Battle intesifies for the 12th spot

In what has been one of the most vigorously contested expansion processes in the history of Australian professional sport, Football Federation Australia is due to grant the 12th licence for a new A-League team in the next fortnight.

The introduction of Gold Coast United and North Queensland Fury for version five of the competition has created a huge buzz among the football community while a second Melbourne franchise has already been handed a provisional 11th licence for the 2010/11 season.

In deciding which consortium will score the latest licence up for grabs, the governing body has number of issues to consider.

Such as:

:: whether they will seek to establish a ‘foothold’ in Western Sydney before the cashed-up AFL and ARU establish teams in the region

:: the possibility that Wellington Phoenix will not be part of the A-League after season 2009/10

:: whether Canberra, the South Coast and Tasmania have the capacity in terms of support and commercial strength to support a national franchise in the long-term.

TWG understands that the FFA set Friday 24 July as the deadline for all bidders to submit their bid documents.

Here is an overview of the bidders, which include three from Western Sydney and one each from Canberra, the South Coast of NSW and Tasmania.

Canberra Bid

Backed by ACT Government and developed by local businessman Ivan Slavich.

Home ground: Canberra Stadium

Team name: Believed to be “Canberra United” like existing W-League team

Focus point: Strong relationship with Football Canberra and ACT Government with a heavy focus on football within the ACT community.

Strengths: Strong football region, home of AIS and excellent stadium.

Drawbacks: Inability to attract and retain players, coaches and executives to the ACT, poor commercial strength and the failure of three previous national football clubs and struggling NRL and Super 14 teams.

South Coast Bid

Backed by local South Coast community and developed by local businessman Eddy De Gabriele.

Home ground: WIN Stadium and ANZ Stadium

Team name: Working title “South Coast Football”, to be decided by the public

Focus point: A focus on South Coast community including a radical plan to include Western Sydney within its territory.

Strengths: Strong football region with no dedicated South Coast ‘only’ football team in any code.

Drawbacks: Inability to attract and retain players, coaches and executives to the South Coast. Poor state of WIN Stadium and smallish population base of 900,000 in its catchment area.

Tasmanian Bid

Backed by Tasmanian Government and Football Tasmania and developed by local businessman John McGirr

Home ground: Unknown. Currently no quality football specific stadiums in Tasmania

Team name: Tasmania United FC

Focus point: First Tasmanian-based professional football team in Australia.

Strengths: Energetic bid to host a national professional football team.

Drawbacks: Inability to attract and retain players, coaches and executives to Tasmania. Questionable support for football and relatively small population, of 500,000, and limited commercial strength.

Western Sydney Bid

Backed by Socceroos captain Lucas Neill as founder and developed by his Australian-based agent Paddy Dominguez

Home ground: Parramatta Stadium

Team name: Believed to be developed but not yet released to public

Focus point: Strong business case with a focus on history of football in Sydney’s Greater West and embracement of the 14 regional councils making up the geographical region. Strong focus on accessibility and affordability for fans.

Strengths: Strong football region with a population of 1.8 million people. Sydney’s ability to attract and retain players, coaches and executive, commercial strength of Sydney and focussed on relationship with football community. Stadium regarded as best football surface in Australia by Socceroos coach Pim Verbeek.

Drawbacks: Parramatta Stadium capacity is only 22,000 and will need to consider alternative ‘larger’ venue for certain 'marquee' matches.

Western Sydney Bid

Backed by colourful 1970’s Sydney identity Joe Meissner and developed by ex-Marconi Stallions coach, Berti Mariani

Home ground: ANZ Stadium and Penrith Stadium

Team name: Greater Sydney FC

Focus point: Relationship with football in Sydney’s Greater West, especially with Penrith Nepean District United (NSW Premier League), Blacktown City Demons Soccer Club and Penrith Panthers Leagues Club (NRL).

Strengths: Strong football region with a population of 1.8 million people. World-class stadium with a capacity of over 80,000. Sydney’s ability to attract and retain players, coaches and executive, commercial strength of Sydney and focussed on relationship with football community.

Drawbacks: Use of ANZ Stadium, which is not well considered by Western Sydney football fans and association with Penrith Panthers NRL club could alienate fans. Seemed to have ignored the traditional football community of Parramatta, Fairfield and Liverpool.

Western Sydney Bid

Backed and developed by player agent, Chris Tanner

Home ground: ANZ Stadium

Team name: Premier State FC

Focus point: Business case where junior football clubs in Western Sydney inject capital and then receive distribution of profits from the club.

Strengths: Strong football region with a population of 1.8 million people. World-class stadium with a capacity of over 80,000. Sydney’s ability to attract and retain players, coaches and executive, and commercial strength of Sydney.

Drawbacks: Use of ANZ Stadium, which is not well considered by Western Sydney football fans. That ‘publicised’ radical and contemporary business model to include traditional football clubs in Western Sydney as investors, as most financial backers of A-League clubs have lost money to date.

source: theworldgame.com.au

What I gathered from this is that Canberra seems to be in 2nd or third place (behind WS bids). The lack of commercial strength really seems to be a problem for our bid.. and not necessarily the start up capital but rather then continual economic costs..

Reading that article, if the only negatives you can find out of the Western Sydney bid is the stadium, then their bid seems to be all good.

