Nothing is more over-hyped and misunderstood regarding Australia’s two leading footy codes than expansion.
And like the hyperbole surrounding off field incidents, the source of most of the blame is the Australian media, and not just a News Limited tabloid.
There is no better example of the realities facing expansion than what is found with the AFL in Brisbane.
After a false start with the ugly uniform and logo of the Bears, and the club influenced decision to plonk a Brisbane AFL team on the Gold Coast, the stars seemed to have had aligned for the AFL in Queensland.
The nineties brought a merger with a much improved uniform, logo, and 7,000 Melbourne based members, a $128 million redevelopment of the Gabba, and shrewdly granted salary cap concessions from a now truly independent AFL Commission.
The noughties found the Lions as the most successful team of the decade with four consecutive grand final appearances and three consecutive flags. An unparalleled broadcast deal gave the Lions weekly prime time FTA exposure in Brisbane.
In 2004 the Lions had record memberships of nearly 31,000 record crowds of over 33,000, and a lengthy waiting list for the privilege of a Gabba corporate box.
In 2011 memberships and crowds had fallen to around 20K, an alarming drop of around 9K from the previous year, corporate boxes are but a phone call away, and the Lions have recorded losses in the past five years accumulating in more than $10 million in debts.
In desperation to stop the rot the Lions opened the Lions @ Springwood Club, a 200 pokie machine cash cow in Brisbane’s poorest shire of Logan, yet they still recorded a $1.8 million loss for 2011.
Andew Demetriou, to his immense credit, wants the Lions to sell their pokies and look for other alternatives on the long road back to profitability.
We can only hope John Grant and the ARLC look for the same moral high ground after they sign their own billion dollar broadcast deal.
But the picture does not improve for other AFL expansion teams.
The AFL has already announced the debt to be incurred by the newest expansion teams, the Gold Coast Suns and GWS Giants. Each club will bleed $20 million a year for five years, and it is difficult to see either club being profitable if left to their own devices by 2016.
The Sydney Swans recorded losses of $752K in 2009 and $549K in 2010, however white collar corporate sponsorship allowed them to record a modest profit of $114K in 2011, although we are yet to see what cannibalism will have incurred from the eastbound GWS Giants.
And for the NRL the expansion picture is even worse.
Their only expansion team in Australia, the Melbourne Storm, have spent most of their history playing in a 1950’s athletic track, have yet to crack 15K for a season crowd average, and the rare chance to generate some genuine curiosity from the locals was all but obliterated by the salary cap scandal and stripping of their two premierships.
Also, when News Ltd controlled the NRL, they were happy to see the Nine Network hoard Storm games in the southern states, and as the ARLC clearly know, if your local footy team are not shown on local FTA television, they don’t exist.
To rub salt into the wounds, the Storm are still perceived by many of the NRL faithful as a News Ltd installed abomination, with blood on their hands at the demise of other clubs during the Super League war ‘Peace’ deal.
Perhaps the soon to be affluent ARLC can take some solace in the fact that a Super League war and News Ltd management has simply delayed them discovering what the proactive AFL already knows, that expansion is a time consuming, terribly expensive, and mostly thankless task.
Bottom-line, the passionate, tribal support and loyalty of an Aussie footy fan, passed down through the generations, cannot be bought and sold. A fondness for a second team from another code is about all you can hope for.
And here lies the dilemma for both codes. Expansion teams are as much about a ninth game to sell to broadcasters as the challenge of selling the gospel to deaf ears.
A TV network insider stated that the networks are willing to pay more to a footy code if that code can sell the ‘illusion’ of being a national competition, hence the AFL going with GWS instead of Tasmania, and the NRL almost certainly going to Perth.
But, a great example of the potential flaw in this strategy is any seasons FTA ratings for the biggest regular season AFL game of the year, the ANZAC day clash between club heavyweights Collingwood and Essendon, currently played with no FTA NRL competition.
Melbourne will have more than 700K, and Sydney and Brisbane less than 100K, guaranteed.
