13 March 2012

Canberra A-League side before the end of the year???

| johnboy
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Foxsports is carrying the musings of Frank Lowy that Canberra could have a side in the A-League for the 2012-13 season!

Canberra could have a team in an expanded A-League competition as soon as next season, Football Federation Australia chairman Frank Lowy has revealed.

In an exclusive interview with Fox Sports FC, Lowy said that Canberra’s bid met a lot of the requirements for an A-League licence and FFA would look to get the club operating in time for the start of the 2012-2013 season.

frank lowy

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dungfungus said :

astrojax said :

Holden Caulfield said :

I think you’ll find that was shirty_bear’s point. If FIFA will give the WC to Bahrain, despite its long list of drawbacks, then what hope does Australia have.

qatar, actually…

shadow boxer said :

With the entire resources of the FFA and FIFA at its disposal soccer cant even support a ten team comp in a country of 40 million.

which country is that? australia has a population of around 22 million…

if canberra can sustain a team in rugby union, a game played seriously in only a handful of countries, then surely we can support a team in the world game? what we don’t need is some bogan lout like clive palmer funding it; though i suspect if gina reinhardt was keen we’d take her money! i, for one, would go to a-league games when i could and i would be able to ditch my support for sinney fc [as the team of the city of my origin] and follow my team.

i suspect lowy’s ambitions to get another side into the competition that soon are a little short-sighted and/or optomistic, but i applaud his idea per se and think that the nay-sayers should sod off back to their holes and let the myriad fans of the beautiful game have something genuinely local to cherish. watch this space.

How can you call soccer a “beautiful game” when our Socceroos (or should that be Footballroos) played out a NIL- NIL draw with some other team yeasterday and they did not even score 1 goal in the entire qualifying round?

i suggest you go and look at the socceroos’ recent results (and don’t mix them up with the olympic squad’s results) – and don’t classify football on a single team’s results… mebbe look at chelsea’s result at stamford bridge this morning, or lionel messi’s recent performances, or [need i go on to a pathetic nay-sayer?]

astrojax said :

Holden Caulfield said :

I think you’ll find that was shirty_bear’s point. If FIFA will give the WC to Bahrain, despite its long list of drawbacks, then what hope does Australia have.

qatar, actually…

shadow boxer said :

With the entire resources of the FFA and FIFA at its disposal soccer cant even support a ten team comp in a country of 40 million.

which country is that? australia has a population of around 22 million…

if canberra can sustain a team in rugby union, a game played seriously in only a handful of countries, then surely we can support a team in the world game? what we don’t need is some bogan lout like clive palmer funding it; though i suspect if gina reinhardt was keen we’d take her money! i, for one, would go to a-league games when i could and i would be able to ditch my support for sinney fc [as the team of the city of my origin] and follow my team.

i suspect lowy’s ambitions to get another side into the competition that soon are a little short-sighted and/or optomistic, but i applaud his idea per se and think that the nay-sayers should sod off back to their holes and let the myriad fans of the beautiful game have something genuinely local to cherish. watch this space.

How can you call soccer a “beautiful game” when our Socceroos (or should that be Footballroos) played out a NIL- NIL draw with some other team yeasterday and they did not even score 1 goal in the entire qualifying round?

Holden Caulfield said :

I think you’ll find that was shirty_bear’s point. If FIFA will give the WC to Bahrain, despite its long list of drawbacks, then what hope does Australia have.

qatar, actually…

shadow boxer said :

With the entire resources of the FFA and FIFA at its disposal soccer cant even support a ten team comp in a country of 40 million.

which country is that? australia has a population of around 22 million…

if canberra can sustain a team in rugby union, a game played seriously in only a handful of countries, then surely we can support a team in the world game? what we don’t need is some bogan lout like clive palmer funding it; though i suspect if gina reinhardt was keen we’d take her money! i, for one, would go to a-league games when i could and i would be able to ditch my support for sinney fc [as the team of the city of my origin] and follow my team.

