Demetriou raises the prospect of 20 teams (Herald-Sun)

[one-eyed]

Tassie gets a guernsey in Demetriou vision for the future
    * Sam Edmund
    * From: Herald Sun
    * Wed Oct 21 2009


AFL boss Andrew Demetriou has for the first time raised the prospect of a 20-team competition.

Mr Demetriou last night revealed Tasmania and either Western Australia or north Queensland could be granted the 19th and 20th licences.

"I don't think you can ever say never in this world, but if we were to have another team down the track you would have to say that Tasmania is the logical place for that team to be - and we have expressed that view to the Tasmanian Government," he said.

"Beyond that, if we were to go to 20 teams and who knows, that may or may not happen, you'd have to think it wouldn't be a team in Melbourne because we've got 10.

"But a place like Western Australia, which is a booming state, or even northern Queensland, are the two places that have some attraction."

The new Gold Coast team will enter the competition in 2011, before western Sydney follows in 2012, taking the number of AFL clubs to 18.

Tasmania has fiercely lobbied for the right to host an AFL team since tabling an official bid with the league late last year and even has the support of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

But Mr Demetriou, speaking at a La Trobe University alumni function, said the league was determined to expand the game in "foreign" markets first.

"I just think in the national order of things our priorities have been the Gold Coast and western Sydney," he said.

"We've copped a lot of flak for our move into western Sydney. People say we're crazy, that it can't be done, but we've done a tremendous amount of preparation, risk assessment and due diligence.

"People say it's a great risk, but we believe the greatest risk is to do nothing.

"This won't be like our first venture into Sydney in the 1980s. There won't be any pink helicopters or flamboyant doctors.

"We won't necessarily see the results in the first five or seven years, but hopefully 20 years from now we'll be able to say that it was definitely the right thing to do."

Mr Demetriou also weighed into the debate on free agency, describing disgruntled Saint Luke Ball's failure to move clubs as "unfair".

"In many ways you can understand why players would like this and we're sympathetic to them," he said.

"So what we're trying to do is find the right balance."

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/afl-thinks-big-with-talk-of-20-teams/story-e6frf9jf-1225789047210

[Penelope]

So the sawn off little dick head is now considering 20 teams? Hmm.
In a few years we will have 18 teams. If we lived in world where everything was fair and equitable an 18 team comp would mean that every team wins the premiership, on average, every 18 years. With 20 teams it would be every 20 years.

But as every one knows, the world just doesnt work like that. Winning a premiership in a 20 team would be extremeley hard work and require a fair slice of luck.

I could see people going a whole lifetime without seeing their team win a premiership, which really is a sad situation indeed.

[Hellenic Tiger]

He can't get it right with 16 teams and now he is proposing 20. Vladimir and Anderson  are slowly becoming bigger than the game itself. In their tenure there have been more changes in the game than ever.

[tiger101]

good to see there still thinking about giving tassy a team.

[mightytiges]

Hard to see the benefit of a 3rd WA side. Maybe you might get more corporate support via sponsorship of the new club but I would've thought over there you're either an Eagle or Freo supporter and TV wise they already watch footy. Seems contradictory to the AFL's argument against a Tassie side compared to going after new markets in NSW and QLD.

As for 20 teams  . Talk about diluting the existing talent. You would need a huge boost in youth numbers coming through playing the game to keep the standard up nationwide. The AFL are at best getting way ahead of themselves and at worst daydreaming if they think kids in Sydney are going to turn in their droves to Aussie Rules in most of our lifetimes. Seems Demetriou wants to copy NFL expansion but the USA has plenty of cities and college kids to choose from and as privately owned franchises they just move to a different city if need be finanically. LA for instance despite being the second biggest city no longer has a NFL franchise after having two there for a while. In the NBA only the Celtics IIRC have spent their entire history in the one city.