So the updated 2019 Census data is out with an easy to use map.
https://itt.abs.gov.au/itt/r.jsp?databyregion

Ensure you click Local Government Area as the current map layer as it provides great population numbers

Here are some population stats from the so called catchment areas/local government areas for this Western United:.
Knowing Melbourne well I've categorised the LGA's: Main Catchment: 255,322, Regional Catchment 359,542, Secondary Catchment 461,897 & Ambitious Catchment 253,428

Main Catchment: 
Wyndham: 255,322 


Regional Catchments (at this stage without a stadium they're playing here, yet to be seen their involvement with these regions once/if they move into Tarneit
Greater Geelong: 252,217 


Ballarat: 107,325 


Secondary Catchment (Surround Wyndham border but I have question marks mainly due to infrastructure and ease of getting there): 
Hobsons Bay: 96,470 


Melton: 156,713 


Brimbank: 208,714 


Overly Ambitious Catchment (I don't see the connection with Tarneit from these LGA's let alone getting to the home stadium): 
Maribrnong: 91,387 


Moonee Valley: 127,883 


Moorabool: 34,158 
 

Here are some population stats from the so called catchment areas/local government areas for Macarthur FC.
I've categorised the LGA's: Main Catchment: 262,298, Regional Catchment 81,345, Secondary Catchment 275,534 & Ambitious Catchment 373,931

Main Catchment:
Campbelltown: 168,139


Camden:94,159


Regional Catchment:
Wingecarribee: 50,493


Goulburn Mulwaree: 30,852


Secondary Catchment (Both border Campbelltown, I have queries over how much of Liverpool will feel engaged with MFC as I would say most already support WSW and a few Syd FC, however I think Wollondilly is a genuine catchment area):

Wollondilly: 52,230


Liverpool: 223,304


Overly Ambitious (I don't see people from here travelling to CTown hence the overly ambitious catchment, thought about adding Georges River 158,411 & Fairfield 210,612 but didn't):
Canterbury-Bankstown: 373,931

We have to remember that the Macarthur team was formed from combined Macarthur and South West Sydney bids. I argee that Fairfield, Bankstown and Liverpool are firmly Wanderers territory, however their junior infrastructure of those regions will be partly diverted towards the Bulls. Macarthur is a region largely independent of South West Sydney, but I have no doubt there will be plenty of members spread across all regions.

Also it is important to mention that Macarthur, Camden and the surrounding areas are all experiencing population booms that are expected to continue for the next couple of decades.

Macarthur was a far better choice than most people realise (as much as I like Canberra).

Here are some population stats from the so called catchment areas/local government areas for South East Melb/Team 11 playing out of Dandenong training out of Casey:
Knowing Melbourne well I've categorised the LGA's: Main Catchment 506,513, Regional Catchment 293,048, Secondary Catchment 248,965 & Ambitious Catchment 680,569

Main Catchment:
Greater Dandenong: 166,094


Casey: 340,419


Regional Catchments: (Baw Baw and Larobe share a major freeway and train line to Dandenong + It would be smart to have a playing presence at Morwell which sits inside Latrobe)
Mornington Peninsula: 165,822


Baw Baw: 52,015


Latrobe: 75,211


Secondary Catchment: (much more likely to gain catchment from Cardinia than Frankston due to the train line but both can sit comfortably within the secondary catchments)
Cardinia: 107,120


Frankston: 141,845


Overly Ambitious Catchment (This is where, even someone like me who is a massive believer in this bid, struggle to accept big numbers will support this team. I'll break down why)
- Glen Eira - It's true the train line runs through here but in most cases people that live here support victory (less so city) and are far more comfortable to travel into Richmond station (AAMI PARK) as opposed to travelling out to Dandenong.
- Monash - Same is true here, people here feel much more inclined to travel into the city. You may get some from the very south east of this LGA gravitate to a SEM team
- Knox - Not great public transport options to DNong(only busses) I can only make a case for the very southern tip of this LGA
- Kingston - Different train line, their one takes them straight to Richmond station(AAMI PARK) and although close, people would have to bus/drive

Glen Eira: 153,858


Monash: 200,077


Knox: 163,203


Kingston: 163,431

Yeah, it's the Camden and western part of Liverpool that is going to explode, I drove the Northern Road between Penrith and Campbelltown today and the amount of infrastructure that is going in around the airport site is insane.

