Stuff Sydney, we want Tassie
The blue, green & red would be good colours for them too. But what about a 'nick-name'?
I wholeheartedly agree with the Federal Parliament report that “barriers facing the AFL’s bid to establish another team in Sydney appear insurmountable,” and that, instead, the AFL should accept Tasmania’s bid to join the national competition.
The Senate’s rural and regional affairs committee has got it right in my opinion, the Sydney market is “too weak” to sustain a new team. It even cited, as proof, the Sydney Swans’ decision to send its reserves team to play in the Canberra league because no adequate competition was available.
And the committee also investigated whether it was fair for the AFL to ignore Tasmania’s bid for an AFL licence in favour of western Sydney and the Gold Coast. Senators backed Tasmania:
“The committee recognises that a Tasmanian side in the AFL would bring enormous economic, social and cultural benefits to the state, as well as rewarding Tasmania’s strong support for Australian rules football for more than 100 years,” they said. The committee described the western Sydney plan as ambitious and risky. “There are cultural barriers facing a western Sydney-based AFL team that appear to be insurmountable,” senators said.
Comment:
What more needs to be said? It’s my belief that the AFL under the ‘guidance’ of Andrew Demetriou and a commission that consists of people with wide-ranging personal business interests, NEVER makes a major decision that is actually in the interests of (a) The existing clubs. (b) The future of the game. (c) The paying public.
They just look after themselves. I believe Demetriou is only in it for the money – after all, he likes buying $7 million mansions.
And I have no doubt whatsoever that Tasmania would be successful and would not only see huge attendances at their home games, but would also be able to supply most of its own players from within the State. It’s ready-made and (almost) ready-to-go.
But what can we do about changing their minds and getting Tassie in the AFL before Sydney and (even) before the Gold Coast? Any ideas?
Wally says: I'm taking y'all to VCAT, Woolies. Go on, git! Git out of 'my town'.
Contact: alpineopinion@gmail.com
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The AFL’s thinking is the League has an already wide following in Tassie and introducing a new team won’t really attract additional TV rights income as people there already watch the games.
So they seriously believe more people in Sydney will watch AFL on TV just because there’s a 2nd Sydney team? Ridiculous.
Have they never heard of making yourself so attractive among your own established market that you draw new markets like a magnet? It works and most other businesses realise they have to fully capitalise on the market they have first before trying to force their products down the throats of those who don’t want it.
It’s a long term thing Ray. The networks will pay huge bucks for Sydney if they’re convinced that it’s not more than a niche game.
Yes completely agree about the 18th team being in Tassie.
Wah, I follow the Swans and I lived in Sydney for 16 years. The fact is, the Swans, after nearly 30 years of trying, after finishing top in ‘96, after being in three GFs including the ‘05 Premiership, after several Brownlows and Colemans, after introducing larger than life characters like Plugger, Bustler and Goodesy to the game (up there), have converted precious few native Sydneysiders to the code.
Some, but not that many. I would say most of their Sydney members are wetbacks mostly from southern states who’ve found themselves living in Sydney and decided to follow the Swans, initially probably as a second team, then slowly they’ve become, well, EQUAL-first team. I’ve known several such people myself.
The Swans set up at the SCG, and so got the Eastern and Northern suburbs crowd, which included a lot of wetbacks (like I was) but also a lot of Sydneysiders who probably weren’t that taken with any of the codes of Rugby. This was probably just a coincidence – they probably wouldn’t have known Sydney’s demographics that well – but it turned out to be a happy coincidence for the Swans.
That won’t happen with the new team. AFL House is proposing to set the new team up smack bang in the middle of the Western Suburbs. Rugby League central. I have these horrible visions of the Sydney Peacocks or whatever playing at Telstra Stadium – in front of 3,500 people. You think the TV stations are going to want part o’ that? And believe me, it could happen. Regularly.
This has got Brisbane Bears x 10 written all over it.
And, Bertus, I’d think the Gold Coast team will struggle to attract much more than 7,000 people to a home game – and they’ve got even more ex-Vics among their ranks up there. They’ll make the huge mistake of corporatising it, locking out the ordinary folk who might otherwise go to a game (i.e. the ex Vic pensioners who can’t afford the entry price). Gold Coast will fail too.
Yeah, well, it’s the Brisbane Bears mk II isn’t it Ray? The boosters say a lot has changed on the Gold Coast and I think there’s some truth to that, but we’ll see if enough has changed.
Re the second Sydney team, I see in the Age today, AFL House’s resident genius, Big Andy, has completely dismissed the Senate finding, surprise surprise.
Well, in 20 years a lot has changed on the Gold Coast, Bertus, but they still struggle to get 5,000 people to the AFL games they play at Cararra. So how does having a real home team change that? I’m not sure it will. It seems to me that what happens with ex-Vics once they move up there they get converted to NRL pretty quickly. It’s a religion up there, especially given their State of Origin dominance.
Yeah, Andy is hell bent on Sydney West. Must be a lot of $s in it for him. He’s got a big house in Toorak to pay for.
I watched the only AFL game at Bruce Stadium in 1995 when West Coast defeated Fitzroy by a few goals. I was living at Eden then.
The AFL has stuffed up Canberra and Tasmania. They’ve stuffed up Canberra so much it’s been lost from AFL to rugby and league.
If they had encouraged and supported a Fitzroy relocation in the early 90s, Canberra would now be an AFL city. I think it’s lost forever.
North Melbourne or Melbourne should relocate to Tasmania. They can’t survive in Melbourne, but rather than go to Sydney or Queensland, one of them should cross Bass Strait and seek to play a couple of “home”games each year in Melbourne.
Ok we all know the big bucks are in growing the AFL TV audience in NSW and Qld, but as has been pointed out in the comments, there is nothing to suggest that a new team in in Sydney will actually result in higher TV numbers when the game is just not promoted there properly.
Why is AFL never shown in pirme time in NSW or Qld (or in Canberra)? Why doesn’t the AFL stipulate to whoever it sells the rights to that there must be prime time support for games, or live games shown?
Have to agree generally on the criticisms of Foghorn and his cronies (A Anderson especially!!)
If only the AFL clubs stopped bickering amongst themselves they could unite on a few issues and give the Commission a kick up the erse for its crappy stadium deals, stupid plans for new teams and constant rule changes.