A-League expansion should follow successful 2013/14 season

If the number of games grows significantly along with the TV revenue the FFA will back itself to do a 'owner operated' club or two in Wollongong and Ipswich IMO. It just has to. E cost neutral (after a club / player dividend) and away you go.....

Actually the A-League is one of only 2 leagues of Football in the world with such even money for all teams .. Closer less predicable results ... In the worlds dominant number one sport ... It was surprise to every body .. But the A-league is special and the viewers come back to it

Actually the A-League is one of only 2 leagues of Football in the world with such even money for all teams .. Closer less predicable results ... In the worlds dominant number one sport ... It was surprise to every body .. But the A-league is special and the viewers come back to it

asanchez Our media deal is 40 million for 140 A-League games + say 10 others ie Socceroos 40 million / 150 games is roughly 266K per match ... My reasoning is if we lift the number of games to 270 if nothing else changes the Football media deal would jump to 72 million on a fee per match .... Both the NRL & AFL produce about 210 matches per year and receive close to one million per match ... Ideally as rating rise your media deal increases in value ... and if you have an increase in games then the media deal has the potential to more than double next time...

Mid, What do you mean by this 266k figure??

The fact that Qld gets as many FFA cup places as Vic is an indication of a fair amount of football interest (relatively speaking) in Qld. To me this gives more weight to another team from Queensland but not neccesarily regional Qld. The 'gong or Canberra would be my other choice - a 3rd Sydney involving southern sydney and South West Sydney would just cannibalise existing support for Sydney clubs. As your article advocates 12 teams in the near future and if FFA thinks along the same lines they will have to pick the new teams from somewhere. They may be forced to choose between the best of a "not so good" bunch perhaps?

70s Mo You need to add the ACT as well so NSW / ACT 7.4 or thereabouts... QLD is also the countries best spread state in that it has many large regional centres .. so does NSW but QLD with Brisbane populations of about 2 million compared to NSW 6.9 million with Sydney's population of 4.5 million... However that aside to the best of my knowledge Fish where the fish are is based on population and support... how is Football supported regional Queensland ??? I don't know.... To the best of my knowledge Football has only three areas that could it could claim to be true heartland areas and they are shared heartland with RL... Western Sydney , Hunter / Newcastle & Wollongong ... My next two teams off the top of my head would be a team that took in South Western Sydney and Wollongong [they are reasonably close and you have two stadiums largely unused of 18 K and 20K [win] .... and a second Brisbane team... but thats a gut feel and thats a silly way to do it...

Mid Canberra only for political reasons otherwise its to condensed the W League are there also and the Pollies come out for that on occasions. The Gong before Canberra ..

TT and Mid, Just an interesting note. ABS 2011 Census population NSW 6.9 mill; Qld 4.3 mill - so NSW has less than 2x population of Queensland. Adding a Wollongong team without a Queensland team gives a ratio of 5:1 NSW to Queensland teams. This combined with Gallop's "fish where the fishes are" statement leads me to think 1 of the next 2 expansion teams will be from QLD.

TT Where to place the next teams will require a lot of homework ... Canberra worries me as Canberra is already a very crowded sporting market with a RL/ Super Rugby / Cricket and Basketball national sides ... is there room for a Football side... Regional centres by and large are not football heartlands .... Wollongong is the exception and that is a shared heartland with RL... The articles raises the possibilities that Football could develop a much bigger match schedule with two extra teams and the additional matches will bring revenue as Football can play in the AFL / NRL / Super Rugby seasons...

