King-Eliagh wrote:Personally, I think they're a highly toxic experiment. A waste of squillions of dollars, enough to bring several third world nations out of poverty.
What do you guys think the AFL should do?
Warmest regards,
King
Just read through all the comments in this thread because i think this is a very interesting topic. KE has been blasted by the AFL fans in here for starting this thread and his thoughts but i agree that there has been an increase in 'toxicity' around GWS.
Although the AFL have stated that GWS is along term (30+year) plan, they would be concerned that GWS are not progessing (in terms of performance, supporters, interest, media coverage etc) and would be below the AFL's expectations for GWS when setting up this franchise.
Need to look at this like an investment in a business for retirement. In the first two years the business has gone over budget whilst not reaching the yearly forcasts. would you just ignore it because you went into this business with a 30 year plan or would you be concerned, obviously you probably wouldnt jump ship straight away but only a fool would stay till the end if it didnt improve.
Admit it or dont but the AFL did mislead the southerners when convincing them that a team in greater western sydney was needed. When the AFL decided expansion to GC and WS, alot of supporters were frustrated at their choice and the AFL needed to persuade its southern fans that that GWS and GC would be successfull. The AFL bosses understood most AFL fans and most media in the south just believe what the AFL tells them. So VIC etc etc had newspapers reporting with misleading ' huge participation' figures for NSW and QLD and often TV and radio coverage reporting on GWS's popularity in the news in sydney.
The AFL went into western Sydney for one prime reason $$$ and unfortuneatly i think the same thing that attracted them here will be their downfall. Expansion to these areas was all about how much the AFL could get from TV and advertising etc... GC and WS do not have the supporters to justify a team nor do they have any real increase aswell. remember AFL in western Sydney is not new, there has been AFL clubs and competitions in western sydney for decades and it has been stagnate for most of that time (there was only small increases strangly during the same periods NSW had high interstate migration from VIC,SA,TAS).
when the AFL were negiotiating there last TV deal, the promise of two new expansions teams, one based in the 3rd biggest economy in OZ (WS), both regions with a total population of roughly 3.2 million would have been very attractive to the buyers.
Now looking at how unpopular GWS are atm, and with the very poor tv viewers in NSW for this team (the swans too and also others but this post is not about them) will no doubt have a negative impact on the AFL during the next tv deal (a tv channel will ask for less money if they are required to play all gws's games live on fta due to their loss of income from poor audience). Less income from tv will be negative/toxic for the AFL as a whole.
The GWS brand i feel had issues from the start and has always been somewhat toxic here in NSW. the descisions made by the AFL early in the branding of GWS were very ignorant of the area GWS were suppose to represent and abit idiotic at times. unfortunately the people in charge of GWS were too Victorian centric and somewhat still are. down south AFL dominates all others by a long shot and the media therefore are less likely to question the AFL's directions and/or discissions down there.
GWS were 'the new guys on the block' and instead of playing it quiet and respectful as their place at the bottom of the pecking order requires (like the swans did when they came to syd), instead GWS entered the market big noting themselfs and promoting themselfs anyway they could. GWS acted just like an AFL team would act in Victoria or any other AFL dominate market. unfortunately its not the same up here.
I lost count of how many times AFL fans would say "all publicity is good publicity" and "this is free advertising for the AFL", comments like those showed how little the AFL community actually knew about Western Sydney/NSW and it also had a negative impact towards the GWS brand.
The GWS brand itself will soon become completely toxic if the club doesnt start performing, and sadly its not the current players fault, they are mostly young amarteur boys that were forced into the team and then expected to play against professionals.
If the AFL and its fans think that the GWS brand will not and can not become toxic than they are in utter denial. I mean toxic when not just Sydneysiders or potential fans stear clear but more importantly for the survival of the club Businesses, Sponsers and Corporate package companies will avoid them too if the GWS brand gets much worse. No one likes a looser, and specially a pathetic one. what business would want to be associated with a brand that is known for being the worst team in australia? or the brand that cant succeed?
Also unlike the start of last year and in 2011 the Sydney media has now caught on at how little sydneysiders are actually interested in this team so media interest is currently at the bare minimum, last two week i have not seen a thing on them in the news, admittadly i may not watch a whole news segment, but i have seen large parts of many different news broadcasts and i did see some news on the swans (like one news reader talking about adam goodes and his leg) but NOTHING on GWS. Nothing on how or who they played last weeked, goodes's leg got more airplay then GWS. this could also show evidence of 'toxicity' brewing lol.