South West Sydney & West Melbourne To Join A-League

[mack]

Football Federation Australia have today announced that the A-League will be expanded with two new teams.

After an acrimonious A-League reform saga, the new board have attempted to put that behind them with a hotly contested expansion announcement.

With 6 teams vying for position, South Melbourne, Western Melbourne (Werribee/Geelong), South-East Melbourne (Team 11), Canberra, Southern Expansion Cronulla and Macarthur South West Sydney Campbelltown.

The two new teams will be the South West Sydney Campelltown bid, and Western Melbourne.

Western Melbourne will join the league immediately next season, with games being played at the AFL stadium in Geelong, with expectations that a new stadium would be built by the owners of the club along with some infrastructure support via the Victorian and Local Governments, to be done within 3 years. South West Sydney will join the A-League the year after West Melbourne in 2020/21, playing at Campbelltown Stadium, that appears set for some kind of refurbishing.

There are reports that the Wanderers lobbed successfully to delay the introduction of the South West Sydney team and the news will disappoint those of the losing bids, and those who wanted the FFA to be bold and expand with four teams.

In my opinion, this is the least the FFA could have done to help push the A-League. Instead of a bold push with four teams that could take the A-League to another level, the FFA have fallen back on their tired catchphrase of "metrics", which really just means "the bids that gave us the most cash for a license fee". That Canberra will not be in the competition is a disgrace, and many will feel the same way about the ex-NSL club South Melbourne being effectively blackballed.

However, at least it's not Southern Expansion.

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[Neverbloom]

hope they are called the south west sydney Carjacking's

 

seriously though very excited for this, was born in south west sydney, so while i'll hate them as a wanderers fan, they will end up as a 2nd team of sorts for me

 

if the wanderers successfully stopped south west sydney from being in the a league next season that is pretty weak rat like sydney fc behaviour tbh

[Wobblies]

"South West Sydney a dumb decision". Pushed by the corrupt Lang Walker who will walk away after a few seasons.

[Davo]

That's ridiculous. The only reason they can possibly have for not making a W-League team a requirement is to make sure Canberra don't get in.

[MadKaw]

so byes next season then. ?

[Neverbloom]

Just now, Davo said:

That's ridiculous. The only reason they can possibly have for not making a W-League team a requirement is to make sure Canberra don't get in.

honestly the fact that they are not even talking about W-league teams is stupid, i dont mind it not being a requirement but at least talk about it

[eggs]

It's a proper rort, Canberra and South Melbourne are the 2 obvious best candidates. The others might have $$ backing, but they'll struggle for support.

[Carns]

14 minutes ago, mack said:

Western Melbourne will join the league immediately next season, with games being played at the AFL stadium in Geelong, with expectations that a new stadium would be built for them by the Victorian and Local Governments within 3 years.

I thought WMG were funding their own stadium? Government involvement is for the infrastructure around the stadium (transport links etc.).

[Neverbloom]

might be a stupid question but who are the walkers?

also they are doing a community forum........i am happy with that

[Neverbloom]

south west sydney should hire popa as a coach

[billybob]

My understand was the the W-League don't want expansion as their current season sits in the off season of the big American and European leagues. This allows Australia's top players and some imports, to come and play in the W-League whilst still making good money overseas. 

If the W-League was expanded, this wouldn't happen and the likes of Sam Kerr would not be playing for Perth. 

I did see somewhere that Canberra may be in line to replace Wellington, if their license is not extended. 

[hawks2767]

They'll fail just like Gold Coast United.

Wollongong was the right decision, Canberra a good decision - these 2 are just wrong.

 

[Neverbloom]

honestly what they are saying(the south west sydney bid) looks promising they actually look like they know what they are doing

the M7 derby

[Carns]

8 minutes ago, Swarth said:

might be a stupid question but who are the walkers?

also they are doing a community forum........i am happy with that

Lang Walker is a property developer and one of the richest people in the country.

[HillsWanderer]

I still don't think there is room for a 3rd team in Sydney.

The current 2 teams have less than 30000 members combined.

 

[GunnerWanderer]

35 minutes ago, eggs said:

It's a proper rort, Canberra and South Melbourne are the 2 obvious best candidates. The others might have $$ backing, but they'll struggle for support.

South Melbourne killed their chances by rorting their own players on super payments for some time. Rightly so got negative vibes, they can learn from this and act responsibility moving forward.

Canberra agreed - I do wish they got in. 

No-one should kid themselves here though Foxtel's influence to have 3rd teams in the nations biggest market and bids that were well capitalised almost made it obvious these choices would be made rightly or wrongly.  

Being campbelltown scum I fail to see a massive football following it's still a league place, but if the purse strings are opened and they sign a big name I welcome the pressure it puts on Lederer to spend some of the $800 million he inherited from his uncle. 

End of the day we should all be happy this day has come long along, and focus on the positive the league is getting 2 more teams!

[teddies]

guys! This means more derbies!  Every week! Imagine derby crowds on TV every week! 

[Harvey]

1 hour ago, mack said:

There are reports that the Wanderers lobbed successfully to delay the introduction of the South West Sydney team and the news will disappoint those of the losing bids, and those who wanted the FFA to be bold and expand with four teams. 

