another area is just too much to ask? I dont understand the logic in that?

If there were no aleague fans in the gong it would make ur point more plausable, but the fact that there are fans of aleague clubs so far away tells me that the the demographic or cultural differentiation wont stop them from supporting a club.

Obviously more ppl in wollongong would aupport a 100% gong team, but the argument is whether some would follow a club that represents a broader area? And going by the support syd fc and wsw get, the abswer to that is likely yes.

5-10%, I was being generous remember. Don't forget the South Coast Federation is willing to support both bids, Wollongong and South Sydney. Plus as much as we need casual fans what you really want to do is establish hard core support and you do that if people feel they are being represented, if they identify with a team. It remains to be seen if the people of Wollongong will identify with a combined St George/Sutherland/Wollongong team. I am not convinced.

I've said that before. After the riots when it wasn't very wise to admit that you were from the Shire, I'd describe where I lived as "The southern most part of Sydney you can get". There are still some places where its better to say that than the Shire.

People down here want to be apart of the A-league because they love the sport. I am one of them. People are becoming impatient and I know a lot of people who go to games in Sydney, especially the derby or other big games. Of course the more they go, the more it creates an affiliation with the team and give it enough time they will begin to support one of them. Its just natural. People here don't WANT to support a Sydney side, but they are becoming impatient waiting for a Wollongong side that they feel they HAVE to support a Sydney side because they want to get involved with the A-League and at the moment they can't do that in Wollongong. 

Personally, I am waiting for a team down here and I've been confident ever since the league began that one day eventually we will get our own team. Right now though, all this talk of a combined Sydney/Wollongong team does not bode well with me and others. We want our own team. We don't consider ourselves from Sydney. I didn't use the St George Illawarra Dragons example but that was a completely different situation.. both clubs needed each other at the time. 

And using one home ground with 3 different regions is probably the dumbest thing I've heard so far. Its one thing expecting people from Wollongong to support a combined Sydney side but its another to expect us to travel up to Cronulla or Kogarah every second week to watch us play. How would that possibly work? Do you really think that will help build a following from Wollongong, assuming our home ground is in either of the other two regions? 

This is the usual response that I get from people from Wollongong. Good on you. I hope you get a Wollongong team soon.

I'd rather they go with what they are promoting but only play in the shire. Maybe tone down the Illawarra part but still include it in the official area to start with if they don't yet have a team of their own.

There may be a divide between the areas but it is still viable to have a team represent all the areas. Even if you cut out areas like St George, Illawarra and even southern Bankstown from your official areas you'll still probably have a good number of people and businesses from those places coming to support the club. Why not just included them from the start.

If Les and Foster are involved then the plan will be for a redevelopment of Barton Park as part of the Cooks Cove development. Les has been pushing this for years.

"Should the Wellington Phoenix be jettisoned as an A-League club? Should a third club from Sydney replace them?"

"I have no inside knowledge but I wouldn’t be shocked if even a new four-year deal beyond 2016 was knocked back. If I was an FFA shareholder I would demand no less."

http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/blog/2015/11/05/it-time-eject-phoenix?cx_navSource=related-side-cx#cxrecs_s

Expansion bid to rile Sydney FC and Wolves


Many Sydney FC fans are from Sydney’s southern region. Picture: Mark Evans
Sydney FC wasn’t happy last time and they are unlikely to have changed their mindset following yesterday’s announcement that a franchise from Southern Sydney is aiming to make a play for a spot in the A-League when the national competition eventually expands.

The Sky Blues refused to comment yesterday after Chinese conglomerate JiaYuan was unveiled as the financial backers behind the proposed new entity that will encompass the massive junior areas of St George, the Sutherland Shire and the Illawarra.

But they made their feelings well known 18 months ago when it was suggested Football Federation Australia were looking at funding a club in the region at the time as a possible replacement for Wellington Phoenix.

The Sky Blues believed the new club would be a serious threat to their membership and fan base with figures showing many of their supporters come from the area stretching between Kogarah and Sutherland. The idea went by the wayside after Phoenix were subsequently granted an extension of their licence.

However, it is now back in the frame with the formation of Southern Expansion.

Front man Les Murray, who is the bid’s steering committee chairman, said he expects “some blowback” from Sydney FC.

“Our position is that it is up to the communities what club they want to support,” Murray said. “We have support from three district associations.

