When the two new A-League teams were announced back in December, someone suggested on The Roar that Adelaide deserved a second team. I replied saying that Perth deserves one more than Adelaide and I was verbally bashed!
Sixteen teams is a likely number for the A-League before the possibility of a second division may arrive. Today, I work out how a second A-League team in the city I live in, Perth, would work.
The bid of the recent expansion process out of WA was from NPL 2 club, Fremantle City. They were led by club president Maurice Oteri and planned to have links with Serie A club Juventus.
Linking with an Italian club is always something that can be considered as the whole of Australia has a very large Italian community. They also planned to have a government funded Fremantle Oval re-development to transform it into a 15,000 seat boutique (a bit cliché!) stadium.
The bid sounded like a good idea but it was just in the wrong location. The main reasoning is that the most popular sports team in WA is the West Coast Eagles, and Fremantle are their rivals.
I hate to start mentioning AFL in a football article but this was the issue for old Victorian NSL club Carlton SC, who not only had the name of the AFL club, but also the colours and stadium, and they were “Sister clubs”. They struggled to gain attendances and fans because of the links and name, and they believed that fans of other AFL clubs wouldn’t support the club.
A football example of this is the recent situation when Melbourne Heart decided to accept a purchase from the City Football Group (the same company that owns Manchester City) and would rename themselves Melbourne City. Many Heart fans decided to stop supporting the club as they were fans of other EPL clubs.
In WA, West Coast Eagles fans definitely will not be jumping on the bandwagon of a club named Fremantle.
If WA wants a second A-League team, it has to be in a different place.
The big cultural rivalry in WA is the one between the North and South of the Swan River. You look at Telethon and they have a competition as to which side of the river can donate the most money. It is a big thing.
The FFA can cash in by being the first sports team in the state to have one team north of the Swan River and one team south of the Swan River.
Could Perth support two A-League teams? (Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)
A lot of people are saying that clubs like South Melbourne should be let into the A-League because of national or tribal passion (in this case Greek) which would enable a lot of people who don’t follow football, but have heritage in that nation, to support that club.
This would be the same here because the North River and South River is a rivalry already, you’ll have the people engaged in that rivalry plus people crying out for another team equalling a good team.
For me, the new team would be North of the river. This information is from 2009 but, at that time, the North River had just over 100,000 people more than the South. While the city’s current A-League team can also cover the regional areas of Mandurah, Bunbury and Albany. When combined those three have a population of about 150,000.
Name? How about something like the North River Swans, North Swan FC or North Swan Athletic? They could wear black and white to represent the colours of the black swans that live in the river. The team could play in what you could call WA’s second CBD, Joondalup.
The only issue with this is that the Perth Glory’s home ground, HBF Park, is located slightly north of the river. But I’ll explain what can be done in another article.
Now before you post a comment saying something like “Seriously Jordan, the Perth Glory are top of the league and they are only averaging 9,500 a game”, here is something you probably haven’t thought of and that I hadn’t either, until a few days ago.
Every team that is a second team in its city, such as Melbourne City or Western Sydney Wanderers, has had a lower average overall attendance than their big brother or older club (being Melbourne Victory and Sydney FC respectively). Melbourne City’s overall average attendance is higher than the Perth Glory’s, but not this season.
Melbourne City, at the time of writing, are averaging 8,923 this season, while the Perth Glory are averaging 9,513. The first-place badge might be a factor for the Glory’s good attendances but judging by history, the new Western United will have a lower attendance than Melbourne City.
The same would apply for a second Perth team but it would still have more chance of getting better attendances than the new Western United.
If Perth gets a second team, will it be successful? The formula I have will have to be used. I hope to see the battle of the river happen some-time soon.
Jason Singerling
Roar Rookie
I would like Fremantle City and Adelaide City to join the A League. That would bring it to 14 Clubs for the A League then after that have a 2nd Division.
chris
Guest
"The only issue with this is that the Perth Glory’s home ground, HBF Park, is located slightly north of the river. But I’ll explain what can be done in another article." was this ever explained upon?
Jordan Klingsporn
Roar Guru
Hi Con By memory, I'm pretty sure you are an avid Hellas fan and I was aware of that when I said that. I admire what South Melbourne does having so many fans and members yet they aren't even a professional club. Clubs like this are known as Greek Football Clubs or Italian Soccer Clubs but they're not. They are Australian Football Clubs playing in an Australian league. Everything starts a trend and if South Melbourne join the A-League as they are, we may go back to the old NSL days. It's a real stab in the gut to know that my opinions have offended you but such is life.
con
Guest
cut out the ethnicity what would you know about that I want to say more but this site keeps filtering my comments not right u should be saying this
Amazon
Roar Rookie
A League derbies are now a myth of yesteryear. The Melb & Syd derbies are just another game now. Sadly not seeing those glory days coming back.
rolly
Guest
is it April fools day to even consider a second team in WA is ludicrous with Perth you have an average crowd of 9 thousand they are on top of the table they should be getting 20,000 plus per game do they even engage with their community clearly not there is enough poms in Perth to fill their stadium every week.three teams in sydney will be toomuch what do you htinkt he crowwds will be like for the new campbeltown based team lucky if they hit double figures . I do not understand this talk , never does anyone in the media ever back a team like Wollongong wolves and the city of Wollongong the south coast of nsw has a huge football pedigree the mainly European population would guarantee 9 to 10 thousand and with derbys with other nsw teams you would have 15,000 without doubt .these are figures better than most capital cities when you look at mellborune and Sydney and Adelaide and Brisbane populations compared to Wollongong population the Illawarra and south coast region is nearing 600.000 and growing Wollongong population is around 400,000 and growing similar to Newcastle population .Sydney population 4 million Melbourne population 4 million or so,wolves crowds would compare favourably with any capital city team and still with these figures wolves get over looked by FFA and soccer media.whats best for the fans and the league is always overlooked for money .money does not buy fans . and wolves have a stadium in WIN stadium that has the best pitch of all ,it gets used three times a year for NRL . The W league grand final if played at WIN stadium would have attracted 12 to 15,000 as opposed to kogarah 6,000. yet no one ever takes the Wollongong wolves serious for A league inclusion or Wollongong serious for any games of significance . The game is the biggest loser .
