New A-League teams

New A-League teams

Possibly two additions according to 442.com, Townsville and Gold Coast.

If that happens the Gold Coast will have gone from nothing to a basketball, NRL, A-League and AFL team in three years.

Not that the market will be drastically oversaturated or anything.

Townsville would be a good pick, but I'd sooner see Canberra get the second team. Supermercado said it best, the market's oversaturated. 

I'd guess that the players would rather run around on a summer's afternoon in Canberra rather than Townsville 

if it expands we have more teams to beat - i like that

Maybe we should regularly beat the teams in the comp now before setting sights on any newbies lol...


The Gold Coast will soon (in the next two-three years) have almost as many prof sports 'franchises' as Brissy... interesting ain't it... (not to mention Indy) All they'll need is to create a new State (so the can enter the Ford Ranger & Pura Cups) and they'll be almost there!!!


I might relocate 30kms South I think lol



Surge!

More supporters, or more fickle? Or both?

pretty sure the league will be 10 teams soon

Townsville and Gold Coast would mean there were three Queensland teams. I'd suggest there would be a second Victorian team (outside of Melbourne) before a third Queensland team.

Yes... the Ballarat Lions will go off!!!













Surge!

Bring back the k******!

Don't be surprised if it's Cairns instead of Townsville. Just remember ewe herd it here first!











Surge!

Hey whats the  chances of chuckiin in a christchurc and waikato team to make it twelve, maybe add three or four pacific island teams, and why not bring back the knights while we're at it - hey whadaya know thats sixteen teams, we could have a knock out comp AND the league  Oska2007-11-22 17:30:43

cairns in summer? F**K THAT. townsville would be bad enough

I'd say it'd be between Townsville, Gold Coast or Wollongong. From a marketing/support perspective, NSW doesn't really need another A-League team; but QLD doesn't need three either.

Victoria is unlikely to have 2 teams in the A-League when it expands to 10 teams IMO. The biggest population base outside Melbourne (Geelong) isn't even close to putting forward a bid for a team (despite Victory pulling a decent crowd there pre-season), and the A-League would not risk dividing up Melbourne's support with a suburbs based team. Nor should they, no city in the A-League needs two teams until they're selling out stadiums...

With all the buzz over the A-League's 8th license being up for grabs (and when Wellington got it), I'd be suprised if the A-League didn't go to ten teams next year, provided current teams agree with it (they'd all have to because of the 5 year agreement thingy AFAIK)

All opinion only, I don't want you to think I'm pretending to know stuff here...

Yes Bopman, thats exactly the point...

Now that Aussie is part of the Asian Confederation. they're lookin at setting up a training base in Cairns or Darwin to prepare the players for the conditions that they apparently can't handle at the moment...

Cairns also has a reasonable population (120k-ish) that currently only has one professional sport up there (NBL) and no footy-code competition - so they'd have to be Gumbies not to get 10-15k crowds...

So they upgrade the ground and add some quality training facilities for national teams and A-L teams to prepare for APL matches - done deal. Although it is rather tooo logical for the locals here... lol

Surge!

agreed Prof, at the moment there's no show of that  - but when the Nix have had 4-5 good seasons, with growing crowds and the profile of football continues to be raised in NZ then another team from NZ could be brilliant for the game here, some will say that's all a bit of a leap of faith but hey if Terry hadn't of had a sense of optimism ...

(I'm hoping the All Chokes come to the party  -again- on this one and the "rugby (it's a small) world cup" proves to be a bit of a fizzer in 2011)

I don't think when the A-league is expanded to 10 teams NZ should get another franchise.

I believe the teams to get it should be Townsville and Canberra. My reasons (many have been stated) are:

Not NSW, they have 3 teams (that are all useless).
Not Western Australia, all of the teams hate flying out there and Perth is the only big metropolitan area as far as I'm aware.
Melbourne are drawing great crowds, we don't want to change this in anyway.
Don't wont one in the Northern Territory (just my opinion, no proper reason with which to back it up).
Queensland is a large state and needs more than one team, and Townsville is the perfect location (with 120 000 people) to set up a new franchise.
As far as I know, Canberra has a large population and I think a football team could do well there.

However, if the A-league were to expand further, from 10 teams to 12, then NZ should definitely get another team. The most logical place to have it would be Christchurch where I think they could get decent support.

The gold coast has the population @ 500,000 and growing to support a new team. It also has good infrastructure. The main downside is that the Gold Coast came across as a souless place when i was over there on holiday recently so what will the supporters be like - will they have the passion or will they be like those who go to watch state cricket matches?

