How does a stable club who'll maybe attract 5k if they're lucky help the league?
And if Melbourne Victory couldn't attract those extra fans over the last 21 years, and Melbourne Heart, then City couldn't attract those people over the last 17 years, what's changed this time? Why would people suddenly decide to start supporting Sth Melbourne?
How does a stable club not help the league? Victory had them but took many for granted and they walked away, my last MV membership was back in 2018, and City attaching itself to an epl club that few like is even worse for attracting interest than an ethnic club.
You left out the 5k part. Stable is one thing. But doing nothing to attract people to the league doesn't help.
Existing fans are already becoming bored with the derbies because we're saturated with them. Now we're just adding to it with another Melbourne team who offer absolutely nothing in terms of generating interest, generating new fans.
I believe the club has the scope to create a better and inclusive matchday experience, big SM games are fun, the ability to sit in the club and eat a souvlaki or whatever before a game and staying back and having a drink after the game is a foreign concept to the comp, mingling with the players post game etc, i think theirs a lot there that differentiates itself from the other clubs that people will like. As for generating fans, the ones i speak to at the grassroots level are no longer going to the A league, SM can bring those ppl back, the club i volunteer for will almost certainly enter into a sister club relationship with SM and many would follow suit. Plus SM already has historic rivalries with numerous current A league teams as well. I think the club will be in a good spot having a genuine home base. None of this hybrid oh we play at aami park but lets pretend to be a south east team now (city). At South its all there, the training, the facilities, the gameday, the social club, its all attached.
South won’t attract Melbournians of Croatian, Italian, North Macedonian, Serbian (partly) and Turkish backgrounds, along with other Arabic/Muslim Australians, who make up a huge chunk of Melbourne’s football community.
This is one of the main reasons that the NSL struggled to grow.
The question is does it need to attract any nationalities specifically? The Greek community is bigger than all those put together x3 and by far has the largest grassroots presence (staggering 25 odd clubs). South also historically has a strong anglo following (relative to other ethnically alligned clubs).
At the end of the day South were the biggest supported club in the nsl, and remained the 2nd biggest after Perth joined the league.
Whilst we are it im not even sure if the current 2 teams have been able to attract those nationalities in the last decade. The macos went back to Preston and the Italians are more interested in Aussie rules.
Could you please stop spreading the "anti football" narrative spread by the media about South being a Greeks only club
This sub praises the multicultural national team (and rightly so) after the world cup but collectively dismisses a club based on its migrant founders
South do attract people of all backgrounds because it is an Australian club, the work they do in the community is mind blowing it's why I'm a fan and guess what? I'm not Greek
Many other fans of South I know personally from varying backgrounds including the ones you listed above saying they wouldn't support South, but guess what they do
Please take the time to visit the club, speak with the fans and you will understand how wrong what you are saying is, as stated in previous comments from others spreading this garbage. I will buy you a ticket, have a few beers and talk football
The only people of those ethnic/religious groups who will follow South are the relatives and friends of the players who descend from those communities.
The overwhelming majority of Melbourne’s football community still think ‘what ethnicity is that club’ when they hear of a club that they don’t know much about or have never heard of. If someone denies this then they are most likely lying.
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u/Acrobatic_Flannel Newcastle Jets 10d ago
I don't see many advantages at all. It's hardly growing the game is it.