Welcome!

By registering with us, you'll be able to discuss, share and private message with other members of our community.

Sign Up Now!

Expansion Thread 🪜

My theory is they've seen the absolute shitshow of the last few weeks and are now desperate to get out of the npl bubble.

South against Adelaide United in Australia Cup - 3,000 crowd.
South against Fremantle City in Australia Cup - 2,000 crowd

South against St Albans Dinamo - 300 crowd

It always comes down to money.
 
South co-president Bill Papastergiadis told the Herald Sun the club would throw its hat in the ring once again after Western United’s licence was terminated.
“We’ve built the technical base for a club that’s needed to enter the A-League,” he said.
“We will be submitting documents (to the Australian Professional Leagues) and our supporters demand it”.
It comes after Western United was stripped of its A-Leagues licence on Monday, putting the nail in the coffin of a trouble-plagued saga for the club.
In a bid to strengthen advocacy and off field performance the club also added former Labor MP Philip Dalidakis to its board in recent months.
Well, looks liek Im voting for Paulines mob in November then.
 
No clubs based on ethnic lines. I know it's different elsewhere in the world but we don't want it in Australia. Too much trouble in the past and we keep seeing elements of it today.
I agree, NO ethnic clubs in Aleague... its like mixing oil and water.
 
  • Like
Reactions: LFC
But what’s that got to do with voting for Pauline Hansen?!
Because the drive to get into the Aleague and support for OFC participation is heavily reliant on Labor party support.

It was a bit of a facetious comment, dont read too much into it. I am not REALLY goign to vote for that cooker.
 
Whats your timeframe for all these?

It sounds like a 5+ year plan, in which case don't discount Tasmania which is seeing a lot of development/change in the sports field (no pun intended). I concede we would not be anywhere near an ideal candidate for ~2028.

5 to 6 years.

City could theoretically move to Dandenong/Casey Fields tomorrow and not be impacted.

Macarthur licence could transfer to Wollongong at end of this season.

Brisbane stadium a longer piece but something will happen there eventually.

Sunshine Coast once the stadium is done


Im just not sold on Tasmania unfortunately. Population numbers and slow growth make it difficult to see AFL, NBL and BBL all coexisting, even before we look at an A-league team. I have genuine concerns about the AFL team to be honest
 
As per my post in the western thread, imo potentially the wrong lessons have been learnt from previous successful and failed attempts to set up new entities.

Which are the ones which have broadly succeeded; Perth glory, Adelaide United, Melbourne victory, Sydney fc, western Sydney wanderers. What are examples of failures; Carlton, parramatta power, northern spirit, western United, likely macathur at some point.

If you’re going to set up a new inorganic non ethnically aligned broad based club to appeal to the masses, you make it as broadly appealing as you can. The niche of non ethnically aligned club in Sydney and Melbourne has now been filled. And again, as per my post in the western thread, the only reason wanderers worked is because there was an organic groundswell of demand for such a club at the time for a variety of reasons. No such groundswell exists elsewhere

There clearly isn’t much of a market for very specific new franchises claiming to represent individual suburbs or areas which no one ever asked for.

At the time in the nsl, the blame for the failure of those aforementioned franchises in Sydney and Melbourne was atleast partially assigned to the fact that they were having to coexist in the poisoned marketplace with the traditional clubs. But that’s since been proven untrue as very similar franchises in the a league era are facing comparable struggles. It’s just that they weren’t set up in a way conducive to success, as the likes of the successful “franchises” have been by and large. In hindsight potentially the likes of Sydney fc and Melb victory could have happily co existed in a league with the traditional clubs if done right

If you don’t have a club you’re interested in in Melbourne or Sydney now with the plethora of options you have at your disposal, you’re clearly not that interested and and are unlikely to become a rusted on fan at any stage in the future

Also listen to what the fans are saying, not what you want them to say
 
Last edited:
5 to 6 years.

City could theoretically move to Dandenong/Casey Fields tomorrow and not be impacted.

Macarthur licence could transfer to Wollongong at end of this season.

Brisbane stadium a longer piece but something will happen there eventually.

Sunshine Coast once the stadium is done


Im just not sold on Tasmania unfortunately. Population numbers and slow growth make it difficult to see AFL, NBL and BBL all coexisting, even before we look at an A-league team. I have genuine concerns about the AFL team to be honest
I’m sure the AFL team will be fine, they got 100,000 “associate members” or whatever they are called, for a 23,000 seater stadium and they have the large coffers of the AFL, and state and federal governments behind them. Football fans can only dream……….
 
No such groundswell exists elsewhere
This is a good thought provoking line. I reckon there's definitely support in Tasmania and Canberra for a team, the question there is, do they have enough numbers to make it a groundswell?

Places like Gold Coast and Christchurch might be a bit indifferent to having a team today, but they certainly have the numbers for a potential groundswell.

Geelong, Sunshine Coast and anywhere else is a big mystery. Even SMFC seem divided on what to do.

So you're probably right, can anyone out there tick all the boxes anymore?
 
Im just not sold on Tasmania unfortunately. Population numbers and slow growth make it difficult to see AFL, NBL and BBL all coexisting, even before we look at an A-league team. I have genuine concerns about the AFL team to be honest
The NBL team has sold out every single home game since its first season. Has a membership waiting list nearly as large as it's venue capacity.

AFL team will have no issues. It's a religion down here at the same level as Victoria. The VFL team started this year, has made finals, and is setting attendance records across the entire league. Thousands of people paid $1500 this year (and will need to pay $1500 again next year) in order to have first dibs at premium membership when the AFL team starts in 2028. Per person. That's $3000 and they don't even get a seat, and they will have to pay for their actual 2028 membership on top of that.

Anyway, don't want to dwell on that! The point is that apart from the Hurricanes, Tassie has never had a professional sports industry like this before. Both JackJumpers/Jewels (their WNBL team) and the Devils are getting high performance training centres, and there are all kinds of new roles from sports science, through to media, events, operations, etc. which never really existed before. They had to recruit from interstate (a lot were people who are from Tassie but had to move interstate for these roles and are happy to be able to come back). So it's a new industry that an A-League club could benefit from.

But I do concede.. not yet!
 
Last edited:
This is a good thought provoking line. I reckon there's definitely support in Tasmania and Canberra for a team, the question there is, do they have enough numbers to make it a groundswell?

Places like Gold Coast and Christchurch might be a bit indifferent to having a team today, but they certainly have the numbers for a potential groundswell.

Geelong, Sunshine Coast and anywhere else is a big mystery. Even SMFC seem divided on what to do.

So you're probably right, can anyone out there tick all the boxes anymore?
This line was specifically in reference to Melbourne and Sydney, but probably can be applied nationally. Would argue maybe there is a groundswell of sorts in Canberra and Wollongong. But Wollongong wouldn’t be a new entity
 
Back
Top