AFL article

Desperate, or just stoopid?

Pathetic either way.

One of the dumbest ideas I've ever heard.

Ever.

Seriously - start a club in the Western Suburbs of Sydney, the most ethnically divided and parochial area of Australia, and land a squad of international players with no local roots to the country, let alone the area, and ask them to build a committed following.

Asking for disaster. I don't mean failure, I mean disaster - permanent damage to the AFL's reputation in Western Sydney and in general.

Agree 100% DD. Most laughable suggestion I think I've ever heard. My big question over this riduculous west Sydney proposal is where do they play? If North and us can't make a profit at the G and the doggies can't at the dome what sort of hope in hell have WS got of making a profit at Homebush? A 100,000 seat stadium with a couple of hundred people in it CAN"T WORK! Wake up Vlad and put teams in Tassie and Darwin.

Agree with both of you

This is stupid. It is not going to work and it is going to damage the AFL

80,000 seat stadium at best you are only get 1 to 2000 people or even less

Agree. Just goes to prove that the AFL is going to have to manufacture a market for the new team.

Why not introduce a Tasmanian team where a market already exists?

Now I for one dont agree with much in respect to how this bunch of bully boyz called Vlads Army wants to go about expanasion. ( I think they are forgettting they are there FOR the clubs..not the other way round !! ). But I must confess I wont dismiss out of hand the ingenuity of this idea. This is definitely thinking outside the square stuff..hell outside the continent really !!

Id like to see more details about this.. it intrigues me. Bit like bringing the mountain to Mohamed !!

I wouldnt be so quick to ridicule this.. of course if nothing is fleshed out.. then its a furphy...otherwise I'll wait and watch.

It's just a smokescreen to take the heat off the wide support for a Tasmanian team which they are choosing to ignore.

Impale youself Vlad!

AFL in Tasmania would be fantastic.

why is mr olympics so blind to this??

here is his chance to give the state something that they truly deserve, yet he believes nsw are going to support another team

develop the swans first..there memberships numbers are dropping and there support is dropping

this is turning our elite game into an absolute joke

i am disgusted

Vlad's real agenda is slowly leaking out.. He doesnt realy want to nationalise Footy..he just wants to rule the world. Should have seen this all along...makes sense now

what a load of rubbish!

fools..

What I don't understand is, how people (mainly the AFL) seem to think that West Sydney, or even the Gold Coast would be more financially viable than Tasmania. Just because they are bigger and more prominent areas means very little as far as I'm concerned because at the end of the day the only way that a sports team can be successful is if people actually care about the team and the code.

The AFL would have to pumper millions of dollars into establishing a team into areas where no one really cares about Aussie Rules. It's as if they think that by having an AFL team there, people will suddenly support the code.

That was probably the NRL's line of thinking when they introduced the Melbourne Storm, who despite having many years of on-field success struggle to get decent crowds and membership in Melbourne.

The AFL would have to pumper millions of dollars into establishing a team into areas where no one really cares about Aussie Rules. It's as if they think that by having an AFL team there, people will suddenly support the code.

You've pretty much nailed it there Clint. I can understand their strategy (expand the code outside its existing supporter base, which won't happen by moving in to Tassie or Darwin), but their tactic (plonk a team in west Sydney) makes no sense at all.

It's almost a Southpark-esque three step plan.

1. Put a team in west Sydney

2. ??

3. Profit!

Its al lpart of Vlad's somewhar hysterical obsession with his own importnace..and indeed by association..that of the AFL. They continually forget they are supposed to be working FOR us. Vlad has an itch and its called expansion into the "new" markets..he needs to scratch !!.. Amazingly an almost bottomless pit of money appears to be availbale for such follies.

In a fashion similar to the ugly sisters, Vlad is attempting to shoehorn ( with aid of hammer ) a fit onto a foot that doesnt seem quite ready for it !!! I do again confes that the Celtic angle is quite different and may have something to it..however in the context of changing the menus in Blacktown and Penrith to read AFL instead of NRL it wil lneeds lots of money...mainly because the NSW public are quite apathetic towards actually going to watch Tier1 sports. ( Alot go to watch junior grades however , but probably no more than we do in Vic ) Look at attendances to NRL and its a joke. We probably almost get as many to our VFL games !! NRL is only kept alive on life support by Media interests. Without it it would fold tomorrow. Its not just the Storm that lives permanently in the ICU. The old days of the riches from the pokies has largely gone for the Leagues Clubs

So much of the battle to get bums on seats to a western Sydney outfit is as much an efort to get people to pay to watch ANYTHING !!

I am just appalled as to how Dictator Vlad and his henchmen can carry on with so little accountability.

By all means see if a Gold Coast team can get up...but not at the EXPENSE of existing teams. By all means see if any real interest can be had by planting heaps of white sticks in teh western burbs of sydney..watch ..take not...then act !!

And by all means support the Tassie Devils to enter and take their legitimate place amongst their peers !!

Still Sqawking Jeff mightnt like that

It's almost a Southpark-esque three step plan.

1. Put a team in west Sydney

2. ??

3. Profit!

Vlad is a bit of an Underpant Gnome.

HOW DARE THEY!

There are only ONE celtics!!

West Sydney Pirates would be a good name, seeing as though they are robbing the upcoming drafts.

It is a ridiculous idea.

What Tassie needs is an A-League side, because wherever the A-League talks of expanding to the AFL jump at.

If it continues that way the FFA should start declaring they'll have teams playing in Katherine, Broome, Lake Eyre, the Moon, and the South Pole - the AFL will rush to match them and send themselves bankrupt.

Unfortunately if West Sydney and the Gold Coast start to fail they'll just do what they did to Brisbane and Sydney, load them with concessions until they win.

HOW DARE THEY!

There are only ONE celtics!!

Yep and they play football in Scotland and are scum.

What a seriously stupid idea, Demented-iou is exactly that demented.

The West Sydney Goldmine

The West Sydney Olympians

Welcome to the AFL, a multi-million dollar organisation run by ass-clowns on crack.

The West Sydney Crack-Pipes you reckon Jaded?

'Dementrio' works for me.

Snivelling sycophant

AFL.com has thrown it's two cents in, suggesting that because Celtic is good in Boston (America's most Irish city) and Glasgow (which might see itself as just a little Celtic itself, round there) it will be a great option in West Sydney, possibly Australia's least-Irish urban area.

'Stu' Also helpfully suggests that a team with an ethnic ring to it won't be a problem, since it wasn't in Boston or Glasgow... I assume he's never seen a demographic/ancestry map of Sydney?

Meanwhile, there's a sinister air around the involvement of Ricky Nixon - it would seem obvious that this is a blatant attempt by 'the Nixer' to boost the market value of his interest in the Irish recruitment camp he runs. The fact that this has been raised so quickly upon him contacting the AFL, apparently within weeks, suggests that the AFL is operating on the fly and is also more than a little susceptible to the persuasions of parties which clearly present a conflict of interest.

The Sydney Celtics idea isn't just stupid, it's a basis for questioning the integrity of the AFL administration.