Not a fan of the SWS bid but, I don't agree with holding back any team, I am a firm believer in sink or swim. I understand a club doing its best to protect its interests that's not an issue for me. The problem is the FFA listened... FFS

[Wobblies]

 I fail to see a massive football following it's still a league place,

This, and therein lies the problem.

[matty]

Yeah I don't like that or club got involved, that shouldn't be part of our MO at all. Tsats for ya 

[mltezr]

no surprise from the ffa

it was obvious they have no idea when wollongong didn't even make the final round of applications.

dont know enough about the melbourne bid, but from what i have read, the only good thing is that the owners of the club (not the actual club) will own the stadium, though the location is apparently weird. 

as for sws team, i can see them being a bit larger than central coast, but smaller than newcastle. i dont think we will be impacted much, seen by the games we have taken down there, any impact on us will be covered by the new stadium.

No surprise that our owners/ceo asked for sws to be introduced a year after our stadium. very selfish. having two new teams and a new stadium in one season would have brought a massive boost. 

[Sithslayer1991]

Canberra - should have been in again I do believe they were the strongest.

South Melbourne - ok take out the old NSL issues and look at their catchment their stadium is literally a block away from Marvel stadium. There is a an argument they would be taking $ity and Victory fans away.

South Sydney expansion never gonna happen the way they were advertising it.

Team 11 - Genuinely another area that is unfortunate to miss out. I think West Melbourne guarantee that they would build a stadium over team 11 reliance on government funding for the stadium

West Melbourne - I was happy with either this bid or team 11 as they were away from the cbd ask our Melbourne friends whether this was the best option.

SWS (new challenger) - If there was gonna be Sydney team this was the place to put it. My arguments against it aside the Campbelltown area although there are Wanderers fans (myself included as I am from Camden now) it is not an area that is strong with Wanderers less so the Smurfs. People in Campbelltown have been bombarded with ads about this new team since the start of the year.

My one argument is that I would have preferred them coming next season along with West Melbourne, Wanderers higher ups should have more faith in what its done in the community and what fans feel for the club I certainly am not moving anywhere

[Paul01]

"no surprise from the ffa"

of course, the bids with biggest bank accounts won in the Foxtel preferred markets.

The line should have been "Show me the money"

FFA gets cash from the license fees from both, and unlock the cash from Foxtel.

Plus the schedule is not as mucked up when since there will be 30 rounds (3 × 10) plus finals. One team will get a bye each weekend. Foxtel baulked at broadcasting 33 rounds + finals so negotiations can be a little as to the competition in the season after next.

 

[BoyFromTheWest]

I don't really know much about the bids and their capacity to deliver etc.  SW Sydney will have a city around the size of Adelaide dumped into over the next ten years, along with the aerotropolis (airport and city around it) it is (one of?) the biggest development in Oz.  So the capacity in terms of population will be there and they will increasingly be a different culture and somewhat distinct from Western Sydney.  Whether the incoming population will be NRL, AFL, Football or whatever else is probably unknown but would assume that a 1-2 million people should have some capacity for football uptake.  AFL will be too far away but NRL might be a competitor although in the off-season.  It will be interesting.

[Wobblies]

1 hour ago, BoyFromTheWest said:

I don't really know much about the bids and their capacity to deliver etc.  SW Sydney will have a city around the size of Adelaide dumped into over the next ten years, along with the aerotropolis (airport and city around it) it is (one of?) the biggest development in Oz.  So the capacity in terms of population will be there and they will increasingly be a different culture and somewhat distinct from Western Sydney.  Whether the incoming population will be NRL, AFL, Football or whatever else is probably unknown but would assume that a 1-2 million people should have some capacity for football uptake.  AFL will be too far away but NRL might be a competitor although in the off-season.  It will be interesting.

Remember Badgerys Creek is as close to Blacktown as it is to Campbelltown...whether we like it or not this SWS decision will have a significant affect on Wanderers future growth. The FFA and especially the Smurfs new this and they got their way, surprise, surprise. 

[sonar]

1 minute ago, Ossified said:

Remember Badgerys Creek is as close to Blacktown as it is to Campbelltown...whether we like it or not this SWS decision will have a significant affect on Wanderers future growth. The FFA and especially the Smurfs new this and they got their way, surprise, surprise. 

Then the Wanderers owners will have to roll up their sleeves and work hard to make fans WANT to be members.

They can go out and more actively promote themselves.

Training camps in the off season at Cook Park, Jamison Park......etc

[MartinTyler]

3 minutes ago, Ossified said:

Remember Badgerys Creek is as close to Blacktown as it is to Campbelltown...whether we like it or not this SWS decision will have a significant affect on Wanderers future growth. The FFA and especially the Smurfs new this and they got their way, surprise, surprise. 

Smurfs are in trouble even without the Southern expansion team. They haven't really kicked on membership and crowds wise despite their recent dominance and have no real growth areas in their (now) standard catchment area whereas the Wanderers and SWS can capitalise on significant growth in NW and SW Sydney respectively.

[Carns]

WMG a guaranteed success now.

[mack]

I'm going to consider adding Nelly Yoa to the banned persons lists (contents: jesse fink).

[StringerBellend]

West Melbourne Three years playing out of a Aussie rules stadium an hours drive from home stadium, worked well for another team can’t think who