Fantastic NEWS on Third Victorian team!!

A-League expansion: City of Casey ready to build $20m training facility if new team gets green light

MATT WINDLEY, Herald SunDecember 22, 2016 10:00am
THE City of Casey says it is ready to go with plans to build a $20 million training facility if Melbourne’s booming southeast is granted an A-League licence.And as the race for spots in an expanded A-League heats up, Casey Mayor Sam Aziz told the Herald Sun the “soccer-mad southeast of Melbourne” is the only realistic option for a third Victorian team.The proposed elite training centre would be based at Casey Fields, which already partners Melbourne’s AFL team and is home to VFL club Casey Scorpians.Consisting of eight change rooms, a multipurpose grass turf pitch and grandstand, Aziz said the Casey Soccer Centre of Excellence would be the ideal training and administration base for the proposed A-League and W-League club in the area.

But with a community facility also boasting three synthetic pitches and one grass turf pitch, Aziz said the proposed development would also service an estimated 140,000 local soccer participants.Casey does not intend to build a stadium suitable to host A-League matches.While the training facility’s main pitch could host W-League games, Aziz insisted he was fully supportive of Dandenong Mayor Jim Memeti’s push to build a boutique stadium near Dandenong train station.The current combined population of Casey, neighbouring Cardinia and Greater Dandenong is 535,000. That population is predicted to reach 714,000 in 10 years.Following the successful Western Sydney Wanderers template, Aziz said a united push from the three councils, local clubs and private investors was something Football Federation Australia should not ignore.

“By joining forces the three municipalities can turn the southeast into an A-League heartland,” Aziz told the Herald Sun.“By any measure the southeast has a ready-made supporter base for an A-League and W-League team. And with thousands playing organised soccer across the region, there is an undisputed love for the game here.“The Casey Soccer Centre of Excellence would provide the ideal base for a third Melbourne team and ensure there was a real and enduring connection to the local football community.“Young players would also be able to access a real pathway to elite level soccer through a soccer academy without having to travel far from home.“In addition, the facility would also make an excellent home for some W-League matches which could be televised.

if....

Build the thing first, then ask for a team.

Same for Ipswich.

FFA expansion seems to be a microphone for every mayor in Australia.

If this is the site they!re talking about for the new stadium then it's awesome.

https://www.google.cz/maps/place/Dandenong+VIC+3175,+Australia/@-37.9898606,145.2060463,375m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x6ad613fe1cf71e9f:0x5045675218cdf80!8m2!3d-37.981!4d145.215

They're not ready for the next round of expansion. But they'd make a great addition to round out a 16-20 club competition.

Spot on, why cant the city of casey build this complex anyway? If you wanna show that your the heartland (laughable) just build the thing regardless, it shouldnt need an a league license.

Everything south melbourne has negotiated and helped build has been done under the belief that we most likely wont ever get a license, but we pushed on to secure the clubs future. 

Thats the difference between the 2.

The council should stage the development. Build a playing surface, one grand stand and grass banks around the sides ready to be terraced in future. This is what they're doing on the Sunshine Coast. It's nowhere as big a step up to terrace and add seating to an existing ground. What they propose to do from scratch simply isn't workable in the timeframes for expansion. They would struggle to have a stadium complete by the end of the new television deal.

The "soccer mad south east" has jack all football infrastructure of note, the west has knights stadium, the north has Epping stadium and a soon to be redeveloped Olympic village, and lakeside of course just south of the cbd. The comparisons to the Wanderers are laughable as well, the west of Sydney is chock full of pre existing football facilities, Parramata stadium aside you have 2 stadiums with 10k+ capacities at Marconi and Sydney United.

Now they're saying they are the logical choice for a 3rd Victorian franchise when every other part of Melbourne is ahead of them and has had previous top flight involvement..just like sydneys west.

If they wanna argue population and growth corridors go for it, but they are behind everyone when it comes to what matters and that's football. South most likely won't be getting in the A league so they have time, get your shit together first then demand a license.

Casey Fields should be be training facility, host W league and youth league matches. I've heard transport links are poor there so they should leave it at that.
I agree with the above posted it should be done anyway to service the shortage of suitable fields in the region anyway.

