Is the A-League rushing towards expansion?

Good point Big Sam, I guess. But I still think it's chicken and egg stuff. Their support won't grow until the game becomes main stream media. NRL and AFL dominate sports shows on radio every weekend, and have several hours mid week both on free to air and pay tv, not forgetting the back pages in print media. That's main stream. It's in your face, but you have to search to find anything more than a few minutes on the A League.

If the A-League wants to get on free-to-air TV then they're going to have to accept a much reduced media deal in terms of dollars - which would mean slashing salaries across the A-League. Is that really a viable option for a fledgling league?

There hasn't been a new team in the AFL for 13 years! In that time we've probably had 16 NSL or A-League teams come in! Many have now gone - and yet you accuse the AFL of expanding too fast?? Too fast?? Nothing for 13 years!!! That is a crazy opinion. Besides, there are Australian Football clubs in Sydney that have been playing for 100+ years - why wouldn't the AFL put a new team in there?

This is dead right though I think it is easier said than done. The FFA certainly didn't have the starting capital to start 8 new clubs initially. I think as a second best option they should insist on syndicates of smaller scale businessman that are evidently intent opn creating community based clubs rather than granting licences to one almighty wanker of a man, like they did with palmer

In 5 years Heart / Victory will be the biggest rivalry in the league

Talking about GWS.

Both RL and AFL have had enormous failures in the past due to attempts to expand because of prestige. RU has put itself in a spot regarding depth which has led toa few lean years. Some would argue that that rapidd expansion has been due to a desire for prestige and has caused real damage. um, does it make it ok because other codes have done it? Consolidate. Start getting regular crowds of 25,000 for the big sides like Sydney so that MV don't hold up the league average. Act when the base for expansion is secure.

This doesn't stop other sports.

expansion of clubs is one thing, but its expansion of fans that's needed. A chicken and egg trick, I know, but neither will happen until potential fans get to see games on a regular basis, and that won't happen until free-to-air tv show a few games, and the a-league becomes a regular feature on radio and other media. Arouse the interest, then we can talk about who's deserving of a team.

Given that every team seems to need its own billionaire now, I guess expansion will be limited by the number of billionaires with the requisite multi million dollar spare pocket money. Lest we forget all that nonsense about Tasmania's billionaire sheik.

I don't think expansion is a good idea right now. It seems to have much more to do with prestige rather than demand.

Of course they are up when you play more games. On average they have dropped though.

The pit falls for the A-Leauge are not with expansion, in my view. They are with the ownership structure. The private ownership model has failed dismally in Australia; and not just becasue sporting teams invariably spend more than they make. Private ownership gives the wrong incentives to management - generally, this means short term success in an effort to generate profits, at the expense of long term strategies to build a supporter-base and onfield success over a long period of time. Any new teams should be set up as genuiine not-for-profit clubs, with membership like in the AFL. They should be subsidised by the FFA, not sold to a bunch of rich jock-sniffers.

No way we should consider a national draft. The onus should be on the clubs to identify and develop talent within their ranks. Football has a huge raft of development strategies in place, and this notion of bringing in a draft to me is a foreign concept that works in sports with a more limited global marketplace. I disagree that the NYL has been unsuccessful in identifying talent. Look at how many Brisbane Roar players, how many Sydney FC players have come from their NYL ranks. Some of these players have then gone overseas (the Roar trio to Utrecht, Vidosic to Nurnberg, etc), while a number of players at the other clubs have come through and started playing for the first team regularly. As for expansion, softly softly might be the way to go. However, the chances of a bid like Canberra's being up to standard are high, given the effort that has gone into their bid already (including significant community engagement), and where a bid ticks all of those boxes (unlike the Rovers bid, which is only ticking those boxes as they go) PRIOR to being granted a licence, then I reckon that any time is the right time. So, my point on expansion is, I suppose, that where a bid ticks all the boxes, regardless of the FFA timeline, then serious consideration should be made to bringing them in. If it means we have 13 teams in 2013, so be it. We'll have 11 this season, so it's no drama. If it means Tassie and Canberra enter at the same time, and the 'Gong comes in the following year, cool. But make sure the sponsors, the investors, everyone, is bedded down to 2-3 year contracts so that we don't have the kind of investor walkout that nearly killed the Fury!

Not really, we need those interested in football to also know we have a local competition in Australia that while not as good as the EPL or La Liga is thriving.

I think expansion is great. Supporter numbers as a whole are up and this will only mean better t/v rights. All we need now is teams from Tasmania, Canberra, Darwin and New Caledonia and we will encompass all australia, new Zealand and New Caledonia. Our T/v rights will then generate more demand from tv networks and consequently greater earnings. Next thing we need to do is bring in a National Draught to identify future talent as I don't think the National Youth League has been successful at doing this.

lol i throught that too

In 5 or so year it will most people will follow both as along as sydney dont win again

It's an AIS team that is made up of players from all over. It doesn't represent Canberra at all...but they have their own W league team.

i think canberra DOES field a NYL team in place of the nix, same as the womens comp... also, i think timing is the key... this coming (football) year is the big year to expand, in the lead up to, and the after-glow of the world cup... timing for HAL1 was perfect as anticipation built for the 06WC... and i think that getting people excited about the game is easiest for the world cup. you plug into that excitement, world cup ends at the start of july, then by august we're all bedding into the HAL again, the heart will benefit from an increased exposure and more interest in the game....