The problem with expansion is that if Townsville gets a professional football team, then Perth will want one too 

After SurgeQLD's arguments, I'd love to see Cairns get a franchise, but that means the second one being a tossup between Townsville, the logical choice, and either Canberra or Wollongong (hometown loyalties - I grew up near both cities)

I hope the A-League expands to Cairns quickly before the AFL get there. If football can be the first code to give the city a chance, that might stir some loyalty.

My choice would be Cairns and Townsville in 2010, followed by Canberra and Geelong a few years later and possibly expanded playoffs (top 6 qualify). Other than that, keep the number small so as to avoid weakening the league.

Relocation - Canberra Mariners anyone?

(HA! If Canberra had a coastline, Jervis Bay would be part of NSW)

You left out Tasmania - Hobart is apparently Aus' 11th largest city with 200,000. No idea what it's like for football though.

Hobart hosted a Socceroos match recently, was pretty well attended. Hobart would not be a total stretch, but I think they're more likely to get the AFL. Which could be good as the AFL might not want to move three teams and have to choose between Darwin, Hobart and Gold Coast. Not to mention West Sydney's trying to throw their hat in the ring too.
robbwatson2007-11-14 19:41:29

i think in ten year time there should be another queensland team another melbourne team another adelaide team and another sudney team makin the a league at 12 good size

I can't see it happening next year, just too early for a league still getting fully established.

Also cant see why Townsville with a population of only 120,000 is considered ideal. To get 10 -12,000 at the game each and every week, you'd have to have 10% of the population as regular supporters.

More likely Canberra next, or Geelong, or an outsider- Singapore

Definitely not Singapore. I wouldn't mind seeing a team from one of the small Islands (although I can't see how they would function financially), or even a Papua New Guinean team, but not teams from South-East Asia.

Besides, Singapore already has the S-league.

no it would never happen to have a team from singapore who cares as lons as theres a team from new zealand thats doing well yeh itll probly be geelong no other cities big enough to have one and wat will the roar do as there name is queensland roar if there is gonna be another queensland team mabye brisbane roar

Townsville pop is more like 200,000, they will get in 2008 for sure, Wynton Rufer is gona be the coach and he got mean contacts, Lord someone who has a big stake in the Victory is the main financier for Tropical Football. They had $5-7 million secured when we were waiting on Wellington.

Gold Coast is a certainty, 500,000 pop is heaps to support a A-league team, Miron Beilberg is their coach I'm thinking he's gona be a bit sour about being booted from the Roar but they will have the best football stadium in Aus (until Victory build theirs) with the new 27,000 seat Robina Stadium ready next year.

Wollongong is another possibilty with $4.5 million in cash promised if they get the go ahead, 4 NSW teams is abit over the top though. They can play out of St George Dragons home ground. Remember also the Wollongong Wolves were a force in the old NSL.

Second team for Vic could go to Geelong which has a pop of around 150,000. The Victory pulled 9,000 there pre season so there is potential just not the backing nor the will so far.

The rest are pipe dreams, except the idea of a West Sydney team has been floated and I can see it working but the FFA is one city one team at the moment so that will have to change.

I'd like to see another Victorian side.  Problem tho is that unlike NSW melbourne's the only population centre.  The Tards have a sole licence for Melbourne so another team from the city is out.  Geelong's the only real alternative, but driving through it reminds me of the all the old houses from the opening scene from Close to Home (the Kiwi series...yes old enough to just remember that). Besides, its an aerial ping pong town so football might struggle.

The funny thing with this discussion is we're talking about whether the population centres are big enough to support a team, yet the 5th or 6th biggest Australasian city (Auckland) has not been put up (apart from a humourous reference to the Knightz) as an option.  With a population not far off Perth or Brisbane, and I think bigger than Adelaide, it really is odd that Auckland seems to be completely off the table as an option.  I know history is an important factor here (and recent history) but by 2010 or 2012 would it be worth revisiting our biggest city as a possible A-league team?

I'd far rather see ChCh as a second NZ team

Hmmmm.... no. They had their chances and blew them twice.

Christchurch deserves a shot.loyalgunner2007-11-14 22:28:28

Christchurch would be good in terms of parochialism (which is important, I'm not being derogatory here) but is the game strong enough in the South Island to support a team?  Derby matches between NZ teams in the A-league would be great.

Someone in Christchurch has to front up the $$... does anyone really see that as likely ?

Even then, it doesn't help if that person employs the wrong back room to actually run it (see the Knights). 

The Kingz were stuffed by a national corporate just when they were looking positive.  I suspect that history and too many bridges have been burnt for a return there, plus the ridiculous venue situation.