Sydney is Red and Black

Western Sydney Wanderers take a bow...not just the football but also the fans. You have, in a short time set the benchmark for passionate support in Australian sport. League, Union and AFL don't come near in terms of noise and participation. Melbourne Victory had been the supporters setting the pace but they have been surpassed. The real success story here is not how the side is outperforming onfield but how the West has embraced this fledgling club. You won't read it anywhere but methinks that there are many Olympic, United and Marconi fans actually giving them support. Why not, after all the A and State Leagues barely overlap. It is healthy for Sydney football yet more importantly goes against the stereo type of Sydney sport support being soul-less.....the city is now Red and Black. North Sydney Bears anyone?
I wrote a while back on the issue of a second Sydney side....I think I got a couple of things right. A few of those old NSL supporters were out at Parramatta Stadium tonight!
Two points I would make on this topic. First, the change undertaken to bring Australia the A League, involved marketing people rebranding the sport. They listened to ordinary Aussies and reported back that to become a main-stream sport Soccer needed to move away from ethnic based clubs and in the process reclaim the name 'Football' from the various nationwide pretenders to the title, AFL, League and Union. Recent history shows that this path was embraced with a non-ethnic....territory based model emerging. The one team per city / region idea was one of the base elements of the new eight side A League competition. Unfortunately, taking such a path meant that the old NSL was dead and few, if any of it's good aspects preserved. The old sides of the competition did not go away completely but played on in the various state league competions across Australia. Sydney Olympic, Sydney United and Marconi three of those in NSW. By abandoning these clubs completely our national competion is probably the poorer because we now have a 'disconnect' between the A League and the State competions where these clubs still play.
This takes me onto my second point on the A League and the way forward. Any second Sydney side should be in the Western Suburbs. Unfortunately, the FFA ignored reality and not only failed to foster relations with existing Western Sydney clubs but planned to base any expansion side out of Homebush! What could they be thinking? The NRL proves every year that this stadium / venue is not a week to week proposition for a club side. Why would a new football team want to play in a massive 3/4 empty stadium? This view can be backed up by a story from the old NSL days. Marconi and Sydney United both had sides in the NSL. So what you may say. Well the west not only provided these two National Soccer clubs but they are almost in the same suburb! You can see one stadium from the other! Absurd but even more incredibly no one seemed to acknowledge this...was it because few Sydney, NSW or Australia based people ever went out there to disover this fact? To me expansion of the A League will require talks with these old school participants of the game. Italians and Croatians and others in Bossley Park could put together a strong club using one of their existing stadiums. Nearly a decade has passed since the schism left the old NSL people disconeected from the national game. Here is an opportunity that could bring these elements back to the mainstram and in the process strengthen our National competion, the A League. Frank Lowy probably realises that some welcoming back into the fold is necessary. An A League side based in Bossley Park or Blacktown would deliver a very strong football area back into the fold....time to revisit a few hasty decisions for FFA?