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Can the AFL crack the worlds toughest football market?

National Rugby League boss David Gallop has described Western Sydney as a “football battleground.” A traditional Rugby League strong-hold, and the second fastest growing region in Australia.

The AFL sees West Sydney as being vital to the growth of the AFL brand. Australian Football League Chief Executive Andrew Demetriou says the AFL cannot be considered a national game until it has a team in West Sydney. Can The AFL make in roads in such a competitive football market? Demetriou thinks so

“I would hate to think we’ll be looking back in 20 or 30 years saying gosh, we missed out on that great opportunity in south east Queensland and western Sydney.

If we really want to be a national code and have a national footprint for our game in this country, we need to be in south east Queensland and Western Sydney. That’s not an attack on anyone, that is just the AFL looking at what we’re charged to do and that is grow our game.”

There is no denying that NSW is a rugby dominated state. The AFL sees it as necessary to have a second team in Sydney to become a power in NSW. It is a priority for them to establish a second team out of Sydney within the next decade.

The question is, when is the right time, and can it be sustained? Western Sydney is one of Rugby League greatest and largest nurseries. A place where greats such as, Craig Gower and Brad Fittler, have begun their illustrious careers. The Penrith Panthers have dominated the West Sydney sporting landscape for decades.

But there will be a change with the A-league and Rugby Union joining The AFL in looking to expand into a West Sydney market.

It is easy to see why; West Sydney is the second fastest growing region in Australia, behind South East Queensland. It already has a population of 1.7 million. Western Sydney is home to the Olympic Park precinct that hosted the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

150 of Australia’s top 500 companies are also located in Sydney Western suburbs. It has a community that is historically sport oriented. Population, infrastructure and a sport conscious community all bode well for Footballs expansion into the region.

Having an AFL team in West Sydney could provide great economic benefits and opportunities for the region. Although it is difficult at this point to gauge whether there is enough interest in the sport of AFL for a club to be self sufficient and successful in a rugby dominated region.

There is the possibility the west Sydney market is already too crowded, that another sporting franchise out of West Sydney will attract little or no corporate and community interest. The New South Wales government has the opinion that a team will be viable and have committed 20 million dollars to upgrading sporting facilities in the area

This commitment from the government seems to indicate that getting an AFL team into west Sydney is a priority.

The AFL has got competition in the west Sydney Market. Western Sydney currently has four national teams operating out of the area.

The West Sydney Razorbacks have been a part of the National Basketball League since 1998 and have achieved moderate success. National Rugby Leagues clubs The Penrith Panthers, West Tigers and Parramatta Eels all play out of West Sydney. 

The A-league Australia’s domestic soccer competition has very recently stated it too intends to have a side based in west Sydney as early as 2010. Football Federation Australia chairman Ben Buckley has stated

Australian Rugby Union CEO John O’Neill has staked Rugby Unions claim to have a team operate out of West Sydney’s Parramatta Stadium in an expanded Super 14 competition.

With all the positives about the AFL‘s push into West Sydney. One very important matter remains. The Sydney public is capricious when it comes to their relationship with sport. If there is a barbecue on it will hold precedence over going to watch their team play a football match.

The Sydney Kings basketball team that plays in the NBL once averaged crowds of over 8000 and turned over 5 million dollars per year. Now they are lucky to get 3,000 to a grand final match.

This fickleness is highlighted when over ten thousand fans turned out for game five of the five match grand final series at the Sydney Super dome the kings. Less than a week after a paltry 2500 showed for game two of the same series.

There is a large amount of mystique and plain befuddlement when it comes to Sydney and it’s feeling toward sport.  The AFL’s planned expansion into Sydney provides an opportunity to look at this relationship and question it in more detail.

Sydney Morning Herald Journalist Roy Masters wrote just before the Sydney Swans won their first premiership as Sydney in 2005. “Sydney has a culture of sports hobbyists, people who are happy to hop between codes and clubs as fortunes change, unlike Melbourne, where fans are glued to AFL clubs for life.”

Can the AFL crack the most competitive football market in the world, again?

Clint Thomas