Team 11 continue to gain supporters

I live in the Western Port Bay area and would welcome the chance to follow an A League club from the southeast of Melbourne. Judging by the continuing growth of small semi-pro club 'soccer' there must be thousands of potential supporters in the southeastern suburbs and a bit further afield who dislike the anonimity and the sheer time involved in attending matches in the big city stadia, not to mention the hassles involved with either car or train travel. Professional 'Soccer' all over the world has always been based on local clubs with rusted-on local support. It would be a mistake in my opinion to have all of Melbourne's A League clubs playing at Docklands or the East Melbourne stadia - a dedicated stadium in a suitable location in the southeastern suburbs would soon develop a following for the new club. While it is a nice to believe that our game will sooner or later develop A League clubs in the larger regional centres like Ballarat and Bendigo, we don't need another Far North Queensland fiasco. The logic of population alone suggests the FFA would be crazy to consider expansion outside the major growth areas first.

I don't like the idea of another team in Sydney and another in Melbourne. They should give it to other regions to really grow the game nationally. Then maybe in 2019-20 fastrack the addition of another 2 teams to get to 14 teams by 2020, as outlined by the Players Association.

you are from Croydon Mark hahaha

Why would anyone who lives in Dandenong feel attachment to a team that plays out of AAMI Park? Neither of the proposed teams in Melbourne will cannibalise the existing fan base. Each team will attract existing football fans from outer Melbourne who currently ignore the A-League. Tasmania and Canberra would also be excellent additions giving A-League to football fans who currently ignore the competition because they have no team to support.

Fair enough and I don't ever pretend to speak for the majority but I'm a football nut and a believer in professional football in Oz. I also used to live close to Monbulk for 10 years and always considered Dandenong and the outer SE as my local area and back then, frequented the area plenty and would have jumped at a hal team outta Dandy. Now I live closer to Bendigo and likewise, have pricked my ears up at this Tarneit club out West. We wouldn't be the majority but people that feel like me and are out in the regions a bit would surely add a couple of thousand at the gate to a half successful and progressive club based in outer Melbs. There's plenty that don't love going into Melbourne and also share my sentiments that the two central clubs are pretty unlikeable. Transport is the key I think and the sooner Vic moves away from this ridiculous wagon wheel setup, the more things will progress.

Expansion is about new markets Melbourne and Sydney already have two teams each in the A league .enough with more Melbourne and Sydney teams .lets go to new untapped markets that have no ALeague teams .otherise what's the point of expansion .you already have Sydney fc whose crowds have stagnated at about nine thousand so what's the point of putting another team like. South Sydney expansion bid that will be based in the S t George area a known Sydney fc heartland so they will both end up with five thousand average crowds if they are sharing the same supporter base. same with Melbourne you have Melb city whose crowd figures have stagnated at around ten thousand .Dandenong get behind your team Melb city .what would be the average home crowds with three Melbourne teams ten thousand each so what's the point .you haven't grown the market you have cannibalised it .the league needs expansion into new markets one city markets like Wollongong with the wolves who have a strong community support a stadium already in place 13,000 registered juniors 15,000 registered players and Canberra and Geelong . All storng soccer backgrounds and strong community support one city teams .just saying

The 15 bids sound promising and really Western Sydney Wanderers did a lot of things right. A team that represented something... so I can understand that concept being followed again in Sydney and also in Melbourne by the new teams.... BUT when I read that the new stadiums are investments I wonder who exactly is going to profit from this largesse. Of the AFL teams, I think only Geelong and Gold Coast have purpose built stadiums that were constructed knowing that those AFL teams would pretty be the only major sporting entity that would use the stadium. Neither stadium is finished either. It’s really cool if there is so much money floating about that nobody has to really be accountable for returning anything to those who pay for it. Maybe it could be part of a greater government strategy to create satellite cities or decentralise people away from the CBDs?

