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A-League expansion has again been afforded prominence in the media over recent days, with both head of A-League Damien De Bohun and Central Coast Mariners manager Phil Moss raising the topic.
De Bohun stated this week that come the next broadcast deal, the competition will be considering expansion opportunities.
Additional teams in either Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth were mentioned as the most plausible. The notion of a second team in Brisbane is the first concern.
The Roar struggled from inception to establish itself in the Brisbane sporting landscape, and has only now begun to consolidate its position there – and it took three championships to achieve this.
Football doesn’t have an overly strong culture in Brisbane (who I support), and if the dominant code of rugby league has been unable to sustain a second club in the city, can football seriously expect to do so? Or may it just divide the support base that the Roar have battled so hard to establish, weakening both old and new clubs?
Adelaide and Perth and both relatively small marketplaces, and while richer in footballing culture, so to is Melbourne. The Heart failed to establish itself as a strong alternative to the Victory before intervention from Manchester City, so is it a risk to attempt to establish new clubs in these smaller cities?
Why aren’t alternative cities where clubs are yet to exist being seriously considered as viable options? While I do understand the argument and merits behind a club in Wollongong, I believe that one other location would provide a better opportunity for a successful expansion.
Please allow me to describe my vision for a club located in Canberra.
Darkness descends around a brightly lit stadium, as glove and long-sleeve wearing players almost dejectedly march shivering onto the pitch. A few hundred passionless public servants bitterly place their hand-warming, steaming hot tea on the empty seat beside them to applaud, cursing at opening their body to the wind as wave after wave of sleet settles layer after bone-jarring layer on their polar-fleeced overcoats.
This is the match-day which most readers picture when considering the introduction of an A-League club into Canberra. Why would you bother putting a side there? Well, while this has been my experience at the games of other codes I’ve attended since moving here, I can tell you that this picture would be very, very far from the case for an A-League club.
Yes, winter is truly hideous in the nation’s capital, but football here in Australia is not a winter sport. With an average maximum temperature just one degree below Brisbane’s over the summer, but without the humidity, Canberra’s weather would provide a platform for not just open and fast play, but an environment for a local crowd to enjoy and embrace.
‘A crowd in Canberra? It’s far too small’, I hear you chortle. Well, with a population of more than 411,000, the Canberra region is on par with greater Newcastle, is significantly larger than the Illawarra and almost two and half times larger than Townsville. This is a marketplace that can support an A-League side.
Population isn’t everything, I agree. The Gold Coast showed that a large population alone won’t guarantee adequate support to ensure a sustainable club. Such support is garnered from football culture.
An argument could be made that recently failed A-League enterprises, while having a loyal and passionate pocket of fans, were located based upon a gap on a map rather than locations rich in football history and culture. If West Sydney Wanderers have taught us one thing, it’s that a large demographic and potential marketplace is ideal, but a tradition and passion for the game is more so.
‘Well, that ends Canberra’s bid then”, you giggle. But that’s where you’re wrong. Canberra, despite having no male national league presence since the demise of the Cosmos in 2001, has produced a string of recent internationals. Names including the master of the three-yellow-card-trick, Josip Simunic, as well as Ned Zelic, Ante Juric, Carl Valeri, Nikolai Topor-Stanley and of course Tom Rogic, have been bred through Canberra’s systems.
When you consider that without an A-League presence that could easily drive interest even further, 2012 football player registrations in Canberra (more than 17,000) easily exceeded those of Central Coast (12,500) and the Illawarra region (10,500).
Coupled with the fact a very understrength Socceroos’ Asian Cup tie versus Kuwait almost sold-out Canberra Stadium (more than 20,000), it is pretty clear that the city has a strong passion for football, and is hungry for a club to support.
Why the success of Canberra United in the W-League couldn’t be replicated in the A-League, I don’t know.
Football too, would have a monopoly on the region’s interest during summer. In winter the population is distracted by the Raiders, the Brumbies and the ski fields. In summer, there is no cricket, there is no tennis, there are no beaches. There would only be, the football.
An added bonus to including a Canberra club in the A-League is the colour and attendances that would ensue, both home and away. With easy road-trips to Sydney, Central Coast and Newcastle, as well as ample flights to Melbourne and Brisbane, you can be assured that the Capital Punishment (a popular term coined in Canberra for its active fan-base) would travel to away games in numbers. Teams visiting Canberra will also be able to heavily populate the away terraces at Canberra Stadium.
So here endeth the lesson, and why rather than the dour description of a match-day above, I close my eyes to see a bright, warm, cloudless day – a light, cool breeze blowing the blanket of green and white balloons and streamers which welcome the two teams as they march eagerly, holding the hands of ecstatic juniors, onto the pitch.
A crowd exceeding 12,000 stand as one to applaud their club and their able opponents, greeting the teams each match day not unlike Anfield’s Kop, with song. The tune? Time of Your Life, written of course, by Green Day.
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