Alan Johnson is the Managing Director of the Ramada Inn in West Hollywood. He has strong links with the Australian Expat community in L.A. and with the North Melbourne Kangaroos as the ex-Chairman of the North Melbourne Football Club. His drive to make an AFL exhibition game happen as part of the Australia Week 2006 festivities will see Hollywood play host to AFL and USAFL football followed by a week long salute to Australia's other fine exports including the arts, food and wine, fashion. The local support is stong and it appears that the match will be a sell out. Here we preview the event and talk to first-time US coach Tom Ellis.

Disclaimer: The opinions in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the USAFL, its board, its member clubs or WFN.

While it is all well and good to say that developing footy internationally is important or to say the U.S. is an important market for talent and supporters, developing footy in the U.S. takes money. How much money? Does the AFL need to bear the burden of the funding? Is USFooty self-sustaining?

While the US Footy season pretty much finishes with the Nationals in early October, some footy continues on through the US winter. While in many parts of the US it is virtually impossible to play footy with fields covered in Ice and Snow, some southern regions find the winter months cool for footy.

As fans would know, the much anticipated telecast of USAFL matches into US markets appears unlikely to take place in 2005, despite USFooty's deal with ASTN. Nevertheless, Australian Football's governing body in the United States still holds out hope that ASTN and its parent company can resolve financing issues and deliver in 2006.

The Milwaukee Bombers, a member of the USAFL competing in the MAAFL, are looking for an Australian player to play for them in the 2006 North American summer. No doubt this will be one of many in a growing exchange of Australian Football players in the years ahead as footy continues to internationalise. The following is a release from Milwaukee.

Two key issues for developing Aussie Rules around the world is ground availability and getting players involved in helping their clubs and administrators, not just turning up to play - a luxury not really available to new sports. Recently the Humber College ground used for Ontario Australian Football League finals got an upgrade, with players providing the extra manpower to assist the City of Toronto Parks in completing the job.

The decision to stage the Kangaroos versus Swans game in LA in January is being used as an opportunity for the USAFL to utilise the professional knowledge and skill-base of the AFL and those two AFL clubs, to further their own organisation and players.

The US Revolution will play a curtain-raiser to the Roos-Swans clash against the best Australians in the USAFL, on a weekend that will also feature a camp based on the AFL draft-camp and the inaugral USAFL National Players and Coaches conference.

After all the preparation and build up to the big day, the Bakersfield club, US Footy's latest side, made their match debut. Other "local" Californian clubs joined them for their big day. This report from San Diego's Mike Russell (who travelled out and played on the day) with extra reporting by Brett Northey.

After three successful years overseeing the continued rise of footy in the United States as USAFL President, Mark Wheeler has moved into the position of Australian Liasion, with Robert Oliver taking over the reigns of US footy.

The USAFL National Championships in Milwaukee earlier this month was a huge weekend for footy in the land of the “stars and stripes” for not only the tremendous organizational efforts by the host club the Milwaukee Bombers but also it gave genuine notice that women’s footy had also found a place in the USA. The inaugural National Championship for Women’s footy took place with what was hoped to be four teams but ended up with three. However the intensity and desire for success was still very evident with the prestige of being crowned the first ever USAFL National Champions on the line.