“We are not competing with anybody and don’t believe we are stepping on others footprints. Sydney is big enough to house three A-League clubs.

“We are here. If you want to support us, fine. If you want to support someone else, that’s fine too.”

Sydney FC won’t be the only club unhappy with the situation. Wollongong Wolves, who play in the National Premier League, are one of the outfits also chasing a spot in an expanded A-League.

Southern Expansion plan to play some games out of WIN Stadium in Wollongong and Chris Gardiner, chief executive of the bid’s steering group, believes it is a better option for the A-League than the Wolves.

“The best representative of football in the region is Football South Coast. They would love to own the licence in Wollongong but they don’t believe that is going to happen,” Gardiner said. “They are realistic enough to say, as they have previously with FFA, that they need to partner with Sutherland-St George to deliver a regional club. We have put together a bid the Illawarra would be proud of and it is a far better bid than Wollongong Wolves could ever put on the table.”

The Wolves are unfazed by the emergence of Southern Expansion, with chief executive Chris Papakosmas telling Fox Sports “a lot of the people south of Helensburgh don’t consider themselves Sydneysiders.”

He is steadfast in his belief Wollongong deserves a standalone club, not an amalgamated one.

“The Southern bid is talking about an area that covers Sutherland Shire, St George and the Illawarra — there’s not really a connection, a history or an understanding,” Papakosmas said.

“Four games out of WIN Stadium is nothing compared to playing all of your home games there. The whole point of our bid is that Wolves is an existing entity.

“All we’re going to do is add an A-League and a W-League team above the pyramid that exists already and give the people something they can aspire to.”

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/football/expansion-bid-to-rile-sydney-fc-and-wolves/news-story/1683d4a9212b882eb7cf2c2fb52ef6d5

" Our position is that it is up to the communities what club they want to support,” Murray said. “We have support from three district associations.

“We are not competing with anybody and don’t believe we are stepping on others footprints. Sydney is big enough to house three A-League clubs.

“We are here. If you want to support us, fine. If you want to support someone else, that’s fine too.”

How can anyone argue with this?

Chinese bid for new A-League Sydney ‘super club’


Who owns what.
It had Western Sydney in its sights, but Chinese property conglomerate JiaYuan Group is behind a bid to become the next big thing in Australian soccer after it was unveiled as the financial backer of the proposed new A-League franchise, Southern Expansion.

Football Federation Australia has tentatively targeted the 2018-19 season for expansion of the competition but the new entity, which will encompass the St George, Sutherland shire and Illawarra regions of Sydney, is adamant it is “ready to go now”.

The idea for a team in southern Sydney was first mooted 18 months ago when it was suggested FFA was considering funding a team to replace Wellington Phoenix, but the idea is now clearly back in full swing.

The Chinese had looked at buying the Wanderers but were told the club was not for sale. The Newcastle Jets are already owned by a Chinese conglomerate, Ledman, which also owns a team in China.

The JiaYuan Group is associated with a Chinese businessman Shen Yuxing, also known as Shum Tin Ching. He has recently taken an interest in the Australian market and is also backing a new company, Boyuan, that recently listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. Boyuan has dealt in land in Pokolbin in NSW’s Hunter Valley that Shen’s Cyan Stone owned and it is also promoting a project of Cyan Stone’s in the Sydney north shore suburb of Lindfield.

SBS commentators Les Murray, who is chairman of the bid’s steering committee, and Craig Foster, who is the steering group’s head of football, fronted the media yesterday to help push the case for Southern Expansion to be one of two new franchises when the A-League is eventually expanded from 10 to 12 teams.

If successful the group, which has the support of all three local associations, plans to play at Kogarah’s Jubilee Oval and Wollongong’s WIN Stadium (the homes of St George Illawarra NRL club) and Southern Cross Group Stadium (home of the Cronulla Sharks NRL club).

However, the bidders yesterday revealed a long-term commitment to construct a purpose-built boutique stadium to host what Murray described as a “super club”.

Southern Expansion — who would change their name if added to the competition but keep the ‘Southern’ part of their identity — will face strong opposition for a place in the A-League from a number of other bidders, including Victoria Patriots (Geelong), Canberra, Wollongong Wolves, Tasmania and South Melbourne.

But the people behind the bid are confident they have a strong case to present to FFA when the time comes.

The JiaYuan Group is desperate to get a foothold in Australian soccer and has already provided $12 million in bank guarantees.

