Many consortia had tried to launch a new Western Sydney team without success, including at least three separate bids as well as one constructed with Football Federation Australia’s blessing led by advertising executive Ian Rowden (Sydney Rovers) and separately others rejected by the FFA (Football Federation Australia, governing body) including Richie Williams (Western Sydney Wanderers) and another led by player agent, Paddy Dominiguez with the support of Lucas Neill.
FFA leadership had also attempted to kick-start investor and community interest in Western Sydney, including an unsuccessful approach to the Lederer family, a family steeped in football tradition through the late Andrew Lederer (Primo Smallgoods) who was a former business partner of Frank Lowy (Westfields) and co-founder of former NSL Club powerhouse Sydney City Slickers (formerly Hakoah).
After many obstacles and challenges, the FFA were able to obtain over $5M support from the Gillard Government in 2012 to kick-start a new Western Sydney club venture (A-League franchise for Season 2012-13) within a limited timeframe (five months) and harness the inspiration of several community blueprints from previous A-League bids.
With the growth challenges over the last eight years in the newly formed A-League, changes of team ownerships, financial strains from collective losses for A-League clubs ranging from $30M to $40M annually and the exit of several Clubs/regions including North Queensland Fury, Gold Coast United and the FFA providing lifelines to several A-Leagues Clubs there was a major need to develop a different approach, a more fan-centric community approach.
With the FFA’s leadership and some of their key staff (Founding Executive, Chair Lyall Gorman) transferred to meet the challenge of building a new Sydney team, a series of “fan forums” were created to provide renewed engagement with “the lost football tribes of the Greater Sydney.”
It was an opportunity for the people to provide their candid thoughts on name, colours, logos and the cultural values for a new football team.
The idea of fan forums was a key success factor in generating grassroots and community interest which assisted good turn-outs at pre-season trial matches across the region whilst cementing the foundations required to begin a new football club.
Fan power, began to evolve as the team name, colours, logo, coaches, management and team began to emerge.
The interest of Western Sydney fans moved to the terraces with a number of well organised groups forming the Red & Black Bloc (RBB) – the 12th man in the newly named team, Western Sydney Wanderers FC.
Over a decade of unmet demand by the communities of Western Sydney began to be expressed with the fans developing a unique culture of celebration and positive affirmation of the world game, a game that represented so much to the people.
The fans responded from a near sell-out at their first home match at Parramatta Stadium, the same venue that had been used by another new team in the old NSL, Parramatta Power which was set up by Parramatta Eels at the time.
The first home match, a match that I was fortunate enough to attend with my family, three generations of football fans from State League, pre-NSL, NSL, two years without a League and eight years of the A-League.
The fan driven supporter group, Red and Black Bloc, now known as RBB had mobilised the peoples of the West with a passion and a desire to emulate global football fan traditions in the stadium: almost a “theatre of dreams” with an Australian twist.
It was evident, the fans were now part of the whole match experience, on and off the park and they were now not just a 12th man, but probably a 13th and beyond.
Australia, had glimpsed similar scenes at Sydney’s Olympic Stadium when the Socceroos qualified for their first World Cup since Johnny Warren’s Socceroos in 1974.
But this fan experience was home-grown and uniquely tuned to the red and blacks, a new fan enriched experience which was infectious, especially when the Tony Popovic coached team began to win consistently.
The stadium atmosphere created was great entertainment, complimenting the match being watched, even TV fans at home could feel there was something new emerging in the A-League as far as fans having fun in a safe environment on mass.
The RBB and the Western Sydney Wanderers FC fan involvement was quintessentially Australian, multicultural and was transcending all milestones set previously in football and other sports.
The sparse lands of Western Sydney had been brought together to create a new phenomena, a new fan DNA had been born resulting in a debut A-League minor premiership and runner up medals at a sold out Sydney Football Stadium hosted A-League grand final on Fox Sports which hit record audience ratings.
The Red and Black colours of Western Sydney was like a good wine that was born many years before, stored and now was ready to consume.
Against great odds, many failures, great expectations, the Wanderers and their fans had conquered the whole game with an enthusiasm that had been reserved for derby games in Europe or South America.
The fans, are often undervalued in modern professional sport. The Western Sydney Wanderers (WSW) fans had reversed the trend and have now become an integral component of the Club’s identity.
In the US, the Seattle Sounders and what the MLS (Major League Soccer) called the North West experiment echoed fan experiences that were similar to Western Sydney and now are that country’s benchmark.
Western Sydney Wanderers FC now have a commercial opportunity to market, capture new football and non-football fans and build a sustainable Club model that will galvanise the heartbeat of Western Sydney and eventually outgrow Parramatta Stadium.
Sports administrators have dreamed of uniting the Western front, but WSW is “new ground” which other sporting codes (League, Rugby and Cricket) would cherish considering their own major investment in the Western Sydney region.
Congratulations to the peoples and the “footballista tribes” of Western Sydney – you have developed a type of “fan power” that has captured the imagination of the Australian public and many parts of the world.
Global companies have an opportunity to embrace and engage at every level of the world game and its fans in Australia, including the A-League and the Wanderers whilst it is at bargain basement level by international comparisons.
If a company wants to play local and global and be part of a contemporary fan culture, a hybrid of past, current and future fan cultures, then WSW is an example of what is possible and let’s not forget the 1.7M participants in the game of football (soccer) already engaged.
2013 is the time for corporate Australia and our diverse society to act and back the fans.
Theo Fotopoulos is an experienced global marketing executive and Principal Consultant of FOS Group Australia, Asia-Pacific’s emerging leaders in business growth and B2B social media marketing. Recently he established the largest business to business (B2B) football community on Linkedin in Australia with over 4,200 professional members called Australian Football (Soccer) on Linkedin. Fotopoulos works with a number of multi-sectoral clients including many within the global football industry. http://au.linkedin.com/in/theofotopoulos
