Very interesting Mid, thanks for posting.

Can you imagine how much stronger American soccer could be if they where united rather than divided like this?

Anyway, a few months ago the scuttlebutt was that FA are looking to bundle the broadcast rights for Matildas, Socceroos, national youth tournaments, Australia Cup and NSD to a streaming service AND FTA broadcaster...  The info I got was that a fairly well known corporate sponsor was tied into the whole offering and the goal was to maximise free to air reach to drive popularity .... Negotiations were fairly well progressed and I am told an announcement is due in April/May this year..... 

US have done incredibly well with attendance in both teirs
How many clubs own their own stadium?

Interesting news coming from the USA.... understanding the background helps in main part of the post..

Very brief background.
The MLS is a privately owned company whose shareholders are its 30 clubs and is considered the .main US professional competition. The USL is another company with teams and it is considered the second competition a kinda second division.. League 1 is a kida third division.

What separates these companies / leagues is essentially there stadium size and fan base size. Recently USL [United Soccer League] have been building new stadiums from 5k thu to 15K with most being in the 8 to 10 K size.... They also pay their players a reasonable amount.

Lesson and background over .

How does the above relate to the second tier or division in Australia...

Simple USL just signed a major broadcast deal with ESPN, and will go into direct competition to the MLS. 

Imagine if JJ can get a broadcast deal ... very very very interesting article 27 Feb in the US so hot off the press.... 

https://awfulannouncing.com/soccer/usl-espn-cbs-media-rights-2024.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Council owned BT CONNOR.

Preston Lions?

Cant find the old thread
I was curious if any clubs own their stadiums

Looks like adelaide city, sydney unitex, marconi and melbourne knights do

Any others?

The only evidence of a "division" not be able to sustain 12 clubs is the Aleague .....  We wont know how many clubs is sustainable for the NST until it has been running for a few seasons .... Hope it doesn't contract down to 12 or 14 from 16 or whatever but if it needs to, it needs to.....  Only important thing is that it exists at the national level "peak" of the NPLS and all other leagues below it.... We need to filter players upwards.... not overseas.

I would assume that it would be the other way around mate.. No club from NPL can be promoted unless they are willing/able to pay the license fee...... 

That sounds like what Japan did, the J Leagues are pretty successful and in a country where football isn’t the number one sport.

Before the ‘negative nellies’ get in with their …’ but Japan is a small country with a bigger population’ … the JFA had a plan and stuck to it, something Football Australia is now coming to grips with.

I say give it a chance!

No evidence that the any Division can support 12, let alone 16.

Full pyramid allows for quick, fair, transparent and merit based movement when required.

We could have a structure similar to Brazil where there is no P/R between non professional leagues and professional leagues.  We could expand both professional leagues to 16 clubs each then add a third one and build it up to 16 clubs over time if demand was there.  All professional leagues would be required to have P/R.

I kind of expect some odd compromise like - liscensed clubs cant drop below the second division

Licenses will no doubt get extended again long before then

And how many times does it need to be stated that the Licenses allow for P/R

2034 is a Hoax

Bentleigh have put their hand up. They have a tiny stadium with a small fan base so not sure how they'll go 

A pyramid has to be connected at all levels. One level influences the other from top to bottom.

Without full P&R, the pyramid can never be complete because there is a disconnect. That's how I see it and what I meant.

I'm not all that against waiting it out until 2034 to give the current AL clubs the full value of their license. They made the investment and like it or not, they're the reason we have professional footballers at the moment. The key is to give a hard date for everyone to work towards. If the AL clubs get to that point and haven't even done the simple things like started a revenue producing social club to subsidise their operations, then that's their problem. So why not lock in 2034, and if the majority are ready ealier, then bring it in. And if they're not ready in time, they were warned and it's their problem.

NST is worthwhile on the basis that more young players will be playing at a higher standard of football than currently and they will be training and playing in a professional environment.  Hopefully they will be playing more games than they are now also.  

I think that getting P/R between the NST and the NPL can wait 2 or 3 years to get the NST bedded down.  Getting the Domestic Transfer System operating across the whole of the pyramid is a higher priority than anything else in my view.  Getting talented players moving up the pyramid by transfer gives us a lot of the benefit of having a connected pyramid.  Of course P/R including with the ALM is the ideal but I can't see that happening as quickly as some might want.

So how would Pro/Rel work then??

There absolutely needs to be Pro/Rel for an NST to be even remotely worthwhile. 

Better off having the entire football landscape from top to bottom being played in Winter. Makes everything so much more sustainable. 

I honestly think the crowds wouldnt be affected that much. Going form 5k to 4k isnt that big of a deal. 

And Squidly, no I doubt AL will change to winter they can have the summer comp besides NST will be that’s sure with the rest of community football as currently is.

So good seeing some posters calling out the negative and one at times the smug one.
True the financials for some clubs will be a struggle that what  the process is in finding and confirming those that are viable to start and others who are not will know what they need for the future.
This is the next big thing to occur in our game get bloody behind it instead finding the holes - that’s the FA’s job wouldn’t you think ffs.

I don't think anyone has a problem with questioning whether this model is financially sustainable. But conspiracy theory stuff like this - the idea that FA are deliberately "rigging" it so it fails - doesn't help.

We already have a pyramid.  It just doesn't have P/R in all of it.

There you go with your negativity again Paul. Let the thing get going and see what happens from there on in, as others have said if we don’t try we will never know.

Same way most clubs do it. Investment from owners. Sponsorship money. Membership sales. Merch sales. Broadcast related revenue. Transfer/loan fees (we need a proper transfer system in this county). That's just the football side of things. Then there are social clubs, many of which are highly lucrative and could stand alone without the football club, especially the ones that have pokies. Clubs that own their venue may rent it out for special events, especially the ones that have proper function rooms. These are just a few things off the top of my head. Many of these clubs survived having their league abolished and yet are still fine. I'm sure some of the applicants won't be able to meet financial requirements right now, but that is why the FA are going through the tender process. Remember both Sth Melbourne and Wollongong had a genuine crack at aleague expansion and made the final shortlists, which had way higher financial requirements than the proposed NST will have. A bunch of the clubs on that list are in a very similar shape to SM and Wolves. The rumoured financial requirements are very reasonable for a league that is to sit between the NPL and the AL. 

There won't be pyramid in a long, long time.

In all honesty i can actually see the A-league being the one that moves to winter to tie in line with the "Pyramid" 

Makes absolutely zero sense, apart from the A-league running scared from the AFL and the NRL, to continue in summer. 

March 2024 start mooted

JJ really nailed it. It's a pleasant surprise. This is something to expect when you gothrough the EOI process. There's this idea of where you expect the strong bids to come from, but there's the potential that one you've never heard of to shoot to the front. A lot will of course come out in the details about whether the bid is sound or not. But as you say, you've got two up front positives: backing and ground, that's at the very least a good start. With that bedded down, it's kind of up for the Sutho bid to shoot themselves in the foot after that.

Is there any mention of what time of the year the NST will take place? If its a true NST it will have to run over summer, parallel to the A-league wouldnt it?

If there is any hope of Pro/rel the leagues at least need to match up timing wise. Complete circus if it doesnt. 

I'll be shocked if the Cronulla Sharks bid doesnt get through.to win a spot in the NST. 

You would imagine a stadium deal is part of the agreement, as well as some financial backing. 

Would be one of, if not the, frontrunner.