A-League Expansion

[Il Duce]

So whats everyone's thought on who should be the new A-league teams?

We have Gold Coast United and North Queensland Fury that'll be 10 teams also according to the Melbourne Victory forum Tasmania United and Melbourne Heart have been given the green light for expansion to make that 12 teams

I was thinking next would be..
West Sydney - there's 1.6 million people living out that way and it takes well over an hour to go to Sydney FC games which a lot of people would if they could go.

Wollongong (south coast) - apparently Tim Cahill is behind the bid and its always been a great place to unearth footballers

Canberra - The local govenment has given them more money then the SA govenment has given Adelaide United and they don't even exist yet! Apparently Ned Zelic could coach them.

Tasmaina - I heard a Dubai sheikh is behind their bid so i'm guessing there's a bid of cash there.

Those are the four obvious ones some others i thought are...
Darwin
A second New Zealand team
Cairns (North queensland become just Townsville)
Geelong
A second Sydney team (coastal)
A pacific island team (not much money there though)
Then regional centres like, Broom, Coffs Harbour, Port Lincoln and Mid Queensland coast
And then suburban teams could be a possiblity. But thats a fair way down the track

P.s Melbourne hearts lol hahahaha

[Il Duce]

IMO I think its to early to expand the league to far, we will just have a situation like the NSL where teams were forming and folding every seasons cause of $$$ problems. As much as we all want a league similar to alot of european leagues the simple fact is we haven't got the depth in Australia for that yet. We are gonna have to take a more j-league type of way which is to develop slowly and only if the money is there, also clubs and national teams taking more responsibility in developing young players and it will probley take a good 15-20 years (like the j-league, k-league or even like the mls) before we should be looking at things like a ffa cup, second divison, or expanding past 12 teams in the a-leauge.

[heater31]

The Asian Confederation will voice their objections very loudly to a 2nd NZ side or one from a Pacific nation. They already want the current NZ team booted out of the A-League.

[Il Duce]

Yeah point taken but I did just for thought. Yeah the 2nd New Zealand team is probley the last thing thats gonna happen but it's not imposible

[johntheclaret]

IMO I think its to early to expand the league to far, we will just have a situation like the NSL where teams were forming and folding every seasons cause of $$$ problems. As much as we all want a league similar to alot of european leagues the simple fact is we haven't got the depth in Australia for that yet. We are gonna have to take a more j-league type of way which is to develop slowly and only if the money is there, also clubs and national teams taking more responsibility in developing young players and it will probley take a good 15-20 years (like the j-league, k-league or even like the mls) before we should be looking at things like a ffa cup, second divison, or expanding past 12 teams in the a-leauge.

I would have thought population would also be a problem WSC. UK 60m, Germany 80m or so etc.

[Zelezny Chucks]

IMO I think its to early to expand the league to far, we will just have a situation like the NSL where teams were forming and folding every seasons cause of $$$ problems. As much as we all want a league similar to alot of european leagues the simple fact is we haven't got the depth in Australia for that yet. We are gonna have to take a more j-league type of way which is to develop slowly and only if the money is there, also clubs and national teams taking more responsibility in developing young players and it will probley take a good 15-20 years (like the j-league, k-league or even like the mls) before we should be looking at things like a ffa cup, second divison, or expanding past 12 teams in the a-leauge.

I would have thought population would also be a problem WSC. UK 60m, Germany 80m or so etc.

I agree, the "standard" would drop dramatically if it were to increase to a 12 team comp. Games would be less interesting to watch and they would have to spread the same amount of money over more teams.

[Il Duce]

agreed but sometime you can cover quantity with quality. Portugal has 10,617,575 people and they have a not to bad league and a good national team. That's what I am saying with the need to develop players and take our time, we can expand the a-league just need to take it slowly and develop players to make the compertion better. If the skill level increases more people will take an intrest in the a-league and then we can expand jut my opion.

[Zelezny Chucks]

agreed but sometime you can cover quantity with quality. Portugal has 10,617,575 people and they have a not to bad league and a good national team. That's what I am saying with the need to develop players and take our time, we can expand the a-league just need to take it slowly and develop players to make the compertion better. If the skill level increases more people will take an intrest in the a-league and then we can expand jut my opion.

