List Mgmt. AFL: time to move the GWS franchise to Tasmania

Triple Baileys

Club Legend
Jan 7, 2019
1,489
1,647
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
They couldn't even find 10,000 supporters to pay to attend their home final. It's a dud. The AFL has scewed the competition for years with this dumber than stupid venture. So stupid, Gillon, but you are just a dim wit with an expensive hairstyle and a tailored italian suit. And we poor mugs are paying for it and for you to ruin our great game and cultural heritage.

Meanwhile, the AFL slowly buries a traditional home of Aussie Rules Football and even more so by insulting the locals to change allegiances for foreigners every time they come up with a new subsidised Victorian team package.

You understand? "Oh yeah, I'm a native of Hobart and because I follow aussie rules I barrack for Hawthorn because the AFL subsidises its games there, no wait, now its North Melbourne, no it's Hawthorn again...Saints anyone?.... Actually, I just want my own team, not Vic clubs looking for a TV revenue boost."

The stupid, it burns.
 

Mattdougie

Cancelled
10k Posts
Jun 29, 2013
19,344
19,584
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Nah I can’t wait to see when they are no good and they won’t get 1000 people to their games.
 
Sorry to spoil a fine burst of vitriol but the AFL needs a second club in Sydney more than it needs anything in Tasmania.

The TV rights depend on it. The networks require a strong Sydney presence so that they can get more advertising revenue. Sydney cannot end up as a one-team town.

The marketing appeal bumps up what networks are willing to pay the AFL. That in turn helps sustain every club in the AFL, including ours.

So we're stuck with GWS. All we can hope for is equitable treatment for all clubs. Unfortunately that's still a long way off. It will probably never happen.

Business comes first for the AFL. Always.
 

Triple Baileys

Club Legend
Jan 7, 2019
1,489
1,647
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Nah I can’t wait to see when they are no good and they won’t get 1000 people to their games.

You will be waiting a long time. They will be given our picks and priority access to our players if they start to slide. It's the only way a made-up team in rugby league heartland will continue.
 

Triple Baileys

Club Legend
Jan 7, 2019
1,489
1,647
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Sorry to spoil a fine burst of vitriol but the AFL needs a second club in Sydney more than it needs anything in Tasmania.

The TV rights depend on it. The networks require a strong Sydney presence so that they can get more advertising revenue. Sydney cannot end up as a one-team town.

The marketing appeal bumps up what networks are willing to pay the AFL. That in turn helps sustain every club in the AFL, including ours.

So we're stuck with GWS. All we can hope for is equitable treatment for all clubs. Unfortunately that's still a long way off. It will probably never happen.

Business comes first for the AFL. Always.

You assume that people watch it in Sydney, especially people who would not also watch it if it were in Tassie.

The people watching GWS on TV live in Victoria and support the teams they play against. I'd go with Tassie, you would add a real home base to the mix.
 

Mattdougie

Cancelled
10k Posts
Jun 29, 2013
19,344
19,584
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
You will be waiting a long time. They will be given our picks and priority access to our players if they start to slide. It's the only way a made-up team in rugby league heartland will continue.

5 years and they will be basically gone
For crowd support

They won’t die coz the afl needs the Sydney presence but they will fall and it will be fantastic
 

Triple Baileys

Club Legend
Jan 7, 2019
1,489
1,647
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
5 years and they will be basically gone
For crowd support

They won’t die coz the afl needs the Sydney presence but they will fall and it will be fantastic

Hope you are right but logically the AFL won't let it get to that.
 
You assume that people watch it in Sydney, especially people who would not also watch it if it were in Tassie.

The people watching GWS on TV live in Victoria and support the teams they play against. I'd go with Tassie, you would add a real home base to the mix.
Do the numbers: 7.5m people in NSW. 0.5m in Tasmania. I know Tasmanians have more interest in footy but any marketing exec would tell you where to plonk your first and biggest investment out of those two.

Unfortunately it's not just about a presence in Sydney, it's also about success there, which is why they are the golden child. When (not if) GWS wins its first flag the membership will grow. They'll have more members than us in 15 years. Maybe even in 5-10 years.

Don't get me wrong. Tassy deserves its own team and one day the AFL might even accede to that but it would only be so it can call it a truly national comp. While I'd love GWS to fold and relocate to Hobart it's just not going to happen.
 
Dec 29, 2009
8,165
9,483
Hobart
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
More likely Gold Coast fold and became a Tasmanian team than gws.

However, and I’m from Tasmania, the state of our football is a joke because of the management side of things and having the same people managing an afl team would be a disaster. Afltas has ruined football in the state. Even the stuff that went on behind the scenes with the devils nab league team was disgraceful
 
Good luck with that. For the same reason that the AFL will continue to prop up the Gold Coast Suns, they will not cede an entire weekend over to their opposition sports in each of those states. It may be something that the rinky dink NRL can live with but the AFL are not interested in being niche players in any market and are ruthlessly intent on dominating the sporting landscape and media cycle all over this country. One only needs to look at how much they have encroached into the domain of traditional Autumn and Summer sports with their cynical spreading out of events such as trade week(s) the draft and the pre-season competition for further proof of this.

