Every season, football fans in Australia fervently argue over the direction of the A-League, and this year fans are longing for expansion once again.
After three big opening rounds to the season, Football Federation Australia has confirmed attendance, free-to-air and Foxtel TV ratings have all increasing strongly. This news is music to the ears of the FFA, especially during the tense, tricky and incredibly vital television rights negotiations.
With Foxtel and multiple free-to-air stations interested, Australian football looks set to increase its commercial revenues. However, when the money is coming in, football fans expect spending too, and in 2016-17, expansion is going to be on top of their wishlist.
Contrary to what many football pessimists might say, the FFA have had more success in expansion than failure.
Wellington Phoenix is sustainable across the ditch and Melbourne Heart – now City – ignited a unique culture of cross-city sporting rivalry in Australia. We’ll get onto the Western Sydney Wanderers in a second.
Of course, there are two black blots on their record too. Gold Coast United started off with a bang before owner Clive Palmer’s erratic behaviour drove almost all fans away. Then there was North Queensland Fury, the Townsville-based club that began in a more modest fashion, but fell with its owner Don Matheson’s financial woes.
These four clubs taught the A-League one very crucial lesson – expansion must be strong or not happen at all. They took this approach for Gold Coast United’s empty place, where they built the Western Sydney Wanderers around an existing football culture in a few short months.
The result was simply incredible.
Within 12 months, the Wanderers averaged a crowd of over 14,500 people, made the A-League grand final, and astonishingly, won the Asian Champions League, qualifying for the FIFA World Club Cup. Whether you like Western Sydney or not, all fans were unanimous in the belief that this was an excellent case for A-League expansion.
Fast-forward to 2016 and everyone – fans, clubs, Head of the A-League Greg O’Rourke and notably, Ange Postecoglou – seems to be on the same page. The Socceroos coach spells out a clear mandate in his new book Changing the Game, quoted as saying “consolidating at a time of growth seems counter-intuitive to me.”
It’s a strong sentiment the football community is sharing right now in Australia.
Currently, football fans butt heads over which corner of Australia is the next A-League destination. While the FFA calculates market size and population ‘corridors’ in Brisbane and Sydney, fans long for more regional options like Wollongong, Canberra, Geelong and Tasmania. Both sides make valid points.
In short, the major city corridors boast large groups of population, but with a limited sense of collectivism and regional pride, making the marketing challenge much more difficult. The touted regional cities are easier to unite, however, they have a considerably smaller population base to attract – usually three to five times smaller than the major city options.
So how do we work out which option is the most viable?
For me, A-League expansion shouldn’t be rushed for next season, but we are well overdue for a second division in Australia – let’s call it The A2-League.
This is the best place to judge the viability of A-League clubs – financially, football-wise and on their match day attendance. From here, when the club passes all the trials and tribulations of national football on a smaller, less risky scale, they should be promoted into the top division. However, its benefits can span much further than just more entertainment and more teams in the league.
The A2-League can be highly important to developing our young footballers into superstars. Nothing develops young talent better than playing in the men’s division.
At 18-years-old, legendary Socceroos Mark Viduka, Harry Kewell, Tim Cahill and Mark Schwarzer played with and faced men in their respective leagues, not other youths. That is the making of a young footballer. Like the American second division United Soccer League, the National Youth League should merge into the A2-League.
The A2-League will also help stem the flow of Australian players to the football wildernesses of South East Asia and beyond. Instead, it would provide a local platform for players like Diogo Ferreira, Antony Golec, Hagi Gligor, Rocky Visconte and more to reaffirm their value and get back in the A-League.
The best talent currently in the National Premier Leagues would have the chance to test themselves against these players that were once in the top division. Better yet, it offers less affluent teams like Central Coast Mariners the chance to scout better players more easily.
It’s a win-win-win situation for all.
Additionally, it ensures that the best bids win entry to the A-League, not the loudest. This way, we can scale the real performance position of whether Brisbane’s Ipswich corridor is more powerful than a Wollongong bid, which significantly mitigates risk. Under-complete bids would be in a better spotlight for financial investors to consider too.
