TV networks to influence A-League expansion plan: David Gallop

Football Federation Australia has asked TV networks to state their preferred A-League expansion club locations.

FFA chief executive David Gallop: ‘We want to add teams and therefore we’ve asked them for their view of a competition that is 12 teams, not 10.’

Football Federation Australia has asked TV networks to state their preferred locations for A-League expansion clubs as part of negotiations for what it hopes will be a bumper new broadcast deal.

The long-anticipated agreement moved a step closer yesterday, the deadline for network executives to submit their tender documents.

With two new teams to be added for the 2018-19 season — within the next four-year broadcast cycle — TV rights negotiations have become inextricably linked to expansion.

So much so that FFA chief executive David Gallop revealed the desires of networks would partly dictate where the governing body chooses to locate those teams, on the premise that a deal’s value could differ vastly depending whether a new franchise is based in southern Sydney, Brisbane or Tasmania.

“We want them to indicate when they come to us their attitude to not only expansion, but expansion where,” Gallop said.

“We want to add teams and therefore we’ve asked them for their view of a competition that is 12 teams, not 10.”

Gallop said FFA was “not quite” predisposed to certain markets but conceded “it’s certainly something that has been clear in our thinking for a number of years now”.

“I’ve said for some time, expansion is more than the ability to set up a sustainable operation in a geographical location — that’s only half the equation,” he said. “The other half of the equation is adding value to the whole competition and the game.”

It means some expansion bidders could, realistically, be out of contention even before FFA releases its criteria in February, given the governing body hopes to sign a new broadcast deal in the next couple of months. Close to a dozen different parties are waiting on the criteria before they finalise their proposals.

FFA is hopeful of a significant increase on its current deal worth $40 million a year, although Gallop recently tempered expectations of hitting the ambitious target of $80m a year.

AAP