Here lie the remains of Gold Coast United (2008-2012), a team who due to short vision were short-lived. May they rest in peace.
Welcome to the tombs of teams gone by, a graveyard littered with faded dynastys and failed expansions.
In seven short seasons the A-League has witnessed the death of three sides, who now lie wasted in this graveyard. They includes two of its three expansion teams.
Cricket Australia’s Big Bash League, you have been warned.
You can blame Clive Palmer, the World Cup bid or the FFA for the collapse of Gold Coast United and North Queensland Fury, but ultimately the A-League was not ready to expand.
In its first three seasons the A-League saw its average crowds rise by almost 3000. The figures indicated a brand on the rise that would only get better.
Couple that with million dollar buyers, and it seemed like the A-League expansion would only continue to bring in new fans.
It appears no one asked (or wanted to answer) the question, what if it all goes wrong?
The AFL is financially equipped to deal with any financial shortcomings, should either Greater Western Sydney or Gold Coast suffer them. Just like the league already did for the Sydney Swans, it is well prepared to ensure both sides have medium-term futures.
The A-League could not afford such a financial failure. That is why it is bewildering that ventures into the Gold Coast and North Queensland were less researched and prepared than the AFL expansion.
It is alarming to read a report by Malcolm Conn on January 12, 2012 in The Daily Telegraph that “Cricket Australia has already started looking at further expansion (of the Big Bash League) years ahead of its original timetable.”
Yes, the revamped Big Bash League has been a success, with a healthy crowd average of more than 17,000 and an average TV audience that has doubled to 288,000.
Yet Cricket Australia, like the A-League, cannot bank on continued success.
The shortest form of the game, despite its popularity, is still relatively new. Despite the current excitement surrounding Twenty20, it is likely this will eventually plateau and perhaps decline.
If you don’t believe me, let’s ask who can remember the Gold Coast Rollers, Victoria Titans, Newcastle Falcons, and Hobart Tassie Devils?
It is likely that you can’t, unless you were a NBL fan during the competition’s fall from grace.
In the end the real losers are the fans that mourn the loss of their team.
Owners and league officials in all codes ask fans to invest emotionally and financially into our clubs. We live and breathe the sport and are left gasping for air when it is gone.
Cricket Australia and the current Big Bash clubs need to be financially ready to cope and survive when Twenty20 ceases to grow.
The game and its fans demand it.
The Cattery
Roar Guru
Very true - but the calendar being what it is, BBL will always be limited to 45 games, 66 tops, and that definitely helps - I'm sure everyone would go bananas if there were, say, 132 games upwards.
Titus
Guest
Play 170 Big Bash games a year and we will see how long the interest lasts.
Chris
Guest
Not really, the BBL will always have huge TV money behind it. Mainly because people actually watch it.
Don Corleone
Guest
@ManInBlack - Test players should be available for BBL for most of the season as the Sydney New Years test is unusually the final one. Any BBL expansion will need to be done carefully but the next broadcast deal in 2012-13 is expected to be in excess of $100 million. Therefore, Cricket Australia would have a financial buffer like the AFL and keep the clubs under CA ownership. Cricket is also in a different position as it's Australia's exclusive bat/ball game whereas soccer is the third or fourth most followed football code. I think a Gold Coast cricket franchise would have less of a struggle establishing itself than soccer or AFL franchise.
doubledutch
Roar Pro
The BB I think will only get bigger in the future.
PeterK
Guest
QgiRL, I don't recall anyone here in NQ claiming we were going to "kill off the Cowboys". We actually like and follow the Cowboys, and certainly don't want to see them "killed off". Perhaps some "uninformed southerners" amongst our football fraternity were claiming what you say, but we here were unaware of any of that. A large proportion of our fans enjoyed one code in summer and the other in winter, with a few dream weeks of overlap! Our problem here was the exact opposite of that at Gold Coast -- our benefactor went broke in the GFC. Whereas GC had money (and it would seem very few football brains attached to that money), we had no money -- though towards the end we were in the throes of putting together a much more sensible Community Ownership plan, but ran out of time! May I ask what part of Oz you hail from? Jason, I was brought up on RL, and have even enjoyed both AFL and Rugby (both playing and watching) -- and at a more advanced age I still enjoy watching -- but I smile at the phrase "best in the world". Don't be tempted to get me wrong here -- I reckon it's possible to love all three codes even while recognising that their "world" is a very small one. Our international standing in the much larger roundball-world is high enough for all of us to also be proud of. However, I'm interested in your thinking re the A-League's problem -- it could well be right.
