Tuesday 8 September 2009
Monday 7 September 2009
Frightening Welcome
I'm not sure which part of this "welcome" is more scary - the featureless android at the front of the poster, or the blurred out mystery man in the background. Good to see Estate Agents haven't lost their famous sense of humour.
Sunday 6 September 2009
Wednesday 2 September 2009
Quality - the cost of expansion
Without wanting this to become a sports-dominated blog, here I go again.
The Australian Football League (AFL) is expanding its 16 team competition in 2011 to 17 teams, and then adding an 18th in 2012. This decision has not been met favourably in many places, and you really hope that the powers that be have invested in a quality crystal ball.
These new teams are going to have an obvious impact on the league, as well as sports in Australia in general. The introduction of the 17th team on the Gold Coast is a risky move, but as the popularity of the team in Brisbane has shown (membership of 26,000 and able to pull crowds of 40,000 - much better than most rugby league teams), the introduction of a team in Queensland may not be a lost cause.
The Gold Coast team have also brought in the left-field choice of Karmichael Hunt (who will be the first commentator to 'slip' on his name?), which is reminiscent of the early Sydney Swans stunts such as the Swanettes and Warwick Cappers' shorts.
The 18th team, to be based in Western Sydney and rumoured to be nicknamed 'The Scrubbers' are a more puzzling choice. The league informs us that this is one of the fastest growing areas in Australia and needs an AFL presence for the sport to survive and grow. Really?
Many AFL fans feel more than a little jaded by this, not least because the majority of teams grew organically from their suburbs, giving fans a sense of connection to the team and their community. The franchise system goes against this spirit and takes a chink out of the integrity of the competition.
Tasmania is crying out to have a team in the elite competition and has 40,000 fans ready to turn up at a game every other week. Further, brewers Castlemaine and Boags would have a bidding war to get their name on the jumpers, meaning that there would be people turning up to games and the club would have some cash coming in. Can the Scrubbers make this claim?
Another up-shot of this expansion is that the new teams will get every draft pick available for the next two years, reducing the number of young & quality players available. While this will mean that players that are currently in the 28-year-old bracket will stand a better chance of being picked up by another team, desperate for players of AFL standard, will it mean a better spectacle for fans? Probably not, which also works against the leagues plan to win over potential Scrubber supporters.
The Australian Football League (AFL) is expanding its 16 team competition in 2011 to 17 teams, and then adding an 18th in 2012. This decision has not been met favourably in many places, and you really hope that the powers that be have invested in a quality crystal ball.
These new teams are going to have an obvious impact on the league, as well as sports in Australia in general. The introduction of the 17th team on the Gold Coast is a risky move, but as the popularity of the team in Brisbane has shown (membership of 26,000 and able to pull crowds of 40,000 - much better than most rugby league teams), the introduction of a team in Queensland may not be a lost cause.
The Gold Coast team have also brought in the left-field choice of Karmichael Hunt (who will be the first commentator to 'slip' on his name?), which is reminiscent of the early Sydney Swans stunts such as the Swanettes and Warwick Cappers' shorts.
The 18th team, to be based in Western Sydney and rumoured to be nicknamed 'The Scrubbers' are a more puzzling choice. The league informs us that this is one of the fastest growing areas in Australia and needs an AFL presence for the sport to survive and grow. Really?
Many AFL fans feel more than a little jaded by this, not least because the majority of teams grew organically from their suburbs, giving fans a sense of connection to the team and their community. The franchise system goes against this spirit and takes a chink out of the integrity of the competition.
Tasmania is crying out to have a team in the elite competition and has 40,000 fans ready to turn up at a game every other week. Further, brewers Castlemaine and Boags would have a bidding war to get their name on the jumpers, meaning that there would be people turning up to games and the club would have some cash coming in. Can the Scrubbers make this claim?
Another up-shot of this expansion is that the new teams will get every draft pick available for the next two years, reducing the number of young & quality players available. While this will mean that players that are currently in the 28-year-old bracket will stand a better chance of being picked up by another team, desperate for players of AFL standard, will it mean a better spectacle for fans? Probably not, which also works against the leagues plan to win over potential Scrubber supporters.
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