South Sydney FC

[Stuckey]

AUSTRALIAN soccer wants a third Sydney team in the A-League — smack bang in NRL territory — as part of future expansion and its next broadcasting deal.

Former NRL boss David Gallop plans to attack Sydney’s south, where the Cronulla Sharks are struggling and St George Illawarra have all but abandoned Kogarah Oval.

Cashing in on the World Cup hype and record SBS ratings, the subject of A-League expansion and long-term strategic planning have been discussed among FFA heavyweights in Brazil.

Corporate powerhouses Westfield and Nike have already indicated they will support the new venture.

There is talk of Socceroos legend Tim Cahill, who recently purchased a waterfront home in the Shire, becoming the face of the club.

http://m.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/fo ... 6962606206

I think if they could bring it in with South Coast Wolves (Wollongong Wolves) that would be good. Although I don't think it would be very fair to do so since the FFA blocked South Melbourne's attempt to link up with Heart.
Obviously anything involving Tim Cahill will be a massive boost for the side.
This is probably the smartest move the FFA can make when it comes to football in Sydney. As a city Sydney is just far to vast to have one club representing an entire city. No one from the outer suburbs are going to drive over an hour to go to a SFC game. Many of these people rarely venture into the city unless they have to so obviously they wouldn't attend football matches there. So bringing the football to these people makes perfect sense.

[shinAUFC]

Obviously the population is in NSW to warrant more teams there but id much prefer FNQ mk2 get another run, a tassie team, second brisbane team etc.

There are well populated parts of this country whose residents have no hope of seeing a top flight football match and give youngsters nothing to aspire to.

I would really hate to see the A-league become more city and melbourne centric then it already is!

[EdDog]

Yeah we don't want it to become the NRL.

That said, if that's where the market is I guess that's where the next team will be..

[Stuckey]

Obviously the population is in NSW to warrant more teams there but id much prefer FNQ mk2 get another run, a tassie team, second brisbane team etc.

There are well populated parts of this country whose residents have no hope of seeing a top flight football match and give youngsters nothing to aspire to.

I would really hate to see the A-league become more city and melbourne centric then it already is!

That's how the east coast feels. It is Australia! Football imitates life!
I agree it would be great. I think maybe those other areas might need to wait for the NPL to develop as I think the money just isn't there for the FFA to throw $20m at a start up in Tassie or Canberra.

[ChillyPhilly]

Very poorly thought out. Why saturate the market and dilute the Sydney talent pool? Mariners play games in northern Sydney nowadays anyway, therefore the purpose of this is moot.

[sevengoals]

Why create another ersatz club?

[Stuckey]

Very poorly thought out. Why saturate the market and dilute the Sydney talent pool? Mariners play games in northern Sydney nowadays anyway, therefore the purpose of this is moot.

As Gallop said he wants to focus on areas with millions of people not thousands. Sydney has 4.6m people so I feel Sydney is big enough to dilute further especially considering the vastness of Sydney no one who lives down south is going to bother travelling over an hour each way to see Sydney or WSW.

[EdDog]

Between the two Sydney teams, with say an average of 40k fans each week between them, that is less than one percent of the Sydney population. Surely there are more fans out there in big numbers without having to dilute the current supporter base.

I would like seeing Tassie, Canberra, FNQ get another team but FFA are going to go where the fans and the money is.

[Stuckey]

Between the two Sydney teams, with say an average of 40k fans each week between them, that is less than one percent of the Sydney population. Surely there are more fans out there in big numbers without having to dilute the current supporter base.

I would like seeing Tassie, Canberra, FNQ get another team but FFA are going to go where the fans and the money is.

But you are looking at Sydney in it entirety. Sydney is just too massive to expect people who live in Campbelltown, Cronulla or Sutherland to travel to the city or Parramatta for HAL games.

[EdDog]

That's exactly my point. You could have a third team without diluting the current supporter base at all.

[Stuckey]

That's exactly my point. You could have a third team without diluting the current supporter base at all.

Sorry I just re-read your post.

[blahblah]

One more side around Illawarra would round out NSW quite nicely. Another Queensland side though is needed rather urgently.

[Stuckey]

One more side around Illawarra would round out NSW quite nicely. Another Queensland side though is needed rather urgently.

I agree. There is a big push for NQF to get back in but I feel due to population numbers the FFA will consider Gold coast or the Sunshine Coast a more lucrative area. Just as long as they don't put a big fat arrogant pig in charge of one again!

[shinAUFC]

One more side around Illawarra would round out NSW quite nicely. Another Queensland side though is needed rather urgently.

I agree. There is a big push for NQF to get back in but I feel due to population numbers the FFA will consider Gold coast or the Sunshine Coast a more lucrative area. Just as long as they don't put a big fat arrogant pig in charge of one again!

I think its dangerous territory putting clubs in high populated areas assuming they will get bigger crowds though.

Its very easy for a club to get off to a bad start and no one wants to turn up completely blowing the honeymoon period.

I think a club in FNQ or Tasmania can absolutely work if they are based in a smaller stadium with say a 10k capacity. Not every club needs massive amount of fans to be viable.

Imagine a stadium like marden developed to hold 8k based in tasmania. Would be perfect IMO.

Some reasonably well populated places in Australia have no access to top flight football and no pathways for juniors and are not big enough for AFL to infiltrate. IMO

Also i think people have a skewed idea of what we should expect from new A-league clubs because of WSW's success. Lets be completely honest a large portion of WSW fans were bandwagoners who only jumped on after their amazing run in the last half of the season. This is just unrealistic to expect new clubs to achieve this.

[Futbol_Crazy21]

Within the next few years the Illawarra region could support an expansion, FNQ could, as could Tassie but its all about the approach though, isn't it? We can talk about all the different regions for possible expansion, but population is just one factor, a big factor, but still one out of many that make an expansion successful.

The demise of Gold Coast basically put a lot of pressure on the next expansion to succeed. As such the FFA made sure that proper care was given during the Wanderers expansion, and this needs to be applied to every expansion now. Its a lesson that we need not forget.

I don't know that much on Sydney demographics, but I guess if there is a market, supported by facts, than if is given the care that the Wanderers were given, then they can definitely work.