When the Southern Expansion A-League bid was rejected in December 2018, Sydney FC probably breathed a sigh of relief. Across town, one can assume the Western Sydney Wanderers were marginally apprehensive – someone else had encroached on their territory.
By October 2020, geographical rivalries will become clearer when Macarthur South West United is admitted into the expanding competition. The friction created by the Mexican stand off will test rapport between the three football clubs.
In the next year or so, our current two Sydney sides will have a final opportunity to appease and engage new fans, before the southwest is forever stamped with the Macarthur branding iron.
Luckily, Sydney FC and the Wanderers have always been ahead of the game.
Long before the winning A-League bid was announced, each rival team had been litmus testing the area. For the Wanderers, playing selected games in Campbelltown was the perfect elixir for success. Respectable crowds turned up to both FFA Cup and Asian Champions League matches.
The Cumberland Plain, it could be speculated, was evidently Red and Black Bloc territory.
How things change.
Will Wanderers fans show up in Perth? (AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts)
Similar to gold prospectors searching for nuggets, boundaries in the A-League have been altered, crossed and pushed over the years.
Back in December 2011, Sydney FC also tried to take possession of the untapped market at Campbelltow by playing Perth Glory at a celebratory community round. As their website freely admitted, the game was to “boost Sydney FC’s overall improvement of its integration with the Sydney community.”
It appears Moore Park wasn’t big enough for the sky blues who surely dreamt big. Keep in mind, their growing influence over the greater west is warranted. More than 5,000 fans turned up at Campbelltown Stadium to watch Sydney FC play Wellington in Round 20.
Yet, laying claim to a new area in a two-way street.
In 2013, when the Central Coast Mariners considered advancing south to play more games at North Sydney Oval, the Sky Blues quizzed the unwanted intrusion. Sydney FC chairman, Scott Barlow, announced there was only one sheriff in town.
“As for them (Mariners) playing one community round game at North Sydney, that’s OK, we don’t see that as a problem – but anything more than that, we wouldn’t tolerate,” Barlow told the Sydney Morning Herald.
For the positive growth of football in Australia, hopefully Macarthur South West United has a solid first year. They’re competing with two powerful clubs who want to completely dominate the Sydney market.
For punters, a friendly turf war awaits. Perchance, in the near future, Macarthur also needs to cross the line too. Best of luck.
Sydneysideliner
Roar Rookie
It's easier to get to Central Station by train than to Parramatta! Personally I think a Parramatta-based team can and should only lay claim to the triangle of land between Homebush, Rooty Hill and the parklands, and Blacktown plus the growth areas to the NW. Which is still a huge population. WSW and MacSW can fight it out for hearts and minds of people between their two centres, including Liverpool and Glenfield areas. Ultimately if we want the game to grow with the population, Sydney should also have a team representing Penrith (including anything between St Marys, Badgerys Ck and the mountains) and one for southern Sydney as well. Leaving SFC with everything around the entire harbour and the airport. Competition will be healthy for the city and the league..
Alez Valez
Roar Rookie
What a joke dude ... 20K ? Most A-League clubs cant get that who have been around from the beginning. hell NRL clubs cant get that! From what im reading, you are deliberately pumping crowd numbers up in the hope people expect your unrealistic numbers just so you can call it a failure. For a 3rd Sydney team, kicking off with 8000 to build on would be realistic ....
Alez Valez
Roar Rookie
Id say 8000 would be great. We are talking a 3rd city team, not a 2nd like Melb City, or a Wollongong Canberra 1st team. They wont be an overnight success like the Wanderers were, back then Sydney was begging for a Darby team, hell the whole league was at the time! This is a whole different situation, and we should all hope it works or seeing any expansion of more teams in other cities with existing A-League teams could be a LONG way off if it fails.
Alez Valez
Roar Rookie
Exactly, you can hardly call it a home team or your "local team" when you are catching 2 trains and spend around an hour getting to a home match. and thats both at Parramatta and Homebush! Add car travel to Campbelltown station ontop of that. I know the Macarthur team will start with smaller crowds but if given time and working with community football teams that in my opinion should all get family discount memberships if they play the game, then i can see crowds slowly increasing at time goes on. I have followed Wanderers since year 1 but its always been a tough ask as a season ticket holder.
