Why the 'Gong should be next on A-League's radar

If Central coast averaged more than Adelaide, Perth etc then those clubs should move to Canberra or Alice Springs

Let's see a NYL team, and possibly a W-League side, in Tassie & Wollongong first. That and allow the Fury into the NYL as they requested when they were booted out of the A-League (our biggest mistake to date - and I am not a Queenslander).

My 2cents. If we gauged every potential expansion zone purely on population, well, we would never have had CCM in the comp. Arguably the most successful A League club. You don't need to get sponsors just from your backyard, although it certainly helps to sell corporate boxes etc. There is nothing to stop a Tasmanian team for arguments sake being sponsored by Telstra or QANTAS. National brands. Further, what about a team from Fremantle? Instant derby for the Glory and the chance to have football around Perth every weekend. Their is arguably a greater number of ex pat poms in Freo too! Wollongong need to really prove they'd support a team from the Coast. Their support of the Wolves was nothing short of embarrassing. Back to back champions, with a star studded line up, and they couldn't get a crowd. There is a lot of local hurdles between Illawarra Premier League clubs and any expansion club to overcome as well. Think back to the ill feeling between the old NSL clubs and 'modern football' and you have some understanding of the deep seated issues on the Coast. Personally, I would think that a Tassie and Canberra team are priorities. To be a full national comp, we need those 2. Tassie is an untapped market and I couldn't see Taswegians not supporting their own team in a summer comp. Yes they'll need a new purpose built 15K seater stadium. Once built though, you then have a facility to attract Matilda matches, League and Union, Olyroos etc etc etc. My expansion plan would look like this... 2015/16 season. Fremantle and Canberra/ Tasmania 2018/2019 Wollongong City and Canberra/ Tassie 2021/22 North Qld and 2nd Brissie team.

Why is there all of this Canberra vs Wollongong stuff. Surely we will need two teams entered at the Same time ? Who wants 11 teams a bye every weekend? I think there the best two but Maybe Auckland could be close if nz gov backs

Luv the big pineapple Franko & yes you are right,consolidate Brisbane Roar average crowds into the 15-20000 range first then bring in another club. Stupid what they did before to add 2 clubs to an unestablished club like the Roar. There's some sort of Chinese proverb which goes like this(if not I'll make it up anyway). Have a big fat strong twig & add two weak skinny twigs,bind together still a strong bundle. Have a skinny twig & add two skinny twigs,you drop your bundle & it breaks easily.

Brisbane Lions have had their crack: Brisbane Lions became Queensland Lions who became Queensland Roar which became Brisbane Roar. Last year their ave crowd was 13,000. When they get 20,000 you could look at a second Brisbane side. Sunshine coast offers enough distance to not intrude on Roar territory yet still provides the all important derby. Sunshine coast is the 10th largest metropolis in Aust and 3rd largest in Queensland, plus they have the big pineapple.

I was thinking more along the lines of South Brisbane rather than Sunshine Coast I know there's the old Brisbane Lions (NSL club) down there and they had a very big club house near the old QEII stadium which hasn't seen any action in a long time

I imagine the Sunshine Coast, with a population of 250,000 will fulfil that need. The Sunshine Coast Fire are pretty dominant in the Queensland state league (have been in the last 5 grand finals, winning 3). Whilst crowds are only in the hundreds, their stadium is already a 12,000 seat venue. The only thing I’d change is ‘Fire’ urgh, Suns, Fire, Roar, Fury, Titans, Chargers, the Queenslanders have had some shockers!

Given the success of the Melbourne and Sydney derbies you also wonder if Gallop will be looking at a 2nd Brisbane team as a serious contender?

No railroading... just generally interested. Cheers

Kane - just out of interest do you attend any South Coast Wolves matches in the NSWPL? What sort of crowds do they get?

Kane Whilst its nice to daydream, it matters not what you and I think re: colours and even name. I don't think anybody can imagine the FFA straying too far from the WSW expansion model. If the overwhelming desire of the potential Wollongong fanbase desire for their team to be called the mountain-eaters wearing pink and chocolate halves (Corinthian casuals) then FFA will bend over backwards to make it happen. If the fans 'want 'Wolves' and the 'old NSL look', then FFA will find a way to make it happen, it might be as simple as directing AU wear blue shorts(which some fans have asked for) and MHT wear white shorts. Its a very long way off and who knows what the league will look like when expansion is next on the cards..

But Kane, what you've failed to realise is that you haven't provided any facts either, and you're the one who wrote the article! You haven't discussed what is actually important in developing a football team - you've spoken about the Wolves jersey at the milk bar, about a Lazio bumper sticker, and about Les Murray. The actual question - is there a demand for it? We know that there is in Canberra, there was very strong support for the A League for Canberra bid with strong foundation membership. We don't know if there's demand in Wollongong, other than the most recent example of the Wolves disappearing whistlessly into the sunset. 30% of kids in the ACT play registered football according to the ABS and Capital Football. In terms of pure numbers, Wollongong couldn't stack up with that. In terms of corporate support, Wollongong can't offer anything like Canberra. In terms of stadia, the stadium that Canberra hopes to commence building by 2019 will be state of the art and will put WIN Stadium to shame. These are facts Kane - something that your article is sadly lacking. Top-level football clubs don't pop up out of nowhere. They don't pop up out of romantic natures of working class areas that will support the local football team, when the reality is that we already have football clubs in other codes in working class areas that struggle. The Wollongong Wolves already died, the Illawarra Steelers weren't sustainable, the Western Bulldogs and Port Adelaide only survive because the AFL ensures it. Football teams are established for a number of reasons - corporate demand, community demand, growth of the sport... but romanticism is not a reason. I'll reiterate that there should be no A league expansion for the life of the current tv deal. But if they are to look into it sometime in the future, Canberra should, and surely will be the next cab off the rank. And I hope the FFA is ambitious enough and confident enough in its own finances that the "partner entrant" is Tasmania. They've been taken advantage of by the AFL for far too long - there's a junior market there for the taking if football is prepared to back itself.

"yes CCM numbers are propped up by hosting Jets, Sky Blue and WSW " Actually, last season was very unfair for CCM. They were the only NSW team to host the other 3 NSW teams only once at home. If I recall correctly, of all the NSW A-League teams, WSW had the most favourable draw, which saw them hosting all the other 3 NSW teams twice at home - i.e. WSW had 6 'home NSW derbies'; CCM had 3 home NSW derbies.