Canberra ?

[Pessimistic]

Now the Kangas seem to be cooling on canberra do you think the hawks should look into it ? We have been successful in Tassie and would have good support in canberra also.

To test the water we could offer to play an 'away' game against the roos to judge support.

If the ansett cup was abandoned and extra rounds added they could paly one or two home games up there (as well as tassie)

So long as there were 15-16 games in melbourne I don't think hawks fans here would be too unhappy. I know I don't usually attend more than that each year.

 

[Rusty Brookes]

Tough call, Pess. My gut feeling is that Canberra is a bit of a dead loss in terms of AFL establishing a foothold. The recent experiments by other clubs have not gone well. Canberra doesn't have much of a football culture and I don't know if this is likely to change.

Tasmania on other hand has a rich football history. Furthermore Hawthorn has some pretty strong ties with Tasmania: Hudson, Eade, Rawlings, Pritchard et al come to mind. I think the Tasmanian public are more responsive to football (it is one of the four traditional football states) than the Canberra public would ever be. I'd like to see some hard numbers (thanks to Dan25 now I want stats!) on the viability of playing in Canberra before even considering playing a game there.

 

[Pessimistic]

I do agree but the same happened in tassie. Other clubs had no support there but the hawks got a big crowd every time. I just wondered ifthe hawks would be the same in canberra. All we would need to do is play an away game againt the kangaroos to guage the level of support there might be.

But as I think I remember we played an ansett cup game there once, or at least a team called hawthorn in blue shirts with brown and gold diamonds on it did...

 

[CURVE]

Canberra was a AFL city before the Raiders and Brumbies arrived and still has a large loyal AFL following, but as most Canberrans are ex-pat Victorians (explains our driving), most support a Melbourne team.
Hawthorn have their share of supporters in Canberra, but would probably come up against the same problems North faced. How do you get a one of the top Melbourne clubs to play up here. We had an opportunity in the last round, and the game was actually a sell out, but because neither team could make the play off, a lot of Canberrans didn't show.
Also if North do decide to give up on Canberra, and that's not a dead cert yet, then I'd doubt you'd see the ACT Government willing to support another clubs push. Not only have we had a change of Government since the deal was put forward, but the new Labour Government has stated it will not spend money on experiments with no guaranteed profit for the city, whether monetary, or the permanent move of a football club.

 

[JohnD]

Originally posted by Pessimistic
Now the Kangas seem to be cooling on canberra do you think the hawks should look into it ? We have been successful in Tassie and would have good support in canberra also.

Look into it by all means but I'm tipping that the Roos have struck unexpected (?) problems up here. It seems that the NRL and the ARU have managed to compromise with their resepective draws to avoid the Raiders and the Brumbies playing at home on the same weekend. There would be a few reasons for this move including trying to sure-up the region for their respective codes by seeing off the perceived threat from AFL.

Brumbies are likely to attract around 20000 per game in 2002 and the Raiders around 10000. They are not huge numbers as it stands and the Cosmos (Soccer team) found that there was not a whole lot left in the way of crowds to support a third national level side.

I believe that the attraction for the Roos was that the ground rental deals they had stiched-up here in the ACT meant that even with a dismal crowd (by Melbourne standards) they still made money on the gate. Something they quite often fail to achive in Melbourne.

IMHO, any move into the ACT by the Hawks would be counter-productive. As much as I'd love to see them play here regularly, somehow I can't see it happening.

John

 

[Pessimistic]

Actully I'd like to take those games against interstate teams (which fail to make a profit at colonial or the MCG) to a brand new 'development' area. It's melbourne's newest suburb and there's a company willing to invest in club facilities there, but only as a training ground. We'd only need about 20,000 seats

 

[Simon_Nesbit]

Pessimistic, I think your even more brilliant than your evil twin!

(Optimistic)

 

[The Hitman]

Launceston may be our domain. Leave it at that, and let the Roo's pissfart around up there.

The Hitman

 

[goatmaster]

Originally posted by Simon_Nesbit
Pessimistic, I think your even more brilliant than your evil twin!

(Optimistic)

There's a 3rd child too. Realistic.
Love your work Pess

 

[vanders]

Nah man