FFA to share $10m windfall with clubs

Not too long ago it was MV fans claiming they were keeping A-League afloat. No wonder these 2 sets of fans have running battles with their own clubs. They obviously think they are too important and the league somehow depends on them.

regardless of quaint notion or not, the hearing is scheduled for 24th March. If he is found guilty, our club must throw the book at him. Period!! The club will make an example of Santalab because of what the club represents.

AR, I tell you what, I will stop talking AFL if you stop talking football.

Don;t worry Fadida, enough time in NSW with the daily Telegraph will knock the Tasmanian out of you.

I feel your pain AR. I heard my 2 yo son having a similar childish, he said she said, circular argument with my 4 yo this morning! Perhaps you should change your tag from "AR" to "all Australian sports are equally important to me" :D

"We will not achieve world peace here by convincing all to love AFL." Then for god sake stop talking about the AFL.

Obviously meant to be Lowy!! Managed to do 2 different typos with his name!!!

rodders - I partially agree. The US was a very strong bid and would have required minimal spending to bring it up to standard as they have so many existing big stadiums. The other advantage with the US was that the NFL season is not in June so there would be no clash with other codes. This would be a major issue for Australia as Rugby, Rugby League and AFL are all in mid season in June. Naturally they would require significant financial compensation as the stadiums would have to be solely used for the World Cup which would massively disrupt their seasons. The other issue that didn't help Australia was the bizarre presentation and speech. Lowly has done a lot for football in Oz but the choice of him to give the speech and the content of his speech was strange. Lowry is not known outside Australia and many people, rightly or wrongly, would have heard his Hungarian accent and would not even have connected him with Australia. Other countries used people who would be known globally as representing their bid. The English bid used Prince William and David Beckham for example. Australia probably would have done a good job but we will have to wait now.

other than the Summer Olympics the other examples are pretty irrelevant. F1 + Grand Slam are circuits based on several small tournaments, they have nowhere near the draw and tourism potential a world cup or an Olympics has. Tennis, being a summer sport, doesn't have many other places to place a grand slam in January. Australia being its best candidate. The F1 is much more saturated holding local events to cater for its geographically spread audience. The current circuit includes 19 countries. The Olympics also loses some its relevancy with its centrality in one city and the irrelevancy of attendances in a majority of the events. The isolation of events makes it easy for tourists to 'see it all' and the fact that in pretty much all the non-track and field events attendances are irrelevant gives an event like the olympics a lot more lee-way But the world cup is a far different and much bigger beast than the Olympics, instead of the umpteen events and competitors in the olympics the world cup is much more focused. Its almost a month of competition aimed at deciding the best footballing nation, rather than the couple of weeks (at best) each event at the olympics recieves. The Australian world cup bid would have stadiums as spread out (if not more) than the US bid, with a fraction of the population density and sitting in a poor time zone for European and American viewers. The Japanese and Korean bids restrict tourists from having to travel due too far and the local density practically ensures better game day attendances. Australia hasn't got the local density (ala. USA 1994) to support a cup spanning such a wide area and the spread of games would be a major deterrent for tourists. (even if it is the biggest sporting event in the world, expecting 62 games to be well attended would be a bit much) All the other potential hosts (bar Qatar) would either look to provide higher attendances (asian cups) or both higher attendances and better tv ratings (USA)

I think you have posted more today on this thread alone then I have in the last 6 months on an AFL tab. Yes I have seen you on other sporting tabs & funny enough you are doing the same on those as you do here, talking AFL or defending AFL against anyone on a non AFL tab who dares to dislike the game. I love many sports too, but I feel no need to tell everyone that my sport is better than yours like you do. If you are not obsessed why do you know what Fuss said on the 29th April 2013, it's really not that important,, let it go, it's not healthy . We will not achieve world peace here by convincing all to love AFL.

Ar fair enough comment and did you see the term manuka midgets now that is funny as:-) :-)

@Rodney Do you have the same negative assessment of Australia for hosting other sporting events - e.g. Summer Olympics, F1 GP, Grand Slam Tennis... or are the negatives associated with AUS geography only applicable to football & FIFA's World Cup?

honestly Australia's bid was the weakest in terms of infrastructure and potential benchmarks (bar the Qatari bid). A poor for TV viewers and physical attendees compared to the other bids. 10-16 hour time differences from a majority of the television watching audience, sparsely populated and fairly remote compared to other potential hosts, relying on oval grounds (not ideal for football). Attendances and ratings would be poor (in comparison to other cups) if it was held in Aus for very little investment benefit. The US bid was the strongest, followed by the asian bids. The only real argument for why Australia should be preferred is that we haven't held one before.

punter- I think there was a sort of a compliment there, albeit wrapped in a jibe. Anyway I guess I should take what I can get!! I agree with you about Sydney but not Melbourne. In fact I have often suggested that the mariners be relocated to north Sydney and play at north Sydney oval. This has not always been a popular suggestion with everyone on this site. My main reason for this is that the mariners crowds are too low and if they are so poor now when the mariners are toilet holders then what will they be like if they ever become wooden spoon material (toilet cleaners, if you will). I'm not convinced that Melbourne needs another team especially given the Heart 's crowds are pretty poor and prior to being bought by Man City there was much speculation that they would be wound up. In any event, no new teams should be brought in for at least 10 years in Sydney. A team should be introduced in Wollongong though in 2018.

You know it would have been a good party if Stavros wasn't going to come, what a shame, still, the absence of Stavros in Brazil should make for a good time.

Punter: "How AR wants everyone else to think that all is rotten in all sports bar AFL that is his issue." Oh Christ. I doubt there's anyone on this site that has criticised Essendon or the AFL more than I have over the past year (maybe IanW comes close). You're on the AFL tab often enough - go read my posts - they're all there. I also comment reguarly on cricket, league, rugby, racing, the Olympics or whatever other sporting issue that I feel like. I follow as many sports as I can - that may be an alien concept to you - I don't know. And sometimes (maybe not often) I feel I can contribute, as I have a background in sports media, sporting organisations and law. But you (and others) seem to attack my comments purely because I made them, not because of what they say. And despite what you often claim, you'll find no example of me ever bagging soccer or the ALeague. Sorry for the long-windedness, but I think it was due.

Punter - There are 9 Sydney based NRL teams. Based on the average crowds of both SFC and WSW and with Sydney's population i can't see why a 3rd Sydney based club can't be introduced in 2 to 3 years.I would look to place it in the inner west between both the existing clubs.

They sold too many memberships to a small stadium.

Johan, I read a post on the AFL tab & you actually made sense, unlike your posts on football. 1. Clubs are only allowed 4 foreigners, takes 23 players for a current squad. 2. IF AFL can have 9 Melbourne teams & NRL have 7 Sydney teams, why can't Sydney & Melbourne have a 3rd team. SW Sydney could easily support a team & how about Sth Melbourne

SFM, I think you have posted more on this thread today, then I have on the AFL tab in the last 3 months. BTW, I didn't mention AFL, Midfielder did, I was just commenting on his comment. Now who is pathetic.