When Melbourne Heart unveiled its latest star signing on Monday, it chose to use the empty stands inside Melbourne's soon-to-be-finished rectangular stadium as a backdrop for the former Socceroos star to model the club's playing strip.

John Aloisi need not worry about how the club will find enough quality footballers to play along side him. Prior to his signing, Heart had already secured the services of his title-winning Sydney FC team mate Clint Bolton as well as Socceroo Dean Heffernan and one-time Victory young gun Kristian Sarkies amongst others.

It would be fair for him to wonder, however, how the club planned to fill all those empty seats with fans in red and white when the start of the next Hyundai A-League season rolls around.

As the A-League takes its first foray into establishing a genuine big city rivalry in Melbourne, the Melbourne Heart is a team without a constituency. Traditionally, clubs have found their tribe through geographic and cultural ties, which have delivered mixed results.

Heart, as yet, has no such allegiances on which to call. It has yet to articulate who it is pitching to as the foundation for its support. Who is it that will buy the red-and-white panelled shirt Aloisi modelled? Who will purchase a membership to sit in the seats that will soon need filling if Melbourne Heart is to survive what is sure to be a difficult initiation?

If the Heart hierarchy want to know just how tough things can get for new clubs it need only look at the experience of last year's debutant teams in the Hyundai A-League.

For differing reasons, both North Queensland Fury and Gold Coast United hit heavy seas in their first year on the national stage. Both clubs were cautionary tales about the perils of private ownership and being at the mercy of a maverick pay master or the vagaries of the financial fortunes of their owner.

Both invested heavily in a playing roster and coaching staff with at least one huge name (Robbie Fowler for Fury, Jason Culina for United) hired as a headline act. This was done in the hope that a big name would result in bumper crowds and a fiscal turnover that would offset the heavy start up costs of setting up a football club.

Simply buying a name without finding your tribe was a flop for both clubs as they struggled with numbers through the gate and in North Queensland's case, the cash began to dry up. It was a salutary lesson for the entire A-League that unless you connect with a community you remain a franchise, never a club, and your days will be numbered.

Heart's battle for legitimacy in Melbourne is compounded by the fact that soon-to-be cross-town rival, Melbourne Victory, is the model of an A-League club. It boasts big membership numbers, a passionate supporter base that has embraced Victory's narrative that the club is part of the city's identity as a sporting juggernaut in pursuit of excellence.

Like a politician, Victory has the advantage of incumbency and a proud history established in a short space of time. It has a story to tell before its fledgling rival has kicked a ball in anger.

Melbourne Heart believes that there is a large reservoir of football fans in Melbourne who felt disenfranchised by the establishment of the A-League and who have never embraced Melbourne Victory. The question is, if they've turned their back on the league for the last five years whilst their local team has been winning trophies, why would they now have a change of, dare I say it, Heart?

If Heart wants to know just what a mountain it has to climb it need look no further than across in Perth. By the time the Fremantle Dockers arrived on the scene in the AFL, across the Swan River the West Coast Eagles had won two premierships and had ensconced themselves in the corridors of power and influence whilst the Dockers were left to press their face up against the glass outside and dream about what might be.

Fremantle are still trying to get out of the shadow of their big brother even to this day. I'm afraid Melbourne Heart might find itself doing much the same.

Until it sells itself on what it stands for and who it wants to stand with, John Aloisi might find himself playing in front of those same empty stands he was photographed in.