Of course, except for State of Origin and Grand Finals, any game of League or AFL throughout the season suffers the same level of geographically lop-sided support.
Time will tell how much value the current ‘illusion’ will bring if potential buyers of broadcast advertising realise just how ‘national’ both codes really are.
Ultimately though, all the expansion teams – the Swans, Lions, Giants, Suns and Storm, are here to stay, as are the traditional strugglers – the Demons, Western Bulldogs, Kangaroos, Port, Roosters, Sea Eagles, and Cronulla. Forget pokies and their negative social impact. Tomorrow is about progressive and accountable club managements, aggressive membership drives, and ‘future funds.’
It is the ultimate sporting irony that over a century of local tribal rivalries are what will perpetually limit the expansion efforts of the NRL and AFL, and yet these same factors are the catalyst that fuel the NRL & AFL domination of the Australian sporting landscape, and therefore underwrite the future of both codes expansion teams.
Soon, sports fans in the four biggest mainland capitals will have a choice of all four footy codes live on their doorstep, and surely, that can only be a good thing.
micka
Guest
PLenty of Greeks in the AFL, especially Carlton. Kouta opened Souvlaki Hut and boy did I get on board! I love a good souvo. You can keep the flares throwing though...
Titus
Guest
AR--I am not sure that the FFA is only offering one year deals at WSW, in fact I am pretty sure there are players who have signed multi-year deals. However, the FFA is obviously hoping to pass the club on to new owners very shortly and would most likely be reluctant to be holding long term contracts. As for the a-league wages, I think you will find that the Football players get a much bigger slice of the revenue pie than their AFL counterparts. As for the GCS making a profit, yeah right, after daddy AFL set everything up for them and bought them a shiny new stadium (with the help of the kind QLD taxpayer)
Australian Rules
Guest
Oh please, get a room you two. This aint Watergate...but I've been chuckling at your obsessive AFL-slapstick. The AFL provided figures for the REGION, when it was looking for a more central oval to use. Then Leichardt councillor Darcy Byrne (who's been running an 'AFL is the Devil' campaign for some months now) kicked up a stink. He used his council 'power' to demand they provide figures for the specific postcode. Naturally, the original figure was reduced. Then to add to his 'scoop', Fussball then posts about some random incident in the 50s, just to underscore how evil Australian Football really is! Haha ...keep at it detectives!
Paul J
Roar Pro
And NRL expansion to do as well... http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=patrick+smith+state+of+origin&source=web&cd=5&ved=0CFAQFjAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theaustralian.com.au%2Fsport%2Fopinion%2Fmaroons-and-ratten-stand-tall-in-a-week-of-crushing-pressure%2Fstory-e6frg7uo-1226419377363&ei=YXQPUMOfIcbbmAWQxoCQDQ&usg=AFQjCNHKb9xdgRc5XbBZyCiX0f_4xY0tnQ IN a week where sport was X-rayed and the oddest things discovered, one condition needs no further research. The dominance of rugby league in Queensland and NSW grows and does not stutter under the splurge of AFL money and marketing. The third State of Origin match, a one-point body wrestle of violent sport, confirmed that rugby league possesses a hold over the nation that will only grow and not diminish. The three-match series is Australia's premier sporting event. Bigger than the Melbourne Cup, even bigger than the Ashes. The AFL's investment in second teams in Queensland and NSW will now clearly draw more than the budgeted money. More than $200 million will not get the AFL to half-time in the fight to secure the Gold Coast Suns and Greater Western Sydney Giants. The AFL's privately acknowledged war chest of $400m will be drained to the last cent.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
BRAVO, Leichardt Council! Sanity prevails & the NSW AFL's lies & deception are finally exposed. I bet the next time AFL NSW applies for anything the relevant council will ask for certified data. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. Or, to use the George W Bush variation ... "fool me twice ... you can't get fooled again"! Of course, football fans have seen this type of behaviour before. This is from Philip Mosely's book: "Ethnic Involvement in Australian Soccer: A History 1950–1990" (Australian Sports Commission, 1995) As early as 1951 buckets of glass were scattered on North Hobart Oval the night before a Tasmanian representative side took the fireld against a visiting English Professional XI. Next season the VFL directed its operatives to secure all available public sporting space in Melbourne in order to stifle the burgeoning threat posed by soccer’s migrant-inspired growth. Source: http://www.vulgar.com.au/libero/soccerphobiaoz.html
Punter
Guest
Fitzy, to be completely unbias you must also complain about the lies & incorrect comments made by AFL people on the A-League or NRL. You should have seen the comments coming from the AFL people when we were competing for the football world cup.
