The AFL wants 22 teams. Name your next four.

[Cuzz09]

In before someone else points out the obvious - the ACT and NT are not states. Also the larger states, particularly the Aussie Rules states, would just dominate that competition.

I didnt mention states.

U need whipping boys

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[____]

If I was running the AFL I'd bring in:
Tasmania and "Northern Australia" in 2023 (first year of new TV rights deal)
Tasmania based team to play home games evenly between Hobart and Launceston
"Northern Australia" to be based in Darwin, but play a home game in Alice Springs, Cairns, Townsville and one in Northern WA.
Have 21 rounds with 19 games for every club with two byes. 10 games first five and last five rounds, 8 games and 4 teams having byes in between except for QB and WA holiday weekend where it would be 9 games and two teams having byes. I would have two byes for each team not for resting reasons, but for less TV overlapping games.
Reason why I'd give the "Northern Australia" a team before Canberra is purely TV, their timezone means you can have a permanent later Saturday game or a Sunday night slot (as there are two existing WA teams) as being based in the tropics means they have to play all home games at night.
For example a 10 game round could consist of Thurs and Fri or Friday double header (e.g. first game at 7pm AEST and second game at 9.50pm AEST played at WA), 5 games on Saturday (2.10pm (ch 10), 3.20pm (ch 7 or 9), 5pm (ch 10), 7.15pm (ch 7 or 9) and 7.50pm (ch 10) AEST, with the latter game always in SA, NT or WA) and 3 on Sunday (12.30pm (ch 7 or 9), 3.20pm (ch 7 or 9) and 6.10pm (ch 10) latter game always in NT or WA unless a public holiday). My timeslot suggestion would also mean any non-Saturday game would be a stand alone timeslot.

Once those two are consolidated I'd bring in Canberra so every state and territory finally gets a team and one completely from left field and have a team called "the Dragons" based in Singapore wearing a predominately red jumper and market themselves as the team for Asia, the team being in the same timeslot as WA means there can be a permanent late Saturday night timeslot for TV, an 11 game round could look like Thursday, Friday, 6 Saturdays (2.10pm (ch 10), 3.20pm (ch 7 or 9), 5pm (ch 10), 6.35pm (ch 7 or 9), 7.50pm (ch 10) and 9.25pm (ch 7 or 9) AEST, with the latter game always in WA/Asia) and 3 Sundays.

 

[Supercoach Bargain]

WA3, notionally Northern Suburbs of Perth.
Tassie, Pick Hobart of Lonny, not try to be everything to everybody. Not sure what happens to North/Hawthorn then
NQ or Darwin, why play games there otherwise?
Sydney 3, be it Northern Beaches or Souther Suburbs

 

[thegreig]

WA3, notionally Northern Suburbs of Perth.
Tassie, Pick Hobart of Lonny, not try to be everything to everybody. Not sure what happens to North/Hawthorn then
NQ or Darwin, why play games there otherwise?
Sydney 3, be it Northern Beaches or Souther Suburbs

Realistically how much support would a third WA team get? It sounds good in theory but it should have been done 20 years ago, would any WC or Freo fans switch allegiance? Surely there's not enough neutral support

 

[madmug]

Realistically how much support would a third WA team get? It sounds good in theory but it should have been done 20 years ago, would any WC or Freo fans switch allegiance? Surely there's not enough neutral support

Yes it probably should have. But the AFL has little interest outside of Port Phillip bay & it new feeding grounds north of the Murray. They provide TV market size for the media rights monies & potential draft picks for the AFL meat market.

 

[rippersnipper]

some more teams in the west and north would be good in terms of distributing things out a little bit.

NT Crocodiles
Perth Pirates
Canberra Politicians
Tasmania Thylacines

That makes things a bit easier on the two WA clubs in terms of travel.
NT can split between the Alice and Darwin; Tassie between Hobart and Launie.
Canberra can play a game or two around southern NSW i.e wagga wagga, albury etc. just to give the locals something new and cool. GWS to then focus on Western Sydney full time.

 

[Johnny Dalmas]

Realistically how much support would a third WA team get? It sounds good in theory but it should have been done 20 years ago, would any WC or Freo fans switch allegiance? Surely there's not enough neutral support

Late to the party but ... yes I think there is plenty of potential support for WA#3.

