Australia's newest iconic cup deserves a permanent home

Let's put this myth to bed right now. Canberra turned out in good numbers for the Asian Cup? Garbage. Yes Chinese games in Canberra were close to sold out at 18,000 at the one I was at. And yes about 15,000 plus were Chinese, in free Red China shirts. Representatives, from who knows where, were giving out free tickets and free shirts before the game to anyone, not just the Chinese. Iran and Iraqi fans poured into Canberra from our northern suburb known as Sydney. The buses and traffic from the north made it almost impossible for the Canberrans not at the coast to get across Northbourne Avenue prior to the game. It was one of the greatest games I've ever been to, but if there were more than 4,000 Canberrans at the game I'll eat my Socceroos shirt. Palestine, Kuwait, Oman, Korea Republic pulled in some interested spectator beyond the teams support but few of those games got significantly beyond 10,000. Again there was a sizeable Korean and Palestinean support but the rest - Canberrans I guess, but some crowds were down to 7 or 8,000 at best. The crowds were fantastic in Canberra for the Asian Cup but the idea that this is the basis for putting an A-League team in Canberra is rose glass stuff. There are many reasons why Canberra can have an A-League team, and why it can succeed, but the Asian Cup success has nothing to do with it. Does anyone really think 10,000 plus Chinese or over 10,000 Iranians and Iraqis will pour into Canberra stadium for our home A-League games every week, every year. No didn't think so.

Your Honour, another example!!!!

Gotta love the "my city is better than your city" arguments. So with that, I'll throw my 2 cents in... A wise man once said: To Sydney, God gave everything, and man nothing. To Melbourne, God gave nothing, but man everything.

Sorry jb Was answering your question: "Did England in the 80’s or 90’s play Euro/world cup qualifiers at Old Trafford, anyone know?" The answer is - no (and they haven't since the new Wembley was finished either).

Paris, Epi!!!! But then I wouldn't put Melbourne in Paris's class!!!! However, you could be right, locally Melbourne, internationally Sydney.

Here's the thing. The things Melbourne like to tout about themselves are great restaurants and shopping. But it's not like you can't find those things in other cities. "The Rest of the World" don't fly 18 hours to see great restaurants and shopping. People from other Australian cities might, but a recent survey showed international tourists didn't rate Melbourne anywhere near Sydney. Even Perth seems to be on the rise as one of those destinations that everyone wants to go to as the next hip destination.

Great Idea, but Wembley is a lot closer for people to get to then say Perth to Sydney, or even Brisbane to Sydney. Who would buy a ticket 12 months in advance if their team wasn't going to be involved? In years to come the FFA cup might reach that level, but I don't think its there yet. Personally, I didn't think the FFA cup would take off. But it's been great.

Yes SVB, it's quite ironic!!!!

cm This site you visited is concerned with where England played their "home" games.It correctly points out that over the years the FA tended to use Wembley only when they expected crowds of around the 100,000,the"old" Wembley capacity. One has to appreciate that there were not many grounds in England at that time that could cater for crowds of over 50,000. However we were discussing the Cup Final and in that area the FA Cup Final has been played for an unbroken spell (excluding World Wars etc) at the "old " Wembley Stadium from 1923 till 2000,when work began on the erection of a "new" Wembley. Cheers jb

Punter It's cute how they take it so seriously. I'm pretty sure if you look hard enough, you could find some kind of survey which favours most cities in the world in something.

'It’s not Melburnians talking it up' Haha, I've heard it all now!!!! Melbourne has a lot going for them. But this; '2nd best uni city' 'most livable city' 'sporting capital of the world' You hear no other city in the world talk like this.

Generally the most games tend to be held in the biggest cities in the country. What's wrong with that? I am for spreading it around, however don't make it some kind of charity where we give games away because we feel sorry for some cities. It's also about financial incentive, and the NSW government does well in that area. They were the only state government who took the Asian Cup seriously. Also who cares if Frank Lowy is wearing a SFC hat? I'm a WSW supporter and even I couldn't care less. Would I care if Ange P wore a MV hat at a Socceroos training session? No, I wouldn't.

No, the rest of the world doesn't actually talk you up. I think a lot of the rest of the world would have trouble finding Melbourne on a map.

lol no it's not Water temperature is fantastic up in Sydney. Nice in a holiday sense Issue lies with the political class, Melbourne needs its own Kirribilli House etc

lol This is more about knowing from experience how the FFA thinks, may as well call them Football Federation Sydney It might not be so bad once Lowy leaves, still haven't forgotton that SFC cap when sitting next to then NSW Premier Kristina Kineally Only have to look at the lopsided WCQ fixturing to see where their mindset lies, would be good to see more get played in Adelaide and Perth for example, possibly even Darwin now that the qualifying process has changed and we have to play Kyrgistan etc

Oh yeah Have been working a fair bit Submitted an article on the salary cap which hopefully gets up tomorrow Have another one in the works, was a post GF piece but I think I'll merge it into an Oakleigh FFA Cup/post GF piece now so it's current lol

It's not Melburnians talking it up, it's the rest of the world which keeps talking Melbourne up, giving it awards for most livable city and all the rest. Most recently, it was voted the 2nd best city in the world to be a uni student (behind Paris). It's the rest of the world which keeps talking up Melbourne - shut up and leave us alone!!

So what! That game had a crowd of 77,671 at The G. One of the lowest attendances at that ground for an Aussie rules grand final in over 50 years. Why do we have to compare what we are doing to other competitions??? Especially ones that are well established with a large rusted on fan base???? The FFA Cup is hardly an 'Iconic Cup'. It's barely in nappies compared to other competitions. Let's learn to walk before trying to run.

According to the AFL, Canberra is part of Western Sydney so it makes sense to have it there.

Canberra has night life?