saying that people will only watch their own clubs in a club based national league is short sighted
people will go where the quality is
players will aspire to be in that team and people will want to watch the teams from out of town play the best that their town has to offer
it's also inevitable that strong clubs will develop a strong and larger base
I think the current TW situation has shown there are holes in that argument.
Why would I go support Miramar just because they're the strongest club in the region?
I'd support a Wellington team if it perhaps represented more clubs than just Miramar, and was actually representative of the Wellington region (and thus would give me more of a connection to the team). As it is, I go when I feel like it and happen to have the day off work, which is barely ever - and that's mainly just to support the idea of a franchise based ASBP and a day out at the football, rather than to support TW