Football Federation Australia have entered talks with business and community leaders in Townsville in a bid to help save embattled A-League club North Queensland Fury.
The club’s future is under threat after reportedly losing almost $5 million in its inaugural season and chairman Don Matheson having to scale back his investment in the club.
FFA officials arrived in Townsville on Friday to discuss the club’s future and appear to have embraced rescue plans by Matheson to convert the Fury from a single-ownership model to a “broader community” model.
That means local investors will be offered the chance to buy into a broad-based ownership model, similar to ones employed by the Townsville Crocodiles and fellow A-League club Melbourne Victory.
“To be successful long-term there needs to be wider community and corporate support for North Queensland Fury and it can not be left to one person to drive the club,” FFA chief executive Ben Buckley said in a statement on Friday afternoon.
“We are working through the processes with many interested parties and are confident there is strong support for football to remain in Townsville.
“I strongly encourage everyone in Townsville and North Queensland to get behind the team and show how much they want a successful football club in their region.
“There is a lot of goodwill around the Fury but like any large sporting venture it needs support and investment to remain viable as it builds on the progress it has made in such a short time.”
It is feared if new investors cannot be secured the Fury could fold after just one season but Buckley said the club remained an important part of the expansion plans of the A-League.
FFA also addressed the Fury’s players and staff on Friday and said the process of discussions with the club and potential investors would take “several weeks”.
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Davstar said | March 6th 2010 @ 7:40am | Report comment
I hope they work it out Fury have a bright future. If they can get a youth league team going and keep connecting with the community they can become a successful club.
Chris said | March 6th 2010 @ 7:57am | Report comment
FFA never should have let them in. Teams folding and emerging year after year is a bad look for any competition and one soccer especially would have wanted to avoid given the NSL days. FFA should have looked to build a strong presence in the major cities (ie: 2 teams in Sydney and Melbourne) before expanding to, frankly, a glorified country town. How Townsville got a team ahead of Canberra I will never know.
For mine it looks like someone was looking at a blank map of Australia with pins representing the location of teams and thought that there was a lot of empty space in Queensland. In continuation of that logic expect expansion sides in Darwin and Alice Springs soon. You heard it here first.
“I strongly encourage everyone in Townsville and North Queensland to get behind the team and show how much they want a successful football club in their region.” – They already have one… which is probably why the Fury failed. How anyone thought a city the size of Townsville could sustain two professional sports teams is beyond me.
Punter said | March 6th 2010 @ 8:09am | Report comment
A average crowd of over 7k for a team that was nearer the bottom than the top in their first year with no history shows they could sustain it.
The problem here is the lack of financial backing in the town not the people. They have a better average crowd than the Roosters.
big Kev said | March 6th 2010 @ 9:16am | Report comment
yes but the roosters have a leagues club pumping in millions!
Heartland? said | March 7th 2010 @ 9:36pm | Report comment
Its actually 4 Professional sports teams.
Heard of the Townsville Crocodiles in the NBL? Their average crowds would be very similar to the NQ Fury – and their cost base would be a fraction of that of the Fury.
The 4th being the Cairns Taipans – they’re still in the NQ region.
Joe FC said | March 6th 2010 @ 8:04am | Report comment
There is no such thing as “risk free” in this world. If we choose to strive for success we run the risk of failure.
Vince said | March 6th 2010 @ 8:08am | Report comment
Wonder how much they are looking for community people to tip in each?
whiskeymac said | March 6th 2010 @ 8:46am | Report comment
the support and position on the table, the best marquee, bringing in david williams and mcbreen, recruiting malik and other up and comers etc suggest that the club did as much as could have been expected, where it fell down appears to be the administration. i wld think that having a moderate HAL team in NQ is viable and its a shame that the club’s backers all disappeared after the first season before other infrastructure was in place to absorb some backers leaving. whether this means the license was rushed and the due diligence was faulty is something the FFA can answer. NQ s not the NZ Knights. IF they can get the community behind the club they might even come out of this stronger?
on another note i wld bet the HAL clubs that cd afford him will be clambering for Fowler. will he stay?
whiskeymac said | March 6th 2010 @ 8:47am | Report comment
actually will the clubs better player be lured away? steffanutto appears to want to stay and sit it out but will others?
bever fever said | March 7th 2010 @ 10:29am | Report comment
http://www.abc.net.au/sport/stories/2010/03/05/2838199.htm?site=sport§ion=all
Is this old news or new ?.