Population in Liverpool is 227,312 and predicted growth of 8,000 pa. over the next 22 years.
Population in Camden is 107,004 and predicted growth of 7,400 pa. over the next 17 years.
Population in Campbelltown is 171,240 and predicted growth of 6,100 pa. over the next 17 years,
Population in Wollondilly is 52,877 and predicted growth of 2,800 pa. over the next 17 years.

Thats a total of 558,000 in that area and another 413,000 predicted by 2036.

Based on the number of football clubs in the region that population growth is enough to see 2 new football clubs start every year and see many of the 50 clubs in the region grow significantly from the current 370 players per club average.

You guys are really stupid! Just because a area has a high growth rate you think they will follow a HAL club or should get one in that region. Just look at WU ffs with its 4k crowds.

They don't understand that a football club isn't a McDonald's franchise.

Well, I know more people there eat good food than in Adelaide. 

No one here is saying that a high growth rate guarantees a successful club. There are other pieces that need to be put into place for that to happen.
What we are saying is that areas that will be larger in the future will have little competition from other sportnig codes, and are more likely to have young-middle age families with middle class-level income. This is the ideal target market and should heavily guide investment into the future.

Citing WU who are not currently playing in their proposed home is pointless...

don't listen to oldconvict. he's the troll No Mates. areas of high growth rates means an increase of immigrants from a country where football is number 1. there are no guarantees, but is clearly increases your potential for growth. he wouldn't have a clue about the demographics of Western Melbourne or SW Sydney.

The majority of immigrants settling in these growth areas one could safely assume are from India and China where they basically don't give a flying fuck about football. Unless a Messi or Salah decides to play for the local HAL franchise they probably never will either. Too much delusion and fantasy about how popular football is or its 'massive potential for growth' in this country. Far too much competition and forces working against it. The game needs to be pragmatic and realistic. 

SMFC has already stolen my thunder above.

I saw a stat recently, in relation to Tarneit, or the whole of Whyndam council, I can't remember the exact figure, but people of Indian descent made up a huge chunk of the population, it was something like 18%, or 20%, or something similar.

This wasn't the percentage of the numbers making up the growth, this was the percentage of the actual population right now.

I know a lot of people from Chinese and Vietnamese heritage and they all love football. Your point about India is correct, but it is a growing sport there.

I like your posting of recent times @bettega, but you're wrong on this. Indians are mad for football. not as much as cricket, but still mad. I can see the Indian community making up a lot of WU's supporter base. 

Migration is only a part of growth in Sydney.  Much of the growth in the growth areas is transfer growth of young people from the older areas looking for a place they can afford.

In Macarthur the current population is 330k and is growing by 15.5k pa.  The effect of this population growth in a fairly strong football region where 3.2% of the population are registered players (Melbourne 1.0%, Australia 2.2%) is rapid expansion of the player base.  As an example the newest fully occupied suburb, Harrington Park, has a population of 14k and has a football club with 883 registered players which translates to 6.3% of the population being registered players  Although only a bit over a decade old it is the 3rd biggest club in the Macarthur Football Association area.  Just a bit north of it is the partially developed suburb of Oran Park.  It has a current population of 13k and it has the 4th biggest club that was only started in 2014 with 3 teams that now has 800 registered players which translates to 6.2% of the population being registered players.  There is another grassroots sporting complex being developed so there is room for another club soon to cater for continued population growth in Oran Park.  I could go on but suffice to say that every new precinct in the growth area has provision for at least 1 grassroots football complex and the larger precincts will have 2 or more so there is planned ongoing provision for the expansion of football over the next 20 years that could see an extra 15k pa playing our game in 20 news clubs and the 22 existing clubs in the Macarthur region.

