News Media Thread, 2024: Insightful, Inciteful and Incomptent

[Rowan18]

South West is a no-brainer, it's a growing region and already loves the sport

You could get 30k - 40k easy, people would drive in from around the south west and people from Perth could go down for the weekend. Would also encourage east coast fans to fly into Busselton and explore the region.

I don't see it as sustainable. Once the novely wears off, people are not going to bother driving 1-2.5hrs each way to wherever the stadium is (Bunbury or Busso).

Imagine the Eagles last two seasons and living in Dunsborough or Perth and having to drive to Bunbury? I would hand my membership in.

 

[Ghossein]

Rocky Ridge on tap at the footy would be amazing.

not sure how they would go watered down to the legal requirement of 3.5%

because if they served IPAs we would all go feral apparently

 

[SumaGodCoach]

not sure how they would go watered down to the legal requirement of 3.5%

because if they served IPAs we would all go feral apparently

You can order 4 at a time and just smash them. People like Coldplay and voted for the Nazis, you can't trust people.

 

[Ghossein]

I don't see it as sustainable. Once the novely wears off, people are not going to bother driving 1-2.5hrs each way to wherever the stadium is (Bunbury or Busso).

Imagine the Eagles last two seasons and living in Dunsborough or Perth and having to drive to Bunbury? I would hand my membership in.

If we just look at the distances driving:

A stadium in Bussleton for example (where the airport infrastructure already exists) would be about 40 mins drive for those in Bunbury. It's also about 30 mins from Eagle Bay, Yallingup, MR, etc.

Optus stadium is about a 40 minute drive for those in Joondalup/Armadale and 35 minutes for those in Fremantle.

Perth is obviously a denser place than the south west, but I still feel you could get 30k easy with mostly locals and then a mix of Perth and Vic tourists. The stadium would obviously be significantly smaller than Optus.

It would also be additionally sustainable if the state government chips in as a way to incentivise east-coast tourism in the South West

 

[Ghossein]

Would also help balance out the travel aspect if we have two away games in WA each year

 

[donpyke92]

Do not want a 3rd WA side... too many fricken teams in the comp as it is.

 

[stallon]

Do not want a 3rd WA side... too many fricken teams in the comp as it is.

If theyre bringing in a 20th team anyway, may as well be WA

 

[stallon]

Surely cant be a Busso/Bunbury team, just not enough people, and its too far from Perth to get many regulars driving down.
Geelong the other country town that has a team has more than 2.5x the population of Bunbury + Busso combined, and is closer to Melbourne.
Mandurah probably as far south as you can realistically go, and there is an existing train line that goes there already

 

[Bender_]

Surely cant be a Busso/Bunbury team, just not enough people, and its too far from Perth to get many regulars driving down.
Geelong the other country town that has a team has more than 2.5x the population of Bunbury + Busso combined, and is closer to Melbourne.
Mandurah probably as far south as you can realistically go, and there is an existing train line that goes there already

Mandurah Crabs

Will get their first flag before the Dockers.

 

[WCErevival]

Who would the 3rd team have a rivalry with?

 

[flamingEMBERS]

No chance, they'd sell the contract to Asahi and you'd be drinking warm Carlton Draught

Not what they did at Optus

 

[JackOutback]

Surely cant be a Busso/Bunbury team, just not enough people, and its too far from Perth to get many regulars driving down.
Geelong the other country town that has a team has more than 2.5x the population of Bunbury + Busso combined, and is closer to Melbourne.
Mandurah probably as far south as you can realistically go, and there is an existing train line that goes there already

I think you’re correct. However, maybe the State Government could be convinced to invest in a high speed train to Bunbury/Busso.

The only way a third team in WA makes sense is if it’s outside the metro area but our regional towns are too sparse.

 

[flamingEMBERS]

Who would the 3rd team have a rivalry with?

Geographically it would start with both eagles and dockers, but overtime the best rivalries are born from playing teams.

 

[flamingEMBERS]

I would never want a 3rd WA Team. I'd like the fact we are the biggest club in the state, and everyone in the state bar Fremantle should be West Coast Eagles fan.

Such small minded thinking.

We’d likely still be the biggest club and if anything more people living in WA will support a WA club as people ditch their random VFL club that their parent chose as their “VFL team” watching the winners.

 

[Ghossein]

I think you’re correct. However, maybe the State Government could be convinced to invest in a high speed train to Bunbury/Busso.

The only way a third team in WA makes sense is if it’s outside the metro area but our regional towns are too sparse.

I think it makes sense in the context of a large infrastructure project focusing on the region, like you've said with a train link.