I know in Vic there is a lot of inter-generational support for clubs (I barrack for the Hawks because Dad did, because Grandad did, because his uncle played in the 2s back in the 1940s, etc)

I'm old enough to remember the same thing over here back in the 1970s and 1980s. But the expansion of the AFL killed that "old" WA tribal footy culture -- I'm not whinging about it, just stating it as a fact. There were lots of people who swapped between WCE and Freo when Freo came in in 1995. And there are lots of people who now just "support the WA clubs".

And today, both WCE and Freo are very much TV experiences for lots of WA footy fans. Because of the relatively small size of Subi and, consequently, the relatively high price of tickets (especially for how shitty the overall experience was), there is a whole bunch of people who have just got out of the habit of going to the footy.

I think we can see this at Optus Stadium where the government made the clubs sent aside tickets for General Admission and most games non-members aren't taking up those GA tickets. For many WCE and Freo fans that whole idea of just rocking up to the footy with a few mates has been lost.

Both the clubs also have their training bases south of the river and for the nearly 1 million Perth people in the northern suburbs there is seriously no physical or community AFL presence in their suburbs.

So put WA#3 in the northern suburbs (say Joondalup) build their marketing around the community (cheaper memberships and lots of player accessibility through open training etc), have a licensed social club, market GA tickets to "casual" fans, etc and I think it could build a sustainable level of support.

I certainly think WA#3 could end up with a higher average attendance than, say, Vic#10 (North or Saints?) or Tassie. (Not saying that any of those teams shouldn't exist).

 

[madmug]

Late to the party but ... yes I think there is plenty of potential support for WA#3.

I know in Vic there is a lot of inter-generational support for clubs (I barrack for the Hawks because Dad did, because Grandad did, because his uncle played in the 2s back in the 1940s, etc)

I'm old enough to remember the same thing over here back in the 1970s and 1980s. But the expansion of the AFL killed that "old" WA tribal footy culture -- I'm not whinging about it, just stating it as a fact. There were lots of people who swapped between WCE and Freo when Freo came in in 1995. And there are lots of people who now just "support the WA clubs".

And today, both WCE and Freo are very much TV experiences for lots of WA footy fans. Because of the relatively small size of Subi and, consequently, the relatively high price of tickets (especially for how shitty the overall experience was), there is a whole bunch of people who have just got out of the habit of going to the footy.

I think we can see this at Optus Stadium where the government made the clubs sent aside tickets for General Admission and most games non-members aren't taking up those GA tickets. For many WCE and Freo fans that whole idea of just rocking up to the footy with a few mates has been lost.

Both the clubs also have their training bases south of the river and for the nearly 1 million Perth people in the northern suburbs there is seriously no physical or community AFL presence in their suburbs.

So put WA#3 in the northern suburbs (say Joondalup) build their marketing around the community (cheaper memberships and lots of player accessibility through open training etc), have a licensed social club, market GA tickets to "casual" fans, etc and I think it could build a sustainable level of support.

I certainly think WA#3 could end up with a higher average attendance than, say, Vic#10 (North or Saints?) or Tassie. (Not saying that any of those teams shouldn't exist).

Of course its not all about just numbers. Its about overall incomes & costs of running a team.

Getting 20k at the G or Etihad, (or it seems at Any Qld stadium) would lose quite a deal of money. I'm not sure about the new Perth stadium, but a new club may have a good opportunity given the new Stadium. I would think given the recent history of access to football in WA that a new club might well pick up on some of the latent support that had not been serviced for quite some time.

So a WA3 may have a good opportunity if the AFL weren't so preoccupied making deals in Melbourne. Tas1 likewise would be a low cost opportunity. At least compared to 'other' places, stadium deals would most definitely be favourable to a local team.

So crowd numbers are but a part of the revenue structure of any club. As are the cost structures. Having big crowds & low costs is the aim. Its not always achievable. Thus its the balance of the two which is important.

WA3 & Tas1

 

[Simon_Nesbit]

On ability to survive and flourish with little AFL contribution - WA3, SA3
On potential Market $$$ - Qld3, NSW3
On "National Game" - Tas, NT

So I'll go with WA3, NSW3, Tas and NT.

Similar to another poster, 22 teams, 21 match season alternating home and away. 11 games a week.

 

[madmug]

On ability to survive and flourish with little AFL contribution - WA3, SA3
On potential Market $$$ - Qld3, NSW3
On "National Game" - Tas, NT

So I'll go with WA3, NSW3, Tas and NT.

Similar to another poster, 22 teams, 21 match season alternating home and away. 11 games a week.

