A world where your club played all codes

Scott B, The Canterbury Bulldogs have previously had the UTS Olympic football team and the West Sydney Razorbacks basketball side under their roof. They were seen as a way on all parties using the same gym and grounds (not the basketballers obviously) as a cost sharing scheme. The Olympic deal failed due to a lack of crowd support but I wonder whether it would be diifferent with an A-League franchise.

Redb - basically I agree and that's why I said the impact would not be so much in terms of 'top line' fan base, more the cost/resource/facilities side. However, still, if there was a Paris St Germain AFL team as an appendage to the football club, I'd still prefer them to win than anyone else and might take that little bit more notice of how they were going (eg through club newsletters etc). Plus surely to some extent a whole club would celebrate the successes of any of its teams. So I agree with you that it wouldn't be a huge positive in terms of fan passion, but surely not a negative either...

Millster, Shared facilities make sense until the infighting between sports casues problems voer who gets more funding,access to fund raising,etc. As a parent I've been invovled with a well known junior basketball club where there was division between the boys and girls clubs. As a test, would you soccer fans interested in Australian Rules footy if Chelsea, Man U, Liverpool Arsenal created Aussie Rules clubs in the UK. Would fans of Chelsea, Man U follow the Aussie Rules club? I doubt it. As i said most fans follow only one football code with passion. Redb

RedB - I don't think the advantage would be in top-line fan base, maybe a bit with a few of the people strongly wedded to one sport a club plays 'spilling' into the excitement around good performance in another (e.g. the core AFL base getting into the spirit if Collongwood Juventus FC or the Collingwood Lacrosse Thunderbirds were to make a GF). Where the real benefit is will be the cost line not the revenue line. Shared facilities with better rates of utilisation, shared administration, having a common strategy for lobbying across the various sporting bodies in which the club is involved, one membership pool (perhaps with subsets for each sport), ability to leverage supplies and services, ability to share the more 'generic' parts of coaching and training (e.g. strength and conditioning coaches). Probably tons more again but for me that's the real benefit of the idea.

Marginal advantage at best. Most fans are not multi football codes supporters. You might get 10-20% if your lucky. Redb

Well - - football in Sheffield and Melbourne was begun by cricketers.

Quite a few of the big football clubs in Europe have basketball teams too. I think they have some pretty big games in the Euroleague although I don't know if any of them are as good at basketball except for CSKA maybe.

Simon radical idea re MFC. I know that quite a few clubs started life doing one sport, or a combo of sports, only to end up becoming famous for football - AC Milan comes immeditely to mind, but I know there are many others.

They've also tried it in other non-competing sports. Didn't the Sydney Swifts and Melbourne Pheonix have pretty strong alignments to the Swans and Demons respectively. And the MCC has clubs in lots of different sports, including lacrosse and baseball all playing in its traditional blue and red colours. Nevertheless these were all miserable failures. And they do it at lower levels. From memory didn't the Sydney AFL have a Panthers team with an affiliation to the Penrith Panthers at one stage ? I don't think it ever works. But what about switching codes ? I've often thought that the Melbourne Football Club would be much more viable if it played in the A-League. But then again, you'd be throwing away a traditional connection to a code which has been there since the start - 150 years. The up side is that the club might last another 150 years - albeit playing another sport.

Bricks the impossible can happen over time, miracles take a little longer!

I am aware of what you meant, and I chose to ignore it. All this time I had hoped that enough exposure to the more enlightened northern point of view may have updated your thinking, alas it is not the case.

Bricks heh, heh - I'm sure you're aware that I was being a bit more than mischievous by my reference to the three delightful localities I mentioned!

Pipps, Don't forget the Inner West, a high proportion of SFC comes from the glorious heart of Sydney. If only we could convince my fellow Leichhardtians to follow suit, we may even crack 15k!

Iam into multi-sports club on a grass roots base unless it's Soccer and Rugby as it just doesn't when part of the clubhouse want Soccer on the tv and the other Rugby.

Good point dasilva. Scotty the 2nd Melbourne and Sydney teams are virtually done deals, barring a major hiccup. However, you make a good point, if we ever went to a 2nd divvie (big if mind you), there may come a time where what you're talking about might work, and most certainly, the FFA may need to loosen its restrictions on "ethnic" clubs. What other 2nd divvie club is going to draw 10,000 to a game?

I like the idea. Maybe it could work, this time 'round. Graciously, The Bear

Wondering though The paramatta power, collingwood and Carlton experimented. Did they fail because the concept was poor or because it was the NSL and just being a club in an NSL means a high probability of failure

I dont think a new Melbourne team should be created. Rather, one that comes from a pre-existing club. I always thought Melbourne should of had 2 teams to begin with (e/w, n/s, or inner/greater), likewise in Sydney. I think you will just end up with a situatuion like the South Queensland Crushers in Brisbane (League). Nobody goes, nobody cares. Im sure the profile of football has grown enough to give it another shot. But where will you get the new teams from? (if you ever want a 2nd division) with relegation/promotion. If a second Melbourne team is "created", they may get fans. But, the first teams will be bigger. Lazio competes in 37 sports. But then again, it was founded as a sports club. Does it come down to loving your club or sport. If eg. Essendon had a club, sure, only pre-existing fans would support them. At the same time. Fans from all the other AFL clubs wouldnt, giving more support to victory

This sort of concept only works at a 'local' level - - certainly not around privately owned franchises.................rather around local communities such that, for example - - the footy club, cricket club and netball club all share the same recreation reserve, the same club rooms etc..........because, both the reserves and the sides ARE the community and it's assets. That was part of the problem when basketball came along, suddenly you had an enclosed sports hall most often removed from the main recreation reserve and suddenly there was a 'split' in the community. On that front, you can't project this sort of model onto a Carlton, Collingwood etc (as Pip said, tried and failed) - - - but, could you in Townsville? Wollongong? Geelong?

Parrmatta Power failed IMO because they were part of the Parrmatta rugby league club. Tried before does not work ...never will.