Why the push for a third Sydney A-League team is on the agenda
Date October 23, 2015 - 7:00PM
Michael Cockerill
Wheels within wheels. Is the prospect of a grandiose "Home of Football" project near Sydney Airport driving the push for a third Sydney team, a move that may ultimately cost Wellington Phoenix a place in the A-League?
It's been more than 12 months since David Gallop put the Phoenix publicly on notice, and matters are coming to a head. Maybe not as expected.
One of the last acts of the Frank Lowy board will be to clarify whether Wellington have a future beyond this season. At Lowy's final meeting as chairman on Monday, the Phoenix issue will be top of the agenda. Wellington want a 10-year extension of their licence, the FFA have previously offered five. But the prospect of a third Sydney team has raised the stakes. I'd put the chances of Wellington being replaced by a new Sydney team next season at 50-50.
So why has the push for a third Sydney team suddenly gathered momentum? Officially it's all about Gallop's mantra that expansion needs to be based on "fishing where the fish are". That means more capital city teams, more derbies, bigger crowds, bigger ratings. In other words, bringing the sort of numbers the Phoenix don't yet provide to the negotiations for the next broadcast deal, which could well be finalised during the course of the season.
Unofficially, though, there is another element at play. For years the FFA has dreamed of a "Home of Football" in Sydney. Now the stars have aligned for the project to possibly be realised at Barton Park, a 9.7-hectare site owned by a private investor that includes the dilapidated St George Stadium. The catch? To get a large slice of the public/private money to make the $60 million project happen, an A-League team playing out of nearby Kogarah Jubilee Stadium may have to be part of the bargain.
Why the St George area seems to have usurped Sutherland as the base for a third Sydney team is as much about the recent changes to the federal electoral boundaries as anything else. Scott Morrison's electorate of Cook has crossed the Georges River all the way north to Kogarah. One of his closest mates, the former mayor of Sutherland, Kent Johns, is rumoured to be shifting to a prominent position in the federal Liberal Party. There's a lot of clout there and it will be people like Morrison and Johns who will heavily influence whether the federal government will provide up to half the money for the project. Having an A-League team playing out of Kogarah Jubilee, sub-leasing Barton Park as a training base, will help justify the funding to their new constituents. Wheels within wheels.
Nobody is going to deny a "Home of Football", which would provide a training centre for national teams, is long overdue. There is also a credible argument that Sydney can support a third A-League team, although I'm unconvinced this is the right time. But there is a precedent. The seed money for the Wanderers also came from the federal purse via a grant for community football in western Sydney.
But if all this comes at the cost of the Phoenix, I'm out. Expansion isn't expansion if there's contraction. We need more teams, sooner rather than later. Preferably including new markets.
Dumping one of the few existing clubs who have no monetary issues is absurd timing and dumb strategy. Shrinking the footprint of the A-League may help the FFA's bottom line in the short term, but ultimately it dilutes the "whole of the game" mantra being promoted at Whitlam Square. Holding the fact that the Phoenix are Kiwis against them is an easy way out. You don't hear the same argument from netball, Super Rugby, the NRL and the NBL. So what sense is there in football severing its ties with a market of 5 million people, where more people play the game than rugby, even if it's a hard slog?
No doubt the Phoenix need to pull their finger out at the commercial end of the operation. Chairman Rob Morrison doesn't seem to get that his club is in a highly competitive entertainment industry, where getting bums on seats and better ratings requires investment in marketing and, dare we say it, high-profile players. Resurrecting the Petone stadium project wouldn't hurt either.
Morrison will present his submission for a 10-year extension to the board and he needs to have his bases covered. I'm not sure whether Lowy's mind is made up, but you'd expect the board to see the big picture rather than simply the immediate bottom line. That, after all, is their obligation.
If not, the Phoenix will effectively die on December 30 unless Morrison compromises and takes a five-year extension, assuming it's still on the table. The death of a club born out of the ashes of the Knights, when so much of the heavy lifting has now been done, would be a travesty. Even worse if it's for reasons beyond their control.
http://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/why-the-push-for-a-third-sydney-aleague-team-is-on-the-agenda-20151022-gkgg8h.html
