Are things finally looking up for football fans in Brisbane?

Mike, I don’t know how any self-respecting journalist could be “loath to criticise” the Bakries. Facts are the club has been a train wreck of broken promises and litigation during their tenure and a club’s reputation is currency in football that goes a long way towards attracting players and staff. There’s not a great track record for billionaire club owners in the a-league and my take is that, frankly, the Bakrie’s have done more damage to football in Queensland by running the club so poorly than having no top flight club at all possibly could have - it’s a soulless, passionless shell of the club that won things. Furthermore, in a country where a-league football is at the bottom of the football code food chain in terms of viewers, if you’re relying on billionaire owners for your food stamps then the league is fundamentally unsustainable and broken. I really struggle to see any evidence of a coherent strategy or any ambition at all from Brisbane of the last 5-6 years, many fans feel frustrated by the largely subpar football and incompetence of the club. The amount of money owners spend is nowhere near as important as how it’s spent and the bread and butter of a club with Brisbane’s resources should be juniour development by high quality coaches in their own academy. This is the best, most viable route I see for clubs to make some real money in the long term, by selling talent to bigger leagues. Brisbane’s training bases have been bouncing around since the club started and there has just not been enough focus on youth. The club’s record for engagement with the football community and for building bridges with local and state government is also terrible, having made no inroads to having matches at a better sized stadium in Brisbane than Lang Park is also a failure that the club has to take some ownership of. We have to, as a community, stop accepting failure’s of governance by football administration or the game will never grow.

I still have to grounds on the Gold Coast, Redcliffe and Sunny Coast next week as for an article an interesting idea but I'm a terrible writer.

When that second goal went in, it meant free Bigs Macs for the whole crowd, so the result after that was academic ????

I'd love to see the roar playing out of a slightly redevelop Stadium at QSAC. They played an ACL qualifier I think a few years ago (that game where all the numbers started peeling off). It's a criminally underused venue - mostly school athletics carnivals. It would just take them to ditch the athletics track and realign some of the other existing stands into a rectangular venue. They already have the netball and basketball playing out of the stadium next door. It just needs some improvements in the public transport.

Four roads surround the Gabba precinct at least two of them will have to go underground (tunnel) the media release only mentioned stadia. So will that cost of the tunnels be an add-on, or will it just happen with a wave of a magic wand?

I'll be at Teralba Park on Sunday afternoon for Mitchelton vs Strikers. If last weekend is any guide and barring injury, there'll be a former Socceroo in action for Strikers.

7 EOI's from QLD clubs Brisbane City Brisbane United (Merger of Brisbane Strikers, Wynnum Wolves and Virgina United) Olympic FC Peninsula Power Gold Coast Knights Gold Coast United Sunshine Coast FC Out of those clubs I think Brisbane United, Pen Power, Gold Coast United and Sunshine Coast FC will join NSD Brisbane City and Olympic I think will join Brisbane United and Knights will merge with Gold Coast United

It's a really nice place to be through I have to admit it was a pain to get to as its hidden in side streets full of speed humps and there isn't much in the way of parking there is also no room to expand should City ever be promoted but despite its flaws I enjoyed just being there for some reason Langlands looked good but was hard to get pics and has some construction work going on at the West stand

Hi Dragon, That sounds really interesting and good fodder for article on here I hope. Spencer ahead of Langlands? I haven't been to Spencer since... I can't remember when - certainly before COVID. Has it been upgraded recently?

I went and had a look and took pictures of Carmichael Park (Wynnum Wolves/Brisbane United), Langlands Park (Alt for Olympic and/or Brisbane United), Goodwin Park (Olympic), Perry Park (Brisbane Strikers/Brisbane United), Ballymore (Alt for Brisbane City and/or Brisbane United) and Spencer Park and this is how i would rate them 1st: Ballymore 2nd: Spencer Park 3rd: Langlands Park 4th: Perry Park 5th: Carmichael Park 6th: Goodwin Park Going to look at Knights, CBUS, Bond Rugby, Pen Power, Kayo, Sunny Coast Fire and Sunny Coast Stadium next week to take more pictures

Wow, there you go. Good luck to 'em. I suspect FA will whittle things down and provide some pretty strong incentives for mergers. We'll see...

QRU intend to turn Ballymore into the home of Womens Professional Rectangular Sport in QLD https://qld.rugby/about/ballymore/nrtc

Brisbane City just announced a EOI for themselves

Spencer Park has one decent size stand that is mostly concrete steps and a couple of bolted on Plastic Chairs the big problem with Spencer Park is there is no room to expand the Ground should they ever get promoted but Ballymore is a 5 min walk from Spencer Park

Brisbane City has just submitted a EOI

Wherever Ballymore could be used for Top Flight Professional Sport again depends on if the development of the Eastern Stand goes ahead but QRU intend to turn Ballymore into a Rugby Union Training hub as well as the Home Of Womens Professional Rectangular Sport in Brisbane also Brisbane City have put forward a EOI for NSD if Spencer Park is deemed unsuitable could make a nice home for them https://qld.rugby/about/ballymore/nrtc

Agree. I dont think it is the fact they they play at Redcliffe that keeps the fans away. Even when they played back at Suncorp this year they only attracted about 7K (correct me if I am wrong). The club simply do not connect with the fans anymore, and with the last few years of disappointing football, dud signings, lack of atmosphere, dubious decisions made on the admin side of the club as well as on the pitch…. they need that connection with the crowed to push through the poor results we are seeing on the score board. Win a few games, make some quality signings and re connect with the fan base and I reckon you would see Kayo sell out every week.

Not sure if Ballymore will be able to host many large scale games though. I reckon the Roar and Read could share a redeveloped Perry Park. Gott be cheaper than playing at Suncorp

I just dont think the gvt sees the value in it. Plus after the Gabba upgrade, I reckon they will be pretty skint and paying for it for a long time. We also like to claim the age old argument of anti Football bias. The powers that be just dont rate Football... that argument never gets old.