Expansion 20th AFL team location

Who will become the 20th AFL Team

  • Canberra / Australian Capital Territory

    Votes: 167 26.8%

  • Darwin / Northern Territory

    Votes: 112 18.0%

  • Newcastle / Northern Sydney

    Votes: 15 2.4%

  • Cairns / Far North Queensland

    Votes: 26 4.2%

  • Auckland / New Zealand

    Votes: 17 2.7%

  • 3rd South Australia Team

    Votes: 59 9.5%

  • 3rd Western Australia Team

    Votes: 198 31.8%

  • Other

    Votes: 29 4.7%
  • Total voters
    623

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Cubs2Lions

Cubs2Lions

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Now that Tasmania’s entry into the AFL is 99% completed (given the stadium deal is complete and presidents will
overwhelming vote yes) and will force the AFL competition into 19 teams by 2027/2028 (dependent on entry), it won’t be long til the AFL start the process on where the 20th team should be ideally located to avoid the dreaded bye in their competitions for too long, while also increasing weekly matches to 10 per round.

Personally, Canberra / ACT should have been favourites by a long mile to gain the 20th license in the AFL, given the close proximity from Sydney and Melbourne, current population of 467k (expected to grow of 700k+ by 2063) and having a bigger population then other non-AFL team representation and much more ideal weather compared to the other Northern states or territories.

However, given the fact that GWS signed a 10 year deal to play 3 home games per year over there (til 2032) and the fact that GWS relies on the deal for their essential survival almost given the poor numbers they have in “adopted” NSW, it seems highly unlikely that Canberra will get that license now and will have to wait til the 21st and 22nd slots become available (which might be a fair while IMO)

Therefore, I can see the AFL either going safe with a 3rd SA / WA license or expanding into the Northern states again in either QLD (rightly or wrongly) given the money being put in from the state and federal governments for the 2032 Olympics in South-East Queensland and the AFL trying to cash in from those developments or for them give a license in NT to help build the code furthermore in Darwin / Alice Springs while also improving the Aboriginal / Torrens Strait Islander player rates in AFL competitions in the future compared to the past and now.
 
catscollector said:
Northern Territory team be fun to watch.
Not sure there's enough resources and who would wanna play in 40 degree temperature every week but just imagine the best NT talent you could possibly comprise.
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Would be a good showcase to watch a NT team, but the infrastructure and money it would cost to host an AFL license full-time over there would be too much money for them to cope, let alone the hit and humid weather for other AFL teams.

Wouldn’t be the worst option if a joint-venture option from a Victorian club (i.e North Melbourne) occurred to spilt their home games between Victoria and NT though, keeping the amount of teams to 20 :thumbsu:
 

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Billy ray said:
19 teams is perfect. Weekly bye means Thursday night football all season long. AFL and 7 network will be hard and throbbing
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History says otherwise though, the AFL have and always will prefer an even amount of teams then an odd number in their AFL competitors, not saying your wrong with your statement but just factual knowledge from the AFL sadly.
 
Cubs2Lions said:
Would be a good showcase to watch a NT team, but the infrastructure and money it would cost to host an AFL license full-time over there would be too much money for them to cope, let alone the hit and humid weather for other AFL teams.

Wouldn’t be the worst option if a joint-venture option from a Victorian club (i.e North Melbourne) occurred to spilt their home games between Victoria and NT though, keeping the amount of teams to 20 :thumbsu:
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As you say, the infrastructure would be the killer.
Certainly pump money into the state every year which would be great for the local communities and development.
 
Cubs2Lions said:
History says otherwise though, the AFL have and always will prefer an even amount of teams then an odd number in their AFL competitors, not saying your wrong with your statement but just factual knowledge from the AFL sadly.
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Different times when there were 15 teams and then 17 teams.
Tv rights massive now and Thursday night footy is the all season long dream for 7 honchos
 
I think it should be Canberra - the city is bigger than Hobart, the Capital Region larger than Tasmania especially if they play the odd game in Wagga or Albury and the region is pretty AFL-friendly, but the AFL is probably worried that it'll hurt GWS too much.

