Pushing for Sydney's Boundaries

Pushing Sydney's Boundaries

EXCLUSIVE: Just because they’re bidding for Sydney’s second A-League licence doesn’t mean they have to restrict their support base to the city's west, says one franchise bidder.

Former NSL identity Bertie Mariani fronts the Joe Meissner backed A-League bid - one of three bidding groups nominally based in Sydney's west.

But as he told au.fourfourtwo.com, fans in Sydney should not get too hung up about harbour city geography.

He says his bid wants to embrace the entire city and hopes fans from Bondi to Blacktown will form part of its potential support base.

"It is a second Sydney team," said Mariani. "Obviously with Sydney FC having been established for five years and based at the SFS, their geographical place has been established.

"We actually supplement and complement them, according to the FFA requirements. There is no restriction.

"It's like if you live in this area, you have to go to Sydney FC. But obviously, where we're geographically based, we're pretty much focussed on that metropolitan Sydney."

With this in mind, it's possible Sydney franchise bidders may keep "West" out of their name.

Mariani's bid has also not stated categorically that it will base itself at either Penrith, Parramatta or ANZ Stadium. Mariani's team presented its bid with the ground options remaining open.

Instead, they've presented scenarios to the FFA based on these three venues and will work with FFA on the crucial decision of home stadium.

Mariani also brushed aside worries that the delayed decision on franchise 12 was hindering planning but conceded it wasn't helping.

"We wouldn't still be here if we didn't [think we'd be ready]," he said. "If we'd been given the licence say three months ago when Melbourne was basically given its authority, then obviously three months is a lot of time, time which you can get a lot done.

"As it stands, we're three months behind that date, so it obviously makes things a little harder but we are definitely ready to go."

The FFA is due to make a decision on franchise number 12 by the end of this month. The FFA will either award a bid the 12th licence or award a preferred bidder status.

Canberra are also in the race with the ace in their pack being that they can expand the A-League to a new region. South Coast and Tasmania are considered long shots.

Mariani rejected the idea that the talent base in Australia was getting too low to support two more A-League clubs, even though this season's new club North Queensland was clearly struggling.

"We're learning every day," said Mariani. "We're looking at them and seeing what's happened but also the other clubs.

"You've got eight clubs who've been in for four years so there's a lot of information from not just those two new areas. And we are coming around to a time when we're seeing a lot of the fringe Socceroos coming home from overseas.

"Is there enough? Yes, we've got to come up with 20-22 players plus a youth team so I guess the market will have to bear that across the board.

"With respect to the state leagues, that's an area to be looking at. Not only for players, but administrators. We're establishing a football club from scratch."

One talking point from the opening two rounds of the A-League has been the quality of pitches and crowds.

Mariani, while not advocating change to the current scheduling, pointed to previous incarnations of the national league as perhaps an option to be looked at down the track for the A-League.

He added: "The 9,000 in Townsville, it depends on your perspective. It's also in the middle of rugby league and AFL seasons. So you're trying to establish your club and get as much media as possible.

"I think it's right across the board, whether it's two new teams or the whole ten teams, they've got a task ahead of them to try and get media bandwidth at this stage.

"I believe the crowds are slightly down on last season, and last season was slightly down. But at the same time I think that's across the board with most spectator sport.

"You can take a view on football crowds but realistically put it into perspective across all the codes you'll find relatively we're actually not that significantly different."

The NSL would start in the first week of October which meant there was no overlap with other football codes and when the league was at its peak of interest - its finals series taking place in April - the other codes were still in early season mode.

"I don't have an input into the FFA or the A-League, I can only go historically," said Mariani, a former NSL coach with Marconi, Sydney Olympic and Wollongong City.

"Obviously there are a lot of factors you and I wouldn't be privy to. The fact of the matter is we do overlap at a critical time.

"Realistically we're not getting the maximum media coverage we'd expect but there are factors and I'm sure the FFA are aware of the question: 'do we really need to clash with the [other codes'] finals series?'

"I'm sure their picture would be no, but obviously there are circumstances there that make them look at that."

http://au.fourfourtwo.com/news/110212,pushing-sydneys-boundaries.aspx

well if they're doing the same job as sydney FC now then why the hell do they need a team?

if we don't get in 700K people will be left without a team to support,if we do get in the western sydney people can just bit the bullet and drive the 30-45 minutes to see FC play, bunch of whingers.

Sydney eventually need a second team (ie a derby) but I think Canberra would pull in an untapped market and would possibly be a safer bet with crowd numbers?

aleague4canberra wrote:well if they're doing the same job as sydney FC now then why the hell do they need a team?

if we don't get in 700K people will be left without a team to support,if we do get in the western sydney people can just bit the bullet and drive the 30-45 minutes to see FC play, bunch of whingers.

AS Toby said, th should come later on. Western Sydney would be good for the league, but later down the track- like Melbourne Heart. Canberra and South Coast should come ahead of them.

Why does Sydney need another team, they they could only pull 14,000 to their debut game at home this season. That is total CRAP for Sydney! They should get their act together

Alex351 wrote:Why does Sydney need another team, they they could only pull 14,000 to their debut game at home this season. That is total CRAP for Sydney! They should get their act together

western sydney is far enough because sydney is too big apparently for people living in western sydney to go to the SFS, it takes like 90 mins for some people.

if you don't understand what i'm saying just go on the 442 forum and write exactly what you wrote there and you'll see exactly what i mean.

melbourne is the one i don't get though.

Yeah Sydney need a second team.. Melbourne is for the derby which I think is fair enough

why not instead of a second melbourne team they gave the second Victorian lisence to Geelong. Un-tapped football wise, may have to build a new stadium though.