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It has been interesting to see the media reaction to the new Western Sydney A-League club, as they look for the sensationalist angle about a code war that doesn’t actually exist.
The A-League kicked off in 2005 and at the time I thought it was a huge mistake to leave out western Sydney as one of the foundation clubs. Western Sydney has a huge player base, bigger than anywhere else in Australia, and for any code to turn their back on that in my mind was a mistake.
Look at it this way…
The AFL will spend over $200 million dollars in the next five years to push their Western Sydney team. There are more rugby league players in Melbourne than there are AFL players in all of Sydney. Yet, the AFL is going to try and throw so much money at this tiny base and hope that in 40 years from now, something may come of it.
Football in Western Sydney easily has the highest participation numbers of any sport, including rugby league. Much of this does come from the fact that is it a simple and easy sport for kids to play. Many parents are more comfortable having their kids play a minimal contact sport like football over rugby league.
As kids get older and can make their own decisions on what they want to play, many of them move into playing other sports, with rugby league eventually being the most popular sport in Western Sydney by a long way.
Still, football can say that up until a certain age group, they have a sizable captive audience here. Maybe a Western Sydney A-League team would give kids in Sydney’s west who play football something to aspire to.
They just have to capture those kid’s attention for a couple of extra years and it will make a world of difference to the A-League.
Upon news of the new western Sydney A-League team, the media went into a meltdown, talking about code wars and battles, all of it rubbish.
Looking beyond the fact that the A-League is played over the summer and doesn’t really compete with traditional winter football, the media still pushed this idea that rugby league would be in for a battle and that the AFL would not sit back and let this happen.
The AFL will tell you they are pushing into Blacktown. This is despite the fact they play and train at Homebush. The GWS team may have a lot of money behind it, but I have more followers on Twitter than this team has members in Western Sydney.
$200 million dollars can go a long way, but it can’t gloss over the fact that the GWS side blew its bolt before they had even played a game. They have a miniscule player and supporter base in Western Sydney and this team will lose more money for the AFL over the next five years than the A-League’s entire broadcasting deal is worth.
The AFL and its GWS team is a very expensive facade. They will have no impact and no say on the A-League expansion into western Sydney.
Rugby league was also dragged into the media’s made-up mess, and it is ironic because I think no two sports in Australia should work more closely together than football and rugby league.
They require roughly the same fields and facilities. I also think that at the junior levels, and even going into higher age groups, they attract different types of people with a different sporting psyche.
Rugby league’s place in western Sydney will only ever change if there is some sort of seismic shift in the general culture of the area. A shift so large that it would effect every other sport anyway, and would take generations to take hold.
Football is very comfortable with its place in sestern Sydney and I think it fears rugby league as much as rugby league fears football….thats being, not at all. They offer different things to different people and their success has proven to not cannibalise the supporters other sport.
So, this idea of a code war in Sydney’s west is nonsense. I say that as someone born and raised in Sydney’s west and who currently lives in Penrith. I don’t need some fool in the media to tell me what they think is going on out here.
What I hope is that FFA is smart about the way they set up this A-League team. They could very easily stuff things up. As a potential customer, there are certain things I want them to do to get me on board.
First of all, the name. In the past names like Rovers and Wanderers have been tossed up, much to my horror. The last thing you want to do is saddle the newest A-League club in your most important market with a rotten name from a Pommy club that will just make most potential fans switch off.
This team needs to belong to Western Sydney, not be borrowing a name from some club in another country.
I’d be happy enough with Western Sydney Football Club. What more do you really need? That says every you need it to say. You don’t need a mascot to get the kids onside because the kids are already playing the game.
The colours will also be important. Sometimes when a new team is started in a sporting competition, you know from the get go that they are the ugly ducklings of the competition.
The horror of Northern Queensland fans when they realised they would be wearing green. The great idea to have a cricket team wearing pink. How about an AFL team wearing black and… dirt?
I personally think black and white would be the way to go. It is simple, it looks good and it would remind people of the black of the Penrith Panthers and the black and white of the old Western Suburbs Magpies.
So where do they play games?
There is already talk they would play games at Parramatta Stadium, which I think is a mistake. We have seen teams in every sport try to establish themselves at Parramatta Stadium, and it just doesn’t work. Only the Parramatta Eels have lasted there for any length of time.
This is strange because Parramatta Stadium is a nice stadium and based in a population center. For whatever reason though, it a grave yard of sporting clubs. Hell, even the Eels aren’t setting the world on fire right now!
The Western Sydney A-League team should split games between Campbelltown and Penrith for the most part. They should also look to try and get access to the AFL/cricket Stadium at Blacktown.
Long term, the very best place for a Western Sydney A-League team to be based at would be Blacktown. They would be the only show in town with no other major sporting club based and playing games there.
Blacktown has a huge football base and if the A-League were able to secure funding for a 15,000-seat football stadium in Blacktown, they would be set.
It is a big ask, but one that would be a real legacy for football in Western Sydney.
Now, the A-League and FFA have just six months to get this club up and running. It is going to be a tough ask. They will make mistakes. If they can just get the basics right though, it will be a fantastic success.
As a lifelong rugby league fan who also played football as a youngster, I’ll be supporting them.
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