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A-League expansion has been on the cards for a while, but where should any new teams be based?
These are the places I think would make the best new additions to the A-League:
1) Wollongong/South Coast (pop. 450,000-550,000)
2) Canberra/ACT (pop. 400,000)
3) North Sydney/Manly
4) Albert Park
5) Ipswich
6) Tasmania United (pop. 500,000)
7) Geelong (pop. 200,000)
8) Gold Coast (pop. 600,000)
9) North Queensland
10) Darwin
Wollongong and Canberra are shoe-ins with large enough populations to support teams and stadiums already in place.
Wollongong won the NSL twice and Canberra has won twice in the W-League, so they can both compete at the national level if given the opportunity.
North Sydney would create an epic North versus South derby as well as a Hawkesbury derby with Central Coast and then you have the Wanderers to the West. The North versus South Battle of the Bridge would be the A-League’s showpiece fixture and would also attract a global audience, kind of like El Clasico but more Australian.
Maybe we could call it El Bonza?
A North Sydney team also wouldn’t split Sydney FC’s fan-base as much as a new team in South Sydney. It could use Brookvale Oval in the meantime but a new 50-60,000 seat rectangular stadium at North Sydney Oval would be a better option in the long term. The Parramatta Stadium rebuild could be revised up to a similar size as well.
This would evoke images of a Mexican standoff with the three stadiums standing there like three gunslingers staring across the city at one another.
Albert Park would create rivalries between teams north and south of the Yarra as well as with Geelong. Longer term, it could be the site for a new 50,000 seat stadium to match another at AAMI Park which was built with foundations for a stadium of that size.
The location beside the world-famous lake and racetrack with the Melbourne skyline in the background is superb.
Ipswich needs its own stadium but can use Lang Park in the meantime.
Tasmania and Geelong currently lack rectangular stadiums but if they commit to building them in the future they should be let in.
At the youth level, Tasmania has had good success in football. Back in 2008, a Tasmanian youth team played friendly matches against A-League National Youth League teams from Sydney FC, Melbourne Victory, Queensland Roar and Adelaide United. The Tasmanian team won three of the four matches.
Tasmania also gives millions to North Melbourne and Hawthorn so they can easily find the money to support a team if they want to.
Geelong, meanwhile, manages to support an expensive AFL team despite having a population much smaller than Tasmania so I can’t see why they couldn’t support an A-League team as well.
The Gold Coast should get another go and make a return. It is Australia’s sixth-largest city as well as being the country’s largest non-capital city. Gold Coast made it to the top four in their first two seasons so they could do well again.
At the time, they were a new team which hadn’t established itself in a new league which hadn’t established itself in a sport that hadn’t established itself. That’s a lot for any team to deal with.
Hopefully they’ve learnt their lessons since then. Give them five years but if they fail again to attract fans their license should go to another team.
Finally, North Queensland could become a separate state in the future while the Northern Territory isn’t represented in any national football code, so teams from these two locations would take the A-League to all states and territories.
Darwin is also Australia’s gateway to Asia so that should be kept in mind as well.
The current 10-team structure of the A-League exaggerates the struggles of the last 3-4 teams which draws attention away from the quality of the stronger ones. This creates an impression of a small and struggling league which is a bad image.
If there were 20 teams, more focus would go to the top teams and people wouldn’t keep questioning the strength and stability of the A-League. Expanding the A-League would also make it possible to add interest by adding different teams and creating new rivalries.
Teams like Wollongong, Canberra, Tasmania, Geelong and Gold Coast would be underdogs overshadowed and written off by larger cities and states and the public in general, but they would also be highly motivated by this so larger teams couldn’t afford to get complacent.
But the larger teams will still be there to battle it out with each other as normal. This combination will add greater interest and balance to the A-League. The Sydney FC vs Manly/North Sydney derby will simply be the fixture the A-League has to have.
Doubling the size of the A-League might make people worry about the quality being diluted. But if teams form affiliations with overseas ones then young players and reserves from overseas could use the A-League as a stepping stone to their own clubs, which could then play friendlies against their Australian counterparts.
This would also increase viewer interest in the A-League globally and start to turn the A-League and its teams into global brands which would then raise broadcasting and advertising revenue. The A-League could greatly benefit from expansion but is has to be bold, not timid.
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