Consolidate A-League, don't expand it

'Consolidation' in other words contraction. The A-League should have gone into soccer regions in the first place, not Gold Coast, Townsville etc.. You could get 3 or 4 teams in Melbourne and Sydney easily enough.

RB you make very valid points about the differences b/w Japan & Australia in terms of geography. I think you underestimate the level of popularity of baseball in Japan. The Nippon Professional Baseball League attracts the 2nd highest total crowds in the world. In 2009, 22.4m people attended the 846 matches, with average crowds of 26k. Seems like a stronger rival for football in Japan than anything we confront in Australia. PS: your writing style is very similar to another Roar poster - My Left Foot (aka Mister Football). Albeit you are much more football friendly! :-)

FF You are correct in saying there is not a 100% correlation between the two scenarios - when we review business case reports, to make comparisons and try to leverage lessons from past, there rarely is 100% correlation. The similarities include: a) no professional league (the NSL was never fully professional) b) fans were few and grounds not high quality c) National team failing to perform d) within 3 years of the new league formation, attendances fall rapidly from 19k in Yr2 to 10.1k in Yr 4 (sound familiar?) e) crowd decline blamed on rapid expansion f) all clubs "bleeding money" g) club revenue highly reliant on on source of income from a corporate sponsor & suffered when sponsors hit financial difficulties I do agree with your points of difference - and, you are right, they are significant: 1. one FTA game each week in Japan 2. concentrated geographical spread We certainly can't fix point 2, but point 1 may well be fixed in the next TV deal - I'd be happy to have just 1 game live each week on FTA. I certainly don't think we need all games on FTA - sport needs to be on a specified sport channel and, with the likely demise of OneHD, Fox is the only option in Australia.

Japan has over 100 million people in an area about the size of Victoria, with th only sporting rivals being Sumo wrestling and baseball, in other words, we're talking low hanging fruit here and shooting fish in a barrell

@Fussball - the wiki page seems to indicate that the clubs that made up the J-League came from the JSL. First major departure from the FFA's plan of non-inclusivity. Second, it said that one game each week was televised nationally (I am guessing on FTA?). That's another marked difference. Third, they decided to make very strong bonds with the grassroots and (included them in) a two-tiered competition. I'm not sure if Australia has the population density or correct geography for a two tiered comp with promotion and relegation. Maybe in dense city areas. But as seen with Townsville, all the goodwill in the world can't make you cash positive unless there are enough people going to games (or a whopping big Fox deal to pay teams to run around for the benefit of TV viewers). What do you think?

Wello, not a bad article although this subject has been done to death. The passion for expansion came from the FFA I think. Also, the first years with a limited number of teams became a bit repetitive. However, rather than rushing into new frontiers like GC and NQ, where the FFA's questionable "business model" can't succeed, they should have focussed all their attention on second teams in places like Sydney and Melbourne and marketed the buggery out if it. Instead....epic fail.... Given the FFA's penchant for bumbling, it'll be amazing if our fledgling A-League survives. I hope so.

The FFA will devote its full attention to the A-League...with the exception of the 2015 Asian Cup ;-) I actually think it'll be amazing and very financially advantageous for the A-League having the 2015 Asian Cup during the A-League season. All the tourists (travelling football fans) who come to Australia for the Asian Cup will get a chance to watch some A-League too, which means bigger crowds, more exposure and more money for the clubs :-)

Just had a brief introduction to the "history of the J-League" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._League_Division_1) and ... it was a surreal experience - there are numerous parallels with the development of the A-League. Whilst my briefing came via Wikipedia, it would be hugely informative if someone, who has a sound knowledge of Japanese football, could give us an outline of how the J-League came to be so successful - on the pitch, in the stands & in the back-office. In a strange way, I reckon - for the long-term development of the HAL - it is, perhaps, a blessing that we didn't win the hosting rights to WC2022. The euphoria surrounding that event & the enormous amount of preparation that would be required over the next 10 years, would have hidden the structural defects that need to be fixed to get the A-League back on track. The J-League took around 15 years to get things right so, if the FFA now devotes its full attention to the A-League, I have no doubt we could have the best football league in Asia by 2022.

