Football⚽️

That won’t be happening. Melbourne City are owned by Manchester City and probably are very happy in Victoria - they can piss as much oil money on them as they like. $ydney FC have actually done a deal with the Wollongong Wolves for player development and the like.

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Not South Melbourne - reminds me of the failure that was the NSL. :stuck_out_tongue:

Canberra should be the next in, and Wollongong over the top of that.

Once again, the FFA manages to screw this up - Sydney and Melbourne didn’t need more teams. If Sydney and Melbourne want more teams, they can start a second division and make them work up.

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I seem to remember that one of the problems of the NSL was the extreme rivalry between multiple teams in the same cities and the A-League having one team per city was a way to overcome this. The subsequent addition of second teams in Sydney and Melbourne has seen the same old NSL type rivalry reappear and I think a third team could possibly make it worse.

Yeah, true. :stuck_out_tongue: My ideal choice would actually be for the Wollongong Wolves to be granted a licence (they would be my club if they were to get in), but I’ve resigned myself to the fact that the chances of the Wolves ever being granted a licence under the current FFA board are slim. :frowning:

To be honest, I actually think South Melbourne would be a great addition to the league, even if they do have ties to the old NSL. They would have an instant rivalry with the Victory and a South v Victory derby would be pretty good, IMO. Much better than the current Melbourne Derby anyway.

Canberra were extremely unlucky to miss out on this round of expansion. The ACT Government had pledged to give the club $1.2 million a season and a $30 million training facility was proposed to be built. Their bid was really good on paper. It’s just a shame that the FFA didn’t see it that way.

Do people in the South West of Sydney Macarthur region strongly dislike the Wanderers or something? If not, surely the existing Western Sydney A-League team could’ve played a few of their home matches at Campbelltown Stadium each season to help build the brand in that part of the world?

I completely agree that Canberra should’ve got a spot in this round of expansion, with the other team being one in another growing regional area like Wollongong or Tasmania.

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I don’t think so. If anything, the Macarthur region is firmly Wanderers territory. I remember I went to Macarthur Square a couple of years ago and I saw quite a lot of people wearing Wanderers jerseys.

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The Western Melbourne bid is starting to become dodgier by the day. Here are the reasons why:

  • The Chinese investors behind the bid, whose identify remained unknown until just a couple of days ago, are reportedly getting cold feet and are looking to pull out, as the property market is slowing down in Melbourne. They were only interested in making money out of the land that Wyndham City Council granted to them for free. Now that the property market is slowing down, they are having seconds thoughts.

  • There has been silence in regards to the stadium and when construction will start. Before being granted the licence, the bid promised that they would start building the stadium out in Tarneit immediately afterwards. No one associated with the club has spoken about the stadium since, and with the Chinese investors looking to pull out, it puts into question whether it will ever be built at all.

  • There have been no fan engagements or community consultations at all since they were granted the licence. The only form of fan engagement they have done is running a competition with the Herald Sun where readers can pick the names and colours.

  • Word is that WMG were having issues with their investors in trying to convince them to pay the licence fee to the FFA. They reportedly paid $19 million for the licence fee.

  • It still hasn’t been confirmed that WMG will be playing their games at the AFL stadium in Geelong, despite the fact that the new season kicks-off in October.

This club is nothing but a shambles. Why the FFA approved them to enter the competition in less than 12 months time (and not solid bids such as Canberra or Team 11), i’ve got no idea…

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The new Western Melbourne club will be called Western United. The name was first revealed by Herald Sun yesterday, with a double page ad inside the front and back cover in today’s paper.

Wow…so much originality. :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

Fox Sports are trying to withhold a $5 million TV rights payment to Football Federation Australia over a dispute on the name of the new team from Melbourne’s western suburbs, Western United.

Foxtel appears to be using the name as an excuse so they don’t pay a bonus for a poorly rating sport.

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Oh FFS. Just pay up Murdoch.

The SMH claims that Ten is negotiating with FFA to show more than one A-League game from this coming season. But as the story states, Fox Sports has all rights until 2023 with only one match on free-to-air, currently Fox buying time on a Ten multichannel. It appears that with the increase in teams and games in 2020 that Ten is using that as a way to show more games, according to the SMH. It seems Ten wants to buy the games.

Well you wouldn’t have known they’ve had the rights for the last two years. It was just a 2 hour ad for fox.

If they gain the rights independently they’d probably do their own hosting etc.

But this a fools errand. The A-league does not rate and no one is interested in it at all.

Aside from the issue of whether it will rate better than it currently does, I’m surprised that the clubs aren’t more keen on allowing more FTA exposure. Lose a little bit of money now for hopefully increased exposure and greater rewards in the future.

Keeping it locked up on Fox with half-hearted FTA efforts is not the way to go.

…and why do you think that is? :roll_eyes: The A-League has only had two broadcast deals on FTA in it’s 15-year history and both of them have been shonky. Like you said, Ten was never going to market what was essentially a 2-hour ad for Foxtel and SBS receives lower ratings by default as it is not a commercial FTA network.

The fact that Ten are considering purchasing the rights for more matches is a great outcome and it will be beneficial to all parties. It will be the determining factor in how much interest is truly in the A-League. You need to at least give it a chance.

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They have some chance if 10 can nab more games and…wait for it…exclusive games.

Dreaming I know, but A-League could potentially grow like the BBL and become mainstream, provided that 10 can actually do something spectacular that will get the audience watching in droves.

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There’s definitely potential. Football is the most played sport in Australia and the sport has attracted big crowds at times (the Sydney Derby got almost 62K at ANZ Stadium back in 2016), so if Ten could grow the A-League in the same manner as they did with the BBL, the possibilities are endless.

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The last time I checked, soccer is pretty popular among the kids/teens and is quite a family friendly sport here in Australia, somewhat like the BBL, so the potential is there. It’s just that it’s been locked up behind a paywall for all these years and it’s not been demonstrated. FFA are kidding themselves if they think Fox is going to help their popularity. If anything, they’re getting short-term gains for long-term pains for the sport.

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Yep. Another thing that really works in football’s favour is that it’s popular with both males and females. If i’m not mistaken, it is also the #1 sport with young girls and look at how well Samantha Kerr is going for the Matilda’s.

Football could very easily become the most popular sport in the country down the track if it plays it’s cards right and the AFL/NRL knows that. Negotiating a deal which sees Ten broadcast most of the matches would work out well for everyone involved in the game, IMO. Foxtel have done wonders for the game over the past 10-15 years, but it’s time that the A-League grows it’s prospects and look to the future.

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