TAS relocation rumours?

[incubi]

Back on topic, suggestions tasmania is an option for a relocated team are silly, if tasmania were to get a team it should be a new team. Why would a tasmanian carlton supporter drop his team for some fake relocated club? far more likely to drop his team for a organically tasmanian grown, purely tasmanian club ran by tasmanians which actually represents the people of that fine state.

 

[Papa G]

Port Adelaide???

Port won't relocate. We may cease to exist in the AFL and the SANFL sell the licence (if this can be done) or start up some other gay franchise team (good luck with that), but Port will not relocate. It just wouldn't work. Only a Melbourne team could possibly relocate to Tasmania with the theory being that some of the old supporters stay on and go to their 6 or 7 away games in Melbourne and make the home teams crowds look better, the way the Swans and Lions do. If there is to be a relocation, logic says North would be first cab off the rank, despite the new facilities, despite the surge in membership numbers they will get when the supporters of the 90's grow pubes, despite striking gold at Ballarat or whatever crazy justification for permancy in Melbourne they want to use.

 

[Tas]

Wow, alot of defensiveness and paranoia from the two Melbourne clubs most under threat (North & Doggies)...

Tassie deserves a team, and I'd love to see one there...and to maximise support and sponsorship I'd be playing home games in Hobart AND Launceston...

Frankly I can't see North surviving for too much longer...they had their chance to go to QLD and refused...which signed their own death warrant.

Perhaps people are defensive and paranoid because people like you post rubbish like this?

 

[FootyJunkie]

got to be Hawthorn
play 9 home games in Launceston, 3 home games in Melbourne
home finals in Melbourne

 

[Gak Attack]

As a Tasmanian I would support a relocated team or a new team. However I would still be a Richmond fan at heart... I just can't see that I would change. I would buy a membership to a Tassie team and watch games and cheer for them... except when they play Richmond There would be a fair few like me i'm sure.

As for the question about where games should be played here. Both grounds seems to make the most sense. While your Hobart only argument will claim the fact it is 100,000 people bigger... Launceston also has the North West close which obviously has the next two biggest cities in Burnie and Devonport. If games were only in Hobart I can't see people from Burnie driving 3 and a half hours to Hobart to watch games when they could pay around $100 return to fly over to Melbourne in 45 minutes to watch some. The problem using both is obviously the risk of the North fans not bothering to go to the Hobart games and the South not coming up to the Launceston games.

 

[Tas]

Port won't relocate. We may cease to exist in the AFL and the SANFL sell the licence (if this can be done) or start up some other gay franchise team (good luck with that), but Port will not relocate. It just wouldn't work. Only a Melbourne team could possibly relocate to Tasmania with the theory being that some of the old supporters stay on and go to their 6 or 7 away games in Melbourne and make the home teams crowds look better, the way the Swans and Lions do. If there is to be a relocation, logic says North would be first cab off the rank, despite the new facilities, despite the surge in membership numbers they will get when the supporters of the 90's grow pubes, despite striking gold at Ballarat or whatever crazy justification for permancy in Melbourne they want to use.

Relocation is often little better than ceasing to exist and the franchise sold off.

As I said before, we would be a prime candidate for being pushed under the bus, but the window is going to be in the 5-10 years time mark from now. It is not who is wobbly now, but who is wobbly in that period of time.

I believe on-field we be a lot stronger in 5 years time than we are now, even if just band wagon jumpers get on board for the short-term.

When you look at Hawthorn, Bulldogs and St Kilda, their membership levels when they were struggling on-field weren't a long way ahead of where we are atm.

These clubs are up now, but in 5-10 years? Other than top 4 clubs in Melbourne and Geelong, I don't think anyone is "safe" irrespective if things look okay now. That includes us.

But, within this period of time I think we will be playing regular games in Ballarat and I think it is likely going to be in the period where most of our 18-23 year olds currently will be around their prime so think we will be doing okay on-field as well, which definitely helps hiding the cracks with the additional bandwagon support.

As I said, you don't want to be looking wobbly in the window when they are looking for someone to throw under the bus.

 

[Tas]

As a Tasmanian I would support a relocated team or a new team. However I would still be a Richmond fan at heart... I just can't see that I would change. I would buy a membership to a Tassie team and watch games and cheer for them... except when they play Richmond There would be a fair few like me i'm sure.

