Two Sydney A-League bids join forces

who are this south west sydney or united for macarthur.... honestly never heard of them, hope woolongong wolves get the spot, at least they play in nspl 1 personal opinion without having 16 teams in aleague and 16 teams in second divison it is no point or intrest to see how same 10 teams kick ball for a year without been promoted or relegated, infact it is ridiculously horible for football to stay on level, if you still wondering about last world cup national team perfofmance and amount of a league players selected for the squad

wolves 4 A league . 30,000 registered players 13,000 registered juniors history a stadium in win stadium on the beach win corporation backing them .population base of 600,000 in the illawarra region its a new market huge soccer community derbys galore with Sydney team and Perth what more does a team need to get in it meets all the criteria but for not being a capital city team . If FFA are fair dinkum then wolves deserve a spot. i just do not see the point of having another team out west of Sydney when you have the WSW for that area and another team at st george cronulla which is sydney fc territory .whats the point of expansion if the same areas are cannibalised ,so they all end up with crowds of 4,000 home attendance .

same with south coast fans i live in shellharbour which is part of Wollongong and ffa want me to travel two hours to loftus in sydney and support a new sydney team no chance in hell .i ahve no affiliation with sydney teams ..if Wollongong wolves get in i will follow them and the A league its 30 mins from home if they dont i wont bother with A league .ffa not interested in expansion in new markets just want more Sydney and Melbourne teams shame really north coast has two teams south coast has none,yet it has 30,000 registered players and 13,000 registered juniors .go figure

"The impossible dream….." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtnhmy_KcgM

Canberra to Campbelltown = 2 h 25 min (232.0 km) via Federal Hwy and M31

Personally I believe that the current set up is the best option 'just add water and presto'. we have tried the old soccer route and it failed. That does mean that older established clubs should be locked out of the A League, it means that they have to have the same financial structure as the current A League clubs. As far as promotion and relegation goes, sure once you have a strong, viable second division. But getting into the A League should never be easy.

Canberrans are flat out driving 20min to Bruce stadium, let alone 2 hours! And to watch a Sydney team? No chance mate. Canberra team or continue to follow EPL for this canberra football fan. Albeit I will watch the odd aleague game on fox if I happen on it. I just hope in my life time I get a summers evening, couple of beers in a civic pub, then wander down to the 20k seat city rectangular stadium, and watch my towns team in the Aleague The impossible dream.....

Wests were on a long-term downward spiral in support at the time, and if that weren't enough, they fell victim to the super league wars in forcing various mergers. At least Campbelltown stadium is an appropriately sized stadium for a small club, and you'd probably have to expect that it would remain smaller than the other two Sydney clubs for a very long time, which is acceptable..

isn't this old news??

Fishing where the fish aren't worked wonders in Auckland and the Gold Coast.

The Southern Expansion would be more adherent to the Lowy FFA model.

What were Wests attendances historically like out of Cambelltown? If they were pulling such great crowds they would never have required a merger with Balmain. This concerns me. Next team in will be from Victoria, either Dandenong or the north Werribee.

Notice how quiet Brisbane Gladiators have been though? Virtually nothing since they announced they would formally apply ...! Sydney/Melbourne it is.

It's where I would place one of the next expansion teams. As such, it's highly likely this will go ahead since I'm never wrong. Huge growth corridor from the M4 downward over the next 50 years. It will become an even greater political battleground, leading to mass infrastructure investment — a perfect environment for the future two largest sporting clubs in Australia to foster a rivalry within. Horse trainers galore with an abundance of wealth to the south in the Bowral region. None of this poor man's Tasmania bid rubbish from the hardcore peasant folk here. Couldn't ask for a better bid. Go WSW!

That 100,000 estimate is probably a pretty good estimate because at any one time only half are able to attend a home game, which brings us pretty close to the long term average attendance.

"FFA is believed to be leaning towards Sydney and Melbourne as the location for the new teams. " Probably in that or order of priority. A home ground in Campbelltown, part of Sydney's sprawling South-West, which extends some 70 -80 kms from the CBD, is probably a good fit for a third team. It's also worth noting it's only a tick over 2 hours from Mackellar Park to Campbelltown, meaning this will be a good opportunity for Canberra's soccer fans to see regular A-League games.

Hearing that expansion is most likely to go to Sydney and Melbourne leaves me feeling that the whole exercise is a waste of time and effort - at least from a certain perspective. If that is the blueprint for expansion from the governing body’s perspective then surely it would be far better to state “we want a third team in the two cities and invite tenders to examine different scenarios. Strong bids or otherwise though, I can’t help thinking that this is not the best way to grow the sport nationally. We already hear the complaints about how Sydney centric the game is and whilst I recognize that NSW has by far the most registered players, iI will always contest that point being used as a guide to crowds etc. we are simply not anywhere near the natural correlation of players to fans of the game that you see in countries steeped in football history. In fact I am surprisedthat there is not more research conducted on the subject. Anecdotal data suggests to me that amongst a squad of 16 - standard in amateur football, 3 of the squad might attend and support an A League team. Well; use four as it makes an easy 25% on this assumption. If that rings true then if there are 400,000 players the likely pool is a nice round 100.000 and if that was the case every week, the clubs would be dancing in the street. I know there is an obsession with “fishing where the fish are” but what if the fish don’t bite or just are not interested? Well how about changing location, finding a smaller pool to fish in but one where the regular fishes come back time after time and build from there?

With Lowy exiting, the Congress overhaul imminent, and the very structure/ownership of the ALeague likely to change hands, what do people think of the traditional expansion model? That is, do people think another just-add-water Wanderers is possible? If it is, is that the best model? I’ve heard so many people arguing for P/R and second division etc. Does plonking a brand new mega team into a region adhere to those aspirations, or does it represent the Lowy FFA model which everyone seems intent on burning down?

Its a very very strong bid