Why United Will Be Bigger Than City

When the West Melbourne Group now Western United got named as one of the two new A League clubs the other is Macarthur South- West United FC in Sydney a few eyebrows were raised at the idea of a 3rd Melbourne team with Melbourne City not yet setting the world on fire since their 2010 A League debut. City currently sit on 10,227 members that is 16,079 behind the Melbourne Victory on 26,306 by far the best in the league but this new team in Melbourne’s West could cut both teams down to size. Starting from next season Western United will be playing games out of GMHBA stadium the home of the Geelong Cats in the AFL a stadium that will hold 36,000 people and a good start for the team. The stadium will not be filled but good enough for the A League club. Come 2022 they will be moving into their new stadium in Tarneit the new Wyndham Stadium will hold 15,000 a stadium perfect for the new club in one of Victoria’s fastest growing cities.

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As someone who lived in Werribee most of his life I can tell you that soccer is massive over here and to have a professional team in this city would be the shot in the arm they need to be up there with Geelong and Ballarat.

 

The biggest worry I see is for Melbourne City. I have always hated that they called themselves Melbourne instead of North, South, East or West Melbourne and they went from the Red and White of the Melbourne Heart to the Sky Blue or “City Blue” and now has a name like the most successful A League club in the Melbourne Victory and the Sky-Blue colour witch best represents NSW. Now Western United do not have the Melbourne name and do not play in Melbourne but have a completely different colour scheme even though they did copy it from North Queensland Fury.

 

Why United will hurt City more than Victory well a lot of A League Supports are in Geelong and the Wyndham area and it’s just simple mathematics that a few thousand from both sides will jump ship Victory might be down to 23 Thousand where the City could be down to about 7-8 Thousand making it one of the lowest in the League.

 

Why is Western United breath of fresh air?  It's finally playing on that Geelong v Melbourne rivalry that has only been seen in the AFL and hopefully Rugby League in the future and it is bringing soccer to Geelong, Wyndham and also playing a few games down in Ballarat so the club should be massive. One of the biggest plus is their unofficial partnership with the new NBL team South-East Melbourne Phoenix’s with both clubs going with the Black and Green approach. I for one can’t wait for the 2019/20 season to start and see what hopefully could be the Melbourne’s Western Sydney can bring to the table