Aka springs Shanghai surprise

Hmmm, not sure about this one.


Aka springs Shanghai surprise
July 9, 2008


http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/new...282835330.html


CONTROVERSIAL Western Bulldogs star Jason Akermanis is pushing for his side to play matches in Shanghai.

"We are going to go to it," Akermanis told SEN.

"Playing in Darwin and Canberra and all those places is lovely, they are great for the people there, but why can't we play in Shanghai?

"We are looking at our membership. Ideally we'd play one, two or up to four home games over there a year," Akermanis said.

Akermanis said there was real potential to boost the club's membership and also pick up some recruits to add to the Bulldogs' rookie list.

Akermanis said that he would talk to club president David Smorgon about the proposal when he returned from holiday.

He must have been joking when he said that.

He has been mentioning an extenition into Asia for a couple of years. I don't see why not if they have the facilities and the club could make money which I don't see why not its not as if China doen's have any money.

I personally wouldn't want them to sell 4 home guys interstate/internationally a year.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by namdarb

I personally wouldn't want them to sell 4 home guys interstate/internationally a year.

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Agreed - selling that many games wouldn't be the smartest move. Would be interesting to trial it over a pre-season cup or two though and see how well received we are overseas. Even a little closer to home - a place like Singapore or something could be good.

Interesting idea, but not just yet I don't think.

I think its great thinking and a little left field, but why not. I would not go for four home games though, maybe start with one then build it up. If it works and we get a big financial bonus, I am all for it.

IF TRAVELING TO dARWIN HURTS US WHAT WILL THIS DO? (bloody capslock)

It's good thinking, more ideas the better in terms of trying to get our club up a few rungs of the financial ladder. Whilst selling a home and away game in Shanghai might not work for us in the next couple of years, it is certainly worth doing for a pre-season cup as a trial, with a view to doing it for a round 1 match or our split round match in several seasons. The bigger picture for our club to break into China could far out way us as members missing a game first hand.

I agree it's good thinking and would support a game there rather than playing Sydney in Sydney or Canberra. 4 games is just too many though.

Would we train in a smog chamber pre game?

I think it's naff. I understand we're in need of every dollar, but noone in China cares about AFL football, it's like Western Sydney like that.

I suppose we should also consider whether the Chinese have the right build and make-up to play AFL. Personally I don't, but I'm sure there are countries out there that may and if so we should investigate this, so in essence it should be a package consisting of the given country being interested, willing to participate (at a playing level, own league,have the body make-up,etc) and have the ability to draw big crowds.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jaxson42

I suppose we should also consider whether the Chinese have the right build and make-up to play AFL. Personally I don't, but I'm sure there are countries out there that may and if so we should investigate this, so in essence it should be a package consisting of the given country being interested, willing to participate (at a playing level, own league,have the body make-up,etc) and have the ability to draw big crowds.

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I think the Japs are good at AFL (in that cup for international teams)