JVGO
Guest
So the AFL has withdrawn its application for Birchgrove now that its figures have been exposed as a fabrication. http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/league-news/afl-drop-birchgrove-bid-after-uproar-over-player-figures-20120724-22ntw.html The AFL is an astoundingly selfserving and duplicitous organisation. The scary thing is that they have recieved millions of dollars of NSW taxpayers money on the back of dodgy figures like this and were expecting Leichhardt council to spend millions in this case also relocating the Soccer club for the AFL's benefit. I for one would like the AFL to give some of this NSW taxpayers money back.
Fitzy
Guest
Said it time and time again, people play and watch what they like in a city of 7 mil what does it matter if you follow more than one code. Afl doesnt pay my mortgage and I bet that the same is true of an NRL fan in Syd. I follow and like all codes, I'm not so isolated in my thoughts that all can co-exist and prosper. However I get sick and tired of hearing the usual inaccurate comments and lies about Aussie Rules, anyone would think that the AFL is stealing their birthdays. It's a game, if you don't like it don't watch it. But don't moan because the AFL want to bring the game to others. What are you scared of, being forced at gun point to watch the game. The truth is most RL and A-League people are scared of two things, that their little Johnny will come home and want to play it, and they won't get sponsorship that the AFL gets. In reply kids will inevitably do what they enjoy and sponsors will put their money where it is most valuable to them. So have a kick with ur son instead of whinging and support your team.
Australian Rules
Guest
I agree Titus The AFL should copy the A-League when it comes to to player payments. Those 1 year contracts with GCU, and now WSW, are really the high watermark of professionalism in sport. As for the "blackhole", the lowly Suns made a profit in their first year. How many A-League clubs have managed that...esp in their first year?
Australian Rules
Guest
The "AFL = corporate greed" argument is probably my favourite. Especially when it comes from FIFA-loving fanatics.
Punter
Guest
Very true, but that is about it.....
GCS
Guest
Thanks, but let's leave that there. Roar Mods.
Titus
Guest
"Your souvlaki comment made me laugh. Says it all about the sport in Australia really" Your mocking of Football's and Australia's rich multi-cultural history says a lot about you and the AFL.
