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Momentum is building for an A-League team based in Tasmania, with independent MP Andrew Wilkie taking the proposal personally to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
According to Wilkie’s website, he met with the PM on Wednesday.
“The Prime Minister gave me a fair hearing and committed to consider the matter” Wilkie said of the meeting.
“I thank the Prime Minister for his time and will continue to look for opportunities to champion the A-League proposal in the Federal Parliament.”
Tasmania represents one of a number of clubs and cities who are pushing for their very own A-League franchise.
Bids from Canberra, Geelong, South Melbourne, Southeast Melbourne, Brisbane, South Sydney, North Queensland and Adelaide are all expected in the coming weeks and months as the race for A-League expansion heats up.
The Tasmanian bid is backed by a number of wealthy individuals. It is believed property mogul Harry Stamoulis and car park magnate Robert Belteky, both former Melbourne Victory shareholders, are behind the Tasmania bid.
“They [FFA] have never had a bid this strong come to them and I would go as far to say that there is a number of potential bidders or interested parties around at the moment and nobody has progressed as far as we have,” Belteky said.
“We’ve got stadiums, we’ve got stadium deals, we’ve got financial backing, we’ve got sponsorship deals, we’ve committed to buying a marquee player so nobody [rival bidders] has put those pieces together on the chessboard.”
Belteky continued, “Tasmania will deliver significant benefits to the A league with enhancing Fox Sports viewer numbers a certainty given the enormous support from government, business and all Tasmanians that we have experienced in wanting to see this materialise. No other bid or location can match this.”
It is believed that the bid has already been promised around $2 million and that their stadium deal is such that they would only need an average of 5000 fans through the gates weekly to break even.
Tasmania’s bid will have to beat a number of others if they’re to be awarded an A-League license in the coming seasons.
It is rumoured that the FFA will make a decision on the new teams to join the decision some time in 2017.
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