The disgruntled fan bases would give AFL other sports a free kick .Yes. and yes again. It would Certainly give there TV numbers a boost. Do you think that Swans and Lions would have got such a firm foot hole in NSW and Qld if there hadn't been such turmoil in our game in the past 25 years? Its not about holding it, its about loosing territory. And giving it away for what ??????? to Alienate more League Fans.
The real question here is why would you want to give them an opportunity? why would you want to alienate league viewers?
According to the Tv figures there are 70 thousand NSW viewers watching the Swans on a Fri night.
And when the Lions were going the numbers would have been similar in Qld.
The Lions don't have a firm foothold in anything in Brisbane mate - they are in big trouble, crowds dwindling year-after-year, financial losses - no one cares here. Do you even do any research before making these kind of claims?
In terms of the Swans, they got a leg up from SL and a few GF appearances around the same time but after 30 years their average crowds have stagnated around 30 - 35k. For a long time they were the only AFL club in town and for all of the cities AFL fans to be pooled into one club and only come up with that figure is not that impressive. On top of that, their TV ratings are appauling. The Giants and Suns are a disaster and aren't getting a foothold in anything anytime either.
Let's take manly as an example. What happens if the worst case scenario plays out for them and their fans and they die completely. The NRL takes the licence and awards it to Perth. At their peak the Sea Eagles averaged 15k so I'll be generous and say that all 15k fans are lost to the game (which is unlikely). Perth will come in and average between 12 and 15k in their first season and slowly as the decades pass, build that up to between 15 and 20k. Then what? After 30 years the Sea Eagles fans have been replaced and a team with a much higher ceiling for growth has come in and the game is actually bigger for it.
A similar situation happened when Norths were lots. Melbourne have more than picked up the slack and the comp and comp value are much greater because it happened. Your stance is actually the one that is sending the game backwards.