I cant see Qld3 anytime this century. I think NSW3 is also well off the pace. Its costing a fortune now for GWS. A third team would add SFA if anything at all to crowds or TV revenues, yet cost a cool $40mil+ out of the AFL's pocket.

 

[parano1a]

On ability to survive and flourish with little AFL contribution - WA3, SA3

Port are still receiving financial handouts from the AFL. I don't see SA getting a 3rd side anytime soon.

 

[thegreig]

Port are still receiving financial handouts from the AFL. I don't see SA getting a 3rd side anytime soon.

I think SA works perfectly with two teams

 

[Simon_Nesbit]

Port are still receiving financial handouts from the AFL. I don't see SA getting a 3rd side anytime soon.

So do most clubs - in Vic I believe it is only Hawthorn and Collingwood that don't receive some form of support.

For the purpose of the OP, I think WA3, NSW3, Tas and NT would be best.

 

[NYRB]

I dug this thread from the archive but I'd go (in order):

1. Tasmania
2. 3rd WA team (Joondalup could work or a team closer to the city)
3. Canberra
4. I'd love to see an international team like Auckland/Shanghai/Singapore in

 

[Our Game]

Standard of competition has already dropped. Imagine having four more teams...

Yep NO more new teams for at least 20 years!
The player pool is already being stretched with the standard of play dropping so we dont need any new teams.
Better off getting rid of or relocating some of the poor performing Melbourne teams who wont be viable at some stage in the future.

 

[madmug]

Yep NO more new teams for at least 20 years!
The player pool is already being stretched with the standard of play dropping so we dont need any new teams.
Better off getting rid of or relocating some of the poor performing Melbourne teams who wont be viable at some stage in the future.

Well this is the problem. Too many teams in one place. The new NSW & Qld teams should have come from the existing teams, like in Brisbane & Sydney. Thus expansion into WA & anywhere else, like ACT, Tas, would be far more easily done.

 

[Colonial]

Well this is the problem. Too many teams in one place. The new NSW & Qld teams should have come from the existing teams, like in Brisbane & Sydney. Thus expansion into WA & anywhere else, like ACT, Tas, would be far more easily done.

Nah.

We already had 1 transplant team.

You guys can take one now.

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

 

[kid_a]

2028:
Tasmania
Canberra
2033:
New Zealand
Northern Territory

 

[Madtiger2006]

Not enough talent for 18 teams let alone 22. Remove aflx and jlt. Remove 2 teams. Remove finals. Play 30 games. Merge North with Footscray and St Kilda with Melbourne

 

[mike123]

Move to 20 teams and 28 games a year and have conferences. Victoria and the rest. Play every treat in your conference twice and every team in the other conference once.

And for finals have a top 5 in each conference.

 

[jmac91]

3rd Perth
Canberra
Nth QLD/ Cairns
Northern Territory

No Tassie team because north will likely relocate/ play most of their home games their.
Would think the Bulldogs will play more games in West Victoria.

 

[BulldogJake]

- Tasmania (based in Hobart, play shows games out of Hobart & Launceston)

- WA3 (Either based in Joondalup or Mandurah)

- North Queensland (Based in Cairns, also play some games in Townsville)

- Newcastle/Northern NSW (Based in Newcastle)

I think NZ could be brought in with a possible re-location of a team and be based in Auckland.

 

[Godzke]

Tassie
Canberra
WA3
NT

Probably need to run a conference set up with 22 teams

AFL
WA: 3
NT: 1
SA: 2
QLD: 2
ACT/NSW: 3

VFL
VIC: 10
TAS: 1

2 x 10 H&A matches over 22 rounds
Top 4 qualify for finals
QF1 - AFL#1 vs VFL#4
QF2 - AFL#2 vs VFL#3
QF3 - AFL#3 vs VFL#2
QF4 - AFL#4 vs VFL#1

SF1 - QF1 vs QF3
SF2 - QF2 vs QF4

prefer not changing the way it is
if two teams come in, then two need to go out

 

[Demonic Ascent]

Fitzroy
South Melbourne
Tasmania
Perth

 

[LightTower4]

South Melbourne
Fitzroy
Port Melbourne
Williamstown


But seriously.... maybe

Tasmania
Perth
ACT
Norwood or Gosford or Newcastle


I can also see some Melbourne teams having a relocation or partial relocation to places like Ballarat & Bendigo. Especially suited to if and when that fast train is up and running. Probably in August 2085. Bookmark it.