Until an expansion club has been in operation for 4 years, there is still risk of an FFA backflip with this mob.

Sydney Bidders become One!

@ Chris

The FFA needs the cash and two expansion teams will give it somewhere between $20-$30m in revenue to play with.

Well i'm happy with one month to go till final bids are submitted that the Canberra A-League bid has over 4,000 members signed up and should reach their target of 5,000 by the time of submitting the bid to FFA on 31 August. They have held a fan forum to assertain what the fans want to see from the bid and club. They have a stadium and training facilities locked up. They have signed MOU with a large group of clubs and assosiations from Canberra and Southern NSW. They have opened the ability for fans to dirtecting fund the club with the agreement with the Australian Sports Foundation. They have identified how they want to establish the club with a community ownership model combined with securing public and private investment. They have confirmed they are reaching out to the education system in Canberra before the bid is submitted to get the ball rolling on how the club can interact with the school system. They have confirmed access to regional development money to improve football facilities in Southern NSW regions. They have also confirmed plans to play FFA Cup matches throughout the Capital Region. And something which was good to know, even if Canberra is overlooked for this two expansion team round, the bid team is going nowhere and will push on for inclusion.

The Queensland Government has approved up to $80,000 in grant funding for Ipswich City Council to develop a business case for the Ipswich Football Stadium at North Ipswich Reserve.

https://www.qt.com.au/news/business-case-for-ipswich-stadium-gets-cash-boost/3486844/

This is a positive development for the viability of the Ipswich bid. Probably not enough to get it up for 2019/20 but it certainly keeps them in the picture. A lot more funding needs to be put on the table before they can start dreaming about having their own stadium though. Good to know governments have got the ball rolling in any case.

That is good news for Ipswich no matter what happens. More quality football infrastructure around Oz the better :)

I also note yesterday the Canberra bid team announced they had reached their goal of 5,000 members signed up with time to spare before the bid submission at the end of the month. New goal is quite lofty, 10,000 :P

Another good news day for the Canberra bid. Confirming the appointment of Ron Smith as Director of Football

https://the-riotact.com/youth-coaching-legend-ron-smith-joins-canberras-a-league-bid-as-head-of-football/259526
https://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/ron-smith-joins-canberra-a-league-bid-as-head-of-football-20180809-p4zwf7.html

If Canberra gets the nod he will be in charge of scouting and coaching appointments as well as building the high performance program for the club.

Canberra's A-League bid is looking to join the E-League and has set up a tournament to find the talent to set up a team
https://the-riotact.com/canberra-a-league-bid-to-host-fifa-18-tournament-to-scout-for-elite-e-league-players/259887

The Canberra bid has also added a locally based federal MP, Andrew Leigh, to their supporter base:
https://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/federal-mp-andrew-leigh-backs-canberra-a-league-bid-20180814-p4zxdr.html

Team 11 bid have confirmed plans to play out at Casey Fields as a temporary measure whilst Dandenong Stadium is being built.
A solid decision and one I called a little while back.

Essentially it will be like what the Nix did a few seasons back.

And that provided the best atmosphere that the Nix have ever got as Lower Hutt was packed.

What size so you think Casey Field would be for Team XI?

I wouldn’t have thought it would be much more than 12k to be honest.
They would basically do the bare minimum with corporate seating, lighting etc to suit FFA standards.

Canberra bid how reached over 6,000 members now which is good news :) they have also signed up all local NPL clubs, including those from NSW.

Canberra A-League bid has appointed senior global service executive Jo Metcalfe to an advisory board
https://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/canberra-a-league-bid-builds-as-decision-beckons-20180819-p4zyep.html

Wow!!!! How much have they raised from memberships?

It's always been a joke that the capital of a foreign nation is represented in our national league rather than our own capital city. 

If you open the tiers this may change.

