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Later this year, the FFA is likely to unveil the A-League’s eleventh and twelfth franchises. It’s a near-certainty that one of these teams will be handed to the consortium seeking to form a second Victorian club, tentatively known as Melbourne Heart.
“Wait, hold on. What is this? Another team for Melbourne? Don’t they already have Victory? Surely the FFA has rocks in their head!”
Yes there is Victory, but in a sports market the size of Melbourne, games need to be held more regularly than just every second week (or once a month, as has been the case with Victory on occasions).
Having a game a week in Melbourne will keep media interest constant and ensure the A-League doesn’t drop off the radar.
“Yes, but just look at Victory. They are embedded in the Melbourne sporting landscape, how can they bring in a new team five years later?”
Five years may seem big now, but consider this: Liverpool was formed 14 years after Everton. Look at those two now. AC Milan and Inter Milan were formed over eight years apart.
If anything, five years is a relatively healthy gap – putting it off even further could completely jeopardize the notion of a second club altogether.
“Aren’t they going to play out of the same stadium as Victory though? That can’t work, can it? At least the bids surrounding Sydney – West Sydney and the South Coast – appeal to a completely different area than Sydney FC.”
Yes, but what works for Sydney does not necessarily work for Melbourne. Don’t forget venue sharing is commonplace in the AFL – the nine local teams play out of just two stadiums.
It doesn’t seem to bother them. Heck, even Geelong has a couple of home games down the highway each year. It all comes down to Sydney being a more ‘spread out’ city, whereas Melbourne is less so.
“So what’s the deal with this City of Casey place?”
Casey, in the city’s southeast, is where the new club will base its training and administration facilities. But don’t read too much into that. The Hearts consortium is planning to appeal to all of Melbourne.
Where they’re based will be irrelevant.
“Okay, but even those AFL teams you speak of began with suburban – geographically distinct – roots. The only other two-team sport in town, basketball, worked its way to two teams via – now this is kinda funny – the collapsed merger of two rivals being re-born with a completely new and separated brand following a two-year hiatus.”
Ah, now we’re getting to the, err, heart of the problem.
“And that is that the new club doesn’t have any fans?”
Not yet, anyway. I don’t think the message to get out of examples so far is that geography is the all-important deciding factor. But there certainly does need to be something to ‘get the ball rolling’, so to speak. Without this, the new club is destined to fail.
“So just where is this un-tapped audience hiding?”
The bulk of the club’s fan base isn’t going to come from Victory fans because their club has served them so well (although signing Fred might help).
And even though the World Cup conveniently wraps up within months of this new club’s debut, the Socceroos bandwagon jumpers won’t provide much of a stable fan base either (although signing Viduka, Grella or Bresciano might help).
The biggest un-tapped audience right now? The Euro-lovers. These guys are passionate about the game, but need the encouragement.
“Oh, good luck getting the Euro-lovers off their couches. The A-League is no EPL, remember.”
It’s not impossible.
Sydney FC have shown players (and even coaches) of international renown, such as Dwight Yorke and Juninho, successfully got these fans through the gates. Who knows what the crowds would’ve been like had they got the rest of their house in order?
“So basically, they need to be a ‘bling’ club?”
I think the signing of players (and maybe even coach) is where the learning from Sydney FC should end. Community engagement is a must, and there is enough room in a city as big as Melbourne to manage this between two clubs.
But the bling tag would certainly contrast to the way Victory operates, and it seems to be creating a lot of hype on the Gold Coast, so it could prove useful.
Needless to say, if they stand still and just ‘blend in’, you’d have to wonder if that proverbial ball will ever start rolling.
“And once the ball is rolling, the rest will take care of itself?”
I doubt there’s anyone who thinks the A-League in Melbourne has reached its pinnacle. Some optimists will tell you the Victory will be on par with some of the stronger AFL clubs before too long.
In the meantime, it’s about finding a place for all these new fans to go.
Then hopefully one day, we’ll have our very own Merseyside Derby right here in our own backyard.