A-League expansion could become contraction

hearing American Accents commmentate football just sounds wrong in my ears. You almost feel like they are educating their viewers as the provide the commentary, they way they often explain things other football cultures just ' know'.

Lol, Tim, I think your negative beliefs are a bit sad.

The Roar would be one of them. Stadiums Queensland charges a lot for the right to use their grounds.

"I believe they went through THREE teams on the GC and are very close to going through number four." The media tells a lot of lies about rugby league on the Gold Coast. The first 3-teams that represented the Gold Coast were based in northern NSW, and played out of Seagulls Stadium in Tweed Heads.The fact they fell over cannot be attributed to the Gold Coast. The first Gold Coast-based team to enter the ARL was the Gold Coast Chargers. They were a profitable club, and were only culled in 1999 because the ARL/News Ltd rationalisation agreement meant the amount of teams needed to be reduced from 22 to 14. Since a few Sydney teams had bit the bullet and there was so much uproar about that, the ARL sacrificed the profitable Chargers. The Titans' football department is profitable. Their debt stems from Searle's property department. Queensland should have at least two A-League clubs. The participation rate up here is much higher than it is in the southern states. Axing Gold Coast United will hurt the game between Brisbane and Newcastle.

big tv deal coming? the delusion here is just sad.

What's that? The crowds are lower than the highest peak of the competition????? Outrageous! Cmon TIm, the crowds are well up from last year.... across the board! Not just for Melbourne Victory. Also, let's be realistic here, Kewell would have pulled an ADDITIONAL 40,000 fans in the first 2 rounds for MELBOURNE VICTORY. And until the last few weeks, the increased media exposure was NOT negative. You seem to be hell bent on focussing on anything negative you can get your hands on, that's fine. You do that. I for one will look at the whole picture. The big picture is that FFA are making positive improvements to the comp, and with them focussing on the league (rather than on the bid), the comp is increasing in attendances and viewership, with a big TV deal on the horizon. But Mr 'Heart fan', you can be negative if you choose. Bye!

j do not believe that his pr|ck will be worth much compensation really

Cmon Roger the crowds are well down from the comps peak years of 2007/2008 and all this despite Kewell dragging 80,000 through the gates in the opening 2 games and being a huge attraction for MV away games, the tv numbers are slightly better then last season but are poor in comparison to every other sport thats on fox...this past weekends finals didnt even make the top 20 broadcasts on the fox platform, hardly something to brag about...our increased media exposure is all negativity which is what most of the media feast on, btw its my competition as much as its yours, i watch my Melbourne Heart team play in an empty stadium every 2nd week and god knows how much it costs the club to play out of AAMI Park...7 mill down the toilet in 2 yrs would suggest a lot...the big picture is that the comp is losing money at an alarming rate, stadium deals are terrible for the most part, our premier plate winning Mariners have gone through long stretches this season without being paid...when are the Russians taking over? sorry but its a bleak picture, no point being positive just for the sake of it, the sooner we all admit the game has some serious issues the sooner we can start to look at making this league viable.

Our competition? Spare me TIm, it is my competition, but it's not yours. Western Sydney exists because Palmer threw a tantrum. Or did you think FFA were originally planning to have 11 teams next year? But yes, I can agree on the billionaires. Getting into bed with them is a volatile affair. People are failing to see the big picture here? Or you are? See, for a second there, I thought that you were focussed on a few loose cannons, and then predicting the end of the world. Rather than looking at the positive growth across the league, increased crowd number, increased TV ratings, and increase media exposure.

The 1 team per city was for the first 5 years....so lets face it the ffa have failed to attract serious investment in that region and are now being forced to take it on themselves. West Sydney has nothing to do with Palmer....its all about trying to squeeze as much as they can in before the next tv rights...if history is anything to go by this will be another disaster. Tony Sage is just like all these other billionaires that can snap in any second...everyone knows his number 1 priority for the future is an nrl team in Perth. People are failing to see the big picture here, our competition is notching up alarming losses every year, Heart have been hit for 7 million in just 2 yrs of existence! where is future investment going to come from?

