curious said:
Brisbane, and Qieensland for that matter had a head start of many generations of traditional Rugby League support, Dibo. Albeit at state level. They were ready & waiting for decades for national league representation, with an established following. Newcastle were an identical situation.
Brisbane had a vibrant club competition, the BRL, that was practically killed off by the advent of the Broncos. A fair amount of damage was done to grassroots RL in SEQ, if older fans' accounts are to be believed.
In Newcastle there was some resistance to entering the Sydney (NSWRL) comp up to the mid-1980s. The Newcastle Rugby League (aka the "Real NRL" as the locals call it) is still one of the stronger regional comps today.
A similar scenario was played out in Australian Rules. SA were resisting moves to join the AFL right up to 1990, and the SANFL today is still the best-supported state league in any code (a 35k Grand Final this year, a 12k crowd at Glenelg Oval last year, etc). They're a very parochial lot over there. The WAFL to a lesser extent, and the Foundation Day Derby in Fremantle can still draw a big crowd.
The game in Tasmania, once vibrant, was run into the ground because of administration equal to Soccer Australia in terms of astonishing incompetence, with too many self-interest groups running and wrecking the game there. Only now are they slowly sorting it out.
Even at Roar the honeymoon appears to be over with the initial curiosity settling back the last two seasons after a decent first few years. Besides Sydney, Queensland would have to be the most difficult football market in the country.
Queensland has a very large, vibrant grassroots football community. To understand the problems the Roar have you have to go back to the politics of local football in Queensland. The Lions/Roar aren't exactly a popular club in local football circles, kind of like a Manchester United or Bayern Mnich of local football, and got the A-League license on the strength of their social club backing- backing that's guaranteed to dwindle in the current climate anyway. Similarly the Brisbane Strikers mob appear to be resentful of not being given the license.
Gold Coast United, however, have exceeded all for utter stupidity and failure to connect with the local football comunity.
curious said:
David, you might not realise, but you made a good point. The Countries you named (and many other like them) have had football as their traditional #1 sport, and spectator sport, for generation after generation. Very different in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, where their traditional sports with a very strong support and attendance is Gaelic football and Hurling.
Why I say you made a good point is, Australia is in the same boat, along with America and a number of other countries.
Football has always been popular in Ireland, and the support the national team gets and the club sides once got on big nights in Europe would reflect that, however there were also many social pressures that could be explained by the social and political history of Ireland, a subject I don't want to touch with a 40-foot pole on here.
The big difference is that Ireland and the Nordic countries have very easy access to top level football, a short flight or ferry away...
We might make a better comparison with the US and Canada, and of course New Zealand. And all of those countries have produced teams good enough to have qualified for World Cups.
Canada is an interesting case. The game has obviously been more popular there than one might imagine because of strong European influences for decades (and Canadians, remember, will do anything to be "not American"), and Toronto FC get strong parochial support. Yet apart from the a purple patch in the late 70s and 80s driven in no small part by the NASL (where Canadian players, almost without exception, were much better than Americans who played), the national team has never made much impact or captured public imagination. Heck, as recently as the '94 qualifiers they made a serious run at it, ended only by Mark Schwarzer!