To be honest their are really only three areas that would be fighting for two spots for the next expansion and they are Canberra, North Queensland and Wollongong. Those wanting a third sydney team should just call off and maybe look at promoting one of the Sydney clubs from the NPL. I think if FFA plays it safe they would want to cover all of NSW/ACT first before expanding further out. The more teams covered in the most populous state and the strength of NSW particiaption numbers (getting 9 of the 22 state league spots for the FFA cup) convinces me that we still need to cover this area. I am not trying to say the league is too sydney or NSW centric but we need to tap into the numbers and NSW as a state leads the way by a big margin. Since Queensland has 4 local FFA cup spots its only fitting that they get a 2nd A-League team is Victoria can get 2 A-League spots and 4 local FFA cup spots. Tasmania lack of a rectangular stadium holds them back and until they put this plan in place I say no to this. At least Tassie football development is coming along in strides with the Victory league and a decent pathway so Tassie talent is not missed. But they need a rectangular football stadium even if only built to cater for 10-15,000 would be plenty. But where you locate the team is another question altogether. My safe bet is Wollongong and Canberra so the league can create more close rivalries for away fans to travel to to build up attendances for the league and the TV ratings and then expand out.

The TV ratings also havent been great on SBS this season due to the schedule, and that joke of a club that is/was the Melbourne Heart, being on every 2 to 3 weeks. Watching their home games on friday night FTA, with empty green seats everywhere and 5k crowds just wasnt a good look for the league, and did more damage to things like ratings than enhance them. This coming season however, things may well flip around and they might be the tesm to watch! With their new owners and their billions, big things are expected and I'm sure they'll deliver on the recruitment front. The big marquee games and the other big ones can all at least get a go on FTA next season, as everyone plays each other 3 times, so there's plenty of games to go around. I'm sure SBS could show these games - MVvMH, SFCvWSW, MVvBRI and ADLvMV, F3 derby, at least once a season.

Mid I've had this discussion with many people both verbally and in many forums. SBS hasnt had the TV ratings for the A-league that many expected, and as soon as the numbers come out the next morning, many people are very quick to come out and attribute the quality of the league as a reason why the ratings are what they are. But I dont think its just that simple! I've always said that just to be on FTA tv is fantastic for the game. The ratings will improve, as we're only in the 1st year of this TV deal. Hopefully SBS is learning as they go along. They need to! There's so many things could've been done better or differently to give the coverage the best chance to success. It doesn't just all come down to the quality of the league IMO. Mind you, the overall TV ratings that SBS has contributed to the numbers do look decent, and add about 20%+ on top of last season's total viewership numbers. So not all doom & gloom! The audience for the A-league is of a younger demographic these days, and different to the viewers of the old NSL. SBS need to realise that and move with the times. Their production is poor and looks cheap, many of their presenters and panel members are bland, and cant explain themselves or the game as it should be done to the masses and the uneducated. And David Basheer would be a great tennis commentator, but with Football he just doesn't cut it for me! SBS is better off having Simon Hill call all the games on friday nights. Then there's the whole SBS2 v SBS1 debate or should I say debacle! FFA needs to have a chat and sort that out quick smart. Next year is only season 2 out of a 4 year TV deal, there's still time for SBS to get things right.

But if those games were all broadcast live on fta tv the ratings would be very large indeed and Fox would then be forced to have to pay the real true value for the rights in the next tv deal................................and of course, they don't want to pay the true value as they like the current arrangement very much where they pay virtually nothing.

using software!...........what software?? what a lot of nonsence that afl is more popular online than football! football rules the internet in the same way as afl rules ch 9 & 10.

Bring on the Darwin Dynamite. "Team NT, their dynamite."

I don't think you have considered the possibility that if SBS make the A-League tooooo popular they will be in serious danger of losing the broadcasting rights to Ch 7, so they have a vested interest in keeping 'a lid on' their tv figures..................ie. 'just enough' to satisfy the sponsors but 'not tooooo high' where they will attract the attention of competitors.

Fuss are you saying that if SBS was offered 140 matches they would be able to pay $35M? Or is it because Foxtel offered more money hence got more products & also deserves the marquee games?

If Fox refuse to pay fair market value (at least $100M per year) for the next rights deal then another tv company will have to be found, such as Al Jazeera. When you consider that they paid $17.5M per year for only four games per week in the previous seven year rights deal and in this present deal they paid only $33M per year for five games per week, even 'blind Freddie' can see that they paid far below their true market value for the present rights and should not be allowed to dictate anything to the FFA.