Re: Bris Lions at Deaths Door
Posted: Fri May 09, 2014 9:21 pm
I remember making a post a little while back on how i believed SE QLD (Brisbane and Gold Coast) did not have a large enough popuation (in terms of 'actual' AFL interest) to warrent two AFL clubs and that the Suns will just canabalise a significant proportion of lions support, which all i could see was either one team would become unsuccessful and fold or one team will only survive due to AFL funds keeping it alive and the other be somewhat successfull. It seems like that is happening now, and it looks as though the goldcoast is the better location of an AFL team than brisbane.
Now i know crapperbot will go on about how brisbane and gold coast has a population of just under 3 million people and how both adelaide and perth have less than this with two teams doing ok.... but what crappers spambot file not read/compute is that QLD and NSW are AFL expansion markets where the game has little over a niche following at best and support is heavily dependant on ex-pat southerners (and im talking about actual full support not partial or occassional support) and to put two new teams in a market place like that all these teams will do is pull away support, media attention etc from the two origionial clubs.
And so it happened that the poor Lions who are the origional expansion club into SEQ just happened to have dire financial issues and were struggling to generate interest in the market at the wrong time. Because even though there was alarm bells sounding at the lions, the AFL thought it was the perfect time to introduce the suns into the same market. i believe were only introduced to be a rival to RL as some AFL thorn in that codes side, as it was clearly not the right time for the AFL to introduce the suns while the lions were struggleing, but ultimately it became a large rival of the lions and a growing thorn for the AFLs reputation and funds . The suns arrival has helped push the lions other off the cliff to oblivion...
Look at the sydney market it now has two AFL teams, one team the swans has been here for over 30 years and still they struggle to generate significant interest in the city (unless the swans are on their way to a grand final etc), the swans after all this time still have no more than a niche following in Sydney, then the AFL believed the time was right to bring in another club GWS (who basically have been nothing less than an absolute embarrassment for the code). But since their introduction general interest in AFL has stayed the same, TV audiences have stayed the same (so interest has not increased). its just now that the niche AFL supporter base in sydney is now spread amoungst two clubs but lucklily for the AFL the introduction of GWS into sydney has not affected the swans as bad as what the suns have done to the lions because;
1. sydneys metro popultion (being about 4.7 million pp)
2. Swans were sitting in a better financial situation.
AFL has been in the northern states for over 100 years, Swans have been in Sydney for over 30 years, the bears moved up to brisbane in the 90s and still with all this time the AFL has spent trying to grow the game up here the truth is interest in the expansion markets is small/meagre, really this is ok as its the codes 'expansion markets' and to expect more than a niche would be just arrogant. but then coff the AFL decides putting another club in both these markets and i think this has done no other than caused major issues to the pre-existing clubs (swans, lions).
The Lions have been hurt alot more than the what the swans have. But this could largely be due to how poorly GWS have intergreted itself into the sydney landscape. GWS on a whole have been rejected by sydney but perhaps if GWS were more successful like the suns were at getting community approval and respect then we could of seen more interest flow away from the swans to the giants and a more noticeable negative effect than what we see now.
Overall interest in AFL in the expansion markets can be truthfully described as low and untill there is significant increase in interest in AFL here, its just unrealisistic to believe these markets are going to be big enough to help keep all 4 clubs afloat by themself. The expansion markets are currently both over staturated due to the small interest and only Large AFL Handouts to most if not all 4 clubs will keep them successful/afloat, without it the weaker clubs in those markets fall on their sword eventually leaving one team in each market again, i cant see that happening because the AFL are too proud to admit dfeat so i see decades of money thrown at liabilities...
Now i know crapperbot will go on about how brisbane and gold coast has a population of just under 3 million people and how both adelaide and perth have less than this with two teams doing ok.... but what crappers spambot file not read/compute is that QLD and NSW are AFL expansion markets where the game has little over a niche following at best and support is heavily dependant on ex-pat southerners (and im talking about actual full support not partial or occassional support) and to put two new teams in a market place like that all these teams will do is pull away support, media attention etc from the two origionial clubs.
And so it happened that the poor Lions who are the origional expansion club into SEQ just happened to have dire financial issues and were struggling to generate interest in the market at the wrong time. Because even though there was alarm bells sounding at the lions, the AFL thought it was the perfect time to introduce the suns into the same market. i believe were only introduced to be a rival to RL as some AFL thorn in that codes side, as it was clearly not the right time for the AFL to introduce the suns while the lions were struggleing, but ultimately it became a large rival of the lions and a growing thorn for the AFLs reputation and funds . The suns arrival has helped push the lions other off the cliff to oblivion...
Look at the sydney market it now has two AFL teams, one team the swans has been here for over 30 years and still they struggle to generate significant interest in the city (unless the swans are on their way to a grand final etc), the swans after all this time still have no more than a niche following in Sydney, then the AFL believed the time was right to bring in another club GWS (who basically have been nothing less than an absolute embarrassment for the code). But since their introduction general interest in AFL has stayed the same, TV audiences have stayed the same (so interest has not increased). its just now that the niche AFL supporter base in sydney is now spread amoungst two clubs but lucklily for the AFL the introduction of GWS into sydney has not affected the swans as bad as what the suns have done to the lions because;
1. sydneys metro popultion (being about 4.7 million pp)
2. Swans were sitting in a better financial situation.
AFL has been in the northern states for over 100 years, Swans have been in Sydney for over 30 years, the bears moved up to brisbane in the 90s and still with all this time the AFL has spent trying to grow the game up here the truth is interest in the expansion markets is small/meagre, really this is ok as its the codes 'expansion markets' and to expect more than a niche would be just arrogant. but then coff the AFL decides putting another club in both these markets and i think this has done no other than caused major issues to the pre-existing clubs (swans, lions).
The Lions have been hurt alot more than the what the swans have. But this could largely be due to how poorly GWS have intergreted itself into the sydney landscape. GWS on a whole have been rejected by sydney but perhaps if GWS were more successful like the suns were at getting community approval and respect then we could of seen more interest flow away from the swans to the giants and a more noticeable negative effect than what we see now.
Overall interest in AFL in the expansion markets can be truthfully described as low and untill there is significant increase in interest in AFL here, its just unrealisistic to believe these markets are going to be big enough to help keep all 4 clubs afloat by themself. The expansion markets are currently both over staturated due to the small interest and only Large AFL Handouts to most if not all 4 clubs will keep them successful/afloat, without it the weaker clubs in those markets fall on their sword eventually leaving one team in each market again, i cant see that happening because the AFL are too proud to admit dfeat so i see decades of money thrown at liabilities...