Who's being simplistic here Tim? When did the A-League become Western Sydney? Wait, hang on, I'll go check to see if that's what's happened.... hmm, nope! The A-League is still bigger than Western Sydney. In re to Western Sydney, as I recall, the bids have previously been knocked back. Why? Because FFA has a 1 team per city policy, and weren't convinced Sydney could support two teams. Reason why Western Sydney was rushed through with FFA support it because it had to be because Clive Palmer threw a tantrum. In re to Tony Sage, didn't he just come out today supporting FFA? Hmmm, wait, I'll go check to see if that's what he said.... yep, that's what he said!

ManInBlack - what's with all the "was" talk? The A-League exists, and there is no "experiment" about it. Maybe it's best if you get back under your bridge.

This is the Author! ;) http://www.timbertools.com/Images/Tormek/large/ax-grinding-jig.jpg

Very simplistic view Roger, why hasnt anyone stumped up the $$$ to get a team off the ground in the heartland of west sydney? its been left up to the ffa because potential investors are being scared off by the alarming losses of the competition...30 million per year! who in their right mind would take over a damaged brand like the Jets now? Tony Sage will be the next bloke to throw the toys out of the pram when Glory get eliminated from the finals. But look on the bright side, the less teams we have the more higher the average crowds will be! god bless the ffa.

What I was suppose to say before my internet disconnected and failed to recognize that I can edit my own comment was... The new TV deal offered by Foxtel was reported to be between $40m and $60m per year when it was rejected. That's between a $23m to $43m per year improvement on the current deal or potentially $2.3 million to $4.3 million extra dosh per club. The con side of the deal though was that it would mean that football would again be locked away secretly on Pay TV, can the A-League afford to be hidden away from the Australian public for a further 5 years? How is it expected to grow when it is exposed to such a small audience, if the crowds, interest and viewers were to decline while locked away out of sight on Pay TV, where would that leave the game in 10 years time? These things have to be considered, cash now is good but you also have to think about later. If the new TV deal were to have 1 delayed game per week plus 30 minute highlights on FTA and Fox getting all games live while still getting a combined $30m per year for football, it would be a massive win for the A-League!

FFS, honestly. We have two billionaires who were sick of their clubs. That's it! Crowds are up. TV ratings are up. The sky is not falling. The A-League will still be here. And shame on you journos for beating this up!

The TV deal was reported to be between $40m and $60m per year.

In my humble opinion, these are the ideal stadium sizes for the following clubs. ,000 figure is my thinking of ideal size vs the reality in brackets (0k stadium) Melbourne Victory 30,000 (playing at 30k and 56k stadiums) Sydney 25,000 (playing at 45k stadium) Brisbane 25,000 (Playing at 52k stadium) Newcastle Jets 20,000 (Playing at 30k stadium) Adelaide 18,000 (playing at 18k stadium) Perth 18,000 (playing at 21k stadium) Wellington Phoenix 18,000 (playing at 35k stadium) Central Coast 17,000(playing at 20k stadium) Melbourne Heart 12,000 (playing at 30k stadium) If Gold Coast were to still exist 10,000 (playing at 28k stadium) Western Sydney 20,000 (21,000 but thinking of playing some games at 85k stadium) Basically my figures are this, their average crowd is about half of maximum capacity, and quite frequently you will get games where the attendance are above average and is close to being full, if not the odd sell out. The biggest problem with the stadiums though are the cost of the stadium rent, not a single club owns their own stadium and the majority are being charged ridiculously high rent costs for stadiums that are nearly fully vacant in summer. I mean Adelaide pay $45,000 rent per game at Hindmarsh, and Gold Coast were paying $180,000 for an uncapped Skilled Park, perhaps the average A-League club is paying in between and around $100,000 of rent per game? How much money would be saved if clubs were to own their own boutique stadium over say the next 20 years? Would the atmosphere be improved? Would the fan base grow? Hell yes! 13 home games a year of $100,000 is $1.3 million per year, if a 13,000 capacity stadium costs $10 million to build, would it be worth it for the long term if a club were to invest in one, can they also receive state government funding to help just like AFL, NRL and Cricket always do for their stadiums?

edit oops

If Ben Buckley had signed a tv deal 2 years ago then things would be ok? Even if the tv deal was double - and club expenditure remained the same as it was this season they would still lose $9 -- 10 million a year (simplifying the equation offcourse)