The Olympic Stadium is 1 hour drive from the city in peak hour traffic maybe but it is near the heart of where the Western Sydney team is to be based and where many people live. driving to it is not too bad at weekends and public transport is good - admitedly most swans supporters probably live closer to the city, but still a v poor crowd, but they get 70k to blockbuster games there(collingwood/previous finals) so the location should not be a factor. western sydney will in fact play their home games at the olympic stadium(in fact rumours were that the AFL actually tried to buy a large stake in the olympic stadium)(the AFL are only building a training base complex at Blacktown). now, i live at Penrith(not for long hopefully) and work near Blacktown and there is basically no AFL support here. on friday morning at Penrith i saw a young bloke wearing a hawks jumper, i nearly crashed the car from shock. my nearest Coles is selling those 'green' shopping bags in AFL teams colours - they will never sell except for people who think that the purple ones with an anchor look good but will have no idea that freo are an AFL team(yes there were plenty of the freo bags available) or even what AFL is. on the odd occassion that i've been to Penrith Panthers Club they actually have some of the tvs showing AFL games but maybe 1 or 2 people are actually watching.
But as others have said the AFL want more games for TV and the idea that there will be one game in sydney every weekend and this will help grow the code is probably a valid point. I suppose you'll also get 2 derby games a year which will help no end.
And apparently Auskick has had some affect with really young kids taking up and following the game in sydney so maybe in 10-15 years time there will be supporters who have followed AFL all their life and this will build a culture that the game in sydney can grasp. But in saying that the swans have now been here for 27 years(!), they have been through periods of both sexiness(edelsten) and a premiership, and still the average sydney person(especially out west) barely knows the swans exist. How many millions have the AFL poured in the swans over the years? Even 1 sydney team cannot stand on their own two feet so no-way can 2 teams. In saying that I'm sure the AFL have done their sums and they reckon that they can make the money back from increased tv rights and sponsorships looking forward 10-50 years. I actually think the gold coast and western sydney teams are a response to soccer and are being fast tracked because of the soccer threat.
