FFA: We are not taking over Brisbane Roar

Yes, but not in Brisbane. Another shot at Gold Coast has to be on the cards. Just because Miron and Clive screwed up their attempt doesn't mean it can't work. Terrific stadium, ready to go.

The population centres in SE Queensland are not far off the total population of Melbourne, so if the league is to continue growing to 14 teams, you'd have to think that there will be a 2nd team from this region.

Exactly. And Jets are in turmoil again with players wages not being met for the third time in four months; not sure how many clubs the FFA can take under administration at any one time but I'd guess it's no more than one - so Tinkler and Bakries will be forced to sweat through their problems, unfortunately though that's not necessarily good news for Roar or Jets supporters.

Yep.

Ballymore is the only alternative and could be upgraded for less than $20m. All other options come in at $150m+ and that ain't happening anytime soon folks!

Lionheart, basically gossip to be fair but from within the local football club scene; and they are no more than stories and I can't attach credibility to any of them but time will tell. My understanding today is that both the club and Bakries have been told to keep out of the Spotlight until after today's GF and some big-ish announcement from the FFA in the first half of next week. The point of my post really was to highlight the bizzare twist and turns that have brought us here, who would have predicted this situation on grand final day this time last year?

Yeah lets try that. Maybe we could get Sydney City Hakoah, Canberra City, Preston Lions, South Melbourne, Melbourne Knights, Sydney United, Sydney Olympic, Mooroolbark, Marconi, Brisbane Strikers, Adelaide City, APIA Leichardt. The clubs would all be financial powerhouses and the matches would draw huge crowds and football would be more popular than ever. We could even shake it up a bit and re-brand the tired A League brand with a new moniker, maybe something catchy like "NSL - the National Soccer League". Yes, bringing in smaller clubs with suburban venues would surely be a winner.

In no particular order: South Melboune, South Sydney and Canberra would be the next three for me. If Nix don't get extended they may well get relocated to Sydney or Canberra. I think Gallup has to think through his plans for second teams in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth - the theory is okay but the reality is none of those cities is proving big enough to support one team.

There's basically enough room for 2 1/2 full size football pitches at Perry Park so there is enough room to build a decent stadium and keep the YMCA. Because of the positioning (of the YMCA) you'd end up loosing part of the second pitch so good for a stadium but not stadium plus full size training. Not sure on Logan but recon the FFA see that as the Brisbane equivent of Sydney's western suburbs (Wanderers are called the drive-bys a Logan team could be called the ram-raiders) plus it's a potential bridge down to the Gold Coast which I think the FFA havd their eyes on still

That is very true. The FFA are smart enough so providing any debts arent massive the FFA will always step in and save the day. But I think it's their preference to let owners stew in their own juices and not provide an easy way out.

Real Agree Canberra and third Sydney team are looking like the next two teams ...

Waz Could the YMCA investment work in with an A-League club i.e if the YMCA have a gym, pool etc ... is there enough room to build a 15 to 20 K stadium ... the Login training facility is that an option...

The issue isn't Brisbane surviving - just whether or not FFA has to step in in the short term again. It does, however, make a nonsense of the idea of a second Brisbane A League club. Gallop can shelve that one right now.

There's two tenants at Perry Park, the YMCA which just had a $15m investment completed and yes, the Brisbane Strikers. Roar being the third using the pitch for NYL/W-League games but still training at Ballymore. Both incumbents would be difficult to move out and both have a vested interest in staying. In terms of next up for the HAL the early runners are Strikers but not sure if they'd plan on playing out of their Logan training base or attempt to stay and upgrade Perty Park, and then an eastern consortium of three clubs who would presumably play out east. Again, the question for any expansion club is where to play, there isn't an obvious choice and a 4th (possibly 5th if NRL expand too) team in Suncorp doesn't seem sensible to me. But there's no obvious rivalries or animosity as you say as in NSW but my expectation would be whoever wins the next license is they are going to target Roar fans big time which, if we continue to suffer the same management incompetence we've had for the past 5 years, could be fatal for Roar or it could get them to smarten their act up. First though we have to survive the next few weeks :(

Waz A nice summary ... is an issue Perry Park is home to the old Brisbane Strikers team... if so and I have heard there is a consortium in Brisbane ... if the licence went to the Strikers and with open forums to say to Roar fans its only a name change just like before when it when from Strikers to Roar ... now back to Strikers ... My understanding many Strikers fans went across to the Roar its not the issue as say some of the Sydney and Melbourne NSL clubs ...

There are options but there is no political will to make any of them work and there's a vocal minority of Roar fans that shout out for Suncorp even though it's not serving the club well. In no particular order I can see three: (1) A brownfield site - find some dirt and build on it, problem is it's going to be out of town meaning transport becomes an issue. There's only two options within central Brisbane: (2) Perry Park - develop that into a 15,000 seat stadium maybe keeping the existing stand for a couple of years. It has good rail transport the drawback being its already got two tenants and I recon it would be impossible to negotiate anything with them in under 3-5 years. (3) Ballymore - by far the most suitable stadium with 12,000 existing seats and a track record of staging soccer. Add a 4th stand to replace the hill at one end and you'd have a 16,000 seat stadium by Christmas. The issue is transport it's served best by busses but with some imagination it would be possible to open up the nearby rail station and having seen the success of the park n ride at Robina this year if something like that could be recreated, perhaps in a couple of locations, Ballymore could work. But Ballymore stadium still needs a lot of work doing to it and the cash-starved QRU wouldn't lease it out cheaply making any potential cost savings questionable. For me playing 10 games in a boutique stadium of 15-25,000 each season and taking 3 or 4 back to Suncorp for a 30k+ crowd makes sense but I see no cash available to make it happen and no political will (the politicians are all over Roar in grand final week but nowhere to be seen the rest of the year, especially right now)

Real Is there a 10K stadium somewhere .... I just see any potential buyer looking at that stadium rental deal and it being an issue ...

There is quite simply nowhere else to go, Mid. Ballymore doesn't work.

lol

Issue that I don't think has an answer is finding a stadium other than Sincorp... its way to big and expensive ... would be better in the short term to use a 10 to 12 k stadium make money and move on... TWAS JON who said the A-League needs to play in big stadiums to become mainstream... we are mainstream today the issues have changed a lot since the NSL days... News being the only real paper in town and their connections with the Broncos is resulting in less coverage than in Sydney.. I have no idea where but like I think SFC should not play in a 43K stadium and should look to move this applies more to the Roar ..