It is important to remember that this is the “in principle” agreement not the details yet so very hard to know for sure who the winners and losers will be.
Before we start speculating on all the things that may go wrong it important to acknowledge that the positives. We will now have a league that’s sole role is the success of the league itself and we will have executives who will report into the League Board and whose role will be the good and growth of the league (not football overall). This should not be overstated, for too long Gallop has had to balance the objectives of the League and the FFA.
Transfer fees have been a bug bear of the league for a while now and this will likely be one of the first things that is changed under the new structure. This will path the way for a loosening of salary cap and enable those clubs that have the money to spend it a bit more freely.
Now for the potential stumbling blocks
1. It is interesting that the in principle agreement is talking about a single identify for all three forms of the professional game (A-League, Youth League and W-League). It will be interesting to see if Canberra gets a position in on the board. Do they get a full vote? How will this effect the investment in the womens and youth leagues. If the new structure decided to drop the youth league because it was costing too much for instance, can FFA veto that decision? How would that work if the new structure refused to fund a youth league. I can see this being a potential problem area moving forward.
2. Where does Pro/Rel fit into the equation now. FFA will maintain veto rights but they cannot mandate changes to the league now. Yes FFA could introduce a 2nd Pro/Semi-Pro tier below A-league if they so choose but there is nothing to force the A-league to introduce relegation/promotion. Unless the details include a specific plan for the introduction of pro/rel you would have to say Pro/Rel is looking unlikely at best.
3. With FFA waving the licence fee for the first 4 seasons mean there will likely be a impact on grassroots investment and/or registration fees to cover the gap. I am also concerned at the precedent this sets, I can see a request to wave the fee for further period once the initial 4 seasons is up.
4. With the call out of dividends being mandated to FFA for new teams it seems extremely likely that the growth of the league will continue to be tied directly to large licence fees for the introduction of new teams, as called out above this again reduces the likelihood of pro/rel and a 2nd division. It also continues to lock out the majority of the existing clubs and favours the consortium of investors approach we have seen to date.
5. All of the owners have been focused on a bigger slice of the pie. Yet as a fan of the game, I want more investment in the league itself. Will owners re-invest more money into the league or will they look instead to reduce the losses they are experiencing. This is not a positive or negative but a big unknown.
In the end you cannot have such a significant change without consequences, some of those will be positive and some will impacts in other areas. I still believe its a change that we need to have but as always the devil will be in the detail.

I don’t think its a issue if we have to wait a while for pro/rel. It is much more important that a 2nd Division be created. As logn their is a pathway to pro/rel I can live with that.

What is really really important is that the decision to introduce pro/rel and the processes that go with this are not left in the hands of a independent A-league. If the FFA and the State Feds do not control when and if this will happen make no doubt it will never happen.

For all the calls for A_league owners to be consider what is best for football as a whole no owner in going to vote for a league mechanic that would see their team (franchise) be dropped from the 1 first division. It just will not happen!

More than happy for a independent A-league to control the TV money (albeit with a percentage to be paid back to FFA as a licence fee) and to own the assets directly but there is no way that the league should decide if Pro/Rel will be introduced.

JB
In hindsight I agree with your comments, I could have pushed harder and asked the real question, can football in this country really afford a competition like the A_league where the money is used solely for itself. I think you are right that my last comment was trying to get there but I didn’t hit the mark.

Waz has made some great points that the A-League shouldn’t really have to fund the wider football community but who will? I really hope we don’t end up back in the days pre-2005 where the FFA couldn’t afford 1/2 of the programs they now offer.

B

Waz
I don’t think that signing of a full academy list a negative, however it does concern me this is a point without document addressing the current situation of little to no compensation to grassroots club.

Note that the 90/10 split is for the current deal only and I don’t disagree with that, it does force a significant funding hole that the FFA will need to fill however and people need to be aware of that.

The APFCA document is much about what they haven’t mentioned in it as to what has been proposed.

Yes that word is we will move to 26 games next season, there was talk Fox wanted to go even lower (22 Game season True H/A ) but FFA refused.

You could speculate that the 26 game season is preparing the way for a 14 team comp.

I think the bridge needs work but as a starting point I think its spot on. Using the Ram is a fantastic idea

It’s funny but it is starting to look like Sth West Sydney will select colours and design that I always though West Melbourne should have grabbed. A club could do a lot worse than going with Black and White and a Vasco Da Gama like design. Its a classy combo that you can do a lot with in terms of marketing.

But this article was about the impact expansion will have on TV rights? Very little I would suspect, two additional teams isn’t going to change the landscape significantly. It does provide several more derby like matches would should please the host broadcaster.