According to Murray, representatives of the company first inquired about becoming involved in the A-League last year when an intermediary contacted him about buying a current club.

“Late last year I was asked to meet with some potential investors,” Murray said. “They wanted to buy the Wanderers but I told them that wasn’t possible. They then embarked on a project to start a new one and that is when Southern Expansion was born.

“JiaYuan is a very diversified, very large company involved in property development, shopping centres and mines and have subsidiaries in Australia such as Cyan Stone. The people involved don’t have a football connection back home but they are passionate about the game.”

Asked what the Chinese saw in it for them, Murray said: “They see a football club as a business. It is a fabulous business opportunity and they see that. We anticipate a growth in value and it will be an asset for the group.”

Murray said he had a meeting with FFA chief executive David Gallop last week and believes “he is supportive”.

“David is a very cautious man but within the bounds of what he could say in terms of the expansion policy being put in place he is as supportive as he could be,” Murray said.

Murray said the franchise wants to field a team in the W-League and one in the National Youth League next season (2017-18) and vowed to invest in training facilities, non fee-paying academies and big-name marquees.

While welcoming news of the new bid, Gallop said the situation had to be assessed carefully and that it is not all about money.

“FFA is working on a new operating and ownership model for the A-League and W-League that is designed to help, not hinder, expansion and under which new entrants and existing clubs can all benefit in terms of the value of a licence,” Gallop said.

“The interest from the JiaYuan Group — of which we were aware — and the other groups that have expressed an interest in being part of an expanded league, is welcome and shows the potential of the game.

“However as we have consistently said, individual bids — even well-funded ones — do not address the operating and contractual costs faced by FFA and therefore they do not make expansion instantly viable on their own.

“There is no point in having a well-funded club working in one geographical area if other clubs are not seeing any benefit or indeed are expected to see the funding model diluted.”

Additional reporting: Ben Wilmot

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/football/chinese-bid-for-new-aleague-sydney-super-club/news-story/16849a61a4385cfa2c9418a762be25c6

"Non fee paying academies"

Thats what I like to see.

I've argued with people in here that if FFA said "produce $10 million and you get a club" there would be interested parties....

Now they are just asking to come in...

Unchain the schackles

All A-League expansion licence bids will face tough tests of credentials and won’t change FFA’s timetable

IT’S tempting for football fans of a certain vintage to see a perfect symbolism in Les Murray fronting a consortium bidding for a new A-League licence.

After all, in the dark days when the NSL was dying it was Murray and Johnny Warren who kept the flame of football alive at SBS — now the veteran broadcaster, these days in tandem with Craig Foster, wants to solve the conundrum of expansion and breathe new life into the A-League.

A-LEAGUE EXPANSION: SOUTHERN SYDNEY LAUNCHES BID

Certainly the Southern Expansion presentation at the Shangri-La hotel in The Rocks on Monday morning was suffused with striking rhetoric about making an “unanswerable” case for admission to the A-League, holding aloft the beguiling vision of a club with its own stadium and own academy.

“We want to be a superclub,” said Murray.

On the surface too, the backing of the Chinese real-estate group Jia Yuan looks plausible and potent, an entity with an $800m listing on the Chinese stock exchange and Australian ventures too.


Les Murray wants to help breathe new life into the A-League.
But as with schoolchildren and the tooth fairy, just because you want something to be true doesn’t automatically make it so, and it’s reasonable to ask some sceptical questions.

Murray himself admitted that he was only approached at the start of December by representatives of Jia Yuan seeking to buy an A-League club, to which his response was that none was for sale (there’s a couple of owners might query that, but certainly in Sydney there is nothing on the market).

Instead this new venture was created, and Murray met with David Gallop last week, ostensibly presenting him with bank guarantees of $12m to prove the bona fides of their backers.

But the scepticism comes from the attempts to unite such a broad area with little common ground.

The Wanderers were able to forge a regional identity, but an unwieldily alliance from the Cooks River down to Shohaven risks try to be all things to all men.

The home games will be split between the region’s three main venues, Jubilee Oval, Shark Park and WIN Stadium, but that is only four A-League games a season each. Will supporters in Woolongong then drive to Cronulla, let alone Kogorah, for the others?


Les Murray with FFA chief executive David Gallop and Frank Lowy. Picture: Richard Dobson
Murray and his team are convinced they will, promising to “learn the lessons” of the identity issues that are suffered by St George Illawarra in the NRL. But identification is everything, or else why would football fans elect to support a brand new entity?

