But if it was Central, Waitakere or Melville, would you feel any connection then? I suspect not and underdstandably so. The whole point of the franchise system was to have teams in 'catchment' areas and have total support as opposed to the club format.
That's all nice in theory. But then you have these franchises being quite obviously aligned with a certain club. This I'm sure puts a lot of people off. More work needs to be put into making all clubs of the franchises area involved in the concept, then perhaps people will buy into it more and feel an attachment.
Not saying its THE solution. I suspect there isn't just one major problem with the league, but rather a series of smaller problems, this being one of them.
Edit: I'm not just talking ACFC here either.