Second Sydney AFL Team - will it work?

[Sasha]

Considering the target of your ridiculous comment is one of the most passionate supporters I know you may want to rethink this post.

Not at all! How can anyone that truly loves footy hate watching live AFL games?? Or refuse to go to an opposition game THINKING that you will be financially supporting them and having a foot in both camps?!?! More proof for my 1st post. A passionate supporter would go watch as much footy as possible, would they not? We are ABSOLUTELY STARVED for footy up here. Look at the time I'm posting this... this is being written straight after the AFL footy show ended. So in that instance I would want a 2nd Sydney side. Anyway, I didn't want to personally attack or offend someone and it could have come out this way, so I apologise for that.

[Rafters]

What is the definition of "will it work"? I feel that there are a number of things thath make it up ... some will work & some won't work. It depends on which coloured glasses that you have on.

Will then be succesful on the field? Probably not for a number of years.

Will they generate a huge supporter base? Probably not - due to history of league & lower dispoable incomes.

Will it generate alot more TV rights income? Most definitely & the real reason why there is going to be a 2nd team up here. And the extra cash will make the competition grow further against other competing codes.

Will it make a difference to local GWS clubs? I think it will help junior clubs will more AFL players going out to schools to promote the game. I think there may be some scheduling dramas as we see that the current Sydney AFL matches do get altered when the Swans are playing at home (eg Saturday matches if there is an Swans match on the Sunday) - it will put more strain on umpires for lower grades.

Will I support them? Yes most definitely.

PS Do I think that the name Blacktown Bogans is defamatory? Yes & the people from the western suburbs of Sydney deserve an apology with such myopic generalisations.

[Coastal Boy]

Considering the target of your ridiculous comment is one of the most passionate supporters I know you may want to rethink this post.

Less than 20,000 sepctators to a finals game. Sound fair weathered and fickle to me. Think back to the early 90s when 10,000 was a great result for a swans home game. This was after the peak of the late 80s. People may not agree with Sasha but the comment is not ridiculous. For the AFL's sake, the Swans better not drop out of the top 8 for any period or we could have a repeat.

[Big Al]

Less than 20,000 sepctators to a finals game. Sound fair weathered and fickle to me.

The target of the original post by Sasha actually went to the game. Try again.

[Big Al]

PS Do I think that the name Blacktown Bogans is defamatory? Yes & the people from the western suburbs of Sydney deserve an apology with such myopic generalisations.

I live in the Western Suburbs and quit frankly I couldn't give a @@@@. The beauty of us westies is the ability to laugh at ourselves and take the piss. Not those like those Chardonnay sipping, 4WD driving phonies in the Eastern Suburbs

[Coastal Boy]

The target of the original post by Sasha actually went to the game. Try again.

I guess Sasha was at the game too. Without being able to read his mind I assume Sasha was not bagging A.H. individually but Swans supporters in general.....and less than 20,000 spectators, the lowest in finals memory would support that. The cold wet weather is no excuse at all....decent supporters would have bought their tickets 5 days before when the weather that day is obviously unknown. So why was the support so poor??? You tell me.

NB Arent there more than 20,000 Swans members?? So thousands of loyal members did not go!!!! Good words for this may be fickle and fair weathered indeed.

[Big Al]

. So why was the support so poor??? You tell me.

A number of reasons can be attributed to the poor attendance.

High Ticket Prices along with the economic conditions in NSW would have deterred a lot of families from going. (I know I had to think twice - It cost me alone $120 for the night)

The weather would have curtailed a lot of the walk up traffic.

The Homebush factor - a lot of Sydney people just don't like the joint.

Also remember the Adelaide/Pies match also had a poor attendance but no one is belittling the Adelaide fans.

NB Arent there more than 20,000 Swans members?? So thousands of loyal members did not go!!!! Good words for this may be fickle and fair weathered indeed.

There are approx 20,000 Sydney members and 8000 Melbourne members. So from that I would suggest that the vast majority of Sydney members attended.

[Norris Lurker]

It's going to be a lot of hard work for the AFL to make it work, but it's certainly not impossible.
Rafters' comments I thought were spot-on. Especially in the early years, it's probable the team will struggle for on-field success and the support base will be very low. There will be a big TV rights bonanza for the AFL, but they will have to wait a long time for other rewards; but with patience and perseverance they will come.

I doubt it will have much impact on the Sydney AFL. Having another team's worth of players in Sydney to do Auskick clinics will be good, but it's unlikely in itself to lead to a massive increase in player numbers.

Looking forward to seeing how WS18 comes into being over the next few years.

[goswannie14]

Also remember the Adelaide/Pies match also had a poor attendance but no one is belittling the Adelaide fans.

As much as I hate sticking up for Adelaide, there were far more serious issues with their attendance due to the timing of the game. A number of callers to ABC radio made the point that in many of the outer suburban/country leagues it was PF week. Those games, in the main were played on Saturday afternoon which meant that many thousands of people were committed as either players or supporters of those teams, hence they didn't/couldn't go to the AFL game in Adelaide.

[El Gato]

Another key indicator is the Daily Telegraph - I have not seen
the All Australian team listed there yet. If a swans player had made it,
and I think a couple were unlucky, I'm sure we would have read about
it.

Friday's Prelim is advertised to start at 8.30pm on channel 7 in Sydney- after a bit of build up, the teams, we should see the first bounce around 8.50pm. Then the add breaks so I'm expecting the game to finish about 2 hours before sevens telecast ends.

Then we can look at the NZ v Roosters rugby league match this Friday night, they sold-out in less than a week.

I think that most of the writers on this forum can be regarded as diehard fans of AFL, it's the rest of Sydney that needs to wake up.

[swanage]

Another key indicator is the Daily Telegraph - I have not seen
the All Australian team listed there yet. If a swans player had made it,
and I think a couple were unlucky, I'm sure we would have read about
it.

I don't think you can consider the Telegraph a key indicator. The owners of the Telegraph are 50% owners of the NRL as well so everything written there must be taken with a grain of salt.

Having said that there's not a single piece of AFL news in todays Herald which I would consider a "neutral" paper.

[Sqrt]

I def would support a team in western sydney. I dispise swans thanks to barry hall so it would b nice to be able to watch my team play more that one game each year.