Colonial
Premium Gold
- Apr 12, 2012
- 48,166
- 45,383
- AFL Club
- GWS
Canberra every day.
Expansion Canberra
- Thread starter Johnny Bananas
- Start date
- Tagged users None
Canberra every day.
Young players don't want to live in a place where a Karen thinks it's better.
Colonial
Premium Gold
- Apr 12, 2012
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Colonial
Premium Gold
- Apr 12, 2012
- 48,166
- 45,383
- AFL Club
- GWS
Been to both as well and no.
Not bagging Hobart either just that it isn’t so much better than Canberra.
Well I know plenty of people who have gone to Hobart for a weekend/trip away.
Don't know a single person who has gone away for the same thing to Canberra.
Anecdotal evidence isn't real proof though. I know plenty of people who go to Canberra for a holiday but less so for Hobart (although as much as I like Canberra I prefer Hobart). As you alluded to before, GCS had trouble keeping players and that is a fantastic place. I think it ultimately comes down to how the club life is over how entertaining the town is that houses the club.
Also anecdotal, but I've known a lot of people as grads here (about mid 20s), and they've love Canberra. Mostly from Adelaide and Perth. I've also known one from Melbourne that hated it and travelled back every weekend. Canberra is one of those cities that is good, great food, great nature, close to Sydney, really casual and easy to get around, but if you go into it with a bad mentality, you're probably never going to like it.
CURVE
Formally DEVO
- Sep 8, 2000
- 20,887
- 23,847
- AFL Club
- North Melbourne
- Other Teams
- Eels, Cumbrians, Staggies & La Viola
Melbourne is full of Public Service w***ers as well. More than Canberra.
- Thread starter
- #135
Plenty of people hate Melbourne. You're just trolling at this point.
And yet a lower % of the whole population.
CURVE
Formally DEVO
- Sep 8, 2000
- 20,887
- 23,847
- AFL Club
- North Melbourne
- Other Teams
- Eels, Cumbrians, Staggies & La Viola
Canberra is expected to grow from around 430,000 this year to 600,000 by the end of the decade. People are moving here in large numbers because the job market is strong, the education system is better than most and it's a great place to live. Now would be a good time to start up an AFL club in Canberra because unlike Tasmania the room for growth is high.
CURVE
Formally DEVO
- Sep 8, 2000
- 20,887
- 23,847
- AFL Club
- North Melbourne
- Other Teams
- Eels, Cumbrians, Staggies & La Viola
Not by as much as you think.
And plenty of footballers leave Melbourne to back to their home city to play football.
It's not hard to see Canberra would have massive retention issues.
So no point even wasting all that time and money setting up an AFL club there.
CURVE
Formally DEVO
- Sep 8, 2000
- 20,887
- 23,847
- AFL Club
- North Melbourne
- Other Teams
- Eels, Cumbrians, Staggies & La Viola
Your elocution confirms that.
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They are going there for work.
Just because they go there for work doesn't have any relevance to interest in football.
CURVE
Formally DEVO
- Sep 8, 2000
- 20,887
- 23,847
- AFL Club
- North Melbourne
- Other Teams
- Eels, Cumbrians, Staggies & La Viola
True, not everyone will have an interest in football, but not everyone who moves to Melbourne is interested in football either, but with a growing market there is always opportunities to grow your supporter base.
And it's not only Canberra that is growing, nearby towns such as Queanbeyan, Braidwood, Bungendore, Gugong, Yass, Goulburn (to name a few) are also growing. According to the ABS, by the time we reach zero emissions there will be close to a million people living with an hour of Canberra. Amazing growth possibilities that Tasmania can not match.
The point is that the Raiders (in a really good year) can only get 15k - generally they only get 9-12k a game most other years. A Canberra AFL team would need to draw signficantly more than that to be viable. They'd have to be looking at 20k+. Are they capable of that? Maybe, but you can't assume that an AFL team will draw better crowds just because they're in the AFL.
We're pretty much NSW. Interestingly, the Canberra Raiders played most of their first decade from NSW (in Queanbeyan, about 15 mins away).
I don't think Newcastle would be ready for a team yet, but I agree there should be more focus there. GWS will have a few spare games once they retreat from Canberra, they should play one or two in Newcastle.
Personally, I think we could pull bigger crowds than the Raiders. We get similar crowds without the media attention a full-time team gets. But hard to say until the time actually comes.
What are your crowd expectations for a Tassie team? Do you expect they'll be pulling those crowd numbers, too? Because crowd numbers between Canberra and Tassie have been pretty similar.
Agreed. I like just "Canberra" in the name or else it becomes a mouthful, but a game in each in Wagga and Albury would help expand the territory. Maybe a preseason match on the South Coast if there's ever an appropriate venue.
I think it would be similar to the Brumbies territory. Maybe a bit smaller given the NSW part has to be split up between two teams.
Colonial
Premium Gold
- Apr 12, 2012
- 48,166
- 45,383
- AFL Club
- GWS
For a weekend with the fam? Yep multiple times.
If people are moving from Canberra back to Northern states and take their interest in AFL with them, fantastic.
