The A-League is on the verge of expanding, so what teams are in line to become part of the national football competition?
Yesterday I ran the rule over bids from NSW and Victoria, today I’ll assess the rest of the country, then give the final decision on who deserves to make the cut tomorrow.
There are three bids from Queensland, but none are good options.
Brisbane City
Former NSL club Brisbane City have presented a well-endorsed 80-page submission, which will see them play at a redeveloped Ballymore.
With Brisbane Roar’s poor crowds, adding another team could be a big risk. You’d want them to be getting at least 20,000 before that happened.
If Brisbane City find it difficult to gain fans you could just end up splitting the number of supporters that there are in Brisbane and end up with two small teams that both struggle to pay exorbitant bills to Stadiums Queensland.
That won’t be helped if Brisbane City have to share Lang Park with Brisbane Roar during the refurbishment process.
The biggest winner might be rugby union, who own Ballymore.
Ipswich
Ipswich has a population of 200,000 and is projected to grow to 435,000 by 2031.
Its insular, semi-detached nature gives it a separate identity from the rest of Brisbane, which a new team could tap into. But with only 200,000 people, they need to market themselves as a ‘Western Corridor’ bid to improve their metrics.
If they do this, they risk not being seen as a club for Ipswich, which is what will have appealed to locals in the first place. And how many people in Logan will become fans? Do they see themselves as part of a Western Corridor with Ipswich?
With a small population, around 2500 registered players, and being in a rugby league heartland, it might be a bit risky to put a team there.
It’s important to note that the idea for an A-League bid wasn’t generated locally. In an interview with Outside90, former Ipswich mayor Paul Pissale revealed that David Gallop put the idea to him of mounting an A-League bid as a way of supporting an NRL bid, which he himself supported at the same time as he was head of the NRL.
Gallop also wanted them to build a 30,000-seat stadium in Ipswich as part of this plan. The A-League bid would really just be there to support the business case for building it to help get the funding through.
The whole thing just sounds like a David Gallop brain fart.
Gold Coast
Australia’s sporting graveyard must surely be out of contention, right?
While they failed under Clive Palmer, they might have a better chance under new management. This new bid includes plans for a small stadium with a capacity of 10,000 fans. Given that the Titans and Suns have both had average crowds of over 10,000 it’s at least a plausible, albeit modest target.
With a strong grassroots and community focus they might actually be able to reach that number, while they also have a good stadium deal at Robina in the meantime.
But yeah, it is the Gold Coast…
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There are two bids from WA and SA, while the nation’s capital and the Apple Isle are keen as well.
Fremantle
The bid from Fremantle City largely revolves around the idea of creating a Perth Derby, which there has never been in either the A-League or the former NSL. If it’s as big as the Western Derby in the AFL, it’ll sell out the 60,000-seat Optus Stadium.
Fremantle City have approval for a stadium deal that has a break-even point of just 6000 fans. But given that Perth Glory didn’t even reach an average of 10,000 fans last season, this might be easier said than done.
Fremantle City are backed by both local investors and also by Serie A club Juventus. If their bid is successful, they hope to redevelop Fremantle Oval into a boutique, football-specific stadium.
West Adelaide
This bid comes from former NSL club West Adelaide, who want to create an Adelaide Derby.
Adelaide is already united behind Adelaide United and even then, they only had an average attendance of about 11,000 last season.
If this bid is successful, West Adelaide would share Hindmarsh Stadium with Adelaide United.
Canberra
There are 31,000 players in Capital Football competitions and the region has produced many great players, including current Socceroo and Celtic striker, Tom Rogic.
Despite this, Australia’s capital has no representation in the A-League while New Zealand’s capital does. That’s crazy.
Canberra already has a successful W-League team. It would make sense to add a men’s team as well.
Tasmania
The bid that got the expansion ball rolling in the first place was Tasmania.
Tasmania’s first attempt to join Australia’s top flight came in 2004 with a proposal to enter the NSL by a consortium led by Hobart-based property developer Sean Bissett. The bid was unsuccessful not because it wasn’t any good but because the league itself folded.
Then, in 2008 a football taskforce was formed to investigate an A-League bid under the name Tasmania United FC, who submitted a bid to join the A-League in the 2011–12 season, but were beaten by Western Sydney.
(Bloody Western Sydney!)
Now we have a third bid on the table, led by Harry Stamoulis and Robert Belteky, which has broad support.
In an interview with The Mercury, then Perth Glory CEO Peter Filopoulos said, “Going back to the old National Soccer League before Perth Glory emerged it was very much just an eastern state competition and Perth sort of gave it that extra perspective from a national point of view and I think Tasmania would do the same for the A-League.”
He then went on to say, “I know you have 14,000 participants but, hopefully, FFA look at it as an exercise to double and triple that number just by having an A-League presence in Tasmania.”
Tune in again tomorrow, when I reveal which six teams deserve to make the cut.
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