Franchise sport and fans
Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2017 1:12 am
Why would anyone give their support to a franchise? In the US, the San Diego Chargers of 56 years have just uped sticks and moved to LA. Completely sh1tting on fans that have supported them for a lifetime.
Here in Australia all sports are franchise based except Sheffield shield cricket. In the A-League while I've been here, Gold Coast United finished bottom two years running and the league dumped them. North Queensland went the same way a couple of years before. Last season Wellington were threatened with loss of franchise if their crowds didn't improve. Then at the 11th hour given a 3 year licence. What's the point in throwing your support behind a "club" that might only have a 3 year lifespan?
Many years ago in Aussie Rules, which was mainly played in Victoria. The AFL was born to take the sport national. What happens was several clubs were forced to relocate. South Melbourne became the Sydney Swans, Fitzroy Lions the Brisbane Lions, and the Footscray Bulldogs forced to rename the Western Bulldogs to cover the whole of western Melbourne.
TheA-league are talking about expansion at the moment, the A-league as just 10 teams. But going about it completely the wrong way. In the beginning there was just Melbourne Victory in Melbourne. Crowds of around the 20,000 mark. So they thought Melbourne is a hot bed for football, let's have another franchise, Melbourne Heart were born. Trouble being most football fans were now aligned with Victory, and we all know you can't change your club! So Heart struggled with 4-5,000 crowds. They also were at risk of losing their licence. Then Manchester city stepped in and they were saved. They have the most resources in the league, but still only attract 9-10,000 crowds. But the A-League are now looking at adding another Melbourne franchise!! Talk about milking the pot dry! There is a stumbling block though, TV! Every A-league game kicks off at a different time so it can be broadcast live. Foxtel can't fit any more into their schedule so aren't keen on more clubs, so at the moment it's not happening.
It's only happened once in England where a club was taken from one set of fans and given to another. Ima tradionalist, I think history means something. Just hope sport in England does not go down the franchise route, the route were fans really are a commodity to be thrown away at a whim.
I think only rugby league as a kind of franchise system.
Sorry I went off on one there. Hope I made my point.
UTC.
Here in Australia all sports are franchise based except Sheffield shield cricket. In the A-League while I've been here, Gold Coast United finished bottom two years running and the league dumped them. North Queensland went the same way a couple of years before. Last season Wellington were threatened with loss of franchise if their crowds didn't improve. Then at the 11th hour given a 3 year licence. What's the point in throwing your support behind a "club" that might only have a 3 year lifespan?
Many years ago in Aussie Rules, which was mainly played in Victoria. The AFL was born to take the sport national. What happens was several clubs were forced to relocate. South Melbourne became the Sydney Swans, Fitzroy Lions the Brisbane Lions, and the Footscray Bulldogs forced to rename the Western Bulldogs to cover the whole of western Melbourne.
TheA-league are talking about expansion at the moment, the A-league as just 10 teams. But going about it completely the wrong way. In the beginning there was just Melbourne Victory in Melbourne. Crowds of around the 20,000 mark. So they thought Melbourne is a hot bed for football, let's have another franchise, Melbourne Heart were born. Trouble being most football fans were now aligned with Victory, and we all know you can't change your club! So Heart struggled with 4-5,000 crowds. They also were at risk of losing their licence. Then Manchester city stepped in and they were saved. They have the most resources in the league, but still only attract 9-10,000 crowds. But the A-League are now looking at adding another Melbourne franchise!! Talk about milking the pot dry! There is a stumbling block though, TV! Every A-league game kicks off at a different time so it can be broadcast live. Foxtel can't fit any more into their schedule so aren't keen on more clubs, so at the moment it's not happening.
It's only happened once in England where a club was taken from one set of fans and given to another. Ima tradionalist, I think history means something. Just hope sport in England does not go down the franchise route, the route were fans really are a commodity to be thrown away at a whim.
I think only rugby league as a kind of franchise system.
Sorry I went off on one there. Hope I made my point.
UTC.