SA Footy

It's 15 years since all the doomsdayers said the local comp would die with the birth of the crows but it's remaining strong with reasonable crowds and offers the football public a really good alternative to the soft TV AFL. The question is will we still have 9 teams and healthy crowds in another 15 seasons? The majority of clubs have good numbers supporter wise but South and West remain a real problem, West showed in 2003 that they still have a following but I believe South have actually lost people since the move to Noarlunga. Hopefully when South get their act together on the field the crowd will come but i have my doubts. What's the general feeling?

gillies8 wrote:It's 15 years since all the doomsdayers said the local comp would die with the birth of the crows but it's remaining strong with reasonable crowds and offers the football public a really good alternative to the soft TV AFL. The question is will we still have 9 teams and healthy crowds in another 15 seasons? The majority of clubs have good numbers supporter wise but South and West remain a real problem, West showed in 2003 that they still have a following but I believe South have actually lost people since the move to Noarlunga. Hopefully when South get their act together on the field the crowd will come but i have my doubts. What's the general feeling?

I don't think we'll have 9 teams in 15 years time. If the comp trends in the same way every other comp is, apart from th AFL of course, we will most likely have 6 teams with (hopefully) healthy enough crowds and sponsors for sustainability.
As to who will go well there is a lot of water to pass under the bridge before then. For all we know Centrals might go broke paying back all their salary cap breaches from the last 6 odd years if the league suddenly grows some gonads .Only South could possibly have bungled the noarlunga move but the league will be ultra keen to ensure a presence down there so they may end up being merger-bait. It's all a guess so we just have to wait and see but one thing is for sure that no club here will have the motivated supporter base any more to pull of a rescue mission ala Footscray if the poo does hit the fan.

Valleysvirgin wrote:

gillies8 wrote:It's 15 years since all the doomsdayers said the local comp would die with the birth of the crows but it's remaining strong with reasonable crowds and offers the football public a really good alternative to the soft TV AFL. The question is will we still have 9 teams and healthy crowds in another 15 seasons? The majority of clubs have good numbers supporter wise but South and West remain a real problem, West showed in 2003 that they still have a following but I believe South have actually lost people since the move to Noarlunga. Hopefully when South get their act together on the field the crowd will come but i have my doubts. What's the general feeling?

I don't think we'll have 9 teams in 15 years time. If the comp trends in the same way every other comp is, apart from th AFL of course, we will most likely have 6 teams with (hopefully) healthy enough crowds and sponsors for sustainability.
As to who will go well there is a lot of water to pass under the bridge before then. For all we know Centrals might go broke paying back all their salary cap breaches from the last 6 odd years if the league suddenly grows some gonads .Only South could possibly have bungled the noarlunga move but the league will be ultra keen to ensure a presence down there so they may end up being merger-bait. It's all a guess so we just have to wait and see but one thing is for sure that no club here will have the motivated supporter base any more to pull of a rescue mission ala Footscray if the poo does hit the fan.

Don't know whether I agree with the last statement, VV, the Roosters were really in the poo a few years ago, the rally that was organised caught the politician's eyes and ears and bought the club a reprieve. The clubs that have set themselves up financially with pubs and profitable pokie parlours will last. The other thing is the SANFL is more small child friendly, the fact that the kids can have a bit of a muck around is a huge plus.

I think the SANFL will always be around, mainly due to it's accessibility (through both locality and cost) ... What size and shape it takes is another matter, but I agree with Mick ... Those with the necessary streams of revenue generation should always be here.

Finger crossed it will be strong but you cant help wondering if their are some rocky roads ahead.....

Interesting question??

Its really hard to say where I think the SANFL we be in 2021, Im sure it will still be reasonably strong but my concern is where will grass roots particulary country footy be in 2021? Without feeder leagues it will all be stuffed! Im not sure what the SANFL have in mind for country footy but they haven't done much in the past so why would they change now?

Hopefully by 2021, the AFL will hit the skids and the SANFL becomes the center of attention again.

Lets face it, if grass roots footy goes arse up, its not just the SANFL that's stuffed, the AFL will be too.

My dream for the league by then will be for a tenth team from the NT. Maybe another two on top of that from the country.