Like Toby said, we are 2nd or 3rd in the pecking order.

Drawbacks: Inability to attract and retain players, coaches and executives to the ACT, poor commercial strength and the failure of three previous national football clubs and struggling NRL and Super 14 teams.

Agree with most things there except the failure of the previous 3 football clubs and the struggles of the Brumbies and the Raiders.

The football clubs we had in the old NSL, were never properly ran and I doubt that they did everything this bid has done throughout its process.
Was the Socceroos a regular World Cup team? no.
Was there a decent league? no

Football in Australia has changed forever and I doubt we will ever see Canberra getting crowds of 1,000.

Proud2BeCanberran wrote:Reading that article, if the only negatives you can find out of the Western Sydney bid is the stadium, then their bid seems to be all good.

Like Toby said, we are 2nd or 3rd in the pecking order.

Drawbacks: Inability to attract and retain players, coaches and executives to the ACT, poor commercial strength and the failure of three previous national football clubs and struggling NRL and Super 14 teams.

Agree with most things there except the failure of the previous 3 football clubs and the struggles of the Brumbies and the Raiders.

The football clubs we had in the old NSL, were never properly ran and I doubt that they did everything this bid has done throughout its process.
Was the Socceroos a regular World Cup team? no.
Was there a decent league? no

Football in Australia has changed forever and I doubt we will ever see Canberra getting crowds of 1,000.

Agree 100% and good post.

I think we have got everything going for us except for Commercial strength.

That is why the FFA want Western Sydney.

IMO, 13 teams.

finally a deadline, i just want to get this decision out of the way, and i think that there is a small possibility that us and west sydney will get in but the league number will still be 12.

Toby wrote::: the possibility that Wellington Phoenix will not be part of the A-League after season 2009/10

this throws a spanner into the works IMO.

They should introduce two teams that way if the Phoenix are forced out then the team will have the regular 12 teams and if they don't then they can either have a by or introduce one team for the following season.

^^

spot on. exactly what they should do if both bids are up to scratch which they seem to be.

i think Canberra has a good positon in this... IMO probably the 2nd best bid there after Lucas Neil's WS bid... but im confident we can pull it off

RaidersCampese6 wrote:

Proud2BeCanberran wrote:Reading that article, if the only negatives you can find out of the Western Sydney bid is the stadium, then their bid seems to be all good.

Like Toby said, we are 2nd or 3rd in the pecking order.

Drawbacks: Inability to attract and retain players, coaches and executives to the ACT, poor commercial strength and the failure of three previous national football clubs and struggling NRL and Super 14 teams.

Agree with most things there except the failure of the previous 3 football clubs and the struggles of the Brumbies and the Raiders.

The football clubs we had in the old NSL, were never properly ran and I doubt that they did everything this bid has done throughout its process.
Was the Socceroos a regular World Cup team? no.
Was there a decent league? no

Football in Australia has changed forever and I doubt we will ever see Canberra getting crowds of 1,000.

Agree 100% and good post.

I think we have got everything going for us except for Commercial strength.

That is why the FFA want Western Sydney.

IMO, 13 teams.

yer good post... i agree with most of the drawbacks for Canberra mentioned there except the fact 3 teams failed and brumbies and raiders.... might i say Canberra City were not a failure... the NSL wanted a smaller league and we were the unlucky ones... secondly only one of the failed teams was Inter Monaro.... who played in Qbyn. Plus the brumbies and raiders are not struggling they both have huge amounts of coprate support... the only downside for them is the lack of success recently... not mentioning the 2004 Brumbies win.

JohnLovesCanberraUnited wrote:

RaidersCampese6 wrote:

Proud2BeCanberran wrote:Reading that article, if the only negatives you can find out of the Western Sydney bid is the stadium, then their bid seems to be all good.

Like Toby said, we are 2nd or 3rd in the pecking order.

Drawbacks: Inability to attract and retain players, coaches and executives to the ACT, poor commercial strength and the failure of three previous national football clubs and struggling NRL and Super 14 teams.

Agree with most things there except the failure of the previous 3 football clubs and the struggles of the Brumbies and the Raiders.

The football clubs we had in the old NSL, were never properly ran and I doubt that they did everything this bid has done throughout its process.
Was the Socceroos a regular World Cup team? no.
Was there a decent league? no

Football in Australia has changed forever and I doubt we will ever see Canberra getting crowds of 1,000.

Agree 100% and good post.

I think we have got everything going for us except for Commercial strength.

That is why the FFA want Western Sydney.

IMO, 13 teams.

yer good post... i agree with most of the drawbacks for Canberra mentioned there except the fact 3 teams failed and brumbies and raiders.... might i say Canberra City were not a failure... the NSL wanted a smaller league and we were the unlucky ones... secondly only one of the failed teams was Inter Monaro.... who played in Qbyn. Plus the brumbies and raiders are not struggling they both have huge amounts of coprate support... the only downside for them is the lack of success recently... not mentioning the 2004 Brumbies win.

Well, if Canberra City were one of the richer clubs I am sure they wouldn't have been thrown out of the comp.

But as Proud2BeCanberran said, they weren't run well and with this Canberra A-League team, we seem to be doing well from the ground up. Football in the country has changed forever and the popularity for football in the ACT is bigger and better than ever.

A-LEAGUE 4 CANBERRA