However it will be much more important what the league looks like when the next set of negotiations roll around. A independent A_League, 14 teams with a true 26 Round H/A fixture, a 2nd Division with pro/rel. These are the things that will allow a basis for a good broadcast deal moving forward.

Streaming will be a huge topic in the next deal, we are only at the tip of the iceberg in terms of this new media.

“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.”

These media releases are always prepared by marketing departments with the intent to pump up the figures as much as possible. Notice how the AFL always talk about participation not registered players.

Always ignore any media releases from the sporting codes themselves they mean nothing.

I cannot speak for a lot of other posters but I have commented on the name because personally I care about football in this country and because I want this team to survive and provide a incentive for football to grow in this state.
A football club’s name is extremely important it can scream the community it represents, it can provide marketing and branding opportunities, it can be used to bind the fans together.
The issue I have with the cowboys, is they have chosen a name so generic it makes it next to impossible for them to grow with this name. All the marketing so far “We are United”, “We are West” seems very bland. Problem I foresee is they want to embrace Geelong without actually being based on Geelong. To me its over reaching, surely positioning themselves as a West Melbourne team makes more sense. Yes I know the first two years are going to be based in Geelong but its two years people, are they a Geelong team or a West Melbourne team. imo they can’t be both.
Even if that works, what happens if a second tier gets up and a Geelong team pitches for the 2nd Division (yes I know its a big if).
I really hope they are a success, it will be really interesting to see the crowd numbers in their 2nd year in Geelong and then once they move to West Melbourne. I hope I am wrong but I think they are going to find it hard to build a solid base of supporters, just think the name doesn’t help.

Oh dear, I wasn’t being serious. Of course the name stays. I was implying that choosing a name based on a two year temporary stint in another location is a bit silly (as was suggested by the post Pete4).

So this name was put into place for two years? Seems odd

My problem with the name is it is totally meaningless. If you don’t want Melbourne in the name fine, find a name that represents the region you want to represent.

They are falling into the same trap that other “catch all” bids have fallen into ie Southern Expansion), they end up representing nothing by reaching for too much. Wanderers made the right call when they said we want to be a Western Sydney Club.

The problem with this new club has always been is it representing Geelong or West Melbourne? imo They need to decide the now otherwise they will end up with nobody.

Lol worst name ever. It like a committee chose it, a group of people sitting around trying to work out the most generic name possible to not exclude/upset anybody.

Western? Someone explain to be where Western is in Melbourne? Its the same mistake the Western Bulldogs made in the AFL. It’s a football club people it’s suppose to represent a region or area. This name represents nothing.

As for Green and Black? I will wait and see the strip design but I can’t think of a Green/Black strip that looks good. Am really surprised they didn’t go with Black and White (Something along the line of “Vasco Da Gama” would have looked great).

Yes to a degree. I would like to see likely types undergoing specialised coaching similar to what goal keepers receive at a lot of clubs.

At the very least the NC could be updated with a specialised coaching section to tackle some objectives that coaches and clubs could try and achieve with their strikers. Smarter minds than me could surely come up with 4-5 basic strikers skills that could be embedded in the NC.

It a very astute observation Waz.

Thinking about to my son’s teams over the last few years (he plays as a left full back) very little time is spent developing the striker/s. Most of the drills and training focuses in the younger years around first touch, passing, one on one. As the boys have gotten older the drills and training have added elements around space awareness, body shape when receiving the ball and positioning off the ball.

I am not sure the coaches know how to coach strikers, maybe you are right the bigger clubs should be running programs for those boys and girls who show signs of being inclined to the 9 position. Hold up play, decision making, right pass/shot for the right situation, positioning in the box are all lacking.

Toivonen has been amazing this year, his ability to just know when to hold the ball and when a simple flick is a better option is light years ahead of an Aussie striker in the league. His ability to turn and draw defenders but then be aware of his surroundings to provide the right pass. Too often our Aussie strikers have no awareness of their team mates once they turn for the ball.

Wasn’t a great performance but came away with the points. A draw was probably a fairer result, Syria outplayed us in parts and their first half pressure had us making mistake after mistake. Yes the ref was poor but was poor for both teams.
Behich had a shocker I thought, Ryan was average, Maclaren again no impact (how did he miss that header?) , Luongo ineffective and caught out of position constantly.
On the plus side Mabil continues to improve every game. Ikonomidis was good, Irvine was good. Rogic was good in the second half (very average in the 1 st half).
I agree with a lot of the posters above, start Giannou Apostolos instead of Maclaren and I think its time for Luongo to be moved to the bench. Milligan back to midfield.
So we play the loser out of the Japan v Uzbekistan match and a draw means we play Japan? Is that correct?

