"It's not known whether the Panthers Group would bankroll the A-League franchise - it reported a $10 million loss last season. "

Just a bit off topic, this is the sort of stuff I was talking about in the other thread about other Leagues Clubs dosing badly. Obviously with the Panthers group being 8 to 10 times as big as Saint it can probably wear such a loss relatively comfortably.

No-one here has mentioned that www.westsydneyfc.com.au and www.westernsydneyfc.com.au are both owned by FFA ?

Doesn't mean anything. Most AFL clubs use either an acronym (eg afc.com.au, gfc.com.au), or the club nickname (lions.com.au), or a combination of both (sydneyswans.com.au), at least in part due to cybersquatters.

My favourite is sydneyfc.com.au - no code got that one!

Well the exact same applies to the registered business name then.

No sh*t. And when you don't know a banter thread when you sit on one then maybe you should rotate.

Interesting that they went for "Football Club" instead of 'Australian Football Club' like they did with the Swans and Bears/Lions.

Actually, Sydney are just 'Sydney Swans Limited'. The Lions are 'Brisbane Bears-Fitzroy Football Club' (formerly just Brisbane Bears Football Club).

News today that Tasmania is bidding for the 18th AFL licence. We may not see a Western Sydney club after all

I saw that, Lennon is going to present the bid.

Unsure how much real support he will get from the AFL. But something like this would be huge for the Tasmanian economy.

Also the question has to be asked, how serious is the FFA in coming into Tasmania? If that is a very serious case, then the AFL will be more likely to go into the state.

Lennon would be advisable to bring that angle into his conversations with Dimwitrio.

You're kidding right?

How on earth could Tasmania support an AFL franchise?

They can't. I think Premier Lennon is only doing make noise because he can't afford to be seen not trying. It's all pretty hollow.

It would be a goer ONLY IF the Tassie Government could underwrite the whole thing. What if they chipped in say $7m p.a., throw in the AFL TV grant and the rest came from the usual suspects (Gunns and one of Cascade or Boags as well as smaller sponsors and crowd money).

With the insurance job at York Park, they could build a great facility there too.

uh, you know $7m p.a. is peanuts for even tasmania's state govt (annual revenues of about $4b), and would be seen as the ultimate in 'putting tassie on the map'.

i think that's one thing where the money would be worth something too, there would be genuine benefits to northern/central tasmania in having a team play there every second week.

it'd be like seed funding though, eventually someone with a national brand would be bound to hop on board for the long run.

They'll need a minimum of $25m pa to survive in the AFL - equivalent to what the Broncos earn.

or

$40m pa+ to thrive.

A Launceston based club will be lucky to generate $15m a year so the Tassie govt won't so much be keeping them on a heart-lung machine as building them a robocop life support machine complete with automatic pistol in the right thigh.

It's a publicity stunt.

fair enough.