Southern Sydney the favourite for next A-League licence

THE A-League has officially committed to two new teams by the launch of the 2018/19 season.

With up to 10 submissions from potential clubs throughout Australia, the question for punters now becomes, who will make the best bid?

The Sutherland shire in Southern Sydney is Luxbet’s $3.50 favourite, but there’s hot competition to take part in a competition and industry on the rise.

Why the need for expansion now?

TV rights have a lot to do with it.

Submissions for the new broadcast deal for coming A-League seasons are due this week. More teams means more games. More games means more advertising opportunities, and of course, that means more money.

A final blue print for the smooth and successful introduction for the new teams will come in February.

After losing franchises in Gold Coast and North Queensland over the last five years, many of the game’s pundits agree that the time is right for new, carefully-selected franchises.

A-League boss Greg O’Rourke confirmed the additions, without giving as much as a hint at which bids would be most likely.

“Our primary focus will be on the expansion of the A-League over the next 5-7 years and primarily focused on what is the right number of teams and what are the right geographies,” O’Rourke said.

“That’s not to suggest that inter-dependencies of future promotion and relegation or a second division will be ignored, but it won’t be primary focus.”

“The FFA doesn’t want potential aspirants to spend time and money putting together a proposal and talking to government in a formal way, until they have a clarity of what is required.

“We have been saying for sometime that any new team in the A-League will need to add value for all existing stakeholders.”

The strength of Sydney FC and the newly-formed Western Sydney Wanderers works in favour of a potential Southern Sydney bid, but the competition is hot.

Geelong is the surprise $4 second favourite, while Canberra ($5), a second Brisbane franchise ($6) and the Illawarra ($6.50) are all short in betting.

Perhaps the biggest bolter and the real value in the market is Tasmania, sitting at $10 – especially if they continue to have the support of the Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull.

When asked in parliament last week about a Tasmanian franchise, Turnbull was full of support for the sport-starved state.

“I believe we understand sport and local infrastructure, the infrastructure that supports the sport and communities provides a wonderful rallying point, that’s why we are supporting local infrastructure in Tasmania,” Turnbull said.

Luxbet’s Dylan Atkinson said that there was a good reason Cronulla was leading the betting.

“There has been talk for a lot of years around an A-League team based at “Shark Park”, with Cronulla on record saying they would be interested in ownership of the new side,” Atkinson said.

“Geelong will be a solid choice for punters with millions of dollars spent on Simonds Stadium in recent years and the ground has also hosted six matches in the past decade, with over 21,000 watching the Victory play Perth Glory last year.”

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