by Sojourner » Fri Apr 20, 2007 10:09 am
With the suggestion of Victoria struggling to support 10 teams, it could be argued that it has to support 12 Teams, in that they also have to find sponsership $$$ for the Melbourne Storm NRL and the Melbourne Soccer team in the National Soccer Leauge. Naturally alot of the sponsorship is from national companies, yet a fair proportion is state based as well. Can the market sustain that? The Western Bulldogs were in a position where they had no major sponsor and it was a case of Eddie McGuire using the Footy Show to appeal for a sponsor and got a car leasing firm signed up as a result, that situation could well have got worse for the doggies.
One reason that I like Geelong is that they have not forfeited their home ground advantage, we have a situation now where 9 clubs play "home" games in neutral venues. As a result the interstaters have a natural advantage in getting the required 13+ wins to garantee a finals campaign. This will increase in years to come.
North Melbourne may well be able to get the same advantage at Carrara, yet they have to make the ground thier own in a playing sense to make that happen, I dont feel that 10 games is enough to make that happen, yet we will see in time to come, they certainley did have a good win - loss ratio in Canberra, so it could well happen for them on the Gold Coast.
If there is going to be 9 teams in Melbourne long term, there is a case for a third venue to be built. I would like to see Hawthorn do something in their area towards having a terraced home ground to get back into home ground advantage and recapture some of their form from years gone by when they used to bury other sides reguarly! If clubs cant afford to do that though and have to submit to sharing ovals not in their area with no home ground advantage, then there is a case for a move.