Finally, the league could also offer smaller regional centres the chance to compete, even if they’re not interested in promotion. The A2-League could incorporate teams from Darwin, Bunbury, Bendigo, Ballarat, the Blue Mountains, Cairns, Sunshine Coast and smaller centres, making football a truly national game.
Expansion should not be a game of Russian roulette and the only thing that can assure this is a second division for football in Australia.
Jeff Williamson
Roar Pro
It was interesting that this article was actually about proposing a new second division. Nearly all the comments posted were about where people would like to see expansion. I think that there is defintely a lot more fans wanting to see expansion first.
MatthewSkellett
Guest
Is this the same Les Mara who used to play for Balmain ? :-)
Squizz
Guest
Geelong doesn't have great participation rates - they just have good PR that compare them to other Vic participation rates. The Greater Wollongong area has a 4.07% participation rate with 11900 registered players. The Central Coast Area has a 4.064% participation rate with 13800 registered players. The Greater Canberra Area has a 4.064% participation rate with 16100 registered players The Greater Geelong Area has a 1.580% participation rate with 3712 registered players. Victoria has a 1.122% participation rate with 66914 registered players.
RBBAnonymous
Guest
It is clear to me that the FFA really doesn't have a clue when it comes to expansion. Any teams outside of Australia should not be considered at all. We should say NO to any new expansion teams in NZ being Auckland. The only reason that this would be considered is purely based on population metrics alone. Just because a town/city has a large population doesn't mean that they will follow a football team. As much as an Auckland team would help Wellington it doesn't really help Australia in any way. It was difficult enough to convince the AFC of Wellingtons inclusion let alone convince them of having Auckland as well. Its too problematic and its a politically silly move. This also rules out any expansion into areas of Asia like Singapore or Malaysia. Its simply not worth the trouble and would put us offside with the AFC. What is needed more than anything is to increase the integrity of the league. This does mean we have to expand the competition but we have to expand in a measured way. We also have to accept that we will not find many teams like WSW again. How we were not included earlier is simply baffling. I think we need to expand with two more teams initially. I would like to see the competition with 16 teams as the final number. In a home and away season that gives you 30 matches. Can we accept that not every team that enters the league will have over 10k average in its first few years. I can accept it, can the FFA. I am more than happy to see teams grow on the back of the league with more teams and a credible competition. As much as I currently enjoy the A-league, it is simply boring playing the same teams 3 times a season with only 10 teams. The interest in the competition as a whole will substantially increase when we have more teams. This should be a national competition as much as possible so I would try to avoid having another NSW team in the competition, although I cant go past Wollongong. For those of you who aren't aware Wollongong is a FOOTBALL city, they have plenty of football folk who would love to have an A-league team. When asked Wollongong has always come out in numbers to support FFA cups, practice matches and also to support the socceroos camp when they were down there. Its a NO brainer and would be the closest you would get to a WSW anywhere in Australia. WHY? They have a great stadium, they have a large migrant population, they have a history of playing football in the region and they want to be part of the A-league. They are crying out for a team as much as the people of Western Sydney were. Notice how I also said Wollongong. IT DOES NOT NECESSARILY MEAN THE WOLVES. The people of Wollongong can decide that if the FFA can open their eyes and put a team where people actually want a team. What else is important is not to judge the area based on past experiences in the NSL. If that was the case WSW would never have started in the first place. You all forget that Parramatta power was also in the NSL and were poorly supported. WHY? Because the Parramatta power were basically an extension of the Parramatta Eels Rugby League club. No disrespect to the eels but they are the last team I would want to follow in football let alone Rugby League. Secondly the credibility of the NSL was non existent which made following a football team all that much more difficult. So asks yourself if you were a football supporter, would you prefer supporting a team in the NSL or the A-league. I think the answer is pretty clear. Who would be the next side I would include, well it comes down to 2 areas for me. The first is Canberra who have, like Wollongong, have supported football in good numbers whether that was for the FFA cup or the Asian Cup. They have been desperately unlucky not to be in the A-league already as they would have surely filled a team instead of WSW if they hadn't arrived. Again past experiences in the NSL should not be used a measuring stick as people would be more than willing to support teams in a credible competition. The NSL was not a credible competition when compared to the A-league. The second area I would consider is Geelong. Again a parochial city who will support their teams to the hilt, they have high participation rates in football, they have a large explosion in football registrations, they have hosted ACL matches and A-league matches in Symonds Stadium, which is more than adequate for football. Those are 3 teams which would provide good cases for expansion. Namely they are all areas which have large participation numbers in football. They have supported football every time when asked, even for teams they are not closely aligned to in order to prove their worth. Of course initially I would have only two of those teams but one of those teams would be considered for further expansion. That leaves 3 more teams plus one that misses out for consideration when expansion occurs. At least 3 more teams could be then considered in large cities like Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide etc depending on where it would be best for the A-league. By that time I am hopeful interest in the A-league would have grown and that we will have to be knocking back teams who want to be part of the A-league.
