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Put simply, the license for the Fury should never have been granted. Axing the club corrects a decision made hastily in pursuit of A-League expansion and the potential hosting of the World Cup.
Anyone who can remember Year 9 commerce, one of the keys to a successful business is location, location, location!
Here’s are 3 reasons why Townsville was the wrong location for start up football franchise.
Small competitive market
Townsville is a small market with a total population of 180,000. Add Cains, a 3 hour drive away, and you get another 160,000, giving 340,000. With two rival codes, Cowboys NRL and Townsville Crocs NBL, adding a third team trying to complete for the attention of a small city is going to be an up hill task. Add to this the NRL is played in autumn- winter and the NBL spring-summer, accordingly at no time in Townsville is the A-league a stand alone competition.
Look at the Newcastle Jets (or Barca down under with the new kit) as an example of how hard it is. The Jets only have one other team in town (the Knights) and population or a catchment of about 500,000 (within an 1 hours drive) and they still went under and were only saved by last minute by the Nathan Tinkler.
Heat and Humidity
Townsville is in tropical north Queensland and the A-league is played in summer. I am going to repeat that. Townsville is in tropical north Queensland and the A-league is played summer.
This is not your Fijian or Thailand tropics. This is the tropics Australian style. It is a permanent blanket of 100% humidity that is combined with the scorching high temperatures of the Australian sun.
Having holidayed in Magnetic island (off the cost of Townsville) twice in summer, I have experienced the all encompassing heat and humidity of far north QLD. I have always been a fan of an afternoon beer on holidays, but I tell you now the taboo of the breakfast beer was broken by the pool, day after sweltering day.
Plus the locals suggested the remedy after enquiring on my second day of how they cope with the heat.
I cannot begin to comprehend playing football at a professional level in these conditions.
Andy Harper argues that the tropical conditions are essential to our integration into the Asian confederacy.
I would refer Andy to a map.
Our biggest rivals as shown in the recent Asian cup are South Korea and Japan. These countries are located outside the tropics. Additionally their leagues are played in winter. Also Brisbane in summer is hot and humid enough to offer our players enough variety in playing conditions without reaching the life sapping heat of Townsville The heat lead to bad scheduling of home games, played late at night in pursuit of cooler conditions.
Comparative lack of football culture
This is elitist, but Townsville does not have the football history or culture compared to NSW and Victoria to support a team and get the big crowd numbers you need to turn a profit.
Andy Harper provided me with a greater understanding of the football heritage and the names of some of the state clubs: ‘North Queensland Razorbacks (Townsville), the Capricorn Cougars (Rockhampton) and the Whitsunday Miners (Mackay)’.
As well as some of the players that have come from the region such as, ‘Frank Farina, Steve Corica, Shane Smeltz’ (huh I thought he was a Kiwi?). But these clubs just do not compare to the legacies of South Melbourne, Marconi, Sydney Olympic, Wollongong Wolves, Brisbane Breakers, Sydney United, et al.
Again while the players mentioned before were and are great players, the states of Victoria and NSW have produced some of Australia’s best: Craig Johnston (Newcastle), Mark Viduka (Melbourne), Harry Kewell (Western Sydney) Tim Cahill (Western Sydney), Mark Schwarzer (Western Sydney) Mark Bosnich (Western Sydney) Brett Emerton (Western Sydney), Brett Holman (Sydney) and rising stars like Mathew Leckie (Melbourne).
This lack of history emphasises that Townsville is the frontier of football in Australia while NSW and Victoria are the home of football in Australia
Some people might say if the license was granted in the first place then the FFA should stick by the club. I disagree, the FFA made a mistake (one of many) in the first place granting the license.
They entrusted it to Don Matheson (a golfer?), who also promised the capital to support the club, then when Fury lost
$5 million in one year he decided to cut and run.
For the three reasons listed above Townsville was not and is still not the right location for a football club. Despite the impassioned support of hundreds of fury fans and the loss of face to the public the FFA are right to axe the club. Keeping it would be another mistake, however Adrian is right, the timing of the announcement could have been better.
I hope this is the low-tide mark the A-League and this is the first many hard yet necessary decisions made by the FFA.
I hope they go on to right more wrongs, let’s hope free to air television is next.
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