As for the question about where games should be played here. Both grounds seems to make the most sense. While your Hobart only argument will claim the fact it is 100,000 people bigger... Launceston also has the North West close which obviously has the next two biggest cities in Burnie and Devonport. If games were only in Hobart I can't see people from Burnie driving 3 and a half hours to Hobart to watch games when they could pay around $100 return to fly over to Melbourne in 45 minutes to watch some. The problem using both is obviously the risk of the North fans not bothering to go to the Hobart games and the South not coming up to the Launceston games.

With new teams it is a generational change process. You will find a lot of people that live on the Gold Coast will support GWS but will not abandon their love for whatever club they adopted. But, future generations will likely bond with whatever club is there, however it got there.

The question is do the people of Tasmania want a club in the short-term or one in the long-term. I don't think they will get their own brand new club for a very long time, probably until NT is ready for a team and that wont be for a very long time.

The only realistic shorter-term option is a relocation.

 

[DragonLass]

Really the only victorian teams that you could say would 100% not relocate are Collingwood & Geelong.
Carlton, Essendon & Melbourne would be highly unlikely.
The rest are all possible. It wouldn't neccessarily have to be a club that is completely struggling financially, but could see themselves in a BETTER financial position if they moved. Footy is just a business like any other now, the club would assess how many members they think they would keep if they moved, forecast how many new members they think they would get, add up the money they would get from the AFL, tas govt, sponsors etc and see if it worked out.

 

[JiggaDog]

Like it or not the afl will push for north Melbourne to tassie.

Western bulldogs will be pushed to NT.

3rd Perth team I hope doesn't happen it will be the nail in the coffin for the wafl. What I'd prefer to see instead is a second tier comp 2 best sides from each comp is a reserves style comp. Worst two teams are relegated for the best in their state.

Or a conference system where the best two from each comp play against each other for the cup.

Not gonna happen, sorry! The Dogs are the only team representing Melbourne's West and there is no way the AFL will let us die/relocate.

Ex Essendon president??/CEO?? (Jackson??) just recently completed a report for the AFL in which he stated the importance of a strong Bulldogs team to the AFL, especially with the demographic in the region and the threat from soccer/NRL. As a result the Dogs are now likely to receive AFL assistance to further grow their brand in the West and consolidate that region.

Of the "weaker" clubs, the Dogs are just about the safest. And in 20 years or so we WILL be an off-field powerhouse. (Hopefully with some on-field success to back it up )

 

[Pessimistic]

Pess, you really are a hypocrite.

In another thread , you said Jeff Kennett should shut up.

JK has lifted Hawthorns profile by (as you would say) whoreing himself out. You bag him for this (cause you cant tell the difference between football and politics)

Yet , you seem to think it was fine for Eddie to do it and it would be fine for Brayshaw to do it.

I wonder if thats because you aren't/weren't a Liberal voter in Victorian state elections.You may not have liked him as Premier but he has done very well as HFC President

I mentioned to you in the other thread that 'there is a difference between being Premier of the state and being the architech of a stadium'
I'll let you in on another secret (dont tell anyone though) there is a difference between football and politics.

Move on from your hatred of Jeff

I wonder who is raising our profile - Buddy Cyril Hodge or jeff ?

My main point is North is very no-name at the moment - not really gatting up anyones noses - The recent footage of Carey and Archer provided the contrast to me.

PS are you more obsessed with me than I am with Jeff ?

My point about the stadium is that a lot of the melbourne clubs problems are to do with it. it was supposed to be a 'salvation" for many clubs

Enjoy your FTA coverage of saturdays game by the way . None of our tassie games are live FTA and I just noticed the attendances there are markedly down

 

[JiggaDog]

With new teams it is a generational change process. You will find a lot of people that live on the Gold Coast will support GWS but will not abandon their love for whatever club they adopted. But, future generations will likely bond with whatever club is there, however it got there.

The question is do the people of Tasmania want a club in the short-term or one in the long-term. I don't think they will get their own brand new club for a very long time, probably until NT is ready for a team and that wont be for a very long time.

The only realistic shorter-term option is a relocation.

Probably not .... unless they moved to the Gold Coast from the Greater Western Sydney region.

 

[Daniltchenko You Beauty]

Frankly I can't see North surviving for too much longer...they had their chance to go to QLD and refused...which signed their own death warrant.

Free speech is overrated. I'm voting for the Taliban at this year's election. We're going to make a camp in the South Australian desert for people like you.

 

[SweetLeftFoot]

This is an email I got from Eugene Arocca:

Dear SLF,

Thanks for your email. I have forwarded it on to James.

We have not made contact with Tasmania about hosting games – you might find it surprising that 3 other clubs have put their hands up – we haven’t. This is the media beating the same old drum.

