Expansion Joondalup Falcons in the AFL?

[LittleG]

Tassie wants a team, which will have to be underwritten and will cost the AFL a lot of money. This gives us 19 teams which isn’t convenient for a fixture.
So, why not allow applications for another team to join at the same time?

Enter the Falcons (doesn’t have to be falcons or even in Joondalup, just an idea)…. They won’t need underwriting by the AFL, it’s a huge growth area and WA people love football.

The fixture can then move to each team playing each other once and rotate the home/away aspect each year.

Do WA people want another team?

 

[RUNVS]

20 teams is really to many for the talent pool but if there had to be another tram Perth seems like the most logical place.

 

[LittleG]

20 teams is really to many for the talent pool but if there had to be another tram Perth seems like the most logical place.

Talent pool is getting low. But IF we are going to add 19, may as well add 20 and Perth has to be the place. I am not sure why the WA Football Commission isn’t all over this idea already.

 

[Joose]

20 teams is really to many for the talent pool but if there had to be another tram Perth seems like the most logical place.

I prefer the Balga Bogons

 

[Brad Goodman]

Would it need to be in Perth or could somewhere like Bunbury have a team. I guess infrastructure would be the issue.

 

[Power Raid]

I prefer the Balga Bogons

If we want to go bogan we have to go big......expand the Balga Bogans to the KGB!

Koondoola, Balga and Girrawheen

 

[Power Raid]

Would it need to be in Perth or could somewhere like Bunbury have a team. I guess infrastructure would be the issue.

Bunbury and Busselton might be an option in 20 years


I'd prefer Canberra to get the 20th position if a Vic team doesn't relocate to create Tassie

 

[Astro35]

If we want to go bogan we have to go big......expand the Balga Bogans to the KGB!

Koondoola, Balga and Girrawheen

Come for the footy, leave with 3 wheels on your car

 

[Brad Goodman]

Bunbury and Busselton might be an option in 20 years


I'd prefer Canberra to get the 20th position if a Vic team doesn't relocate to create Tassie

Ripper part of the world, Perth is nice but if there was a team a stone's throw from Margaret River I'd fly over a couple times a year.

 

[Canberra Pear]

A third Perth team wouldn't be the instant success everybody thinks and it'd really prevent Freo from being the big club they could be.

Coming into an already established market was tricky for Freo and would be even trickier for a third team. West Coast has 106k members, Freo only has 50k. A third team would struggle to get 30k. It took a long time for Freo to build that following as well. It'd be a long-term commitment before a third team became successful.

If you're going with a 20th club, might as well plant a flag in a new market like Canberra

 

[Le Grille]

If we want to go bogan we have to go big......expand the Balga Bogans to the KGB!

Koondoola, Balga and Girrawheen

The KGB Komrades?

 

[JackOutback]

Think a third team in the city would really struggle to attract fans and thrive. Would prefer Bunbury or the South-West, but may not have the population to justify it. Otherwise, Canberra would be a good option.

 

[El_Scorcho]

I agree that Perth is probably the best place for a 20th team to go with Tasmania's 19th. Rich, footy mad state that has had excellent population growth.

I completely disagree that the talent pool is too small. If we added 2 more teams and got to 20, we'd have more Australians per AFL team now than we did in 2012 when GWS came in. We'd also have way more Australians per AFL team than we had in 1995 when we got to 16 teams.

The development pathways are also better than they ever have been and will continue to improve. 20 teams is fine.

 

[____]

How many people would actually ditch their current teams to support a third WA team?

Team number 20 should either be Canberra or NT

 

[Underdog]

I'd probably aim for an Eastern team with a view to capturing everything north east or south east of the CBD. Still growth corridors but more working and middle class. I'd seriously consider jumping.

On SM-G991B using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Cotchins Hair Piece]

The Mandurah Meth-heads.