Sydneysideliner
Roar Rookie
What most people don't appreciate about derbies is that a lot of famous ones took many years and even decades to gain traction. The Manchester derby was barely a rivalry before WW2 because most Mancunians were happy to watch any team that was representing Manchester. Their allegiance was first and foremost to their city; teams from London, Liverpool etc were the real enemy. It'd be extremely hard to replicate that today but that would actually be the best attitude to develop derbies: support your city as a matter of principle.
Martyn50
Roar Rookie
Glory top of table cant draw 10,000. So diluting the fan base will do what? Less at each game. Leading to one or both clubs going bust.
Jordan Klingsporn
Roar Guru
"Perth Glory only have fans one because they're winning". Yeah right. Gimme a better name.
anthony15
Roar Rookie
I’m sorry what? A second Perth team? No. What the league needs is a Canberra team for gods sake! No more two team cities until we have a truly national league. “North Swan Athletic”, what a pathetic name. Perth Glory only have fans now because they’re winning. You won’t have enough fans to cater for two Perth teams. What a joke.
Anthony Ferguson
Guest
Northern Beaches FC. I've been saying that for years. Not sure when though. Needs to be a lot of growth before it happens.
Baggio
Guest
Might be too late to do a north south of the river derby in Perth. I have been following glory for 24 years now and even if morley city or Swan districts got into the a-league (the suburb I come from), I still wouldnt change allegiances. I think many die hards or even casuals would be the same whether they be from Joondalup, Freo, stirling or Rockingham. The eagles only had an 8 year head start on the dockers, with freo having two big teams in the previously well attended wafl to help kick start their fan base. Regional cities like Mandurah wouldnt have the financial clout, facilities or resources. Unless Sage totally ruins the club and people seek an alternative club to support (salary cap breach year may have been a good year to bring in a second team), I think Perth will be a one team town for a while.
Daniel Greenland
Roar Guru
I don't understand the infatuation with attendances. I'm not sure football in Australia is even a top 3 sport - maybe not even top 5. What sort of crowds are we expecting at matches? 30-40 thousand every game? Not going to happen. The problem for me, is playing A-League games at 30+ thousand seater stadiums. All of those empty seats and the lack of away fans creates a flat atmosphere. It seems strange to play in oversize stadiums. A ground that fits it's fan base will create a proper football atmosphere, which will then draw bigger crowds. And in time, as the game continues to grow, add more teams that can attract 5 possibly 10 thousand a game. Expansion can come later. Smaller clubs, bigger league/leagues is the way to go imo.
Seababoon
Guest
Most of Glory's fans live north of the river. It will just take out the majority of glory supporters! And as someone who doesn't change teams, I'm not sure many people would to get it off and running?
Nick Symonds
Guest
"The first-place badge might be a factor for the Glory’s good attendances but judging by history, the new Western United will have a lower attendance than Melbourne City." - If anything, Western United will get bigger crowds than Melbourne City because they will actually have a clear identity and you get a geographic migration of the fans going to the derby. Melbourne City were only added to give Victory a derby, that's all they are. Now that Western United are coming in, Victory will then have a derby that's actually about something. Will Victory v City still matter as much? Still not convinced about the name Western United though...
Con Papacosta
Guest
Yes Perth and all large cities in Australia need to have 2 a league teams. However all new teams should have their own boutique stadium with a capacity of atleast 15,000 seats. It’s great to see Melbourne’s new western team setting the right format and preparing for the future of the game. Melbourne still has room for an additional team in the south west like the Dandenong team proposal. People that live in those areas will embrace the team more and identify themselves with the team that represents the place wear they live. Melbourne City will never be able to attract more spectators because they don’t have any real identity with any area of Melbourne. Soccer is still the sleeping giant in this country. Kids participation is the highest out all all the sports and growing. The soccer community is still waiting for the big boys FFA to establish a plan. Maybe it is time for the ALEAGUE to seperate from the FFA so the progression and expansion of the game becomes better than what it is now. The longer this takes to happen it will be harder to build success for our game in this country.
Jordan Klingsporn
Roar Guru
Thanks. Another issue I should of mentioned is what you said. As much as I love HBF Park, a new team simply can't play there Too expensive.
William Doughty
Roar Rookie
us perthites are very hungry for a legitimate derby outside of AFL
Rodger King
Roar Rookie
A good read Jordon. You make some valid points and put a good argument for a second club in WA. All it would take is another Tony Sage who is prepared to build a smallish boutique stadium, custom made for them. With the A League clubs starting to manage their comp as of the end of March, I'd like to think things may happen sooner than later.
Stuart Thomas
Expert
I enjoyed learning a little more about Perth's football market reading that Jordan. Thanks. Being so far away and not across all the dynamics, I'm not sure whether a second team in Perth will work; now or ever! But these are the marketing and research tasks that a fully functioning FFA should/are doing to make sure the implementation of the second tier is smooth and effective. I have been to Perth, lovely place. Except my wife dragged me to that bloody bell!