We are a lot more inclined to place our faith in initiatives such as the one to be announced today by the State Government – see below link.

http://www.thecourier.com.au/news/l...llarat-to-host-afl-match-by-2013/1857809.aspx

Keep the faith – spread the word and make sure any of your North supporting mates sign up as members and attend matches in Melbourne.

Thank you for your continuing support.

Cheers

Eugene

 

[Tas]

Not gonna happen, sorry! The Dogs are the only team representing Melbourne's West and there is no way the AFL will let us die/relocate.

Ex Essendon president??/CEO?? (Jackson??) just recently completed a report for the AFL in which he stated the importance of a strong Bulldogs team to the AFL, especially with the demographic in the region and the threat from soccer/NRL. As a result the Dogs are now likely to receive AFL assistance to further grow their brand in the West and consolidate that region.

Of the "weaker" clubs, the Dogs are just about the safest. And in 20 years or so we WILL be an off-field powerhouse. (Hopefully with some on-field success to back it up )

How do you represent West Melbourne? You don't play games there, inner suburb representation for centralised stadiums is an archaic way to look at things, there are no zones and supporters don't come from suburban strongholds any longer.

The only western melbourne stronghold is Geelong, who are actively targeting western suburbs of Melbourne and perhaps in the future Ballarat which will host games there.

You represent the western suburbs as much as Collingwood does.

Suburban football is long since dead.

 

[Tas]

Probably not .... unless they moved to the Gold Coast from the Greater Western Sydney region.

lol yeah, meant GC15 or whatever name they have chosen.

 

[SweetLeftFoot]

Port won't relocate. We may cease to exist in the AFL and the SANFL sell the licence (if this can be done) or start up some other gay franchise team (good luck with that), but Port will not relocate. It just wouldn't work. Only a Melbourne team could possibly relocate to Tasmania with the theory being that some of the old supporters stay on and go to their 6 or 7 away games in Melbourne and make the home teams crowds look better, the way the Swans and Lions do. If there is to be a relocation, logic says North would be first cab off the rank, despite the new facilities, despite the surge in membership numbers they will get when the supporters of the 90's grow pubes, despite striking gold at Ballarat or whatever crazy justification for permancy in Melbourne they want to use.

Whose logic? What logic?

 

[SonOfScray]

Suburban football is long since dead.

Agree.

However, the Club runs quite a few programs in the local community ie: Spiritwest services, the new childcare facility, Bulldog Backyard are a few that stand out.

The club has worked hard to keep its foundations in the region strong and plenty of the reports suggest that it has been a successful move by the Club. The articles and reports about the Dogs financial position recently acknowledge this.

Because we have been a shambles for so long, Rose set the task of being the community club, a leader in these areas. I've recently started working out west (Braybrook, Melton and St Albans) and have been impressed by the work the Club has been doing and the access they give to community agencies out here.

Is what we are doing any more special than anyone else? Probably not, any club worth anything is working hard in this arena. North are doing similar on the back of the new facilities. The Club has accepted its role in the west and is doing a great job keeping the club involved in the local community.

 

[JiggaDog]

How do you represent West Melbourne? You don't play games there, inner suburb representation for centralised stadiums is an archaic way to look at things, there are no zones and supporters don't come from suburban strongholds any longer.

The only western melbourne stronghold is Geelong, who are actively targeting western suburbs of Melbourne and perhaps in the future Ballarat which will host games there.

You represent the western suburbs as much as Collingwood does.

Suburban football is long since dead.

Ofcourse we represent the Western Suburbs and to think otherwise would be naive. We do a lot of work with the community and local businesses in the west, and our rebranding (trading as name change) to Western Bulldogs was done specifically to capitalise on growing our brand in the west.

Support in the West for the Bulldogs is at all time high. At Auskick sessions, kids with Bulldogs jumpers are in the majority (close call with Collingwood and Essendon) and anyone that's lived out west for 15+ years would be able to tell you that the Bulldogs are generating a lot of momentum in the region.

FWIW - I think North's push into Ballarat is a good strategy, and it shows how important having a "region" actually is.

And Geelong is not a West Melbourne stronghold. They are their own city with their own suburbs, and while a popular team of choice in Melbourne's true Western suburbs they lag behind the three main teams in that region (Dogs, Pies and Bombers).

 

[Percy Jones]

As a Tasmanian I would support a relocated team or a new team. However I would still be a Richmond fan at heart... I just can't see that I would change. I would buy a membership to a Tassie team and watch games and cheer for them... except when they play Richmond There would be a fair few like me i'm sure.

