FFA’s expansion criteria of having a market of a million people is creating a new wave of ‘multi city’ spreadsheet clubs clambering for A-League inclusion.
The early failures of Gold Coast United and North Queensland Fury have put FFA off adding new expansion teams in regional cities.
The lesson they have taken away from these failures is that places with small populations will struggle to support an A-League team.
Unfortunately, this has driven new expansion bids to inflate the size of their catchment areas by adding regions together which might have little in common. Will they be stable long-term?
Wellington Phoenix
Of the current A-League teams the Phoenix are the most obvious as they have taken ‘home’ games outside Wellington to places like Auckland, Christchurch and Palmerston North.
Not only do they claim to represent Wellington but they also market themselves as a team for the whole of New Zealand!
Central Coast Mariners
Because of poor crowds in their own home market, the Mariners tried selling themselves as a team for Canberra under a kind of ‘Capital Mariners’ concept.
But the deal with Canberra has fallen through and the Mariners are currently looking for other cities to partner with and take matches to.
Canberra are now rumoured to be interested in forming a link with Wellington because of direct flights between the cities.
What a mess.
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The Phoenix and Mariners are both teams who already exist but the interesting thing is how many new expansion bids follow the same model.
Tasmania
The Tasmanian bid, which kicked off the current expansion frenzy, will play most of their games in Hobart, with a few in Launceston and maybe a couple of FFA Cup matches on the north-west coast.
The north-south divide may be an issue but promoting a team as representing the whole state is seen as more solid commercially.
Northern Australia
The Northern Fury are keen to return to the A-League at some point and have stated that they would like to share matches around between Townsville, Cairns and Darwin.
Northern Fury chairman Rabieh Krayem did an interview with Outside90 about all the issues up there, which is well worth a listen.
Victoria Patriots
A new region bidding for an A-League license is Geelong under the Victoria Patriots bid.
This team will be based in Geelong but will also claim to represent not only Ballarat, Bendigo, Colac, Warrnambool, Werribee and the whole of western Victoria but also the western suburbs of Melbourne.
Melbourne City have taken notice of this and are now promoting themselves as the team for Geelong, but they will also have to compete with Victory in this regard.
It makes more sense to have Geelong represented by two Melbourne teams than by one of their own. You know, like Tasmania.
Brisbane Strikers
Then there’s the Brisbane Strikers bid, where the team will be based in Ipswich but represent the ‘western corridor’ from Logan to Ipswich and on to Toowoomba.
Ipswich and Logan are both in Brisbane at least but Toowoomba is about 100 kilometres away in the Darling Downs region.
Fairfield
South-west Sydney could be the location for a new team if a bid from Fairfield is successful.
The team will be based at a new national ‘home of football’ in Fairfield but will also represent Liverpool and the Macarthur region.
Liverpool is close by, but Campbelltown is 33 kilometres from Fairfield, so will they want their own team in the future?
And wouldn’t Liverpool be a better location for a team in south-west Sydney, since it is easily accessible from both Fairfield and Campbelltown?
Southern expansion
This is the big one. The southern expansion bid hopes to combine Sutherland, St George and Wollongong all under the one banner.
This seems unlikely to work when Lyall Gorman has stated that he wants the team to be an extension of the Sharks brand.
Not only are Sutherland and St George fierce rivals but Wollongong is a completely separate city from Sydney with a historic club of its own.
But the bid has the support of David Gallop, Greg O’Rourke, Lyall Gorman, Les Murray, Craig Foster and Morris Iemma.
I’ll put them down as a maybe…
Dude, where’s my club?
Expanding the A-League is a must, but questions need to be asked about the identity and stability of some of these bids.
The biggest problem facing the A-League is just trying to get fans to watch Australia’s top-flight competition. But it might not help if these new teams propagate and reinforce an already negative image some have.
With things like a salary cap and salary floor, an A-League run by FFA, FFA’s own governance structure, lack of fan ownership, the finals system, shared stadiums, teams playing each other three times, the franchise nature of teams and so on, the new mish-mash bids don’t do much to help.
The traditionalists and purists must be walking around looking at all this with Buffalo Springfield’s ‘For What It’s Worth’ playing in their heads.
Promotion-relegation
The issue of promotion-relegation might be contentious, but maybe it’s a better way of doing things than FFA trying to pick winners.
Promotion-relegation allows teams to enter the league based on performance rather than be introduced based on speculation.
I’m not so sure that building teams based on spreadsheets and just beaming them down out of nowhere is the best way to go. New bids might look good on paper, but if they try to combine areas which lack a common identity between them they could fail to find and keep loyal fans.
