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With A-League currently struggling somewhat off the field in regards to money, supporters and expansion a question comes to the fore; should we attempt to replicate the Barcelona structure and create a multi-sport super club.
It is a little known fact that FC Barcelona is just a part of a super club comprising of Football, Basketball, Handball, Hockey and Futsal.
This super club is all based in the one complex with a wide range of facilities all shared between the teams according to their needs. All teams wear the same blue and red dominated attire and have a near identical crest.
Super clubs such as these are an interesting idea and one which I believe could be beneficial to the A-League and sport in Australia in general.
For example the Moore Park sporting complex in Sydney would be an ideal location for such a Club. There is a Rectangular Stadium, the Sydney Football Stadium able to accommodate Football, Rugby League and Rugby Union.
There is the SCG which is able to accommodate Aussie Rules and Cricket. There is also the Hordern Pavillion which can be used for Boxing and could potentially be upgraded to be able to host basketball and various other indoor sports. All of these sports could combine under the one name so to speak.
For example, Sydney FC (football), Sydney Roosters (Rugby League), Sydney Swans (Australian Rules), Sydney Waratahs (Rugby Union), Sydney Blues (Cricket) etc.
The club could either choose to form a common crest which represents Sydney as a city rather than representing a particular sport or they could maintain their own individual sport orientated crest.
The club would have common colours across all sports; this could be a problem if the Swans didn’t want to follow the trend of the other clubs which is largely a blue of some form.
The clubs each have their own management team however, they are overseen by a larger executive board which oversees the entire super club. The executive board contains a member from each of the sports participated in by the Super Club and this member is voted on by the members of the club from the sport he represents.
I believe that such an organisation would build a stronger connection between a range of sports and codes. If Sydney FC was not playing so well fans of the Super Club may be able to take stock that the Rugby Union team was performing very well and were near the top of the ladder.
Instead of it being solely about how football performs in Sydney, super clubs could offer fans a wider range of sports to support Sydney.
Of course, not all Sydney Swans fans would be interested in attending Sydney FC matches of vice versa and they have always followed their sport of choice, but it would offer fans a good reason to take notice of the other codes in the city and support them actively or inactively.
Another way that it could unite codes in the city would be at a big match. Say, the Sydney Roosters needed a win in order to make the top 8 after an up and down season. It would be a terrific chance for fans of all sports at the Super Club to get behind the Roosters.
It would be an amazing site to see the Chookpen, The Cove and the supporter groups of the Waratahs, Swans, Blues and all the other sports supporting the Roosters as part of their city rather than just a part of their code. The same applies for if it was a crucial match in another sport.
Although Moore Park has ideal facilities for such an organisation, its location is not ideal as it is too far away from the Western parts of Sydney. Alternatively a similar club could be located at Olympic Park in Sydney’s west.
One may ask, “what about the other nine NRL clubs that are in Sydney?” A fair question. They could choose to attempt to form their own super clubs or stay independent as they are.
One thing is that if they did choose to stay independent it would create a healthy hatred of the NRL team from the super club organisation; tall poppy syndrome so to speak.
It would swell attendances at games where the Super Club are visiting as fans would turn out in big numbers to see of their ‘normal’ club could ‘topple that fancy Super Club team’.
Also, unlike the Moore Park example, a whole new Super Club could be formed without amalgamating existing teams.
It could help to make expansion clubs more popular with fans as having a range of sports to choose from cause there to be a large pool of supporters which the club would appeal to.
From what I can tell, the formation of Super Clubs could be an interesting and successful addition to the sporting landscape.
Please comment below and share your thoughts!
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