Flashback time, 2019. David Davutovic takes a look at the rejected bids from 2018 to see
which ones are still looking to join A-League or NST. Some of the comments from the clubs:
1 Brisbane City remains very committed to exploring A-League and National Second Division. Queensland needed a second team and a new stadium, with a redeveloped Ballymore and a new boutique stadium among the options that have been discussed. Our current 4000-capacity Spencer Park home, which has 20 corporate boxes, can expand and is ideal for a second division.
2 Canberra. We are still very much alive and pressing ahead and we want to be the next team in the A-League.
Weâve got international football investors that would bring next level expertise to the A-League. They see Australia as a stepping stone into Asia. We havenât lacked money. Discussions are advanced for an iconic new 20-30,000-seat stadium, with Parliament House in the background, modelled on Bankwest Stadium â itâll definitely happen. It will be a whole precinct with hotels, shops and a casino. One of the triggers (for it to be built) is for a summertime tenant.
3 Fremantle City. WAâs lone A-League expansion bid revealed that he is starting a new consortium, albeit with the same aim â getting Fremantle City into the A-League. The club in its own right wonât pursue any further bids, or any interest in a second division participation. A new consortium made up of consultants who worked on one of the last successful bids, with the view of being part of a Fremantle Oval redevelopment, as the successful bids were underpinned by a real estate deal that made the $20 million license fee paid pale into insignificance compared to the upside of the development profits.
4 Gold Coast United. Thereâs still ambition to rejoin the A-League. We donât know whatâs going to happen with further expansion and where the B-League is at. Thereâs plenty of clubs up here putting their hands up for expansion â Brisbane City, Brisbane Strikers, Ipswich, even Gold Coast Knights have been making a few noises about A-League. They own their own ground, which helps.
5 South Melbourne stands ready to participate at the top level of football in Australia. We are big supporters of pathway football hence we welcome the B-League or Championship.
6 SOUTH-EAST VICTORIA. âThe A-League has to have a team based in South East Melbourne,â bid spokesman Matt Windley said. Windley says planning for a boutique stadium next to Dandenong Train Station has continued despite the bid missing out last year, while work at the Casey Fields football precinct, which was the mooted training base, has continued. Asked about the prospect of funding for the ground - a sticking point in 2018 - Windley said: âWe wouldnât have kept going if we knew it was no chance.â On the second division, he added: âWeâre interested in anything that sees this region provided the professional menâs and womenâs football club it deserves.â
7 Southern Expansion is the only bid that lasted the distance but has since pulled out. âIt was a farcical tender process. A process in name only,â ex-bid chairman Morris Iemma said. âThe backers (Chinese billionaire Shen Yuxing, the founder and chairman of property developer Jianyan International Group and ASX-listed Boyuan Holdings) are so disillusioned with the politics of Australian football thereâs no appetite to invest in the sport here. They are looking globally and at other sports. âThere was no strategy from FFA, they just kept moving the goalposts in the EOI (Expression of Interest) stage. In the end it was purely about politics, it wasnât even about money, (Macarthur) offered less. âThere was $20 million cash in bank, a portion of that was for a womenâs license.
8 Tasmania still wants an A-League license, while Federal MP Andrew Wilkie slammed Australian football for ignoring the region. Backed by former Melbourne Victory board members Harry Stamoulis and Robert Belteky. We are still hopeful a future license is given to the consortium for an A-League team in Tasmania. It is just mind-boggling that when the A-League expanded by two teams recently, they just squeezed another team into Sydney and Melbourne, without realising they had a chance to make football Australiaâs first genuinely national code. Football would expand its market, expand its TV reach, it would trump AFL. But the geniuses who make these decisions thought otherwise. I donât know what was going on and what they were smoking, but it was a really dumb decision. Asked what must happen for Tasmania to get an A-League team, Wilkie said: âFFA needs to have an outbreak of common sense and realise you canât keep cannibalising mainland capital cities. You grow the game by going to new areas and establishing teams in new regions and have the pride of being Australiaâs first truly national sport. You grow the supporter base, the TV audience and the TV revenue.
9 West Adelaide declared that they were focusing their energies on the second division. The A-League has turned its back on traditional clubs with the franchise model, so we donât feel engaged. Our preference is now the second division, which weâre fully supportive of. âTheoretically we want to play in highest league. But we feel the need for a second division and down the track promotion-relegation. But clubs like ours are being suppressed. I donât feel weâre encouraged to grow.
10 Western Pride (Ipswich) believe plans for a revamped stadium leave them well placed to be the next Queensland club to join the A-League. âThe main thing that stopped us from potentially being successful is that we didnât have a commitment on a stadium. We now have that, which puts us in a good position. There is a masterplan for a full 20,000-seat stadium. The NPL club remained sceptical about the mooted second division. In my eyes, thereâs still a long way to go with the second division. Iâve asked certain questions regarding its financial sustainability and I havenât been given answers to those questions.
11 Wollongong Wolves. âIn principle yes we are interested in the second division, but there is no meat on the bone. We want the club to grow and move forward, any improvement weâre in principle for it.â Sheppard said the expansion process knocked the stuffing out of the club for a period. âThe last process couldâve been run differently. A lot of bids went through a lot of time and money,â he said. âA lot of things in that process werenât clear until you reached certain stages. Wouldâve been better served having that information from the beginning. âWe got to pointy end of process and then realised they wanted capital city teams. If that was the case, they shouldâve been made that clear from the outset. â(In future) we would like to see New Leagues Working Group (NLWG) target certain areas. Rather than put out to auction type process, which was the last process we went through.â