How much would a GWS Dynasty actually do for the franchise and football in Western Sydney?

[PerthBoy86]

If, as some are predicting (seriously or not), GWS does begin a 'dynasty' in the next few years, how much of a flow-on affect would it have for Aussie rules football and AFL in Western Sydney (or Sydney as a whole), and how much would the supporter base of the club swell, if new members started joining? Like if the Giants could string together 2-3 premierships, or at least say, 3 in the next decade.

It did seem there was a bit of a ground-swell of fever for the Lions and the Swans, even if Sydney and Brisbane remain firmly NRL/League territory. It would, of course, probably lead to GWS growing, as well as interest in AFL growing more in Sydney, not just the West, but by how much it will be interesting. It would look good for the AFL, justify the cost of expanding into the western suburbs and a second Sydney Club.

Still, it begins at the grass-roots level. At a logistical level there should be enough cricket ovals to put in goalposts, even though the amount of rugby fields make Sydney seem almost like another country in some ways.

I do feel in general AFL is growing most rapidly among the kids and young people across the Barassi line. A GWS dynasty would certainly further that.

 

[Kent Brockman]

 

[Sando22]

Here we go again...

 

[DylanR]

Enough to stop your shitty threads

 

[randyzany]

Far too early to make a significant impact. All a GWS flag within its the first decade of being in the competition will achieve is attract gloryhunting bandwagoners who'll disappear the moment the Giants start going through a bit of adversity and slide down the ladder.

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

Given the rapid, and to a large extent, unforeseen rise of the Western Sydney Wanderers, I'd say the first Giants premiership couldn't come soon enough.

But not this year thanks.

 

[CD__]

This is actually a decent thread, you were to bound to have a good one eventually!

 

[Heaps of fun]

As much as the Lions dynasty did for Queensland football.

 

[CoastersFlag No.5]

As much as the Lions dynasty did for Queensland football.

Excellent point. Sydney took decades to be really powerful and sustainable. GWS have years to go before they reach that point.

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

your shitty threads

Yep, you're dead right. His first par, second line - first word "affect" should be "effect".

 

[Stopher]

Given the rapid, and to a large extent, unforeseen rise of the Western Sydney Wanderers, I'd say the first Giants premiership couldn't come soon enough.

But not this year thanks.

It makes me wonder why clubs that are based in the same area don't try and become 'sister' clubs, considering their league seasons overlap quite nicely with each other, so rarely are they going to have a clash of games.

 

[nameless]

Got so much talent, basically Man Utd'd their way to the top thanks to the AFL and yet there are barely 15,000 people turning up to their games to see them play.

It's such wasted talent in that sense, and I don't really see much sustained growth even if they win 3 premierships over the next 5 years.

They might reach 20-25,000 for home games, but once they inevitable fall comes the crowds will disappear.

 

[The Gong]

I often wonder can you cry under water?

It keeps me up at night, that one.

 

[Taylor]

Back on track..

The goal and intention is to generate more eyeballs for a larger broadcasting contract.

Currently there are 730,581 members for AFL clubs. In 2014 there was 108,735,321 sets of eyeballs on the product via TV over the premiership season with another nearly 17,000,000 in the finals. That means the tv advertisement gets roughly 172 'impressions' for every paid member.

So a sustained period of success in Sydney could lift their current membership numbers by 32,300 to bring them in line with the Swans, even if it only follows that ratio from AFL states, it comes up at an extra 5,572,628 impressions over the whole year and 4.4% of 1.6 Billion dollars is $70,400,000.

So that alone should pay for the club. I expect that since Sydney is almost a greenfields area in regards to AFL infiltration the ratio of paid members to TV viewers will be much higher, so the value gained by a sustained draw to the game by GWS is arguably starting and will most likely end up more than $70,000,000.

The issue will be if that success falls away, does a short stint at the top lead to people being very disenfranchised when the times get tough? I'm not sure about that, I think the story of the players coming through will sustain their fans during a dry spell.

http://www.*************.au/afl-news/current-afl-membership-numbers-for-2016/
http://www.footyindustry.com/?page_id=1755

 

[Jim Prideaux]

I often wonder can you cry under water?

It keeps me up at night, that one.

If your tears are there but no one can see them did you really cry?

 

[Jim Prideaux]

Winning multiple grand finals would certainly have a desirable short term result of attracting more members and general supporters to games. In the long term, even if only a fraction of these hung around through the lean years it will have added to what is currently a relatively small amount of supporters.

The most important thing is for the club to engage any new members and supporters, to try to keep a hold of as many as possible. If they can do that, then any grand final success now will have benefits that we won't truly see for a decade.

