November 15th, 2019
Baseball Spiritual Home: A Second Team?
Today an ownership groups from Fremantle, Port Adelaide, East Melbourne, South Melbourne, East Sydney, and Ipswich met as their bids were listened to by the commissioners office.
The reason these bids are just now being accepted by the ABL, although not officially released, was a rumored "One City One License" clause in the original league constitution. If this truly expires in 2020. The next round of expansion, which could even occur in 2020, may include the first inter-city rivalries. This could be key in developing the passion, especially seen in the AFL and A-League derby matches.
Fans in Western Australia and South Australia are pushing for their states second teams in their states, even if in the same metro areas. One fan said, "Regional rivalries had claimed to be the focus of previous expansion efforts. We've observed this near Brisbane, in New South Wales, and Melbourne will be receiver her second team. Its time for me to be able to travel to a road game that takes less four hours to get to."
The ABL will announce whether the further expansion will take place in 2020 with Newcastle and Geelong or whether that would occur in 2022 or 2024 even. The ABL will also discuss the possibility of promotion regulation or a challengers division within the same league.
The ABL commish Ryan Flowers is expected to respond and have an answer for league expansion.