My Christmas wish is a for the FFA to move to a 14 team league as quickly as possible.

It worries me to already see the FFA back tracking and saying that further expansion needs careful consultation with the existing teams. We need a 14 team 26 game H/A season as soon as humanly possible.

I am happy to wait for the 2nd Div, happy to wait for Pro/Rel but a true H/A season should be a non negotiable. One of them has to be Canberra and the other probably a second Brisbane team (or maybe even Tas). Once we have that then we can start to talk about the next step (2nd Div)

lol and people put way too much trust in “Inside Knowledge”. Of course there will be lots of reports, studies and business case documents that were prepared as a part of the bids. Some of it accurate and some if it absolute rubbish as it would have been prepared to make the case.
There will also be lots of compromises made behind the scenes by stakeholders with different agendas to come together in a single bid. To assume a bid is great because business people know more then we do is flawed thinking.
Was Tarneit chosen because its the best place to put a stadium in the West of Melbourne? Of course not, there will be several factors that were involved. Land Availability, a location that satisfies the majority of the stakeholders in the bid, a location that the real estate investor (who hasn’t been revealed yet) who is going to pay for the stadium can get a return on their money through development etc
So yes the investors will know more, doesn’t mean it was the best decision though.

Mid
I think you make some great points

To be clear, no anger form me that WMG got selected. I think its a great opportunity for Melbourne to get a 15K stadium in somewhere other than the centre of Melbourne.

But I do think there are lots of questions around whether it can work in Tarneit, its a strange choice and it feels like the stakeholders of the bid still want to have a foot in Geelong and Western Melbourne.

I really really hope it works but I think they are grossly underestimating the infrastructure needed out there to make it work. I hope the state government comes to the party in terms of roads and rail.

I agree that Tarneit is a extremely risky choice. A suburb that is not and will not in the foreseeable future (30+ years) be served by the Melbourne MET. They best they could hope for is a rail station on the Geelong VLine line.

A much better choice would have been a stadium at the start of Sayers Rd in Laverton near the Werribee MET Line which will be linked via the Suburban Rail Loop the Andrews government has proposed but hat doesn’t fit with the stakeholders in that bid wanting to include Geelong in their cachment.

Well using that logic why don’t we just add a couple more teams to AAMI and Marvel stadiums, they have the best transport links after all.

A Western Melbourne team is fine the issue is that we have no decent stadium apart from the centralised ones in Melbourne. We desperately need a 15K stadium in both the West and the Sth East so no issue with FFA opting for the privately funded one.

Hopefully the government will come to the party (or we can find some private investors) with the Dandenong stadium in the new few years.

Absolute rubbish, There are plenty of players who could step into the A-league right now and a heap of youngsters sitting on benches not getting a go because the comp is so small.

For two teams the current A-league teams need to give up around 2-3 players each.

Even if you don’t believe that do you really think 1 year makes in difference in uncovering more depth?

Anybody who understands Melbourne has been raising these exact same issues with the WMG bid.

Let me say I wish them all the best but the next 3 years are going to be a real slog for them. I think long term a stadium at Tarneit could be fantastic but as MF said above currently there is nothing there and no real station for public transport as well. Lots of infrastructure has to be developed for it to work.

Playing out of Geelong is a mistake, its like Southern Expansion wanting to play out of Woollongong. Potential Geelong fans are not going to just jump on board of a team called West Melbourne and then after 3 years they are going to pack up and move 40-50 mins Nth-East

As I said above they have 3 years of pain to get through to then hopefully move to their permanent home that hopefully will have the infrastructure in place to make it a success. Maybe they see decent crowds in year 1 but you have to worry about year 2 and year 3. There is a lot of maybes here.

I would also add that a train station at Tarneit is critical to this clubs long term viability, if the only transport there is via Car or Bus they are screwed in the long term.

I don’t think the idea is terrible but I have concerns over their viability in the long term.

They are going to play the first 4 years in Geelong while the new stadium is built and then move out of Geelong into Tarneit. Maybe they can draw 6-7K (maybe 10-12 for the Derbies) while playing in Geelong, but if they are called “West Melbourne” will the Geelong fans become invested in them. Then what happens when they move, will the Geelong fans travel?

Maybe they will pick up in West Melbourne what they lose in Geelong but that is a big if.

I think they have a huge challenge around engagement and identity to overcome. I hope they succeed I really do. Whoever takes on the role of marketing manager for this club has a huge job ahead of them.

Yes but I would think Canberra more likely to be the reserve team than a 4th Melbourne team