South Melb what are the proposed redevelopments at Heidleberg? Interested to know as it has the potential to host top tier football Imo

This is the first I have heard of this? What kind of upgrades?

$0 ratepayers money will ever be spent.  

That's good value vote-grabbing in anyones book

The problem with a lot of these development ideas is that the investors often will only release money for these developments if they are 'guaranteed' returns on their investment and in the case of football it is that the facilities will have a long term paying tenant. So such developments might never get off the ground without the guarantee of an A-League and W-League club coming on board.

Also, these ideas tend to pop up as a way to strengthen a bid as it goes to the heart of what the federation's mission, to improve football in this country. If they take an action that will result in the footballing infrastructure in a region to be forever improved, then that fits into the overall goal for the federation. It's just a big tick in the box for them. This is perhaps why the federations should be separate from the league.

I'm so sceptical of people saying a broader southern Sydney-Illawarra team can work. People in Hurstville, Cronulla and Wollongong have literally nothing in common and don't think of themselves as such.

Hurstville and the St George region is more like Western Sydney - suburban and highly multicultural.

Cronulla is a massive white enclave with a beach culture and an insular outlook.

Wollongong is a former industrial city and retains a working class identity like Newcastle. They struggle to go for the Dragons as is.

St George Illawarra is one of only four NRL clubs that doesn't turn a profit at the moment because they don't have a consistent home ground and can't sell memberships. Any broad south Sydney club would have the same problem.

Dragons are part owned by the NRL I think aswell.

This ticks the box as far as grassroots and geography is concerned. Outer Eastern Melbourne with a growng population  and clubs involving thousands of players bringing together clubs from all backgrounds to create one united club. Its a strong point as far as the criteria is concerned.

yeah would agree with you that st george represents multicultural australia and cronulla represents bogan australia.

however we see teams like western sydney wanderers representing areas including penrith and fairfield, polar opposites in similar ways to stgeogre/ cronulla, which just goes to show that a geographic banner covers all types of demographics and ethnicity.

http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/article/2016/12/24/zero-appetite-fund-canberra-bid-league-team

Zero appetite to fund Canberra bid for A-League team

The boss of the previous Canberra bid to get a team in the A-League said there was no-one prepared to mount another attempt because of the belief it would be a waste of time trying to convince Football Federation Australia to give it the green light.

The negativity of the FFA is starting to have the desired effect (from their warped sense of purpose).

Such a sad article. This is not how football should work, and certainly not how a competition should be run. The denial of service last time, without any sort of medium-long term hope given to he bid is negligence from the FFA. Fair enough they wanted a western sydney team, they were right in that intention. But, something along the lines of sorry canberra, we have a preference here but dont want to turn away from what seemed to be potentially a viable franchise in the largest unrepresented city in australia. So let's work together to strengthen the bid in canberra and look to get you a team in the next few years.

Everyone talks about the necessity of the community pushing the ffa for a team, not the ffa inventing a team and pushing the community to support it. So when the canberra bid had 20,000 people pledging that they would support the team, and it gets turned away, the community here has every right to feel despondent.

IMO the ffa needs to engage with the likes of slavich, extend an arm of friendship and show that they are interested in canberra having a team. Unfortunately the only way i can see it happening is if the phoenix get the boot, because that scenario would leave canberra as a clear improvement for the league commercially over the nux

Well said. 

I must admit I did not read this article till just now. Your comments are similar to what most of the Canberra football community would be feeling..."despondent"

It might not assist Canberra now but I hope the FFA have learnt from the mistakes of the past and in the next round of expansion bidding they don't just throw away bids that they do not choose for the next two teams, but instead work with the bidders to get them up in the future.

I can see why Ivan has not apatite to go through the whole process of organising and galvanising the football community, governing body, government and corporate Canberra in a bid that based on the recent past will be overlooked anyway. If the FFA do the same thing with Tasmania you might see a similar outcome with little likelihood of anyone coming back in to lead a bid in the future.

