FFA: 5000 not enough for match

FFA warns: 5000 fans not enough for match

Football Federation Australia is seeking proof tonight that Canberrans want their own A-League team.
The FFA's A-League chief executive Archie Fraser wants people in the ACT to know ahead of tonight's round five A-League fixture at Canberra Stadium that the FFA is monitoring tonight's attendance.

Canberra is now the front-runner for the 12th A-League licence in the 2010-11 competition after the strongest Western Sydney bid, led by businessman Joe Meissner, officially pulled out of the running yesterday.

Two other Western Sydney consortiums remain, one led by former Canberra Cosmos executive Chris Tanner and the other associated with Socceroo captain Lucas Neill. Also in contention is Eddy de Gabriele's Wollongong bid.

Fraser refused to confirm the Canberra bid was ahead of its rivals but said it was in a very strong position.

However, Fraser said tonight's clash between the Central Coast and Perth was important to the ACT, particularly as it was an opportunity the other contenders didn't have.

''I think the crowd is very important ... because it will send a message to us about what appetite the city's got for A-League football,'' Fraser said.

''With a team like Perth participating, who have three Socceroos and are playing exciting football, people should come out and send a clear message.''

Ticket sales so far for the game have been poor.

As of yesterday afternoon, just over 1000 had been sold. Fraser said he would be disappointed if the crowd was only about 5000.

Canberra bid leader Ivan Slavich urged Canberra's fans to come, even if they wanted to stay away in protest at the FFA's delay in decision-making.

''Rome wasn't built in a day, these things take time and we understand that,'' Slavich said.

''Don't be frustrated, don't be cynical, there is no question that we are still very much in contention.''

Fraser said the delay was down to the FFA stringent analysis of every aspect of every bid, and denied they favoured Western Sydney.

''I think it's really just about the FFA going through due diligence to make sure that whoever comes into the league is a financially stable business and football club,'' Fraser said.
''So no, we don't prefer anyone, we've said all along that the Canberra bid does tick a lot of boxes.''
The Canberra Times understands the major hurdle in Slavich's bid is that it doesn't have the required $6million needed to start the club's inaugural season.
The bid has close to $5million, including $2.5million from the ACT Government. It also has 2000 foundation members who have paid $200 each, plus 15,000 who have signed an online pledge.
Fraser said an 11-team league next year remained a possibility but he said the FFA would prefer 12 teams and time was not running out. Melbourne Heart already has the 11th licence and have a chief executive appointed.


''I think it's really just about the FFA going through due diligence to make sure that whoever comes into the league is a financially stable business and football club,'' Fraser said.

''So no, we don't prefer anyone, we've said all along that the Canberra bid does tick a lot of boxes.''

The Canberra Times understands the major hurdle in Slavich's bid is that it doesn't have the required $6million needed to start the club's inaugural season.

The bid has close to $5million, including $2.5million from the ACT Government. It also has 2000 foundation members who have paid $200 each, plus 15,000 who have signed an online pledge.

Fraser said an 11-team league next year remained a possibility but he said the FFA would prefer 12 teams and time was not running out. Melbourne Heart already has the 11th licence and have a chief executive appointed.

canberratimes.com.au

im worried now about how big the crowd will actually be, 5,000 is probably what it would be around

Certainly doesn't looks good. I thought Timmeh said that over 3000 tickets have been sold.

The Start-up money is looking a bit of a stumbling block and I pray that we don't go to just the 11 teams.

^^
yeah unless timmeh got it wrong which i hope he didn't.

the start up money isn't really a worry because once we get accepted more and more investors will jump on board, they aren't willing to commit to something that might not even happen yet.

You know what I think????

I think that the FFA and the A-League4Canberra team have been looking at this forum TBH. Read the article and you will know what I mean.

whereso?

has there been much advertising for the game?? damn well if we can't garner enough support then we don't really deserve a team..

When I saw Ticketek charging $5 to send me my pre paid tickets by pdf I hesitated but when Ticketek's antiquated system managed to make a snafu of the whole damn transaction I cut my losses so I'll be a walk up on the night with daughter and her friend (1st "real" soccer game for them and both hyper excited). If Ticketek have been as piss poor for other people I doubt that advance sales can be any reliable barometer of likely attendance.

Yeah, I hope my ticket wasn't wrong either.... The pax is usually the tickets sold number. It's always been pretty close before.

Tim

Update: some more info on the PAX,

PAX go up every time a ticketek is printed, therefore if there are cancellations or mis printed tickets those PAX numbers have already been used for that barcode and new ones need to generated. This also includes comp tickets given away.

So while not accurate still gives some indication of how tickets are selling.

The other day I went to Ticketek wanting a premium seat on the Eastern Stand $32 and the lady said none were available I was thinking great maybe getting 10-12k for this game and happily downgraded to a $24 ticket.

Now it obviously appears they hadn't even opened that section for sales. Very disappointing!!

pete wrote:The other day I went to Ticketek wanting a premium seat on the Eastern Stand $32 and the lady said none were available I was thinking great maybe getting 10-12k for this game and happily downgraded to a $24 ticket.

Now it obviously appears they hadn't even opened that section for sales. Very disappointing!!

I still managed to buy a ticket there.

Oh Good! I reckon we need 7k minimum for this game... anything less and we are in trouble

IMO 5K is the bare minimum any higher is a success.

also with the world cup of mountain biking on tonight they are expecting 20K to that so we have stiff competition.

aleague4canberra wrote:IMO 5K is the bare minimum any higher is a success.

also with the world cup of mountain biking on tonight they are expecting 20K to that so we have stiff competition.

20k to mountain biking??

^^
i know it's suprising but that's what the numbers are looking like there, drove past today and there was a hell of a lot of cars parked outside there.

I really hope it's more than 5k because that'll probably be the lowest crowd of the season

Alex351 wrote:

aleague4canberra wrote:IMO 5K is the bare minimum any higher is a success.

also with the world cup of mountain biking on tonight they are expecting 20K to that so we have stiff competition.

20k to mountain biking??

how do you even watch that except on tv

^^
it's not just MTB it's also motocross and people doing flips and whatever else.

5193 people attended the game.

^^
decent turn out TBH, when i walked into the stadium it looked more like 2K

To the FFA:

What did you actually expect? The game was played late, so parents would be reluctant to take their kids out. No travelling away fans would attend due to it being on a Friday working day.

I just hope this isn't why the FFA reject our bid.

^^
nah the crowd tonight shouldn't have any effect at all on our bid.

If this game was played in Sydney it would have the same turn out. I reckon that if we had our own team the crowd would double.

Tell me? If Parramtta played host to a Newcastle vs Perth game- which is around the same geographical distance for what Canberra had last night, what would the crowd be? Nothing special AT ALL.

Good point. Perhaps the Western Sydney bid supporters would have turned up in their droves (relative to not having a team) and they maybe would have got what around 5000 people?