If South Africa are looking to get a team in Europe, could the cut Australian team break into Japan?
Obviously plenty of hurdles, logistical issues and far from ideal, but would it be better then the current alternative which the ARU are pushing?
This is a barrow I've been pushing for quite a while, in particular if the Force are cut.
It harkens back to 1994 when WA soccer was continually isolated from the NSL. Instead, we put a side together to play in the Singapore Premier League called the Perth Kangaroos IFC. They played their games at a very small suburban ground with 5000 capacity and flew to Singapore every fortnight for away games. The "big" early attendances were enough to put the wheels in motion for the creation of the Perth Glory. The Kangaroos operated within budget during the early stages of the season, however the crowds dropped off after we started to win every game by 6 or 7 goals, it was only then, with the crowds down to a hundred or so, did the experiment fail.
I'm curious as to whether Perth could do the same with Japan, especially considering that the Top-League is far more competitive than the Singaporean Soccer League, thus maintaining interest. I also believe that we wouldn't have to maintain a high-budget Super Rugby quality squad; instead, the quality being somewhere between that of the Perth Spirit and the Perth Gold Australian Rugby Shield team, just professional. Being in the summer, the Perth rugby clubs shouldn't have any of the qualms of losing players mid-season.
(Neither would any of our local RL teams either, if we wanted to loan a few prospects from them
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Without the intellectual property rights, the team could play as RugbyWA's rep team, in other words, as Western Australia (maybe with a little 西オーストラリア or 西豪州 on the team logo) which is not a bad thing, seeing as the State's name is a very good geographical identifier.
Considering the lack of time-differences, and a cheaper squad, could this be viable? I suppose the major stumbling block would be whether Japan would even allow us in there. But then, if the SunWolves want to stay in the Australian conference, maybe Western Australia's Top-League inclusion would be considered a gesture of reciprocal goodwill?