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There are plenty of locations that could host an A-League team but the formal bids could give the best indication of where they will be.
An article in the Sydney Morning Herald highlighted the fact that none of the five formal A-League bids have come from Sydney.
According to the SMH article, sources suggest that the FFA is curious about having a presence in the three future Sydney CBDs which have been outlined in the “Towards our Greater Sydney 2056” plan.
There will be Sydney FC in the east, the Wanderers in Parramatta and a third team somewhere in the west, possibly beside the new airport in the greater western city.
So if Sydney is off the table for now, then you have to look at the formal bids.
They include Tasmania, Geelong, South Melbourne, the Brisbane Strikers, and the Wollongong Wolves.
Dandenong-Casey has also indicated they will make a formal bid very soon.
Tasmania
Tasmania has strong financial backing and will have a fan ownership model for the club.
The bid team is acutely aware of the weakness that playing on ovals would cause to their bid. With that in mind, there’s a belief that a 10-15 thousand seat stadium in the Domain could be in the works.
$40 million is how much is said to be required in order to make the stadium a reality. The understanding is that along with the bid consortium, the intention would be for the stadium to be paid for by both federal and state government.
Brisbane Strikers
A team needs to tap into a strong sense of community identity to attract fans.
I don’t think a joint Ipswich-Logan-Toowoomba team will manage to do that.
Wollongong Wolves
Wollongong Wolves have the backing of the billionaire boss of WIN Television, Bruce Gordon.
Wollongong has a separate identity from Sydney and this will only become more apparent as Sydney continues to grow in population and political influence.
Geelong
Geelong has a strong sense of identity and would be a great addition to the league, with the area having a rapidly growing interest in the sport.
The bid team is consulting with architecture firm Populous to build a new 15,000 seat football stadium.
South Melbourne
South Melbourne are good at making noise and talking themselves up.
Yet, does the substance match the hype?
There’s no doubt they have a strong supporter base but their stadium could be a major sticking point.
The seats at the stadium are roughly 30 metres away from the pitch on either side, so they are 60 metres further apart than they would be in a purpose built stadium.
In short, it’s as bad as an oval.
Dandenong-Casey
South-east Melbourne has a population the size of Adelaide and it is still growing.
Dandenong itself is the most multicultural council in Victoria and a team here will unite the whole community behind it.
The fact that the six largest clubs in the area and three councils are all behind the bid gives it great strength.
If the bid is successful, the team will play at a 20,000 seat football specific stadium and the club will have a fan ownership model.
If the FFA are thinking strategically about Melbourne the same way as they are about Sydney in terms of placing teams in future CBDs, then this gives the edge to Dandenong.
>strong>My prediction
The next two teams will be based in Tasmania and Wollongong.
Tasmania has the financial backing and will have government support in good times and bad, so this is a blue chip bid.
Additionally, Wollongong were twice NSL champions and have the backing of Bruce Gordon.
The next two teams will be South East Melbourne and Geelong.
Including Geelong and South East Melbourne will increase the A-League’s presence in Victoria to four teams, which will create more derbies than a second team in Brisbane.
Timeframe
While the current TV deal would make introducing the teams in twos more likely, there could also be an outside chance of adding all four teams at once.
The pressure that’s building to finally end the farce of making teams play each other three times a season – not to mention having a six-team finals series in a ten-team competition – is now becoming a deafening roar.
A 14-team competition would be a much better product and wouldn’t have a ratings slump towards the end of the season.
If TV networks are prepared to back a 14-team league in the future then maybe they would be willing to bring forward their funding to have four new teams next season.
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