Western Sydney Wanderers/Rovers/Wombats? (my own suggestion), whatever you like to call them need to come in. The A-League is better with 12 teams and not 10 so keep North QLD Fury in too. What message are we sending out if we cull Nth QLD Fury within two years of their existence? That's disgraceful if it happens. Give the teams, as well as the A-League some time to find their feet before expanding or culling unnecessarily. North Queensland Fury can maybe change their name to Northern Fury or North Australian Fury to represent more than just Townsville. They can play 5 games in Townsville, 5 in Cairns, 3 in Darwin, 1 in Mackay and 1 Rockhampton = 15 next season and when the Western Sydney team come in and there's 33 games per season they can play the extra 2 games in Mackay and Rockhampton! So in 2012/2013 season it'll be: 5 in Townsville, 5 in Cairns, 3 in Darwin, 2 in Mackay, 2 in Rockhampton! If Cairns isn't interested enough and doesn't get good crowds then give them 4 games and 6 to Townsville since that's where the club's offices are based... Yes, it's all easier said than done, but it's not impossible!! With the right marketing tools and advertising mediums, reaching maximum readers, viewers and listeners and making them aware of when their team is playing, a team in Northern Australia CAN work!!

The FFA needs to sort out ownership issues for all exisiting clubs before expanding again. The next for years will be transformation for the a-league from new and shiny, to an established National league. It will be the same as it was for the J-league and MLS. The utopia of 2nd division, promotion relegation etc etc. should be a long term goal to be achieved in 30-50 years. Building a National football pryamid ( a very short and wide one by european standards) needs to start from the grass roots and work its way up. This can be achived with a lot less dollars than artically creating a 2nd teir league from scratch. If the FFA can get this fundamentals in place (via the states) then expansion can happen with the support of a strong foundation.

Wello good article, with all codes seeminly intent on expansion the A-League seems to be trying to follow suit. NQF will cease to exist at the end of this season bringing back an even number of teams and no bye round. Hopefully this allows the FFA to fix the scheduling that bordered on stupid this year with some teams having played up to 3-4 games more than other teams. If a new franchise is going to come into the league the guidelines need to be very specific about the initial funding, ongoing funding and where this club will be growing their revenue base from.

A second team in Western Sydney could work, but where is the funding model? Sydney Rovers were a sham, and after the way the FFA questionably awarded the license while barely considering the other (some would say significantly BETTER) models means there will be caution in other groups coming forward again. The bye isn't the worst thing in the world. With the number of midweek games, it does give teams the week off to refresh their squads. But the key, as you said, is marketing. It's very hard to be expansive in 500 words, but marketing at families, kids and supporters of "old soccer" needs to be done. The FFA needs to put their money where their mouth is and chuck some decent coin into marketing.

I agree with the article, but the attempts at humour fall a bit flat. It also over-simplifies the case for expansion.

Agree with many of your points, Wello but I'm not sure of the validity of your underlying premise that "the majority of football fans have suggested, expansion is the way forward...". Sure, there are some, who talk about a future promotion/relegation system, but I don't think you will find (m)any football fans who want this to happen NOW. At the most, football fans want a 2nd team in Western Sydney because: a) it makes sense to have 2 Sydney teams b) Western Sydney is the (or, one of the) highest football participation regions in Australia and c) it gets rid of the dreaded "bye" for one team every round The only thing the HAL needs is more crowds at SOME - not all, but some - matches and, as you rightly mentioned, this will be facilitated by improved marketing and, in my opinion, TARGETED marketing at those, who follow football every week, but have not yet "purchased" the A-League product.

Re the Fury, they were reasonably competitve for most of the two seasons, but once it became obvious that they were on the way out, the players dropped their bundle and copped some humiliating results