Having said all that, FFA will probably put the next two teams in Sydney to boost TV ratings and news coverage with 18 big derbies.
It might even generate the money they need for a second division.
Arto
Guest
Agree, but that is the reality we face at the moment. Fox Sports is paying to call the tune and until FFA get some more money from elsewhere, or the A-League become independently run, this is going to remain the case. The only other argument I can see is if FFA manage to convince Fox Sports that expanding to regional areas will improve the standard of football to the extent that more fans watch the game and thus in turn, more sponsors come onboard - meaning increased subscriptions and advertising for Fox Sports... Seeing as FFA aren't the great orators we'd like them to be, I can't see that happening either - case in point, the FTA negotiations at present...
Arto
Guest
Not sure where you get $16M from - from what I've read, it'll be $3M this season, up from $1M last season. Hardly enough to fund a 2nd Div, but I agree in principle that FFA shouldn't be involved with paying players' salaries... Plus, it's all well and good announcing a 2nd Div, but which teams are going to actually enter it if that is as far as they can ever go? Unfortunately, a 2nd Div & pro/rel are almost universally intwined together meaning that for it to be come a reality, FFA needs to lay the foundations for both concepts at the same time and perhaps have a trial period whereby 2nd Div Clubs are tested for sustainability over a couple of years during which 1st Div Clubs can implement internally mechanisms for a potential relegation.
Arto
Guest
Unfortunately, you're conveniently ignoring the financial realities at play - Fox Sports is the one basically funding FFAs operations so with that amount of finacial influence it's bound to spill over into administrative influence also. I'd love for FFA to say that these smaller regions are good enough to sustain a team, so I agree FFA need to be strong on this issue, but the realities are that Fox Sports has most likely already a number of contractual arguments it can use to force FFAs hand. It's the same problem with scheduling - we get these idiotic decisions from Gallop & Co about when games are played so that they fit into Fox Sports content programming. The challenge moving forward is to decrease the reliance on Fox Sports' money so that they have less Sway. This is where I think Gallop & Co have been too eager to accept the cash being wafted under their noses and actually think more strategically. It's also where an independent A-League administration would be able to have a more wholistic approach as fans would have a bigger influence through their clubs.
Agent11
Guest
Manchester and Liverpool are basically joined together as one city with numerous other towns and cities a stones throw away. Comparing any population area in Australia to the UK is fraught with danger. Sydney to Newcastle would cover a massive area in the UK.
stu
Guest
Was......it may be argued that the future and present teams represent Fox sport. In many ways the Super Rugby teams in Australia are in the same boat. Most, not all NRL and AFL teams have grass roots history as do EPL and say SPL teams. Those teams identify clearly with a fan base where allegiances run in the family/blood. I am pleased we have the Roar, and realise it will be two or three generations from me before any a-league club will identify with its geography and be for the people.
Footoverhand
Guest
Scrap the marquee fund, a FA shouldn't be involved in player signings anyway and then there is 16M for your 2nd division.
Footoverhand
Guest
More and more like it's Fox's expansion clubs, I'll put this here again. Why should any of the bids be rejected for reasons that there aren't enough allocation or that it won't bring in enough subscribers for Fox, why do the FFA want to turn away investment and ultimately turn people away from the game like the guy who has made 2 Canberra bids, won't get involved anymore. FFA have now lost investment, that someone was willing to put in. http://www.thepeckingorder.com.au/tpovision/
Footoverhand
Guest
FFA just need to grow a pair and tell Fox to stay out of it, why is commercial entity dictating how the game should be run in this country? FFA need to do what is best for football and not what is best for Fox Sports, in the end it is best for both parties anyway.
Footoverhand
Guest
Or other states that don't have derbies or even a team seems like a good start.
Footoverhand
Guest
Get rid of the marquee fund and suddenly there is 16M available, I don't understand why a countries FA is getting involved in player signings at the detriment of the association they represent.