i suspect lowy’s ambitions to get another side into the competition that soon are a little short-sighted and/or optomistic, but i applaud his idea per se and think that the nay-sayers should sod off back to their holes and let the myriad fans of the beautiful game have something genuinely local to cherish. watch this space.

banjo said :

dungfungus said :

Holden Caulfield said :

banjo said :

Personally, I am one of the so called “founding members” for a Canberra A-League team and I would rather they keep my foundation membership money and have a go at running a team in next seasons comp, than just walk away and hand my money back. Even if that means we ultimately fail in maintaining local support from both the public and ACT Government in turn becoming financially unviable, at least we can say we tried…

Same.

Do you play the poker machines regularly as well?

Can’t afford to, all my money is tied up in “crazy” ventures like this one…

Great answer – I like your style.

“I also believe that more people over the age of 30 play football than any other sport in Canberra”

I’m fairly sure golf has soccer well and truly covered in that demographic.

dungfungus said :

Holden Caulfield said :

banjo said :

Personally, I am one of the so called “founding members” for a Canberra A-League team and I would rather they keep my foundation membership money and have a go at running a team in next seasons comp, than just walk away and hand my money back. Even if that means we ultimately fail in maintaining local support from both the public and ACT Government in turn becoming financially unviable, at least we can say we tried…

Same.

Do you play the poker machines regularly as well?

Can’t afford to, all my money is tied up in “crazy” ventures like this one…

Holden Caulfield said :

banjo said :

Personally, I am one of the so called “founding members” for a Canberra A-League team and I would rather they keep my foundation membership money and have a go at running a team in next seasons comp, than just walk away and hand my money back. Even if that means we ultimately fail in maintaining local support from both the public and ACT Government in turn becoming financially unviable, at least we can say we tried…

Same.

Do you play the poker machines regularly as well?

I can’t see why an A-league siude couldn’t draw 5-10k per game after all it is played when the Brumbies and Raiders are not playing and our choices of national sports sides in the summer is rather limited (at least quality is there in the womens sides).

Although once the sport in Australia becomes all about the money canberra is bypassed for places that couldn’t care less, but have the greater potential eg. Gold Coast, Western Sydney (talking Giants here).

Yet we have a baseball side because the league is more a development league for the US major league. We never have problem with having a womens side based here eg cricket, basketball and football. Netball being the exception, because of all women team sports, its the most lucrative.

Also if the government do build this new plastic roof stadium, then a summer tennant would come in handy.

My issue is, the a-league bid by Canberra was considered one of the best (apparently so was Tassies, probably because they are not fashionable either), yet they ignored the fact that despite the best bid not quite matchiong all criteria, we’ll choose the bid where we want a team based, even though its rubbish and they are not ready to play. says a lot about the FFA, but i guess they’ve learnt from FIFA 🙂

Holden Caulfield10:37 am 15 Mar 12

banjo said :

Personally, I am one of the so called “founding members” for a Canberra A-League team and I would rather they keep my foundation membership money and have a go at running a team in next seasons comp, than just walk away and hand my money back. Even if that means we ultimately fail in maintaining local support from both the public and ACT Government in turn becoming financially unviable, at least we can say we tried…

Same.

Holden Caulfield said :

banjo said :

shirty_bear said :

jezmezer said :

nobody likes soccer

I suspect they’ve managed to convince themselves that they will get to host a World Cup. By instead awarding it to a desert nation with no stadia, players, or supporters, FIFA have made it clear that it’s not going to happen.

Funny, that is exactly where the 2022 World Cup is being held…

I think you’ll find that was shirty_bear’s point. If FIFA will give the WC to Bahrain, despite its long list of drawbacks, then what hope does Australia have.

Yeah my bad! I misread.