The key to the Macarthur Bulls impact in the region is that it's Board has a lot of experience and strong links at the community grassroots level, at District Association level and at NPL level and sees each level as equally important to the health and growth of the game in the region.  If the Board continues in the direction of working together in the region the club should facilitate growth over and above what would be achieved without it and if the club is seen working strongly and supporting all parts of the game then that should engender support for the club.

In any type of enterprise you only ever get one chance to make a good and positive first  impression. WU have screwed it up big time. It's a disaster that was so easy to predict  The facts speak for themselves with WU. Absolute minimal impact but that's what you get when the investors main motivation is not football but rather making millions from some dodgy land deal with the local council and treating the football loving public out there like fucking idiots. WU or Team11 should only ever been included once any stadium and surrounding infrastructure was ready. This eould have legitimized them big time. Fans would have something tangible to identify with. Even myself would have applauded this. 

This is not necessarily a right or wrong scenario, it merely shows the complexities. 
I would go as far as to venture that the immigrants of today do not have the same relationship with football as the immigrants of the 50s and 60s.
Going back to that period, not only did those immigrant groups create clubs which became football powerhouses, the clubs were important focal points for those immigrants and many of those clubs (but not all) survive to this day.
When we look at the immigration patterns commencing 1980 - how many of those immigrants created powerhouse football clubs?
Off the top of my head, I cannot think of one single club.
So we can point to dozens upon dozens of clubs from the late 50s to the late 60s, but we can't point to anything from1980 onwards.

I agreed with just about everyone's reaction where they were good enough to be given a licence, however entry should have been delayed 2-3 years to give them time to build. I tolerated the news that they were coming in immediately and were to play out of regional facilities far away from their target market. When they announced their bs plastic club name I let out a huge groan. I had heard that the poll was fake and considering such a garbage name was chosen I wouldn't be surprised if it were true. Colours are good. Results on the field are good. Beginning crowds are just ok. Talks of downsizing to smaller grounds are predictable.

They haven't fallen apart yet and in the coming months once news regarding the stadium come to fruition (and there is no current sign of this not happening) then things will look better. They still need to change the name to something the people can identify with. 'Western' in a city on the east side of the country. Go figure.

How many immigrants of 1980 onwards created powerhouse cricket clubs here? Immigrants come from all parts here so its not mainly one demographic.

The discussion is about football.  The immigrants of the 50s and 60s created powerhouse football clubs, many survive to the present day, and these clubs were the backbone of  the golden generation.

Would a northern Sydney team work playing out of Pittwater park for the NSD? It’s Northern Spirit’s old home ground after they left North Sydney Oval.

Wouldn’t a team from there most likely be Manly United playing out of Cromer Park?

Also looks good, wonder if there will be a push for Northern Sydney

is there any idea how many Sydney Fc members come from the the northern region?

the obvious suggestion is to relocate CCM there. that would give sydney 1 team in the north, 1 team in the west, 1 team in the SW, and SFC to represent the south. 

They can relocate the sauce bottles too don't forget.

Not sure.

In a random survey I was talking with a guy from there in Russia. From him and his 7 mates - he and 2 more CCM, 1 SFC others not interested.

Couldnt support city team he said.

I live on the northern beaches, Manly area and whilst I would love a team. However not sure how well it would work.

Firstly, they would either play out of Brookvale oval (Which would need a big of upgrading and repairs, however is rumoured anyway) or Rat Park which may need to be upsized in the long term.

However I dont think the area would attract consistent crowds and would most definitely eat into a solid chunk of the Sydney FC fan base. I know a lot of people who follow Sydney FC and do travel down and watch a few games per season. However I think Sydney should instead look to bring more games up to the Northern Beaches because for a one off fixture or twice a season they could draw upwards of 18k per game due to the novelty and rarity of team coming up. 

The NSW Waratahs managed a little shy of 20k at a pre season game and almost everyone who I know went does not follow rugby but went for the novelty and one off excitement. The waratahs came again the following year during the season and drew another 17k near capacity crowd. Sydney were due to play a game last season and many people I knew planned on going but unfortunately rescheduled the fixture.