Footoverhand
Guest
Or start a second division and promote from there
Arto
Guest
Agree, but there are two somewhat separate aspects at play here, IMO... One is the drive by Fox Sports to increase Subscriptions - hence the big-city focus (it's a lot more cost-effective to focus on the big cities to increase Subscriptions). Two is the actual grassroots support for the club - as you say cities with populations of less than 1M (like Canberra, Wollongong, Geelong, etc.) should be able to attract enough fans to the games and sponsorship revenue to sustain a team in the A-League on a long-term basis (CCM is a good example of that). So it's really not until FFA is freed from their reliance on Fox Sports money that they will not be swayed so much by the argument of focusing on big cities. For that to happen, FTA needs to happen and then evolve - or maybe an FTA channel could become an investor in a new team (along the lines of News Ltd involvement with the Broncos in NRL)?? The other brake on pro/rel is the fact that current owners have been losing Money hand-over-fist since Day 1 and whilst they can hardly say investment in football delivers great ROIs, they would definitely be livid if FAA went back on the 20yr licences they gave out recently. So I think pro/rel is definitely a way off (at least until the current A-League licences are due to expire) and the quicker we as fans come to terms With that, the better progress we can actually make in bringing pro/rel to existance.
Arto
Guest
A good addition ot the discussion on expansion, Nick! Identity is definitely a big issue in trying to determine new entrants to the A-League - SFC are working now on this in order to increase their crowds and memberships, which so often cop a bollocking by pundits... The example of Southern Expansion is a good one - whilst I'm happy to here all of the impressive planning & backing they have, the basic idea that 3 distinct geographical regions can be united under one banner just doesn't win me over - why on Earth can't they simply be Southern Syd OR Wollongong??? You can't be all things to all people, so why not be proud of who you can be... Additionally, I found this a great read as to the current dillemma facing both expansionists & pro/rel fans... https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/may/17/promotion-relegation-and-expansion-football-waits-for-the-big-step-up A lot of the commentary regarding pro/rel & a national 2nd division fails to address how the economics of it will work. This article highlights a couplf of the major questions that NEED to be answered in order for either pro/rel or even a national 2nd division to become a reality.
Arto
Guest
So basically you can see a scenario where FFA butcher the WSW support in order to make a new team??
saul
Guest
@RBBAnonymous Good point Manchester has half the population of Sydney and supports two major clubs, Merseyside (Liverpool and surrounding region) only has a population of 1.38 million.
saul
Guest
NSW has too many teams anymore and it will make the competition over balanced. Time for Victoria to be given another club, one that represents a community.
clipper
Guest
When league was dominant in Sydney, they used to have teams that overlapped each others territory, so why not - Football is pretty big in the SW region, they could support a team.
RBBAnonymous
Guest
This idea that the FFA wants to have teams in million dollar cities is good in theory but I am not sure why you want to pursue it. Why cant a team be supported by a city of 500,000 or even a city of 300,000. If you managed to penetrate either with 5% interest that's a team that will have 25,000 and 15,000 respectively at each game. I totally get that big cities will allow for more commercial opportunities and sponsorship's but why does every team in the A-league need to be of the same size, supported by the same number of commercial opportunities. Not every team will be the same size. Why even bother trying for that. If you have the right framework for growth and the right opportunities available for everyone (open tiered structure) then this will take care of itself naturally. As an example if we had pro/rel for 20 years it would not mean we would get 3 teams coming out of Wagga Wagga, even though they are considered one of the more freakish sporting districts in terms of athletes coming out of the area. We have more than enough interest in more teams wanting to come in and investment ready to be made, but there is simply no opportunity to do so. We can sustain a fantastic A-league competition with a very good 2nd tier we just need to be brave enough to do it.
Ballymore Brumby
Roar Pro
Interesting piece. Canberra never turned out to support (about 5k including myself) turned up to the stadium last time to watch (not necessarily support) the CCM because its not there own team. It may as well have been an exhibition match. And driving a connection with Wellington is pointless, and an inevitable waste of money that the ACT government could put towards supporting a proper, actual bid for a team based in Canberra. In population terms, Canberra (390k) together with the wider Queanbeyan (57) and Golburn-Yass (72k) could more than support a team. Certainly more believable and easier to get to matches than Tasmania or Northern Aussie teams. For the Queensland option, take a leaf from the National Rugby Championship and have a "Queensland Country" team that plays out four or five grounds across a season. Rather than stretching the Strikers (certainly couldn't call them Brisbane across the south east corner, excluding brisbane.
Janakan Seemampillai
Roar Guru
Good article. I think the reality is we need to look at clubs broadening their horizons beyond their normal geographical landscape. Its the only way forward. But we need to make sure it is realistic. Wellington and Canberra is a ridiculous link that will give very little return on investment. Melb City and Geelong is realistic. Northern Fury and Townsville, Darwin etc. is realistic considering they are from the northern part of Australia. I think Southern Sydney and Brisbane will be the new teams. Geelong should have one in 10 years and id say Northern Qld too. Wellington needs to be cut loose and in their place maybe a team from Canberra or a second team playing out of WA (fremantle?)