Valid point but Portugal has a smaller land mass allowing fans to realistically travel to away games. It would cost a fortune for Perth Glory fans to follow their team around.

If the A-League was surrounded by as many quality leagues as them I'm sure our standard would be higher as well.

[Il Duce]

West given licence to thrill

Western Sydney will have a team in the A-League after its franchise was awarded the 12th licence by Football Federation Australia.

The franchise headed by advertising executive Ian Rowden won the right to play in Australia’s topmost club competition from season 2011/12.

The next A-League comprising a second Melbourne team will have 11 teams.

“This is a gigantic leap forward for the A-League,” FFA chief executive Ben Buckley told a media conference.

“We are now committed to a team in the most populous football region in the country. Western Sydney is the heartland of football in NSW. It deserves a football team in the A-League and this is another milestone in the evolution of the competition.

“Of course we would have preferred to go with 12 teams next season but the team has an opportunity to be successful in the long term.

“We have to look at the Hyundai A-League for the next 10, 20, 30 years and give the team the right amount of time to establish itself. Getting all the building blocks in place is very, very important.”

Rowden, a former Young Socceroos international, said he was excited and felt privileged to be able to bring a second football team to Sydney.

His managerial team includes former Socceroos hero Charlie Yankos and former Newcastle and Wollongong player Peter Tredinnick.

“We have a good team and we are all very focussed on establishing all the components that are required to ensure that the side we ultimately bring in 2011 will be one that the A-League, the FFA, the city of Sydney and football fans can be very proud of,” Rowden said.

“We agree wholeheartedly with Ben Buckley that the right time to bring this team in the competition is in 2011, which will give us enough time to connect with the community from a commercial and structural point of view.

“If you ask me whether we could put a team on the park in 2010 the answer would probably be 'yes'. But is that our best model for success long term? No. We wanted to provide an absolute solid foundation for this club.

“We look forward with a great anticipation to our first season.”

Rowden, who was on the board of Sydney FC as recently as six months ago, said he was looking forward to some titanic derbies against the A-League’s first champions.

“There is no doubt that a very strong and deep rivalry on the field with Sydney FC is very important,” he said.

“We are going to overlap. It’s one city, two teams now. But there is a huge football community out there that will benefit from the rivalry. Great rivalries do not necessarily create conflicts in crowd attendances. They actually build crowd attendances.”

“So we will create from day one a very strong competitive rivalry. Behind the scenes we will work as best we can with Sydney FC to create partnerships where they need to be created in the community so we see the game grow and the A-League prosper.

“So there will be a definitive separation of those two strategies.

The FFA is understood to be unimpressed by Gold Coast United’s failure to draw healthy crowds in their debut season and Rowden said he was determined that every effort be made to engage the community in western Sydney.

“I am not aware that small crowds is a problem for the Gold Coast. But I can tell you that we will build this club from the ground up with the community and from the top down by signing the best quality talent to take the field from day one,” he said.

“We will be as energised about how we build our relationship with the community as we will be in finding the right players.”

Rowden revealed that the franchise was put together barely a month ago after the collapse of the Joe Meissner bid and it was too early to talk about a name for the team, its home ground and sponsors.

Yankos said he could not wait for the new team’s first derby against Sydney.

“There have been plenty of local derbies over a period of time, irrespective of the competition,” he said.

“I have played in a few in Melbourne over the years and there was a lot of rivalry there and I hope the Sydney derbies will be just as competitive which is important for the growth of the competition.”

So it means next season we will have 11 teams with the Melbourne Heart comming in and West Sydney comming in the season after. There are also rumors that the FFA may award 2 other licences when the West Sydney come in, with Canberra and South Coast (NSW) being the front runners for those 2 licences, Tasmaina also want to join the league.

[Il Duce]

Btw should this post be in the Australian Soccer thread???

[Dirko]

Btw should this post be in the Australian Soccer thread???

Yep. JTC or Spermy will move it.

And good on the FFA on getting in before the AFL does.

[johntheclaret]

Maybe it would be time to give NZ the flick and just concentrate on an Australian only League. Like another poster commented, how far is it for Perth to travel away to NA, or anywhere alse for that matter.

Instead of possibly offerring another licence to NZ, wouldn't it be better to increase Australian league teams?