It's a growing region anyway and has a lot of potential

 

[Ghossein]

pre-game lunch at Vasse Felix

 

[Keys]

Talk of a 20th team, regardless of where it’s located is madness

The AFL is supposed to be the elite league for our code. Best of the best

But…

The league had to introduce a cap on football department spending because some clubs couldn’t generate enough money to keep up. And that cap was reduced significantly due to Covid and hasn’t been returned to pre-Covid levels because those same clubs have resisted such an increase

There are already 2 expansion clubs in anticipated growth markets that still require significant AFL funding because they have ridiculously low support. And a third club is about to be introduced that will also require financial assistance

On top of that there are at least 3 Victorian clubs that are borderline viable due to comparatively small fan bases

You could cull 4 teams while sending a 5th to Tasmania and end up with a properly elite 14 team national competition that would also see 200+ players filter back into the state based leagues increasing their standard

But there isn’t a sports administration in the country/world that understands the concept of less is more so they’ll add a 20th team. The only two questions are when and where despite that team adding to the financial drain on the competition which drags funds away from grass roots football that provides the talent the league needs

 

[HoneyBadger35]

Talk of a 20th team, regardless of where it’s located is madness

The AFL is supposed to be the elite league for our code. Best of the best

But…

The league had to introduce a cap on football department spending because some clubs couldn’t generate enough money to keep up. And that cap was reduced significantly due to Covid and hasn’t been returned to pre-Covid levels because those same clubs have resisted such an increase

There are already 2 expansion clubs in anticipated growth markets that still require significant AFL funding because they have ridiculously low support. And a third club is about to be introduced that will also require financial assistance

On top of that there are at least 3 Victorian clubs that are borderline viable due to comparatively small fan bases

You could cull 4 teams while sending a 5th to Tasmania and end up with a properly elite 14 team national competition that would also see 200+ players filter back into the state based leagues increasing their standard

But there isn’t a sports administration in the country/world that understands the concept of less is more so they’ll add a 20th team. The only two questions are when and where despite that team adding to the financial drain on the competition which drags funds away from grass roots football that provides the talent the league needs

As a billion dollar a year not for profit, how can less be more? Silly Keys, MORE is more!

The state of Norf, of us the last four years, where Richmond seem to be headed, Hawks since 2018, where GC have been their entire existence, even routine disappointments like St Kilda who are flat but in a somewhat ’normal’ way…the standard at the bottom end, and the gulf in competitiveness in so many fixtures per week, is the clearest evidence we should be cutting teams. To add two to this already wildly imbalanced league is folly.

 

[Rowan18]

Surely cant be a Busso/Bunbury team, just not enough people, and its too far from Perth to get many regulars driving down.
Geelong the other country town that has a team has more than 2.5x the population of Bunbury + Busso combined, and is closer to Melbourne.
Mandurah probably as far south as you can realistically go, and there is an existing train line that goes there already

Geelong is the same distance from Melbourne as Mandurah is from Perth. I think you're completely correct that Mandurah is the furthest south it could be

 

[Ghossein]

why is the geographical distance between geelong and melbourne the yardstick we are using

 

[Ghossein]

You could cull 4 teams while sending a 5th to Tasmania and end up with a properly elite 14 team national competition that would also see 200+ players filter back into the state based leagues increasing their standard

But there isn’t a sports administration in the country/world that understands the concept of less is more so they’ll add a 20th team. The only two questions are when and where despite that team adding to the financial drain on the competition which drags funds away from grass roots football that provides the talent the league needs

I don't think it's as easy as you're making it out to be.

You're talking about shutting down organisations that employ hundreds of people each and asking hundreds of AFL players to give up their careers and their salaries.

You're also betting on the fanbases of those 4-5 clubs not starting a complete revolt, and assuming other fans around the country wouldn't stand up for them too.

Adding new teams in is obviously a lot logistically easier than shutting ones down.

The real 'financial drain' isn't the amount of teams, it's the over saturation of the Melbourne market. Gold Coast and GWS were expansionist and didn't have populations that cared about the sport so were obviously going to require a significant amount of financial outlay. Creating teams in regions that already have strong interest in the AFL isn't going to be as expensive.

 

[Biggie]

 

[stallon]

why is the geographical distance between geelong and melbourne the yardstick we are using

We know it works, and we have a significantly bigger population in Mandurah than down in Busso.
How many people are going to drive 2+hours each way, find parking, etc to watch a game between a Busso/Bunbury team and North Melbourne on a Sunday afternoon?
Theres about 100k people who live in that area, the crowds would probably be 10k at most down there. The further from Perth you get the worse the crowds will be

 

[oak79]

The AFL should be 14-16 teams, with only 2 in WA.

But If they are stupid enough to go to 20, it's better for us if it's in WA. I'm against 20 teams, but not against the south-West idea

 

[Ghossein]

We know it works, and we have a significantly bigger population in Mandurah than down in Busso.
How many people are going to drive 2+hours each way, find parking, etc to watch a game between a Busso/Bunbury team and North Melbourne on a Sunday afternoon?
Theres about 100k people who live in that area, the crowds would probably be 10k at most down there. The further from Perth you get the worse the crowds will be

We're comparing a club that was founded in 1859 to setting up a new club about 5 minutes drive from Fremantle's HQ.

The point shouldn't be to set up clubs based on where people are now, it should be to think long-term and set up clubs based on where the expansion is going. With the way the urban sprawl is going you may as well put one in Yanchep