Ten teams named on A-League expansion shortlist

Perhaps the rumours are true that Fox is demanding that the next two franchises be placed in the bigger cities, from The Mercury: Nothing would have saved Tasmania’s A-League bid, proponents say JULY 03, 2018 A NEW, purpose-built, world-class rectangular stadium would not have resulted in FC Tasmania’s bid making it to the FFA’s shortlist for A-League expansion, proponents believe. On Friday, FFA cut the list from 15 to 10 for the two expansion spots, and Tasmania missed out. Of the 10 on the short list, four were from NSW, three from Victoria, two from Queensland and one from Canberra. Some believe the lack of a rectangular stadium was a reason, but consortium spokeswoman Victoria Morton does not believe this is the case. “Yes it would be wonderful and I’m sure it would help immensely, but I don’t believe that it made a huge difference,” Morton said. “I don’t think it mattered how good our bid was, they were never going to look at us seriously unfortunately. “It was all about expanding on the mainland and we’ve always been told Foxtel wanted it that way so maybe it was more about money and less about football than it should be. “We didn’t really get an exact explanation, but if you look at what they have said the entire time they would fish where the fish are — expansion in the big cities.

Originally they were calling themselves Western Pride but have gone to Ipswich Pride of late. They define their area as western and south-western Brisbane as much as Ipswich, which gives them a significant and rapidly growing catchment. I'd imagine they catch further west too, regional areas. If Brisbane can claim Logan and Redcliffe and Redlands and Bundaberg, it's reasonable for Ipswich to claim the west. I think it's a far better option than another Brisbane club, given that Fox wants teams in the major population centres.

Hundreds of thousands of fans ha ha ha ha ha ha you make me laugh .thats totally fictional ,there Is no such fans you lucky to ave a man and his dog follow you .the People of the south coast have spoken we want nothing to do with south Sydney expansion fc bid .we will never support Sydney team .we are wollonging wolves on the south coast .One city one team one region is wollonging bid .three regions three home grounds three lots of fans will never work south Sydney expansion .

The one thing that counts against Ipswich is population catchment- there are only 200,000 people in Ipswich City, and although it is growing fast, in 15-20 years it will still only be the size of the Central Coast. Although given the area’s football history it would be nice to see them get up, my head says a City is a more logical choice. Ipswich would make a great second division side.

The more I think about expansion in QLD the more I conclude that Ipswich is the most appropriate choice. I just can't see much to distinguish a Brisbane Gladiators from Brisbane Roar, despite what JK says above about dragging the local football community along. Winning is what drags crowds along. There is no real N/S divide in Brisbane these days, and Roar is firmly planted on both sides of the river anyway, with Suncorp and Logan. Western Pride is Ipswich football clubs united - that's their point, they were formed by a number of clubs coming together. And let's not forget the long football history in the Ipswich area, Australia's first recorded game and clubs formed there from the late 1880s. I don't know anything about the bid, but early on there were promises of a stadium. If so, I think Ipswich would be a good option.

I think Brisbane City will get one. Brisbane is the third largest market in Australia and Fox Sports will want two games a week from this market. Plus it gives the Not Roar will have someone to follow. With the Roar moving their training base out to Logan, having Newmarket-based City playing out of Ballymore will start to trigger Brisbane’s natural rivalry- north/south.

The ABS boundaries are a bit arbitrary- Central Coast is included, Wollongong, which is the same distance is excluded. The Gold Coast is the same distance from Brisbane as both of these from Sydney and is excluded, but the Mornington Peninsula is included in Melbourne and Mandurah is included in Perth.

So you’d have preferred the FFA told an additional 8 possible investors/owners to get lost now rather than what they have done by engaging them and keeping them in the process for possible future expansion, possible merging of investments between bids or possible willing investors into a second division? Thank the lords you don’t have anything to do with running football in this country, it would be dead in a week.

It's easy to be cynical, to believe the FFA already have their two preferences, and all of this is just optics. But just maybe, the FFA is struggling because the ten bids are quite good, afterall, initially there were going to produce a short list of 8, so this might suggest that the quality of proposals is quite high.

No, I didn't do any such thing. But you and facts, well you have a very loose and imaginative relationship with them. I said I was I would not follow the new team that replaced the Hear years ago and would start to follow a team only if a second Brissy team came in. Go look it up.

Perhaps they will indeed prioritise the bigger cities, Gallop has always said million plus markets only, and I believe he's from Canberra as well. But it would be a mistake, Canberra and Wollongong are his choices, good road trips for Sydney teams/fans and no real competition for bums on seats from other sports through the season.

So we now have culled 5 from 15 submissions of which 10 are now being considered with only 2 to be awarded a license. Is this not confirmation that FFA is totally incompetent? Just name the successful bids - what has FFA been doing for the last 12 months?

You could be right, but I think declining crowd numbers have been influenced by many things at Roar outside their relationship with local clubs. Hasn't their academy ramped up local engagement, now with teams in all ages from U12 and formal connections to a number of clubs at all levels?

But at the end of the day even if we somehow engaged 50% of Hobarts population the numbers wouldnt stack up against teams from anywhere else in the country. I’d like to see Tasmania one day but given the need to increase our TV audiences and engagement with juniors the next two teams need to be based in Sydney (SW Sydney/MacArthur) Melbourne or Brisbane. The three major cities gives you more premium fixtures (derbies) the MSM are going to be interested in and more eyes on TV sets which in turn means Fox and the FFA earns more advertising money, which in turn leads to a bigger TV/broadcast deal which in turn leads to more money for junior development.

Western Melbourne Group ‏ @WesternMelbGrp 3h3 hours ago More Western Melbourne's @Steve_Horvat spoke to the @DFS_AUS and explained why our bid is a game-changer for Football in this country. #DreamBIG #FootballFirst #WesternMelbourne

The ACT Government can build two stadiums for all I care. The FFA is still likely to prioritise Sydney and Melbourne for the next two franchises.

Have to disagree with this. Brisbane definitely needs another team as a previous Roar fan and member I have not gone to a game for a number of years as I have been disappointed to witness first hand how the Roar have treated local clubs and the Brisbane football community with contempt. This is a common view by many in the local football community which is also proven by there decrease in supporter and membership numbers. There is a sense of entitlement at the Roar which has definitely put local clubs and supports offside. This is exactly why Brisbane needs a 2nd team which will also hopefully drives both teams to engage with the local community when there is competition in the area

As for Canberra, they have a W League team for how many years now and didn't they get a Y team as well, just give them a seniors team already. My reasons for Tassie don't take into account numbers, more people are getting disenfranchised with the AFL, it looked like the iron was hot with government backing and the mainstream media getting on board over there. It's close enough to Melbourne with the ferry, that an away trip would have been good fun.

Good day trip for Western Sydney folk in the summer - beach then the Wolves game.

The ‘Matt Horsley Trophy’, perhaps?