The conundrum of a truly National Competition

[warburton lad]

A very interesting article from Zero Hangar this morning

https://www.zerohanger.com/south-australian-club-norwood-staking-claims-to-become-20th-afl-club-149057/?utm_source=onesignal&utm_medium=push

I must declare that I still pine for the 12 team VFL but acknowledge that the AFL has opened new experiences for football fans within and without Victoria.

The article basically suggests that Norwood FC is pushing to 'even up the numbers' in the AFL after the inclusion of the Tassie Devils toward the end of this decade. They have some heavy hitting corporate sponsors who would make their bid plausible.
My only query is to whether they would redevelop Norwood Oval or be a third tenant at the Adelaide oval?? The oval is a mere 165metres long and 110 metres wide. Current capacity is approx 22,000.

https://stadiumbase.com/listing/norwood-oval-coopers-stadium/

If the AFL is serious about 'a level playing field' then it should go the whole hog and admit a third team from Perth and a Canberra team- raising the number of teams to 22; (the Zero Hangar article indicates that consortiums from Perth and Canberra are actively working on bids for admission).

Although not mentioned in the article, an AFL licensed team from the Top End (drawing on the great Indigenous talent of the Territory, northern Western Australia and the Tiwi Islands) must be part of the discussion.

At 23 teams, there is the possibility of a 22 round season. Teams would play a home and an away fixture on alternate seasons.
Fixturing is already problematic, but a competition where some teams play others twice and not other teams and, potentially, garner an advantage is no ones idea of 'fair and equitable'.

A conundrum to be sure, but one for the AFL Commission and fans to debate at length as we move towards a truly National code.

[Pi]

The two elephants in the room are stadium suitability and 10 Victorian teams; 4 or 5 of which should probably be moved / merged in order to create this meg-national competition.
....and those candidates for merge / move are, North Melbourne, St Kilda, Carlton, Hawthorn and Melbourne.

...Of course no AFL bureaucrat is ever going to contemplate that. They will however; f%ck over the fans of the well supported financially stable clubs for a compromise solution that benefits no one.

[neil]

I totally support the removal/merging of Carlscum preferably with a VAFA club

[Donny]

23 teams would be ideal, where every team plays everyone else once.
When it comes to venues and stadia, it gets complicated. Not impossible, but complicated.

[stui magpie]

Bugger Norwood and Canberra, I'd like the 20th team to be either from the NT or FNQ.
Cazaly Stadium in Cairns holds 13k and they have a good AFL competition up there, Darwin has a good stadium that holds 6K, both have ample opportunity for development to increase capacity and both are already AFL heartland.
20 teams is enough, any more and we need to start looking at conferences which I don't like.

[23 YIPPEE!!!]

I know Tassie will be either 19th or 20th team in the AFL.

As with the other one i would like one from the outback Australia.
Say something to do with mining and resourses lets say.
I always liked one from say Kalgoorlie say and call it the nuggets or better still the gold nuggets. And play in a gold jersey.
Love to see it or the Cooper pedy Opals.
And have like Hancock propecting sponser it or a big mining company.
Love to see it.

[LaurieHolden]

If the competition is to survive, it takes 3 things - supporters, revenues and infrastructure. Of course, all 3 are required to ensure Clubs remain viable.
North Melbourne and St. Kilda will remain on AFL welfare, and if relegation was a thing, these Clubs would not be in the premier competition. The success of Tasmania, GWS and GCS should be the focus of the AFL.

As far as infrastructure, we retain 5 AFL / World class stadiums with >50k capacity ~
Perth - Optus Stadium
Melbourne - MCG, Docklands
Adelaide - Adelaide Oval
Sydney - Stadium Australia

4 AFL / Regional class stadiums with > 25k capacity ~
Sydney - SCG 48k
Brisbane - Wolloongabba 50k
Geelong - Kardinia Park 40k
Hobart - tbc est. 23k

All remain in reach of airports and arterial roads.
All draw on population to provide growing supporter bases.
All benefit from the revenues from signage, State Gov't support, AFL support.

The economics and demographics of our population only offers the capacity for 4 teams in AFL States outside of the top 4 State Capitals which is weighted to the legacy of the VFL.
The VFL legacy has presented a problem of too many teams in the competition and not enough playing talent, quality coaches, administration etc.

Population Centres ~
1 Greater Sydney New South Wales 5,450,496
2 Greater Melbourne Victoria 5,207,145
3 Greater Brisbane Queensland 2,706,966
4 Greater Perth Western Australia 2,309,338
5 Greater Adelaide South Australia 1,446,380
6 Gold Coast–Tweed Heads Queensland / New South Wales 715,653
7 Greater Hobart Tasmania 253,654

Realistically, if two World class stadiums playing stadiums exist in Melbourne, 6 Melbourne teams are more viable.
The quality of their training facilities in the geographically strategic areas of Essendon (The Hangar), Western Bulldogs (Whitten Oval), Melbourne (MCG) and Hawthorn (Kennedy Community Centre) should underpin the futures of their Clubs.
Carlton could be granted development of a training facility, but is it Princess Park? If North Melbourne and Carlton anchored a NE growth corridor, surely a blended side is more viable.
St. Kilda, well they could be blended with Hawthorn to anchor the SE growth corridor.

So, I see room for 15 sides, still leaving a 16th in the NT to finally shape a truly National competition.
The trouble is, with Darwin (135,536) / Northern Territory (Alice Springs 28,922) populations simply cannot support a Club without that triumvirate of supporters, revenues and infrastructure.

15 sides = better concentration of playing and coaching talent, both then able to access an ever-increasing percentage of the AFLCBA, stemming any leakage of athletic and administration talent into other codes.

[David]

I think it has to be the NT, or else a mix of NT/FNQ/northern WA as suggested above.

As a native Canberran, I'd love to see a team from there enter and have always bristled at the concept that it's covered by a geographical area called "Greater Western Sydney" (get stuffed, lol). But I think it's probably harder to justify than the much larger section of Australia up north that currently isn't represented.

Otherwise in terms of numbers I think it should be even and that 20 is the max. A big problem with growing further is the finals system; anything that's not dividable by 4 gets messy, and if you keep a top 8 with 20+ teams then there are going to be a lot that aren't qualifying each year. I also don't ever want to see us go down the path of conferences.

[Jezza]

An even number competition is preferable, but I worry we already have too many teams as it is and with the addition of Tasmania in the coming years and possibly a 20th team this will further dilute the talent pool

[think positive]

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