Wollongong HAL club

[Stuckey]

All Stars coach Josep Gombau believes Wollongong is perfectly suited for A-League expansion.

The Adelaide United boss has spent the past five days training at WIN Stadium with the All Stars squad and gave the Illawarra’s top facility high praise on Monday.

He has made it no secret of his support for expansion of the competition and believes two more teams would be suitable for the A-League.

http://m.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/wollon ... 00dn1.html

Here's hoping! I feel a Wollongong side detached from Sydney would be best. Wollongong isn't Sydney and I think trying to make them part of it in HAL terms would be a hindrance to them gaining fans IMO

[shinAUFC]

Bit misleading.

All he said is the facilities were up to par.....but that headline

[Stuckey]

Facilities are a big part of HAL club's health. If I knew the HAL all-stars game would help fund expansion like this then I might support it.

[Nash]

I recall a Sydney FC away game I attended a few seasons back where I had a lengthy chat with a bloke from Wollongong. He drove up to watch and support Adelaide United, his new top tier club since the Wolves weren't invited into the A-League. He was very passionate and super pissed off (even still after 7 years of the A-League at this stage) about his club being snubbed by the FFA and new league - fair enough too I thought, even though I was young I can recall watching Wolves play in many NSL finals campaigns on ABC.

He went on about how the FFA were pushing for Wollongong residence to switch loyalty to Sydney FC,even though as has been said, Wollongong is not an area of Sydney. He decided to start supporting us but said that majority of Wolves fans and people of Wollongong show no interest in the A-League for the above reasons. And If they had been included in the new league they likely would not of hit the financial hardship that they have... Which upset him even more.

So what I'm trying to say in a long winded way lol - I would love to see a team from Wollongong/the 'South Coast' as its a traditionally football rich region and appears to still be in love with the sport.

That said, I'd rather see a Canberra side first, and probably Hobart too.

[Stuckey]

Yeah population-wise Canberra has a better case.