Hence, it'll probably go to Perth. Adelaide's too small for 3 teams compared to Perth, Darwin will never be viable, NZ seems way too risky without significant grassroots investments (given that players have a whinge about being drafted to another state, how on earth are they going to feel about another country?), Newcastle seems too NRL-dominant in the forseeable future for inroads to be made there and lacks AFL-friendly infrastructure and Cairns is probably a bit too small. I guess maybe a Cairns/Darwin hybrid Northern Australia team could work? But that seems risky.
 
sydney_gws said:
So who will support the 3rd team in Perth.
Aren't almost all Perth people already supporting
West Coast or Fremantle?
Are there any WAFL clubs that would be aligned with the new team.
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I don’t know much about WA geography, but apparently it would be based in Northern Perth (i.e Joondalup).

Would be interesting if someone like Subiaco or combined Perth bid from WAFL came forward but that’s highly unlikely now.
 
Billy ray said:
Different times when there were 15 teams and then 17 teams.
Tv rights massive now and Thursday night footy is the all season long dream for 7 honchos
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This, and the players union are always looking for an extra break during the year. But yeah, Thursday night footy each week will be a big winner. I think a bye might be preferable for the AFL.
 

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3rd WA is a terrible idea. No one in Perth is going to ditch the Eagles or Dockers for a third team in Perth (maybe unless if it's a WAFL team getting promoted but even still they'd struggle to gain a fanbase), and there's no population centre outside of Perth in WA that would be big enough to justify a team.

Needs to be Canberra IMO. They get decent crowds at Manuka for what isn't their team, obviously would get bigger crowds if they had their own team. Population of over 470000 which alone is double the NT and nearly the population of the entire state of Tasmania. Plus there's places like Queanbeyan (37000), Yass (17000) super close, then places like Wagga Wagga, Holbrook, Murrumbateman, Golburn, Gundagai, Albury etc. within a few hours drive that can be used as a catchment area. It would also be beneficial to GWS because they can finally focus entirely on being an actual Western Sydney team.
 
aCunningPlan said:
Why? Just have the team with the lowest membership skip out. Gather Round is here to stay!
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How about instead it should be the team who can last the previous season, we don’t want Gold Coast missing out 50+ seasons in a row due to their poor membership numbers :think:
 
Chaisa said:
I think it should be Canberra - the city is bigger than Hobart, the Capital Region larger than Tasmania especially if they play the odd game in Wagga or Albury and the region is pretty AFL-friendly, but the AFL is probably worried that it'll hurt GWS too much.

Hence, it'll probably go to Perth. Adelaide's too small for 3 teams compared to Perth, Darwin will never be viable, NZ seems way too risky without significant grassroots investments (given that players have a whinge about being drafted to another state, how on earth are they going to feel about another country?), Newcastle seems too NRL-dominant in the forseeable future for inroads to be made there and lacks AFL-friendly infrastructure and Cairns is probably a bit too small. I guess maybe a Cairns/Darwin hybrid Northern Australia team could work? But that seems risky.
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That would mean Swans having to give up some territory ( for the academy) in Sydney to the Giants. How would swans fans feel about that ?
 
20th side not needed, yet.
Got to be in one of the places like Darwin, Cairns, Canberra etc that games are being played now, eventually. Otherwise why?
This removes the bye round, as it rolls all year.
The Gather Round could be a game vs the host state league combined team. Trial for Midseason draft?

Looking forwrd to seeing the Tassie Devils.
 
Chaisa said:
I think it should be Canberra - the city is bigger than Hobart, the Capital Region larger than Tasmania especially if they play the odd game in Wagga or Albury and the region is pretty AFL-friendly, but the AFL is probably worried that it'll hurt GWS too much.

Hence, it'll probably go to Perth. Adelaide's too small for 3 teams compared to Perth, Darwin will never be viable, NZ seems way too risky without significant grassroots investments (given that players have a whinge about being drafted to another state, how on earth are they going to feel about another country?), Newcastle seems too NRL-dominant in the forseeable future for inroads to be made there and lacks AFL-friendly infrastructure and Cairns is probably a bit too small. I guess maybe a Cairns/Darwin hybrid Northern Australia team could work? But that seems risky.
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It would be risky, but if central coast isn't getting the 18th NRL licence, although it doesn't really have a stadium, so probably a very bad idea.
 
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