Expansion Surely Wellington or another NZ based team is the next port of call for an new AFL Team/Franchise

[Elmer_Judd]

BTW not calling for Welly or an NZ team to be introduced in the short or even medium term, but I think with Tassie coming into the league in 2028, leaving us with an uneven/bye round of teams in the comp, the AFL should have the balls and bring in a team from New Zealand (ideally Wellington or Auckland) by 2035

We don't need another team in SA or WA or probably NSW (at least until the Giants start getting massive crowds for their home games)

I could honestly see a team being placed in North Queensland/Cairns region someday, but I firmly believe a NZ AFL team is inevitable, and the sooner the better (within logistical and practical rationale obviously)

 

[Colonial]

Canberra.

 

[The 747]

Yeah, nah.

 

[Power Raid]

The Trojan horse

We can land 30-50 soldiers disguising as footy players and finally invade and conquer these guys!

 

[powerrrrrrrrrrrr]

NZ is to far away from the west coast and central Aus to base a team.

It’s a 9hr flight from Perth and 6 to Adelaide from Christchurch and more to Wellington. That’s too much travel for sides going there or, them coming here. Essentially loose 2 days prep every time which is just to much of a disadvantage compared to 3 hours on the east coast.

 

[CrowToon]

AFL should have the balls to close down a Vic club if we just care about equal teams.

Also disagree that WA couldnt sustain a third team.

 

[Fat Tony!]

No way bro!

 

[oak79]

AFL should have the balls to close down a Vic club if we just care about equal teams.

Also disagree that WA couldnt sustain a third team.

Yes WA could sustain a third team, WCE have cracked over 100,000 members again - but less teams based in Melbourne makes more sense.

The desire for more team astounds me - they should be looking at reducing them
Benefits of a smaller comp:

• A fair fixture
• More chance of premiership success
• Less / shorter "Premiership draughts"
• more even distribution of teams (seriously, 9 teams based in one city in a national comp??)
• fairer travel

How is a comp where teams can go 70 years without winning a flag good for fans?

AFL Decisions currently based on 2 main things - money, and VFL nostalgia.

Unfortunately a fair comp is such as a low priority.

 

[jim boy]

Why would Channel 7 give the AFL any more money for a market they cant broadcast to and wouldn't even if they could?

Will be 100 years before there is a NZ team

 

[jim boy]

The desire for more team astounds me - they should be looking at reducing them

Nah - should go the other way and have more teams. Ideally another six teams, but four would do. Then break the into two divisions. Come September you still have the finals, but you also have relegation/promotion matches. Everybody plays each other twice in their same div + finals.
If Collingwood and Carlton dont play each other for a couple of years I'm sure we'll all survive.

 

[Colonial]

Why would Channel 7 give the AFL any more money for a market they cant broadcast to and wouldn't even if they could?

Will be 100 years before there is a NZ team

Bingo.
Won’t effect the tv deal at all to place a club outside Australia.

 

[Tiger2709]

All I want is everyone to play each other either once or twice, anything else is a continued embarrassment for the AFL, the only other option is to keep adding teams until there is enough for 2 conferences but that feels very US of A or shite in other terms.

 

[Colonial]

All I want is everyone to play each other either once or twice, anything else is a continued embarrassment for the AFL, the only other option is to keep adding teams until there is enough for 2 conferences but that feels very US of A or shite in other terms.

Get to 20 or 22 and play everyone once. Then the following season swap the grounds played at.

 

[Coolangatta]

Get to 20 or 22 and play everyone once. Then the following season swap the grounds played at.

They won’t reduce the season to 19-20 or 21-22 games, that’s lost revenue for broadcasters, players, clubs, and less footy for members.

I’d go up to 24 teams playing once.

TAS/ACT 19-20
QLD3/NSW3 21-22
NT-NQ 23-24

QLD and NSW teams to grow the game, TAS, ACT, and NT to complete the national profile of the game. The work is done in WA and SA. Realistically, they won’t cull or move any VIC clubs, but I agree that 8 teams in VIC and 3 each in WA and SA would’ve been a better long term balance.

 

[Xtreme]

BTW not calling for Welly or an NZ team to be introduced in the short or even medium term, but I think with Tassie coming into the league in 2028, leaving us with an uneven/bye round of teams in the comp, the AFL should have the balls and bring in a team from New Zealand (ideally Wellington or Auckland) by 2035

We don't need another team in SA or WA or probably NSW (at least until the Giants start getting massive crowds for their home games)

I could honestly see a team being placed in North Queensland/Cairns region someday, but I firmly believe a NZ AFL team is inevitable, and the sooner the better (within logistical and practical rationale obviously)

AFL already established a link - expect Shanghai to get a look in with a future expansion!

 

[Truetiger]

Can’t get Gold Coast right let alone NZ.

 

[BF Tiger]

I’ve heard some stupid ideas in my time. This is right up there.

 

[PhilX]

How is a comp where teams can go 70 years without winning a flag good for fans?

The Saints drawing a GF they were minutes away from winning, and then getting smashed the next week, was hilarious. It would not have been nearly as funny if they actually won Premierships every now and again.

 

[____]

I'd love to see it happen because Wellington is a good trip, but let's be honest, team 20 should be Canberra and Wellington wouldn't really be viable. A normal Hurricanes super rugby home crowd is around 10000-15000 and rugby is actually their national sport. A completely foreign sport playing regularly would get significantly smaller crowds.

 

[TheUnicorn]

??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

 

[markm106]

Zero chance this happens. Would never get off the ground and would bleed the AFL dry just keeping them afloat and trying to make them a decent team.

 

[Toump Ass]

I wonder what kind of salary cap concessions an overseas club would need for player retention.

 

[Clark G]

Have to crawl first before you can walk. The AFL should resume playing one game a year there and see how that goes first.

 

[Mags98]

does anyone give a * about aussie rules over there besides aussies?

 

[Coolangatta]

There's a couple of good arguments in this thread against the NZ team: the crowds and travel distance. Both of those things could change in the future if the game grows in NZ and air travel gets faster, though. Obviously, NZ should be reintroduced as a secondary market before any serious consideration of a team occurs.

For now, team 20 is an obvious race between Canberra and WA3, with NT or Northern Australia only possible if there's heavy government/corporate funding which is unlikely.

If there's teams 21 and 22, that won't happen before 2050, but in a few decades, many new options will emerge, including NZ, 3rd Adelaide, Sunshine Coast/2nd Brisbane, Newcastle/3rd Sydney, NT, NQ, combined NT-NQ, whichever one of Canberra and WA3 doesn't get up. Possibly Illawarra/Wollongong as well.