P&R'll fix both

LOL PnR will only drine teams like CCM n Nix to stay in

Raises the standards. If they're good enough they'll stay, if not they'll drop down a division. You think CCM are turning to Bolt in a relegation battle? LOL

$0. They're not members, they subscribed to a mailing list.

Goes to show the level of disrespect toward clubs like South Melbourne. They are pilloried on the interpretation of audience reach/viewership of facebook streaming of matches and exposed as liars and frauds. The Canberra consortium tells a bold faced lie about a mailing list being signed up aid up foundation members and they're praised.

Nix might survive, and all the best to them
Not sure if they'd carry on if they got relegated, but that's the fun of it

And Canberra can get promoted if they've got what it takes

CCM weren't the subject

Aggressive much mate, calm down son.

I would not regard it as a lie, it is people putting their name down to support a bid. That is signing up member support for the bid. As there is no guarantee of the team forming as only two licences will be given it would not be practical to start selling anything and taking money. If they get a licence then sure you move into that next stage.

As for disrespect towards South Melbourne, I have never shown any disrespect towards them. I think they have a very good bid along with most of the bids in contention at the moment. I really do wish rather than just expanding by two teams and rejecting the rest of the bids they would set up a timetable and select more bids and phase them in over a number of years till the league gets to 16-18 teams. Because there seems to be a number of good bids and it would be a shame to lose that interest simply because the powers to be don't want to be forward thinking.

Anyway, we all hope for the best. It could all end academic depending what happens on September 7, but I am loving seeing all these bids grow and come together and I am very happy to see how well the Canberra and Southern NSW communities have come together in our own bid for inclusion.

I'm a foundation member

They emailed a certificate to me as proof.

I'll have to renounce it if they get in cos the HAL is a pile of plastic dung

Rumour no expansion in 19/20

https://twitter.com/Gatty54/status/1032502068219531264

Follower suggesting expansion was red herring so SL could blame failure on Pro Football and PFA 

Time line as I believe it - Is it workable. APFCA have said they support expansion. 
31 August last day for full bids to FFA
Short List of 4 decided by FFA released shortly after   - will APFCA be consulted ;-() 
September Mid EGM to vote on CRWG recommendations of reform. (min 21 days after FFA call)
November FFA AGM  to vote on new congress member and board. Work on new A-League model and expansion for 19/20
 

I've been reading on this forum for years now about how there are dozens of sustainble clubs just waiting to join the A-League.

According to this;

https://www.foxsports.com.au/football/a-league/the-nine-aleague-expansion-bids-ranked/news-story/412a33cab40493a8e5c91848a6054e1f

It seems as though there is really only one nailed on bid, and that is yet another Sydney team in the South West. The Dandenong bid is a *big* maybe, hinging on the Victorian government spending money on a stadium that won't service a huge catchment area and won't provide any tourism dollars for hosting events.

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/canberra-a-league-bid-strikes-deal-with-asia-soccer-powerhouse-20180911-p5030a.html

When you lay it out like that, I have to admit, it all looks pretty tight.

There is a difference between the model used by the FFA to scrutinise clubs and the needs of the already existing clubs with their much smaller budgets and stadia. Do not confuse the likes of Brisbane Roar in their inordinately expensive Suncorp Stadium who need an average crowd of approx. 12,000 to break even, and South Melbourne who can break even on an average crowd of 1,500 to 2,000.

https://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/current-clubs-to-weigh-in-on-a-league-expansion
FFA setup or Fair call for HAL Clubs

Footballking55, still no proof that 1,500-2,000 would be a break even for South Melbourne, but yes one would hope it would be far lower than other stadiums.

The added security and facilitating changes to the seating configuration will incur additional costs. On the latter point, there will still be a need to make sure any solution to putting seats as close to the edge of the pitch is found, as there is a need for them to be moved to enable access to the venue for athletics during that same time of year.

At the end of the day, it’s a good option for the short to medium term, but whether the venue in its current form will work longer term will also need to be considered.

4 Years -  Shit to happen 1st