King of the Gorgonites
Roar Guru
to be fair to the storm, since they have moved to a proper stadium, they are now at 13-14K.
ManInBlack
Guest
The BBL's biggest challenge will likely be the expansion of off shore T20 leagues. Seeing Brad Hodge go straight from the BBL to the Bangladesh Premier League just shows how much of a 'circuit' is developing. Does the BBL require decent internationals? or, would it survive just with the best Australian talent (outside of the test team)? Or, will the BBL need a window of access to Australia's internationals?
ManInBlack
Guest
Antonio - you confuse me when using the term 'Australian football'. seriously though - I had to chuckle yesterday morning listening to Bozza on SEN when he spoke of the desire for a Greater Western Sydney team (and the need for the old ethnic based interests to 'unite'). When the AFL was floating GWS there was a chorus of "there's no such thing as GWS" and now......it seems to be an accepted terminology.
Jack Russell
Roar Guru
Wouldn't have thought 10,000 is that bad given they're coming off a spoon. The Storm have been getting crowds like that for years on the back of winning.
Titus
Guest
Meh, plenty of Rugby League fans do follow the a-league Q-Girl, though something tells me you never will. A matter of fact I took some NRL season ticket holders to the Sydney/Melbourne game on saturday night, they said that Rugby League would kill for the support that SFC gets. PS whats going on with the Titans, 10 000 for the opening game in the home of Rugby League, I hope we aren't going to see yet another Gold Coast Rugby League team go under.
Antonio
Guest
As a Melbourne Victory member and a North Melbourne member i believe there is one thing the FFA has failed to address the image of Australian football. This image is one of exclusion and inevitable failure and collapse that projects itself to the potential market of NRL and AFL football fans who have no footy in the summer months. And with the recent collapse of two Queensland teams, the Clive 'Jabba the Hut' Palmer rebel FA and the lack of finding a large fan base for establish teams like Sydney FC who are located in a market of over 4 million this image i dear say will continue. The FFA needs to do more to gain support not just from the established football communities that make up a small percentage of Australia but to reach out to Aussie rules and Rugby league fans across the nation if they want the A- league to have any possibility of a bright and prosperous future.
Jason
Guest
The A-League's problem is that a far better standard of the sport is available on the same pay TV channels that show the A-League. It's the same reason why basketball failed - the NBA was too accessible. On the other hand, the standard of AFL, NRL and Super 15 is the best in the world.
Queensland's game is rugby league
Guest
I think the A-League's problem was its fans were too cocky. I recall soccer fans saying that the Gold Coast FC and North Queensland Fury teams were going to kill off the Titans and Cowboys. Comments like that rubbed rugby league fans the wrong way. There just aren't enough soccer fans in Australia who are willing to invest their time and money into the A-League. The A-League needs rugby league and Aussie rules fans to support soccer. Soccer fans cannot afford to mock Australia's two most popular sports.
The Cattery
Roar Guru
I had to double take when I saw the title, seeing that the BBL finished up some time ago, but fair enough, CA are getting bullish, and perhaps they should seek to slow things down. As for the old NBL team, well, there's an absolute stack of teams that have come and gone: Coburg, SE Melbourne, St Kilda, Geelong, Cannons, Bullets, and didn't Lonnie have a team as well for a short time? And let us not forget University, who lasted in the VFL from 1908 to 1914, forced to pull out at the start of the 1915 season because of WWI, never to return to the big league.
King of the Gorgonites
Roar Guru
People withi the HAL thought it was gonig to be too easy. they were wrong. this wont be the last club to fold.