Aspirationally you can’t fault the group behind this, but so far all we have is aspirations. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a vision, of course, but something put together in a matter of weeks is very light on detail so far.

The other cold, hard fact is that no matter how well-credentialed, no bid is going to change FFA’s expansion timetable because the governing body is more worried about the money it will have to fork out for new teams than it is about those teams’ backing.

If in the rest of this year, the Southern Expansion bid is fleshed out, it will begin to mount a strong case to join the A-League. But after what happened in Townsville and the Gold Coast, it’s inevitable that all would be entrants face a robust test of their credentials.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/football/all-aleague-expansion-licence-bids-will-face-tough-tests-of-credentials-and-wont-change-ffas-timetable/news-story/6a75071e891ecdd05a1e2b05419e2c3f

and cash and stadium 
A 6-10k seater purpose built stadium would be great.
Just play derbies at Shark Park or Win (which may be the idea).

I can defiantly see Wellington losing its licence at the end of the current 4 years (2018/19) to a Sth Sydney bid. It would sux to lose my club but if it makes money then it makes sense for the FFA. #FkOffWe'reFull

lol

wouldnt the club be better to take money to #FkOff next seasonfrom the Chinese instead of just losing in it 18/19 ? I would. 

But your not the FFA and they take there time to kick things around plus you cant just kick a team out when they have half a conditional licence left.

What I mean is- how much do you receive? ca. $2.6 million per year. If Mr. Chinaman says, "I will pay $5.2 millio for your license" and FFA says its ok and "you are not contimuing after the end of this 4 year contract"  wouldnt you take it?

Things can happen fast. There are the player contracts etc but im sure there are ways around that. 

Southern bid to replace Wellington and either both of Geelong and South Melbourne to come in as the 11th and 12th clubs or just one of those plus another Brisbane team seems like the way it could be heading.

How to exclude South Melbourne?
Thats easy.
The South Melbourne area is mostly a bay.
There aren't enough people in the bay to support an A-League side.
Only fish.
....oh wait!

@octo

If RB want to come in and build a stadium and the councils deliver on this





and give or lease the land to build a 12-13000k stadium in SE Melbourne it would be great.


I would prefer them before SM. Geelong is further down my list personally. They have had so much MV experience.

Happy for this team to go in and Wollongong to have there own team in 7-10 years time.

There is more than enough to justify both.

Would love to see South Coast and South Melbourne teams in 2 seasons time

According to Les Murray the Chinese conglomerate backing the South Sydney club has its Australian head office in Martin Place, Sydney.

...

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So, I wonder who the 12th team will be

Thanks champ tell me which football club in the world uses 3 different home grounds successfully? 3 stadiums is the dumbest thing ive heard and the fact u would back that makes me question ur whole belief on this topic.

My point is.that if willongong are never getting a team, dont u think people would be more prepared to travel half the distance to watch a.team that at least has some affiliation with them than a wsw or syd fc? Of course they will. Especially when the club plays 2 home games agaisnt both syd fc ansmd wsw. Fans will flock there from wollongong.

See people here say that people in the sth dont relate to ppl from the shire, well.i have some news for them, people from manly dont really relate to ppl that come from sothern parts of sydney or the west, yet sydney fc has fans from both those areas, and we still manage to avg the second highest attendances year in year out.

A team purely from wollongong will get u 8-9k hardcore fans with very little room to grow. It will be similar version of newcastle jets which to be blatently honest doesnt excite me at all, and nor does it for most aleague gans when they watch newcastle on tv. They would become a niche club run on a budget alla ccm and newy. If i had to choose between a mega club with huge backing and broader representation alla fc and wsw, or a niche club like the gong alla ccm or newy, i know which one id rather watch play.

"If successful the group, which has the support of all three local associations, plans to play at Kogarah’s Jubilee Oval and Wollongong’s WIN Stadium (the homes of St George Illawarra NRL club) and Southern Cross Group Stadium (home of the Cronulla Sharks NRL club).

However, the bidders yesterday revealed a long-term commitment to construct a purpose-built boutique stadium to host what Murray described as a “super club”."

---------
It's hard to imagine they would play many home teams away from there.

SFC should get on the phone to the government, Roosters and Tahs and organize a 20k seater. Play your mcderbies at ANZ.

Gotta feel sorry for the wolves