Adam Smith
Guest
I'd like to know how popular A-League is outside Australia. Apparently there are full match broadcasts in about 10 countries (like US, Canada, England, China etc) and highlights available for 65 countries. Do non-Australians actually follow/watch A-League? I just thought EPL, Spanish, Italian and German leagues may be the only ones other countries would care about.
Kasey
Roar Pro
I can tell you right now that 2nd Adelaide is pie in the sky stuff. I doubt seriously if there is enough corporate backing for a 2nd A-League team here. Bob D'Ottavi is old and he wont be around forever. Already his children are offside with watching dad spend their inheritance on Adelaide City. IMO the most likely place for a new team is FFA trying to strike gold again in Sydney, this time shoe-horning in a third team with Southern Sydney(Sutherland FC?). I would be disappointed with 3rd Sydney as I think that would dash the hopes of Wollongong. My primary desired criteria for expansion are that the new team should "grow the pie." If all they are doing is canibalising an existing team's suporter base (hence weakening them) rather than bringing new fans to the competition then I think it's not a good idea to go in that direction.
MarkfromCroydon
Guest
What are you talking about. The figures being touted in all of the articles I've seen are more in the $80 mil per year range. Making figures up out of thin air that are vastly exaggerated doesn't achieve anything.
Les Mara
Roar Rookie
JUST GET ON WITH EXPANSION, CUT THE CRAP! when YOU PROPOSE IN MARRIAGE, YOU DON'T GO TO THE RESTAURANT AND SA Y WILL YOU.. LET'S COME BACK NEXT TIME SO I CAN ASK YOU SOMETHING. jUST GET ON WITH IT RICHARD CRANIUMS.
Hammerhead
Guest
I think at this point in time Townsville is a no-go zone. The Cowboys rule that market, and get fans from as far away as Cairns, Mackay and Mt Isa.
The word
Guest
But I'm enjoying myself. And isn't that what sports about at the end of the day?
punter
Guest
Thanks for advice, run away now.
punter
Guest
Yes my apologies. however I always get Wimbledon right, instead of Wimbleton.
SVB
Guest
Forget it Jamesb. I've corrected at least two or three people on here about the spelling of Wollongong, and they still constantly get it wrong. Even punter who lives in Sydney got it wrong :(
jamesb
Guest
Guys, it's spelt Wollongong, not Woolongong.
The word
Guest
Aaah the World Cup bid ?
The word
Guest
Look where, my old friend punter? Raul has Nailed it me thinks Soccer folk talk about western Sydney as if there were more soccer perticpants than people...there's 2 million of the latter which is several fold bigger than any other population centre without a soccer team in the country Not surprising that they are the only successful expansion team since the a league began Keep looking!
punter
Guest
John, they went for the QLD failures because they wanted more grounds, especially nth Queensland, for the WC bid.
Gurudoright
Guest
Why not a Northern Sydney or Beaches team playing out of Brookvale or North Sydney Oval
punter
Guest
Look again!!!!
Squizz
Guest
I have not seen anything from the FFA dialling back the stadium requirements and I would be very surprised if they did. Commercially they want to present something that looks like it is professional. For this primary reason I would think that teams playing out of Southern Cross Group Stadium, WIN Stadium, GIO Stadium, cBus Stadium, and Simonds Stadium would be at the front of the line together with teams that would share exiting stadiums.