Yeah that’s probably correct.
Would be an A league club, for definite.
Victory or FC. I think they’ve got the same number of titles now??
great call
could be a toss-up between victory and fc
-edit- my bs alarm is going off though. ~1m increase across all teams in one year? c’monnnnn
most interesting note in the article is that there’s 2m australians who watched “any” soccer but not a-league mens. new fta deal with 10 should close that gap a fair bit in 21/22, maybe 500k or so
I will say
I don’t think it’s just a post-2000 thing that a lot of sports franchises here don’t work
Melbourne must be the most over prescribed sporting city in the world
9 AFL clubs
1 NRL
2 A-league, soon to be 3
1 Union
2 NBL
2 netball
1 state cricket team, 2 BBL franchises
Etc etc etc
Other Australian cities are not far off it.
There’s just a lot of sports teams
They can’t all succeed.
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Don’t forget the mighty Melbourne Pulse
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The NRL Dolphins will only play 3-4 games a year at their Redcliffe stadium and that will be against lower drawing teams. Similar to sending Freo to anywhere but the MCG.
Having a geographical point of reference is important but a balance must be sought between that reference and drawing in supporters and sponsors from outside that immediate area.
Using the Dolphins as an example, being the Redcliffe Dolphins runs the risk of failing to draw support from outside the northern suburbs of Brisbane. It certainly is a double-edged sword however. Gold Coast Suns has never really caught on. If Southport Sharks had won the licence they may have drawn in more support as they already had a strong supporter base. But they may have bombed like the Suns have with quite a number of Southport haters on the GC. Who knows?
Port Adelaide would definitely not have many fans from other SANFL clubs but have the history and support to make it a successful brand.
When Tasmania enters the AFL they may well be based in Launceston and play most games there but they certainly won’t be called Launceston. A shame in some ways there can’t be two teams as a Tassie derby would be a cracker.
The branding value of sports teams is a great topic. So many things influence the brand and so many things can go wrong.
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this is the thinking behind it that i find insane. it’s pure consultant drivel. a-league teams draw support from all over their home states despite being named for the capital (in most instances).
in my ever so humble opinion, you make engagement with your “heartland” moderately harder for the sake of chasing secondary markets that might not even exist.
australia seems to be the only place this happens.
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Appreciate the alternate persepctive No10. There is always the temptation to “beige” your product so anyone can support it, particularly when starting out and really needing the dollars. In practice Sheeds nationalised our club pretty easily by going out to Australia, while still training at Windy Hill and keeping the name of a north-western suburb of Melbourne. Funnily enough people have often complained that Melbourne FC lacks a heartland the way other clubs have one.
I love the romance of characterising a specific locality. A locality brings associations with wealth or poverty, a certain region (obviously), often a way of life (in the sun, high immigration, rural types, a certain industry, etc). If they want to, people can identify with or aganst that locality more than is likely for a Dolphin.
And there might be a value in people’s rejection, grudges and (in a club-supporting sense) hatred. By making a stand to say that you support something, others can be turned off to the point of intensfiying rivalries and media interest. Your own supporters become more passionate. You saw how our membership grew through the saga. I’m not saying for a second that was a good time for Essendon and particularly its players, but sponsors stayed on board and supporters in the main “stood by Hird”. By being willing to put off a few bystanders in our response, we actually grew the club.
Remember those badges that used to be popular at the footy “I hate (insert club here)”? Maybe they’re a little nasty but they sold. If you are trying to sell to a league the attention your new club will bring, not just to itself but to other clubs (particularly in the same state), I think a location name has a lot going for it.
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I am sure the Dolphins marketing gurus toyed with North Brisbane Dolphins as a name to create a local identity. Their stated reasoning for going with Dolphins is to capture (hopefully) the Moreton Bay and Sunshine Coast area. As you say, this may be difficult when you don’t have this part of the world in your name.
Interestingly, the Wests Tigers continue to flounder and it has been suggested the ‘where do I belong?’ nature of the club is part of the reason for their problems. A more permanent move to the western suburbs has been suggested. Penrith Panthers are now the king of the West and will be hard pressed to dislodge.
To my surprise, the Penrith Panthers were named the most valuable sporting brand back in 2013, beating Collingwood into second place. Essendon rated no.9.
Interesting read, albeit seven years old.
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Not that we are going there in this thread - but the timing of this report would be a large part of why our brand came in at number 9. If the report was done in December 2012 rather than December 2013 I suspect we would have been top 5.
Another interesting takeaway from that report is how much the AFL grew compared to Rugby League in terms of unique spectators. In the 15 years from 1995 the AFL added a million unique spectators taking the total number from 1.87m to 2.83m while the NRL only added 100k - 1.46m to 1.56m
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There’s also this about someone anticipating that they may go with Brisbane Dolphins and trademarking the name ahead of them. Also mentions that the bid preferred the name Sunshine State Dolphins.
Interesting to compare to the AFL’s trademark approach when setting up expansion teams. Take for example the list of potential names that the AFL trademarked for Gold Coast. On that same topic, Dolphins was a potential name for Fremantle too.
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I like Brisbane Dolphins. Head to head with the Broncos.
Gold Coast Suns is ordinary, but so too are many of the others 
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if you want to see everything wrong with american ownership of sportsclubs look at manchester united.
It’s all about the owners regardless of where they come from. Liverpool are going just fine with American ownership. Glazer’s are just poor operators
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bit of a study done focussing on the impact of covid on community sport
nothing groundbreaking in the findings. gonna be a few gaps in the external support needed from clubs vs what’s on offer from government and associations.
i think a few associations/comps are going to be suffering a bit of “once bitten, twice shy” after a second year of cancellations and major interruptions following a mostly optimistic summer last year. the aus baseball league has already cancelled the upcoming season, likely because there’s no way they could survive another interrupted season. be interesting to see what else happens in the semi-pro/amateur space.
So, if as expected based on the latest update from Andrews that stadiums likely remain below 100% capacity in 2022, what’s the implication for Essendon’s position on Marvel Stadium? 80% means only 45,000 capacity, insufficient for a performing Essendon. What’s the implication for ensuring the club doesn’t create a big issue of locking g out its fans? MCG clubs won’t be impacted as 80-85,000 capacity is sufficient. Not so for Essendon.
The pandemic may be around for several years. Essendon needs to be careful in addressing its position in the years ahead.
I have missed this. How are they justifying the reduced capacity?
Baseball’s also one sport that relies pretty heavily on imports playing the short Australian season between other commitments
The uncertainty of our covid quarantine restrictions for the 3 (?) month Aus ball season is probably a lot less enticing than it used to be.
Minor & independent league baseball is such an interesting, bizarre landscape, business wise.
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i don’t think that’s a thing
and if it is now, it won’t be by march
even so, how many games in say 2016-2019 did we have more than 47k?
We’ve had 40 something x 45k crowds there since 2000.
So roughly two a year, on average.
Forget 2016, we lost our players. We sold out Marvel at majority of home games between 2017-9. Because of no shows, sell outs were between 43-46,000, when full capacity!