Alez Valez
Roar Rookie
I live in Campbelltown and im a South Westie not a Westie ... Anything from Bankstown backwards to Camden Leppington and even further bacvk id consider South West ... If you need Government proof! Look at the train line map on a cityrail train! Green rail line till i die!
josh
Guest
That's a fancy way of saying north south east & west. The blue mountains are not Western Sydney either.
Lionheart
Roar Rookie
yes, I lived in Richmond, Penrith and the lower mountains for years and had enough difficulty linking with Blacktown and the west, let alone Campbeltown, Camden and the rest on the road to Canberra.
Working Class Rugger
Roar Guru
It's completely bonkers. There's been so much bloody development around where I live its insane and there's still heaps scheduled. The one I'm really interested to see is the effects of Wilton Town in the Wollondilly. Projects such as those can spark further development in towns within close proximity. And there are a few that fit that classification.
Working Class Rugger
Roar Guru
Mate, I'd be careful with that assertion. The A-League managed 119k across 5 games last weekend. With the F3 Derby drawing just 16k and the highest ratings of the round going to the Syd/MCY game at just 39k.
Working Class Rugger
Roar Guru
But it's at least as far west as Parramatta and is west of the ANZAC Bridge so surely the Hills Districts is also part of Western Sydney. What makes it a distinctly different region of the city while a place the Macarthur which is to the far south-west of the city. Especially when Castle Hill is less than 11km from Parramatta while Campbelltown is over 50.
Working Class Rugger
Roar Guru
First of all, it’s a silly thing to get angry about. Second, we get it. You’re a Wanderers fan. So acknowledging the region as being distinct only legitimises the teams entry which doesn’t serve the Wanderers any good. But the area is most certainly its distinct regions. Even more so the Macarthur. I played a lot of representative sport growing up. Would you like to know for which region. It wasn’t Western Sydney. First it was the Macarthur districts schools teams and then at the State level Sydney South West. You’re trying to lump regions in together to suit your argument. But you overlook the fact that Sydney is a city divided by distinct regions. You want us to see it as East/West but in reality it’s the Inner-West, Eastern Suburbs, Southern Sydney, the Sutherland Shire, the Lower North Shore, the Northern Beaches, the North-West, Western Sydney, by extension the Blue Mountains, South West Sydney and I would argue the Macarthur. And having travelled (as I’m sure you have also) you’d find that’s how cities work around the world. So, the South West and Macarthur are in fact distinct to that of Western Sydney.
Sydneysideliner
Roar Rookie
How great that you and your 3 neighbours can speak for not just everyone currently in Campbelltown, Camden, Oran Park, Gilead, Wilton and Leppington, but everyone projected to move there or be born there over the next 20 years. I'm sure they'll all agree with you and shun the team on their doorstep in favour of travelling 36km or an hour on public transport to watch a team that never travels to you.
josh
Guest
The Big Bore League has tanked. Crowds down 40% and in freefall. All the hype amounted to absolutely nothing.
Redondo
Roar Rookie
Yes PH - the only difference being amateur or semi-pro grassroots clubs can come and go without too much fuss. On the other hand, a franchise league needs some commercial certainty. They can go where the population already is, but compete against entrenched sports. Or, they can go where the population will be and steal a march on the other sports.
Post_hoc
Roar Rookie
Isn't that what any club does? Clubs require planners to build open space for them to start as a grass roots club and build. My grassroots club has only existed for 5 years, why? well the population didn't exist before hand to make the club. Seems a strange fight to pick.
mattq
Guest
those that live in castle hill like to pretent theyre no westies but they certainly are. As is Campbelltown. Being a westie more than just geographical trust me.
RF
Roar Rookie
Personally I have no concerns over SW Sydney being a success, apart from the fact that I would like to see them in next season, like Western.
Redondo
Roar Rookie
Spot on. If you’re running a franchise model then it makes sense to follow the city planners.
josh
Guest
I get angry at people telling me the area is seperate to Western Sydney, it isn't. Instead of saying 'big population coming put team here' I'm saying 'big population coming let's see how big WSW can really get'. So no I don't accept SWS being a thing. It's Western Sydney just like what you'll see when you watch the weather reports each night on TV.
Post_hoc
Roar Rookie
ive said in the past, the 3 team model of the A League mirrors the 3 city model that all planners are using for Sydney. Do yourself a favour and look at the Greater Sydney Commission vision of Sydney, then come back and tell me that the smartest move was not the one made. A team in SW Sydney is very smart, Wanderers are not worried by them, not sure why anyone else would be.