NEWS FROM WEST MELBOURNE - “The precinct itself will have world-class training facilities, multiple pitches, indoor, world class gymnasium and all of our teams, men’s, women’s and our academies will be training out of the same complex. “Eight hundred meters from where the stadium will be there’s a rail line. The plans for Sayers Rd Station is in the development works. “We’re looking to accelerate that to make sure we have a train station by the time the stadium’s complete and fans will start to come. An 800-meter walk to the stadium. “It’s (funding for the Sayers Rd station) already in the government’s budget to build. It’s already in their plan, it’s in consultation with government that hopefully, we can bring that plan forward.” - “We think it’s from day one perhaps a three-year end to end process, including all the planning approvals and the building of the stadium. “We’re in discussions with a number of venues (about where to play in the interim). “We’ll play perhaps some games at Kardinia Park in Geelong and we’re talking to AAMI Park and Etihad (Stadium) at the moment. We’ll play probably at a hybrid of a couple of grounds. “All the way North as far as Ballarat and Bendigo. We talk about playing games, there’s the possibility of playing some of our games, whilst our stadium is being built, out of places like Ballarat and Bendigo if the grounds are there. “We see anything west of Melbourne, including West of north of Melbourne, western Victoria call it, as being our catchment and we’re looking to engage with all of that community.” https://dailyfootballshow.com/western-melbourne-group-plans-european-football-metropolis/

From what I remember reading of APFCA on expansion, their main point of difference is first identifying the regions that guarantee most a successful outcome, rather than FFA identifying bids who nominate a region they want to be based from. While FFA are cautious and pragmatic on expansion (2 clubs only) APFCA want four. For me the next information will be about how 2, 4, or even more new clubs will be funded - given the $10M licence fee alone - and whether there is a case for going with 4 straight off, or more or less. And if there are 6-8 remaining that could be just as viable, does the FFA go for a separate division like NASL that builds momentum and gets these entities up and running at a smaller cost base until the A-League is ready to add them in?

A-League clubs fire expansion broadside at FFA - https://dailyfootballshow.com/a-league-clubs-fire-expansion-broadside-at-ffa/ APFCA’s Formal Position on Expansion: The need for a Transparent and Robust Approach - https://apfca.com.au/apfcas-formal-position-on-expansion-the-need-for-a-transparent-and-robust-approach/

Article on Fox Sports this morning that the APFCA (A League clubs) released a statement about expansion. The APFCA support expansion to a minimum of 14 clubs as quickly as possible but say that "Viable potential license geographies must first be identified and considered for investor groups to bid for - Any expansion strategy must be based on a comprehensive understanding of which markets are most viable and for what reasons". Hard to argue with that. They also say that "Potential entrants must be carefully vetted with a focus on financial sustainability, commercial potential …" among their six points.

"Grand plans follow with agreements in place to fund a 250-million-dollar stadium in the centre of Dandenong to host A-League matches and concerts if Team 11 are successful." Where did you get that figure from? Before they were talking about $170 million. - "The Greater Dandenong Council will gift the land to the team if they are selected as a successful bidder, paving the way for the $170 million stadium." - "The stadium would house the Team 11’s A-League, W-League and youth teams, with the potential to host NRL and Super Rugby matches and other major events." https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/football/a-league/team-11-aleague-expansion-bid-reveals-plans-for-15000seat-stadium-in-dandenong/news-story/16aa14e9df4eba28a68d3e954ad2d20a

I'd love to see a third team in Melbourne, it will keep the other two clubs on their toes. I'm not familiar with the geography of all of Melbourne so won't buy into the argument of whether it will or will not be convenient for some supporters to follow the club. My gut feel is that it will be good for football in Australia.

Waverley oval had turn outs that any HAL club would be happy to have, that was when the outer suburbs were no where near as densely populated. I don't go to many games because it takes nearly two hours to get to the city, though it would be a fraction of that time to watch a game in Dandy. If team 11 get in, I would strongly consider becoming a member.

I live in Footscray and would love to see and attend Dandenong games. The more the merrier

I'm from Croydon, and I'd much rather drive 20 minutes down Eastlink to watcha game than 45 minutes into the city. I reckon Dandenong is much easier for MANY people to get to, particularly all of the people in the south east growth areas (Casey, Cardinia, Frankston etc). For the majority of the million or so people in the southeast, Dandenong is quicker and easier to get to than Etihad or AAMI.

Both bids are based on community engagement. The bids are not relying on fans from outside the local community filling the stadium. In fact, Team 11 conducted an online survey to get insights from the local community. The opening question of the survey was to include your postcode. If you postcode was not within the catchment area, you could not complete the survey since the group is focused on the needs and wants of people within their catchment area. If both Melbourne expansion teams were chosen, those stadiums will be packed to capacity every week.

I just have trouble imagining anyone travelling to Dandenong to watch a game of football. Similarly, I have trouble imagining anyone travelling out to Werribee to watch a game of football. Melbourne is different to Sydney. It has one centre, and people from all over Melbourne happily go to the one centre, and that's why its sports precinct is so successful. But anything on the outskirts of the metropolitan area, I doubt it can ever be successful.