Surprise results as A-League's expansion teams are decided

Would illawarra be a better than wollongong

Firstly i am from Wollongong. In my Opinion Canberra is a must, they have a proposed stadium to build, 420 000 population, the capital of Australia, a willing owner in Tom Rogic and a market where footballers will want to play. Dump the phoenix and keep clear of Nz teams they are a different country, their teams always perform badly and it is Australia's top level of football. Gold Coast has one of the most successful economies in Australia, a population close to 600 000 (Gold coast has about 500 000 tourists annually) If they give Gold coast another try i think they will do well. Wollongong has a great stadium for a-league but will have problems because of tenants St george Illawarra Dragons over in NRL. The gong is a great city with major infrastructural and residential developments under construction, at the moment Wollongong is rapidly reaching the 315 000 population mark but after that Wollongong doesn't really have further population growth potential. I can imagine like the wollongong hawks in basketball players will be coming in and ou by the season. Wollongong along with Western sydney has rich numbers of youth footballers that can grow up and play for a wollongong based side. I don't have much to say about campbeltown but they are definitely a good option. I don't think Tasmania is ready for an a-league club.

Firstly i am from Wollongong. In my Opinion Canberra is a must, they have a proposed stadium to build, 420 000 population, the capital of Australia, a willing owner in Tom Rogic and a market where footballers will want to play. Dump the phoenix and keep clear of Nz teams they are a different country, their teams always perform badly and it is Australia's top level of football. Gold Coast has one of the most successful economies in Australia, a population close to 600 000 (Gold coast has about 500 000 tourists annually) If they give Gold coast another try i think they will do well. Wollongong has a great stadium for a-league but will have problems because of tenants St george Illawarra Dragons over in NRL. The gong is a great city with major infrastructural and residential developments under construction, at the moment Wollongong is rapidly reaching the 315 000 population mark but after that Wollongong doesn't really have further population growth potential. I can imagine like the wollongong hawks in basketball players will be coming in and ou by the season. Wollongong along with Western sydney has rich numbers of youth footballers that can grow up and play for a wollongong based side. I don't have much to say about campbeltown but they are definitely a good option. I don't think Tasmania is ready for an a-league club.

Put a team in Fremantle. Create a derby with Perth Glory. They'll get a bunch of fans who follow the Dockers in the AFL with nobody to follow in the summer.

Daniel You dont have to be black to be skilful at football, if you dedicate yourself to a craft it doesn't matter the skin colour ..

I would like to see a team from Darwin/Northern Territory this would be great for the area and with all the aboriginal's that are fantastic at playing AFL if we could get any of them interested in Soccer then Australia would have there own very skilled players like the Brazilians.

You'd probably be more accurate to count Tasmania as (Hobart/Launceston 360,000), as the bid proposal includes playing matches in both those cities, although the club would engage with population centres across the entire state (pre-season matches, school clinics, etc.)

The Tasmania bid is based on the population catchment of the two largest cities, Hobart (pop 220k) and Launceston (120k) so for the purposes of this table you could use a population of 360k. They are 200km apart, approx 2 hours by road. The feasibility study recommended a split of games between Hobart and Launceston, since it would attract casual/walk-up crowds in both cities, and also the ability to sell north/south only memberships. Yes - Tasmania doesn't have a rectangular stadium of the appropriate facilities. But to the surprise of some armchair experts, this is not even on the radar for FFA, York Park and Bellerive Oval are excellent venues in all other regards (capacity, location, player and corporate facilities, media facilities). In fact one of the arrangements used at York Park involved the rectangular pitch being located close to the largest stand, and the cameras being on a scaffold on the opposite side. Who is going to build a new stadium with no confirmed tenants? Melbourne Victory and Wellington Phoenix currently play on oval grounds. The challenge is financial - details are confidential unfortunately. I can say that the model was assuming no government support (for context, Hawthorn gets paid $3m a year for shirt sponsorship and 4 matches) and before last year's increase in TV rights income. Just one of those two things makes it a completely different story. At the moment the bid team has things "on-hold" - relatively inactive while there is a "no vacancy" sign up, but keeping an eye on things in case that changes.

Adelaide, CCM and Newy do fine with recruitment, and none of those are any better than Canberra.

Could not agree more, I was talking with some mates about an 'NPL Championship', which pretty much comprises of the best teams from the different States/ Territories of the previous NPL season to create a Second Aus league. The highest finishing takes the place of the bottom team in the A-League - making the whole process much more entertaining. I don't think it's possible to put dates on it yet though.

I think the FFA should have given South Melbourne FC an A-League license a while ago. A geographical divide would only have made the Melbourne derby better. With the futures of both City based Melbourne clubs looking secure, I would agree that Wollongong looks like the viable option. Would love to see the Hellas in the A-League though, hopefully as the NPL strengthens and develops it will become possible to gain promotion to the A-League. In the meantime, any Melbourne residents who need a football fix (that doesn't involve a television) get down to an NPL match and support your local club. It's cheap as chips and makes for a ripper afternoon with your mates.

"3. Tasmania 495,354 4. North Queensland (Townsville/Cairns) 442,333" In these two cases, can the numbers even be considered as belonging to a single market?

It would nicely set up a North-South rivalry - North Queenslanders do have a chip on their shoulder when it comes to those from the Southeast corner.

Nope, just someone who has lived most of their live is Brissy and know the south side back to front. But I bow to you obvious superior knowledge.

More than a long shot, MF. It will never happen. The state is an economic basket case and the culture is AFL through and through. Mainland taxpayers already keep Tasmania afloat to the extent it is floating at all. The state has no industrial capacity, no tax base. There is no one local who could finance a team, and it is fantasy in the extreme to imagine an outside Melbourne City situation in Hobart or Launceston.

From another with local knowledge, it's pie in the sky nonsense from start to finish.

Rellum, this post is so far into lala land I don't know where to start./ Or perhaps I should start by asking if you've been up all night and haven't sobered up yet.

Absolutely.

I didn't rule out Tvl and GC because of previous failures. I simply suggested that Palmer's ghost is a problem, which it is most certainly is. It was a horrible failure and it will make another attempt to establish a club much harder than it might otherwise have been. But I certainly didn't rule GC out. In fact, I proposed GC and Auckland as the most likely options.' Tvl I discounted because of the difficulty of finding the finance - still upwards of $5 million, I believe.

Very well said. Gold Coast brisbane derby has merit though just need the promotion and momentum of other derbies. Need to build that excitement