 

[Bring-Back-Powell]

I actually see them permanently re-locating to Canberra in 10-20 years, if the crowds don't pick up all that much.

 

[bjwilliams]

I'd imagine it will be similar to the Brisbane Lions and their three flags.

Plenty of supporters when it's going well but likely will be a financial black hole when they slip down the ladder once it's over for a while. I can't imagine it will be an attractive club to go to either down the track.

I hope they become a club the size of West Coast / Freo / Port Adelaide etc. where they can draw talent and be a viable club for the next however many years.

 

[R_Grunter]

The biggest thing going against this club is Sydney's commuting infrastructure. Imagine being 19 and setting yourself up with a nice Bondi pad on a big contract but then sitting in traffic across the harbour city 2 hours+ to training. Nobody wants to do that. The alternative is to get yourself a sick joint in Parramatta with big concrete pillars and drive your RX3 rotary to training. Either way not that attractive for me.

 

[Sellout Scully]

I don't know about Western Sydney but I reckon if they persist with 3 or so games a season in Canberra it will have a positive impact there.

They pulled just under 15k for the game v Richmond on the weekend, breaking the attendance record for an AFL game in the ACT. I also get the feeling that the ACT are more likely to get behind an AFL team than people living in Western Sydney.

In Canberra I can see them regularly sustaining 15k crowds, possibly even more if they expand capacity at Manuka in the future. Decent turnout for a city with a small population.

 

[KissKiss]

It makes me wonder why clubs that are based in the same area don't try and become 'sister' clubs, considering their league seasons overlap quite nicely with each other, so rarely are they going to have a clash of games.

I'm pretty sure there have been some vague efforts of aligning the Storm, Victory, Vixens and Demons in Melbourne.

Brisbane Lions and Roar had an arrangement this year for members of one to be able to get tickets to the other code for one big game. Sadly it was against Collingwood and everything went down hill from there

 

[calyam]

Their home ground crowd figures have increased by 19 per cent this season to 12,858 and they are outdrawing Gold Coast for this first time. So we are already beginning to see the impact of a successful team. People are attracted to winners and winning is the best path toward a larger and sustainable fanbase.

If their next decade is similar to say Sydney (a couple of flags, another grand final appearance, consistently in the finals) then they should be aiming for home crowds of around 20k with regular sell-outs.

 

[Future2]

Nothing really been out here for a while now (close to Western Sydney) and honestly have not seen any growth in the sport at all. As someone mentioned above the rise WSW has got everyone focused on soccer rather than Aussie rules. The rest obviously focused on the rugby league, there is little to no wiggle room for the AFL.

Fans will come if they manage to win a flag but they will disappear just as quick once the team comes crashing back down to earth. The best thing GWS could've done was to recruit a big name, ie what Plugger/Buddy have done for the Swans but this doesn't always work out, see the Suns and Ablett.

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

Back on track..

The goal and intention is to generate more eyeballs for a larger broadcasting contract.

Currently there are 730,581 members for AFL clubs. In 2014 there was 108,735,321 sets of eyeballs on the product via TV over the premiership season with another nearly 17,000,000 in the finals. That means the tv advertisement gets roughly 172 'impressions' for every paid member.

So a sustained period of success in Sydney could lift their current membership numbers by 32,300 to bring them in line with the Swans, even if it only follows that ratio from AFL states, it comes up at an extra 5,572,628 impressions over the whole year and 4.4% of 1.6 Billion dollars is $70,400,000.

So that alone should pay for the club. I expect that since Sydney is almost a greenfields area in regards to AFL infiltration the ratio of paid members to TV viewers will be much higher, so the value gained by a sustained draw to the game by GWS is arguably starting and will most likely end up more than $70,000,000.

The issue will be if that success falls away, does a short stint at the top lead to people being very disenfranchised when the times get tough? I'm not sure about that, I think the story of the players coming through will sustain their fans during a dry spell.

http://www.[URL blocked].au/afl-news/current-afl-membership-numbers-for-2016/
http://www.footyindustry.com/?page_id=1755

Way too much even-handed big picture stuff for BF.

 

[R_Grunter]

Their home ground crowd figures have increased by 19 per cent this season to 12,858 and they are outdrawing Gold Coast for this first time. So we are already beginning to see the impact of a successful team. People are attracted to winners and winning is the best path toward a larger and sustainable fanbase.

If their next decade is similar to say Sydney (a couple of flags, another grand final appearance, consistently in the finals) then they should be aiming for home crowds of around 20k with regular sell-outs.

They already got Tom Scully.