I would only support a new Tasmania team,not a relocated one ,(unless it was Carlton) and that will never happen while my bum points to the ground.
I would only go to the Tasmanian games in Hobart .The ground is only a ten minute walk from my home.If I lived 50 k's away I would still go.
No way would I ever travel to Launceston to watch a game and I would not support the Tasmanian team when they played Carlton,similar to the above poster who would still support Richmond.

 

[canberra_dee]

not too far fetched actually

The AFL is committed to WSYD. GC 17 and WSYD are essential for the code's future, and there is no way the AFL Commission will let WSYD fail. Vlad has staked the AFL's future on the success of GC 17 and WSYD, and these clubs together with Sydney Swans and Brisbane will remain and survive with the AFL's support, as they are essential to give our code a strong presence in the NSW/Qld market which comprise 55% of the Australian population .

 

[PortBrillance]

Not gonna happen, sorry! The Dogs are the only team representing Melbourne's West and there is no way the AFL will let us die/relocate.

Ex Essendon president??/CEO?? (Jackson??) just recently completed a report for the AFL in which he stated the importance of a strong Bulldogs team to the AFL, especially with the demographic in the region and the threat from soccer/NRL. As a result the Dogs are now likely to receive AFL assistance to further grow their brand in the West and consolidate that region.

Of the "weaker" clubs, the Dogs are just about the safest. And in 20 years or so we WILL be an off-field powerhouse. (Hopefully with some on-field success to back it up )

Port represent the Western Suburbs of Adelaide with about 90%+ supporting us, doesnt mean anything to the AFL. Like that other guy said, Suburbs ect mean nothing these days.

FWIW, I doubt the doggies will leave Melbourne anyway.

 

[Professor Knowall]

After that 3AW interview (refer page 1 of thread), Tim Lane argued strongly for a brand new team, not a relocated one - on the basis that Tasmanians already have strong club allegiences (just like Victorians) so won't necessarily accept a relocated club.

Seems the biggest issue is - where should any such AFL club be located?, Hobart is the bigger city, but apparently as many live within 120 km or so of Launceston, and its a more central location for the whole state.

On top of that, there's intense rivalry between the two cities.

BTW - I repeat, Demetriou seemed bullish about having a Tassie based club "within 10 years", be it brand new or a relocation.

 

[morgoth]

Without relocation do we have a 20th team to balance the draw or go with a bye?

If a 20th team where does it come from?

 

[Rohan25]

It's bizarre that people are assuming North Melbourne will "logically" be the team to relocate anywhere. The AFL badly wanted them to move to the GC, but stopped short of forcing them. North elected to stay and fight it out in Melbourne, and seem to have accomplished quite a lot off field since then.

If the AFL decides to put a team in Tassie, their preference may well be for a relocation, but they will go ahead with their plans for a new team whether any club takes the offer or not. If no club accepts the offer, a new team will be born.

One thing we do know, if North Melbourne knocked back the GC offer, it will take a ridiculous offer to get them to move to Tassie 5 years later.

No team is going to willingly go, and as much as the AFL may favor relocation, they won't force anyone to do so, so as I see it, we are headed for Tas19 in the next decade.

 

[SweetLeftFoot]

It's bizarre that people are assuming North Melbourne will "logically" be the team to relocate anywhere. The AFL badly wanted them to move to the GC, but stopped short of forcing them. North elected to stay and fight it out in Melbourne, and seem to have accomplished quite a lot off field since then.

If the AFL decides to put a team in Tassie, their preference may well be for a relocation, but they will go ahead with their plans for a new team whether any club takes the offer or not. If no club accepts the offer, a new team will be born.

One thing we do know, if North Melbourne knocked back the GC offer, it will take a ridiculous offer to get them to move to Tassie 5 years later.

No team is going to willingly go, and as much as the AFL may favor relocation, they won't force anyone to do so, so as I see it, we are headed for Tas19 in the next decade.

Good post. I believe Demetriou said that 18 teams was the max the league wanted, so if the AFL does want a Tassie side and Tassie will only accept their own home grown one, that would tend to indicate that an existing side has to go - unless of course Perth continues to grow to the point where a third WA side is viable.

The AFL know that forcing Melbourne sides to the wall is massively dangerous and that mergers between Melbourne sides rarelyv work: you either can't get agreement between clubs or the even if you do, the other clubs shit themselves and vote against it.

They have got themselves in a bit of a pickle.