Bayman
Guest
I confess I've never been too concerned, or interested, in which football code in Sydney is doing what today. I grew up with Australian Rules football (alarmingly called AFL in Sydney), I have grown to enjoy (or not, as the case may be) the fortunes of the Balmain, now Wests Tigers, rugby league team, also the Randwich rugby union team (despite an acquaintance referring to them as the "Green Slime") and my two daughters both play soccer (football) for the Balmain and District Football Club which has provided thrills and frustration in equal measure. The leaguies among us here in Sydney have long been telling us that western Sydney, or shall we say, Greater Western Sydney is the heartland of rugby league and the AFL is wasting its time and money. Yet we find in the first year a paying membership of that club which would happily compare to most Sydney RL teams of nearly a century's standing. If rugby league is truly untouchable how is this so? The club also now has access to a fantastic boutique stadium at Homebush while NRL clubs are still trying to survive on their - in many ways limited - suburban grounds. To be fair, those grounds still provide that "tribal" atmosphere that the AFL no longer has access to but then the AFL long ago realised it must attract a serious corporate involvement. Much easier to do at the SCG and at Homebush (both ANZ and Skoda). We should all remember what Sydneysiders said when the Swans relocated here in 1982. No chance. Today, of course, it's a very different story. More paying members than any Sydney RL team, more spectators per game than any Sydney RL team (current SCG development not withstanding), more press coverage than most RL fans think necessary. Dare I say it but the Sydney Swans have a distinct "brand" (hate that word). GWS, of course, was not established to take over from RL and nor was it established to dominate in year one. Sydney is a massive market and it can easily accommodate both AFL and NRL and the AFL know it. The research suggests an ever growing Australian Rules presence at junior level which is the main focus of the NSWAFL. The jesuits famously said, "Give me the boy....and I will show you the man". Since Aussie Rules is a religion in Melbourne we should not be surprised the AFL have taken the same approach. Auskick is all about getting young kids into Aussie Rules. If possible, also get them into a local club and actually play the game. Get the game into the schools, particularly the private schools. Twenty years from now those kids will have kids of their own and the cycle will be repeated. Again and again. That's what the AFL is doing by setting up the GWS team now. It is preparing the way for twenty, thirty years down the track. By then, GWS will be where the Swans are now and all the huffing and puffing by those who think western Sydney is RL heartland won't make the slightest bit of difference. The Swans are now being supported by born and bred Sydneysiders and not just by southern state expats who may have been the majority back in the 1980s. I have a friend here in Balmain who's father played first grade RL. That friend is now the most fanatical Swans supporter of all time. It hardly seems necessary to mention Kieren Jack. The AFL's move into Sydney is not, and has never been, about destroying RL. It is simply that Sydney is the biggest market in the country and it would be derelict to ignore that fact. Rugby League has been entrenched here for a hundred years and in that time has produced its own fantastic sporting history. Long may it continue. If, however, RL suffers at the hands of the AFL it only has itself to blame. The AFL does know how to market itself. It does know how to grow the game at the grassroots. Think of how many were involved with, or even knew much about, Australian Rules football here in 1980. Think about those numbers now. Think about them in thirty years time. That's what the AFL is about and it's up to the NRL to step up and compete in the market - not rely on a hundred years of history and just assume the status quo will remain. Even in Western Sydney. If there's a problem for the NRL it will not be the AFL it will be complacency - and that's not a criticism that people could level at the AFL here in Sydney.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
"the AFL must be packing themselves" .. HUH? I don't understand what you mean by using the verb "to pack" .. or, is it a spell-prompt error? 6000 to a regional ARF match is extremely impressive. I've never disputed the huge support for ARF in Victoria. On a per capita basis, attendances at ARF in Victoria is massive & would rival attendances for any sport in any region in the world. Maybe the AFL should have established a club on the Murray or in Wangaratta - where they actually play, understand & enjoy the sport ... rather than Western Sydney? PS: You have a problem with eating souvlakis at the football? Give me authentic souvlakis at the football rather than the tasteless rubbish we get at AAMI Park & Docklands.
GCS
Guest
Wow, that's impressive Fussball, the AFL must be packing themselves. 6,000 turned up to watch Wangaratta play Yarrawonga in a country match. Your souvlaki comment made me laugh. Says it all about the sport in Australia really.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Nathan We're talking about 238 kids .. that's 7 fewer than the number of Facebook friends I have. They don't need an oval to play ARF - they should just use someone's backyard. :-)
Nathan of Perth
Guest
Is this one of those "become the monster" things? :)
Ian Whitchurch
Guest
The competition for the teams in the NRL, the HAL, the AFL and cricket isnt each other. Its computer games. Its movies. Its the internet in general. And, yeah, I realise the irony.
Ian Whitchurch
Guest
Fussball, I realise facts are only facts to you if they suit your argument, but never the less ... I recommend you look at where kids who play school based sport in Leichardt play it. Pay particular attention to sports that use big turf ovals. Count the number of public schools in Leichardt LGA that have such a big turf oval.