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Graeme Anderson

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Joined October 2013

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As someone who resides in Brisbane and was a season ticket holder with the Roar until personal circumstances forced me to relinquish these I would have loved to see a second Brisbane team and a derby but until we get an upgraded Ballymore or Perry Park it won’t happen. Suncorp is probably the best football stadium in the country when full but it is too big for regular season.

My second hope was that Canberra and Wollongong would get the nod as areas that don’t have teams currently but have good footballing history and grassroots movements. I don’t see it happening though just because of the lack of money, population and glamour those franchises bring.

Which brings me to Sydney and Melbourne which will undoubtedly be where the two new clubs are situated.

You seem to have a bias against those who slighted your show which is fair enough but SWS is politically connected and backed by big money as well as having a consolidation of two solid bids. Southern expansion came on your show but they are maligned by the powerful Sydney FC, half their potential supporter base in Wollongong and pretty much every neutral including me. SWS is a shoe-in over Southern Expansion.

As for which team will get the nod from Melbourne I believe it is a coin toss between Western Melbourne or Team 11 in Dandenong. Again these bids have the monetary backing and political connections and honestly I don’t see South Melbourne ever becoming part of the A-League with their nationalistic background.

The most disappointing thing out of this expansion talk is Tasmania didn’t even get through to the second round. If we want to be a truly national sport then that was the ideal opportunity for expansion. There is no professional football code permanently based in the state and I feel if the A-League gave them a team it would garner the support to justify the risk.

My picks for A-League expansion

I agree with JB in terms of the English and French being reluctant as the whole point of the breakaway is that they get more qualification places and top Irish and Welsh teams can’t field weakened teams in the Pro12 to save for Heineken Cup matches as they risk not qualifying for the next tournament.

However as has been stated there is a potential viewing market in South Africa of 50 million on a similar time zone to Europe. One would think that the tv deal that could be attracted with SA teams in would provide a massive boost to English and French teams in the competition.

So it may be a case of extra competition spots vs extra money for the Anglo-French teams.

As for Super Rugby. The mess of expansion makes it difficult to resolve. I don’t think Argentina, Pacific or Japanese are good enough for the competition and it should be Super 16 only playing each team once.

Heineken Cup split a trump card for South Africa's Super Rugby hopes

I agree. When David Gallop talks about football being number one he’s talking about the A-League being number one not the general sport which would probably be number two already if not number one. Viewership, tv deals etc are already very strong for English Premier League, Champions League and World Cup (despite being in the middle of the night or early morning).

A large percentage of football fans in Australia do not attend or watch A-League games because the better products are overseas. This is not the case for NRL and AFL. Once the product starts getting better though more will start attending as we have started to see in the last two years.

I also don’t undertsand the whole “code war”. As if you have to be a fan of only one sport to be a genuine fan. I attend league, union and AFL matches as well as being a Brisbane Roar member and I love to see all Brisbane teams doing well. I don’t see why we should alienate fans of other codes who might want to come to an A-League game with an “us vs them” mentality. On the flip-side what have fans of AFL or NRL got to lose by attending A-League games? It’s during your off season and surely you want to see Australian sport do well on the world stage? If you attend and it’s not your cup of tea then fair enough but don’t sit there and judge without having experienced it.

Gallop: 'Football will become biggest and most popular'

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