Nomads United
Besart Berisha has scored more goals this season than Melbourne Victory or Melbourne City this season but more importantly his first goal for new club has Western United (WU) off to a winning start.
Mark Rudan and his team arrived in familiar territory for the aptly named ‘whacking day’ event where his ageing squad were far too superior for a makeshift Wellington squad who will be nearing the bottom of the table for the majority of the season under trying circumstances. It was the dream draw for the new franchise as it gives the front office one more week to sell the football dream to those spread all over the west of Melbourne (and beyond).
WU will face a far tougher test when Bruno Fornaroli makes his return with his Perth Glory but those behind the scenes at WU will have their attention divided with memberships sales ticking over slower than an FFA advertising campaign.
Off-field the club has taken on board the community club charter with the roadshow travelling to Melbourne, Ballarat, Geelong and beyond but in reality, the club is still effectively homeless. Sure, they have a training facility based in the west of Melbourne but nine games at Kardinia Park and four games in Ballarat doesn’t bode well with building a strong supporter base. Whilst the club is sticking to the directional manta keeping both locations out west, they have taken a huge risk choosing to play A-League football at two largely untried venues in two markets that are significantly adrift from their final home base.
Disturbingly there has been no media throng with a politician or similar with golden shovel in hard for the traditional ground breaking photo opportunity.
On field the club has recruited well, although some payers are more on the experienced side for some pundits. For most of the season the club will be there or thereabouts in the race for a finals position but no real home base could ultimately kill off any chance of success in 2019/20 and 2020/21.
Currently (A-League website) the club membership is lagging behind the entire league with just over 2500 members signing up for the new identity, and accounting for only 7% of all memberships sold by Victorian clubs and over 5000 memberships behind their main rival Melbourne City in terms of fan base. Selling only a third of memberships in comparison to City when you consider how the CFG franchise has been run over the last few seasons would be seen a well below any realistic expectation set by WU shareholders.
Maybe those neutral fans who fell asleep during the Melbourne Derby last week could increase these figures.
For mine the club will not gain momentum until building the proposed stadium comes to fruition. It will be a game changer for Australian football but until this begins Western United will be a nomadic club treading water for a support base.
If you build it they will come…
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