 

[kranger]

There is a thread with over 1,000 posts on this topic, in the Footy Industry board:

“3rd Western Australian club”

Expansion - 3rd Western Australian club

Perth population ~ 2,100,000 @ +2.5% P.A. Having three WA teams would result in a population share of 700k per team in 2015 (600k per Vic team). Doubling up games with Fremantle and West Coast would save one of the existing clubs up to 4 flights to and from eastern states each year. Looking...

www.bigfooty.com

It’s a good read. I think it came to the conclusion of… no 3rd WA team.

 

[Goosecat]

In 2015 Freo membership hit 51k whilst the Eagles hit 60k. Six years later the Freo membership number still sits at 51k whilst the Eagles have soared to over 106k. It's a massive divergence.
There is no room for a third WA side IMHO until Freo really builds a better base of success and theoretically a corresponding base of support. Aside from that the AFL has the sporting market basically monopolised in this state already. There is literally no competition; no league, no rugby, a single tiny soccer outfit and another single tiny basketball outfit. The AFL simply doesn't need to invest in a third WA team period and wont for a bloody long time.

 

[PetterdHoisted]

In 2015 Freo membership hit 51k whilst the Eagles hit 60k. Six years later the Freo membership number still sits at 51k whilst the Eagles have soared to over 106k. It's a massive divergence.
There is no room for a third WA side IMHO until Freo really builds a better base of success and theoretically a corresponding base of support. Aside from that the AFL has the sporting market basically monopolised in this state already. There is literally no competition; no league, no rugby, a single tiny soccer outfit and another single tiny basketball outfit. The AFL simply doesn't need to invest in a third WA team period and wont for a bloody long time.

is that a fair comparison? Wasn't Freo diving out of flag contention and WCE surprised to the upside and moved into a window of contention?

 

[pablo668]

Merge West Perth/Joondalup and Subiaco (damn that'd be hilarious), to make the 3rd WA AFL team....

 

[RUNVS]

How many people would actually ditch their current teams to support a third WA team?

Team number 20 should either be Canberra or NT

Perth is growing way faster than both Canberra and NT combined.

Also you just need a small percentage of people to think about how they can't get seats at West Coast and Fremantle games and how they could get seats at this new teams games for this new team to begin developing a following.

 

[Goosecat]

is that a fair comparison? Wasn't Freo diving out of flag contention and WCE surprised to the upside and moved into a window of contention?

The circumstances really don't matter. They are the realities. You can argue Freo success would change all those figures for sure, but that just rams home the point actually. Until they have a level of real success with multiple challenges for a flag and preferably winning one, the AFL does not want to risk adding a third side.

 

[estibador]

Also you just need a small percentage of people to think about how they can't get seats at West Coast and Fremantle games and how they could get seats at this new teams games for this new team to begin developing a following.

Plenty of seats available at our games lately, unfortunately.

 

[Falconista]

Tassie wants a team, which will have to be underwritten and will cost the AFL a lot of money. This gives us 19 teams which isn’t convenient for a fixture.
So, why not allow applications for another team to join at the same time?

Enter the Falcons (doesn’t have to be falcons or even in Joondalup, just an idea)…. They won’t need underwriting by the AFL, it’s a huge growth area and WA people love football.

The fixture can then move to each team playing each other once and rotate the home/away aspect each year.

Do WA people want another team?

Nup.
People are far too rusted on to their teams over here. Maybe a tiny fraction of Freo fans but virtually no Eagles fan will transfer over. Where would they play- if Optus it pretty much guarantees the crap Sunday slot weekly into WA every second week. Also, there really is no geography or longstanding history to the WA AFL teams anyway. Freo's fans are not just East/South Freo supporters and West Coast's aren't just coastal populations. Also, like many states, grass roots Aussie Rules is not that flash in many parts of the state.
Two teams in each expansion state works nicely currently.

 

[JackOutback]

Plenty of seats available at our games lately, unfortunately.

Was going to make a similar point; I can’t get into many WC games but that doesn’t translate into attending Freo games when seats are available. Mind you, prices here are just too much for both clubs. I did go to the Dreamtime game because it was relatively cheap and piqued my interest. Maybe if a new club was selling tix for $20 there’d be some interest.