I do disagree with Ivan's notion that there is a lack of corporate in Canberra. We have huge multinationals here. They are all sucking on the teat of the public purse as they take advantage of all this outsourcing of jobs to bring down the numbers of the public service while charging the government twice as much for the pleasure of doing the same work done. Anyway, big companies like IBM, HP, Fujitsu Australia, Verizon, Lockheed Martin, BAE, Earst & Young, Avaya and Cisco. Then there are all the national and multinationals investing heavily in the construction industry, telecommunications and public transport in Canberra. You could really try and tap into these companies. It just sounds like there is no apatite to do so after being rejected before.

Well the only way to get over rejection is to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and get back out there and give it another go. Crying about the past is not going to change the future. There has never been a better time to start up a movement towards building a bid so SOMEONE FKING DO IT. If I had any money and connections at all I would fking try and get something started but I am but one fan in our football community. And that is probably the issue many feel now, we don't have a combined voice or leadership and it is very frustrating. Al we have is the man who tried so hard last time but was knocked back so is no longer interested and a governing body who seems very pessimistic in general.

stability and consolation everyone

10 team league is better than no league at all. we must not get greedy. more regional teams as well, regional teams help boost sponsorship and crowd averages.

The dragons have consistently sold memberships beyond every other club bar the Rabbitohs and the Broncos . It's only the utter trash they have dished up as a club since winning the GF in 2010 that has seen a decline in the numbers of memberships sold. More of a protest than anything else, poor management. Poor coaching. Poor playing roster and taking the supporters for fools. Hey could be the FFA running them too!

It seems the deal (while significant) will see the league tread water for the next 6 years. I fear expansion may not happen even within the 6 years. What plan do the ffa have to attract the 80% plus of Australia football participants who do not identify with the a league? Have the ffa ever asked them what it would take to get them interested? They 80% clearly love football, just not their local football. Is it quality? (Which has risen considerably since the inception). Is it lack of true big names? Limiting the big city teams from growing to their potential so the smaller teams don't get left behind is what I believe is also stopping the 80% from getting interested. I personally wouldn't care if city or victory win 10 in a row if they bring in names big enough to engage the disengaged. The plus side is the small sides still benefit too from potentially getting better crowds on their home games when the big names come to town. Also allow transfer fees to be paid between Aussie teams so that smaller clubs with a focus on youth development can survive very well on player sales to bigger clubs. (Sorry for spilling onto another topic but it's all related).

Quality 2nd post !

With a large number of Clubs from around Australia expressing clear interest in joining an expanded A-League now is clearly the time for the FFA (and the owners of the other 10 teams) to stipulate that any new team MUST HAVE a first class stadium that will attract and entice the general public to attend matches.

This approach has been highly successful for the US Major League Soccer and must be adopted for any future A-League expansion..

And.......a first class stadium can also be a modest 12-15,000 seater...............it just has to make people want to go to the venue.........the facilities and the viewing experience must be a great customer experience...............we must strive to set-up the A-League for the future as the competition grows.
 
For me this approach on Stadiums for new teams is a must-have......................even if the new team cannot produce a first class venue in their first year in the A-League there MUST be a business plan that shows that will be working to achieve this result.

I am going to the Sydney FC v Roar game tomorrow night at Alliance which is a venue (as a 43,000 seater) that never delivers a great customer experience..............if only Sydney FC could find a suitable 20,000 seat stadium..................what disappoints me is that there is never any real talk of the Club planning to have their own ground or moving to a smaller ground....the Club appears to be rusted-on to Alliance    :-(

Finally, I am really supportive of a team from Tasmania (Hobart) being involved in this next round of expansion. What I have outlined above can be the game changer for their bid to the FFA...........if the Tasmanian team consortium in association with the state and local councils Hobart is really serious about a team they just need to stand-up and say that will be building or re-building a sensational stadium for the Tassie team and a venue that will have a number of features that will excite people and make them want to come to the venue..............hopefully things like being a rectangle shape (a given), steep-sided so that spectators are closer to the venue, well sized.......you would thnk that a 12-15,000 seater would be ideal for Hobart, and with lots of 'covered' seating.

Yep im 100% there now. 

That still doesnt change my stance on nix though. They should be replaced by the first aussie cab off the rank... if we're gonna have a closed merry-go-round league that probably wont expand then atlesst maximise pathways for aussie players in it...

This is the expansion thread, not sure why the Nix bashing is going on. Give them the 3 remaining years they have on their license before you start calling for their head.