Tuesday, April 10, 2012

A-nother league going?

With the A-League there has been quite a few team come and go. The old NSL collapsed and rested to form the A-league. New clubs, new structire, new hope with expansion going into the the Asain champion league. Alas, has that hope and optimism fading? Are the big men of Australia flexing their wallet to restrict the league?

I guess we have all read about Tinky boys antics over the last few days, if you haven't...... Where you been?

Nathan Tinkler has wods of cash. He owns a huge horse stud, Newcastle Knights in the NRL, who signed one of the best coaches in Australian sport on the back of Tinkys take over, and until Tuesday, Newcastle Jets. He does ok for himself in mining also.

The fact he seems to be in the same league as Gold Coast uniteds peer Clove Palmer leads to a volatile situation. If they don't get their way, they will pick up their ball and go home.

It's great that successful Australians want to put their cash into Aussie sport, but is it too much of a double edged sword? I think so. If the A-Leagues Frank Lowy and Ben Buckley allow this fold to happen and allow a foundation club to end then they must go.... Right? Surely this $100m Tinkler would have to pay until 2020 is set in stone to prevent these situations.

It's great to get involvement in a sport, its another to effectively kill a league because 2 fat cats pull involvement.

Does it leave the sporting franchise model on Australia in limbo? We could end up having an NBA situation where teams just change cities.... Not a bad thing for leagues, but a certain way to kill fans involvement and loyalty in a team. Should clubs look at stronger bonds/partnerships with successful owners of clubs overseas? Perhaps the time is right to look at expanding the ownership model.

As a sports follower, I hope this gets sorted asap and the league has 10teams next yr......... Big month ahead for the A-League.

Arc over

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