‘Keep it small, keep it local’
Indulge me. Let’s pretend for a second that football isn’t a mass-entertainment product but rather a game about fans, anchored in communities. Let’s also imagine that TV broadcasters and advertisers don’t hold the absolute whip-hand when it comes to expansion locations.
If you’re with me so far, then Tasmania is a perfect site for a new A-League side. At Bellerive thousands flock to watch the Hobart Hurricanes – between 10,000-17,500 for every match played there over the past three years. They bloody love it. From David Boon to John Bowe, Richie Porte to Richard Fromberg, Tasmanians love their sport.
The AFL might dangle a carrot from time to time, sending Hawthorn or North Melbourne for a sojourn across the Strait but the reality is while the north/south divide endures in Australian rules football, the whole island would get behind an A-League team.
Play eight home games in Hobart, five in Launceston. Or if you’re feeling generous send one to Devonport. Forget the metrics, the demands for 1m+ population bases – if you had a stadium deal that didn’t fundamentally shaft the club, you wouldn’t need 10,000+ for every game. Keep it small, keep it local.
Boutique stadiums, a supportive state government; a David constantly punching up at the mainland Goliaths. It would be like another Central Coast Mariners, only loveable. Richard Parkin
‘Ask the right questions’
At this stage of the expansion debate I’m more interested in the why rather than the where. FFA has yet to circulate its criteria for bid applications, stating recently: “At this stage, FFA have advised any interested parties who have made contact that a framework for expansion will be completed early next year, which will allow them to submit expressions of interest in a framework which focuses on the viability of the proposed franchise and its ability to provide benefits to the A-League and the game.”
It stands to reason that financial viability is a non-negotiable, but what about the “benefits to the A-League and the game”?
Establishing these (preferably in some order of preference) should involve a national conversation that includes as many interested parties as possible. The outcome of which should be a greater understanding of the direction of football in Australia and the purpose of the A-League.
Otherwise, how can you reasonably balance the competing merits of a bid like Tasmania’s against a historic old club like South Melbourne or a new metrics-based franchise transplanted into a regional growth corridor? We need to establish what the A-League exists to do, be it to satisfy a demand from fans, generate Socceroos, engage communities, or whatever. Without this I’ll wager we’ll be handed down a Spreadsheet FC or two in order to maximise broadcasting negotiations, overlooking the myriad other ways football clubs contribute to Australian life.
Expansion seems a unanimous answer, but we need to make sure we’re asking the right question. Jonathan Howcroft
‘Creative, meaningful and enduring engagement’
As a Canberra resident, I have been a front-row spectator to the A-League expansion debate for the better part of the last decade. At every turn, a locally-supported and professionally-executed A-League4Canberra bid was spurned by FFA. Finally in 2012, after several years of blackmail to the effect of “turn up and watch a b-class Socceroos side play Asian minnows or you will never get a team”, the establishment of the Western Sydney Wanderers put Canberra’s bid out of its misery.
With the benefit of hindsight, it is difficult to criticise the Western Sydney expansion decision given the Wanderers’ success on and off the field. Yet what was – and continues to be – entirely absent from FFA’s approach to the national capital has been any form of strategic thinking. Even if an inability to meet key metrics makes a renewed expansion push unviable in the eyes of our Oxford Street administrators, football’s popularity in Canberra will not vanish.
FFA needs to engage with the local sporting community in creative, meaningful and enduring ways, not ignore football fans on the basis of location. The same can be said about other expansion possibilities – Wollongong, Tasmania, far north Queensland. Rome was not built in a day, and neither will a more vibrant expanded A-League. Kieran Pender
‘Build from the ground up’
In his recent biography Ange Postecoglou urged FFA to be bold on A-League expansion. He is right, but it must also be smart. What are the principles that should be applied to any candidate for expansion? So far David Gallop has stressed only the size of the potential market.
But more important is that any new club should be an organic part of the football community – by that I mean either an existing club, or a new one built along the same lines as the Western Sydney Wanderers, from the ground up. There is a danger the wrong lessons are being learned from the success of Wanderers and the demise of North Queensland and Gold Coast – that big cities will work and smaller regional centres will not. What matters is the strong connection with the community, not just the size of it.
It goes without saying that new teams need a solid financial base with long-term investors who can bring fans with them – no more Palmers or Tinklers. And they need a stadium of the right size – probably between 15,000 and 25,000.
Using those criteria, the most credible candidate on the east coast looks like Wollongong. North Queensland and a second team in the Brisbane area should not be ruled out, but a third team in a vague area of south Sydney will not cut it.
Gallop has accepted the next question after expansion will be promotion and relegation. That is much more likely to work if we build up real, local clubs now, rather than creating new franchises out of thin air. Mike Ticher