The AFL are in this for the long haul and the idea that there wouldn't be second side in Australia's largest state is fanciful. Get used to seeing GWS they arent going anywhere.
 
Last edited:
Sorry to spoil a fine burst of vitriol but the AFL needs a second club in Sydney more than it needs anything in Tasmania.

The TV rights depend on it. The networks require a strong Sydney presence so that they can get more advertising revenue. Sydney cannot end up as a one-team town.
The 9th game each week generates over $60m pa just in TV rights revenue, no way that continues without a second club in Sydney.

GWS has to remain in Sydney to fight off NRL.
 

Libba39

Norm Smith Medallist
Mar 10, 2008
5,843
7,040
Murrumbeena
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Do the numbers: 7.5m people in NSW. 0.5m in Tasmania. I know Tasmanians have more interest in footy but any marketing exec would tell you where to plonk your first and biggest investment out of those two.

Unfortunately it's not just about a presence in Sydney, it's also about success there, which is why they are the golden child. When (not if) GWS wins its first flag the membership will grow. They'll have more members than us in 15 years. Maybe even in 5-10 years.

Don't get me wrong. Tassy deserves its own team and one day the AFL might even accede to that but it would only be so it can call it a truly national comp. While I'd love GWS to fold and relocate to Hobart it's just not going to happen.

So true.

Tassie's population has been steady or possibly declining (at least until recently). Its also very much a state of high unemployment and welfare.

On top of this the team will need to be split between north and south which is not ideal.

I think they'll get there eventually but also believe that GWS is sustainable in the long run, possibly more so than soul-less Gold Coast.
 
May 27, 2002
2,653
2,165
Torquay
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Other Teams
Bulldogs
GWS Giants was marketed all wrong from the start.

GWS is a rubbish name. Giants is a rubbish name. The big white G on the jumper is stupid.

I would start over with a new name. I would keep the orange yet thats it, be known for the orange, just like Holland in the world cup soccer, one of the most famous national kits. The rest they can start over, hasn't resonated.
 

Mr. Walker

Premiership Player
Apr 15, 2002
4,225
4,678
PO Box. 7 Powelltown
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Do the numbers: 7.5m people in NSW. 0.5m in Tasmania. I know Tasmanians have more interest in footy but any marketing exec would tell you where to plonk your first and biggest investment out of those two.

Unfortunately it's not just about a presence in Sydney, it's also about success there, which is why they are the golden child. When (not if) GWS wins its first flag the membership will grow. They'll have more members than us in 15 years. Maybe even in 5-10 years.

Don't get me wrong. Tassy deserves its own team and one day the AFL might even accede to that but it would only be so it can call it a truly national comp. While I'd love GWS to fold and relocate to Hobart it's just not going to happen.

Spot on. I hate to say it but a huge part ( but not the only part) of our recent debt free existence is down to the river of gold that is TV rights. The only thing the AFL loves is money so the maintenance of the cash cow will be paramount and a second team is Sydney a necessity. We benefit substantially from that.
 

Triple Baileys

Club Legend
Jan 7, 2019
1,489
1,647
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
I see there are a few replies telling me that even though they can't get 10,000 supporters into a home semi-final when they are giving the tickets away, there's millions watching the game in Sydney, who wouldn't be watching the Tassie game.

Yeah, sure, guys.

Did you know that if you say the word "gullible" really, really slowly it sounds like the word "orange." Try it.
 
I see there are a few replies telling me that even though they can't get 10,000 supporters into a home semi-final when they are giving the tickets away, there's millions watching the game in Sydney, who wouldn't be watching the Tassie game.

Yeah, sure, guys.

Did you know that if you say the word "gullible" really, really slowly it sounds like the word "orange." Try it.
You're thinking only of the now. The AFL is playing a much longer game than that (and yet as Mofra pointed out it's starting to pay significant financial dividends already).
 

Triple Baileys

Club Legend
Jan 7, 2019
1,489
1,647
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
You're thinking only of the now. The AFL is playing a much longer game than that (and yet as Mofra pointed out it's starting to pay significant financial dividends already).

As Napoleon and Hitler couldn't take Moscow, I don't think a pea-brain like McLachlan is going to take Western Sydney. Long or short term. The AFL has its niche Sydney team at the SCG. It's followers are the eastern suburbs bourgeois Union supporters. The support base won't stretch any further. How can anyone say it is starting to pay significant financial dividends when they can't even get 10,000 to attend their most important game of the year and the tickets were being given away. That being the case, if there is anyone watching AFL on TV in Western Sydney, they wouldn't give a * if it was Tassie Maps or the GWS Tooly Birds they were watching - there is no commitment at all, you are kidding yourself if you maintain otherwise.
 
Back