Will a team fold or merge in the next 20 years?

[NUFC Tiger]

Can't see any teams folding/merging personally in that time

 

[Team DJ]

Northern Suns (GC and Roos) Based in the GC
Western Giants (GWS and Dogs) Based in Western Sydney
Southern Saints (Sts relocate)

16 teams was a much better competition!!!! Much less discrepancy between the best and worst.

 

[Some Idiot]

Hard to see it happening, most clubs have gotten through their toughest periods and are fairly stable.

 

[Substance]

Can't believe most are voting yes. It just wont happen now. If the dogs can survive through 1989 then they can survive anything to come.

30k members looks small when compared to other afl clubs but it's actually great when you compare it to any club in the NRL. How can a club with more than 15k members be in any danger of folding or being relocated? When that's possible you know something is wrong.

 

[Power Raid]

Hard to see it happening, most clubs have gotten through their toughest periods and are fairly stable.

agree but it does depend on the AFLs expansion strategy. There is no doubt the AFL is trying to make AFL a national sport and become the national league.

As it stands it is still the VFL with some hangers on. To become a national comp it will need have tassie, ACT and NT representation even if it is a VFL club playing 8 or more games a year out of the jurisdictions. In time, it will need 3 teams out of Perth and as many as 5 teams out of NSW (4 in Sydney and 1 in Newcastle).

The begs the question, can the AFL have a 22 team comp or will it need to consolidate?


22 teams would mean everyone plays each other once with the opportunity of two byes a year.

 

[benbanjo]

ITs funny how people want clubs to Merge or fold because they hate them, first of all you will just start hating another club..... but i Hate Carlton and Essendon and i dont want them going anywhere because i love it when we beat them and get mega pissed off when we lose, but thats footy....

 

[Doss]

ITs funny how people want clubs to Merge or fold because they hate them, first of all you will just start hating another club..... but i Hate Carlton and Essendon and i dont want them going anywhere because i love it when we beat them and get mega pissed off when we lose, but thats footy....

Precisely. Half the enjoyment of footy as a supporter comes from beating teams you strongly dislike.

 

[SizeMatters]

at the present only 1 team has a chance to fold in the next 20 years and that is Melbourne. The club will take another 8-10 years just to get a reasonable playing group, all the while they will be losing money from lack of members/games attendances. Nobody wants a team to fold, but at the same time nobody wants to continually throw money away either. Doubt the AFL will continue to fund the Demons for the next 15 years, if they even last that long.

 

[Bulldog1954]

Hopefully not, it makes me sick that so many want to see it happen. The league would be poorer for it

 

[tigers_of_old_08]

Hard to see it happening, most clubs have gotten through their toughest periods and are fairly stable.

Demons aren't out of the woods yet, imo. But aside from financial and on-field stability, there are other factors that can determine the relocation and/or merger of AFL clubs. Tasmania is crying out for a club of their own for example and when the AFL decides it's time it wont necessarily be looking for a struggling Victorian club.

 

[Engimal]

Precisely. Half the enjoyment of footy as a supporter comes from beating teams you strongly dislike.

Absolutely. Where would the fun be in flogging a neutral team?

I love when North get over the Dons & Carlton and hate it when it goes the other way but I still love the passion that hating a team brings. It'd be a cold day in hell before I'd want to see any of the clubs removed from the AFL (GWS aside).

 

[00Stinger]

I think one Vic team will end up in Tassie eventually

 

[Power Raid]

I think one Vic team will end up in Tassie eventually

personally I would prefer tassie is turned into a national park and depopulated

 

[juss]

I think one Vic team will end up in Tassie eventually

This makes the most sense for me.
1. The new club will already have existing fans that will follow it across.
2. Tassie gets a chance to jump on board and call a team their own.
3. No need to have mass draft picks as the team that relocates current players move.
4. Helps reduce the overpopulated Vic AFL market.
5. Keeps the teams at 18 which is what the AFL seems to want.

 

[juss]

at the present only 1 team has a chance to fold in the next 20 years and that is Melbourne. The club will take another 8-10 years just to get a reasonable playing group, all the while they will be losing money from lack of members/games attendances. Nobody wants a team to fold, but at the same time nobody wants to continually throw money away either. Doubt the AFL will continue to fund the Demons for the next 15 years, if they even last that long.

There's no way in hell the AFL will allow its oldest club to die.

 

[Power Raid]

There's no way in hell the AFL will allow its oldest club to die.

does that mean the doggies or the roos are at risk of relocation or are you enforcing that it will be the dees that relocate to survive rather than die?

Long live the Van Diemens, Van Demons or what ever they will be called!

 

[juss]

does that mean the doggies or the roos are at risk of relocation or are you enforcing that it will be the dees that relocate to survive rather than die?

Long live the Van Diemens, Van Demons or what ever they will be called!

I'm saying I don't think the AFL will let its oldest club die, particularly when they come from Melbourne and the MCG, which I'm a way is like the AFLs flagship city and stadium. I personally think relocating a Vic team to tassie would be good and if it was going to happen then yes I'd say the Roos or Dogs would be the most likely to move.

 

[masai]

Can't see any teams folding/merging personally in that time

Away from the footy field, the economic climate might affect some clubs. For example the Victorian economy might constricted badly in the next year or two, closure of car plants and associated manufacturers etc.

I was happy with 16 teams, but hey the AFL powers thought better.

 

[Puzzaley]

Gold coast & GWS not sure if they're in it as long term clubs, GWS could eventually be a Canberra based team. In Melbourne it possibly can't continue to be so thinly spread? - some mega-mergers result in a North West team (North, Essendon, Western bulldogs) & an Eastern suburbs (Melbourne, Hawthorn, St-Kilda) or one of these re-locating to Tassie.

 

[fumbler]

Gold coast & GWS not sure if they're in it as long term clubs, GWS could eventually be a Canberra based team. In Melbourne it possibly can't continue to be so thinly spread? - some mega-mergers result in a North West team (North, Essendon, Western bulldogs) & an Eastern suburbs (Melbourne, Hawthorn, St-Kilda) or one of these re-locating to Tassie.

Lulz.
All the minnows to merge

 

[domiroo]

Lulz.
All the minnows to merge

Lulz.
All the minnows to merge

Richmond , Carlton , Collingwood to combine .

 

[domiroo]

Gold coast & GWS not sure if they're in it as long term clubs, GWS could eventually be a Canberra based team. In Melbourne it possibly can't continue to be so thinly spread? - some mega-mergers result in a North West team (North, Essendon, Western bulldogs) & an Eastern suburbs (Melbourne, Hawthorn, St-Kilda) or one of these re-locating to Tassie.

Port Adelaide and Adelaide to become the South Australian power crows ..

 

[00Stinger]

Merge or fold, no!

Relocate, possible yes

 

[fumbler]

Richmond , Carlton , Collingwood to combine .

I was so right you quoted me twice.

Those saying the dogs will relocate is like saying parliament isn’t corrupt, the dogs are the only western Melbourne side.

North, Carlton or the Saints.

 

[Power Raid]

relocate definitely

relocate and merge to enable a new side also a possibility