Personally, I am one of the so called “founding members” for a Canberra A-League team and I would rather they keep my foundation membership money and have a go at running a team in next seasons comp, than just walk away and hand my money back. Even if that means we ultimately fail in maintaining local support from both the public and ACT Government in turn becoming financially unviable, at least we can say we tried. At a youth level more kids in this town play football “soccer” than any other sport. But as it has been pointed out in the past there are no local options for senior players and most will have to move abroad to continue in the sport. I also believe that more people over the age of 30 play football than any other sport in Canberra, so if all those that played were to support a local team (which you imagine they would), on paper, the support and turnouts would be better than they are for any of the other codes. I don’t understand why people say that Canberra is too small for another Team to support when the demographics are not mutual, I don’t think it will be a case of “Well I already saw the Brumbies and Raiders this week so I’ll skip seeing “Canberra United” today”

shadow boxer said :

With the entire resources of the FFA and FIFA at its disposal soccer cant even support a ten team comp in a country of 40 million.

40 million huh? At least your ignorance isn’t limited to sport.

how to run a Canberra based sports team:

A – Convince the govt to let you have some community owned land for ‘facilities’
B – After some lean years, sell the land for redevelopment into units – as the ‘facilities’ are no longer suitable.
C – use lobbying and mates to convince govt to expedite this process lest you lose a legal challenge.
D – blow money on march champions

Frustrated said :

Fender said :

Does this joint really need another bunch of losers to subsidise? I think not. There simply is not the population to support another team, albeit a one in a niche sport.

Perhaps ditch one of either the Raiders or Brumbies then, they have sucking tax-payers dollars out of the ACT Govt for years.

Or the Government could just stop supporting them, put them in a cage, and see who survives…

shadow boxer3:56 pm 14 Mar 12

With the entire resources of the FFA and FIFA at its disposal soccer cant even support a ten team comp in a country of 40 million.

The NSL did better than that by just admitting the game was limited to a few ethnic enclaves.

Fender said :

Does this joint really need another bunch of losers to subsidise? I think not. There simply is not the population to support another team, albeit a one in a niche sport.

Perhaps ditch one of either the Raiders or Brumbies then, they have sucking tax-payers dollars out of the ACT Govt for years.

Oh hell. Please keep this news away from actew.

Holden Caulfield11:40 am 14 Mar 12

banjo said :

shirty_bear said :

jezmezer said :

nobody likes soccer

I suspect they’ve managed to convince themselves that they will get to host a World Cup. By instead awarding it to a desert nation with no stadia, players, or supporters, FIFA have made it clear that it’s not going to happen.

Funny, that is exactly where the 2022 World Cup is being held…

I think you’ll find that was shirty_bear’s point. If FIFA will give the WC to Bahrain, despite its long list of drawbacks, then what hope does Australia have.

shirty_bear said :

jezmezer said :

nobody likes soccer

I suspect they’ve managed to convince themselves that they will get to host a World Cup. By instead awarding it to a desert nation with no stadia, players, or supporters, FIFA have made it clear that it’s not going to happen.

Funny, that is exactly where the 2022 World Cup is being held…

jezmezer said :

nobody likes soccer

Yup. There seems to be some sort of collaboration between the media and politicians to pretend that soccer – sorry, “football” – matters in this country. I suspect they’ve managed to convince themselves that they will get to host a World Cup. By instead awarding it to a desert nation with no stadia, players, or supporters, FIFA have made it clear that it’s not going to happen.

And the great majority of the sporting public in this country couldn’t care less.

Be afraid, be very afraid. Something else for the ACT Government to waste money on.

Holden Caulfield9:19 am 14 Mar 12

It was hardly a ringing endorsement. More like lets throw another name into the ring to put pressure on Gold Coast to salvage their franchise.

nobody likes soccer

colourful sydney racing identity8:53 am 14 Mar 12

Well, the Canberra Cosmos were such a roaring success…

Does this joint really need another bunch of losers to subsidise? I think not. There simply is not the population to support another team, albeit a one in a niche sport.

Will never happen…

Isn’t April 1 still about 3 weeks away?

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