Really?  What kind of backers and supporters? As in the AFL?    It's strange that a sponsor would pay the same money to NOT have their name splashed across the stadium.

I think backers and supporters groups paid for it.  Equivalent to what the naming rights were worth, so net cost to GWS is 0.

These are the numbers I could track down for GWS for 2018:

Total revenue:  $43.5 million (AFL distribution $23.2 million; Sponsorship $12 million; Memberships $4.4 million)
Expenses are over $45 million, including Football Department of $28.5 million, not sure what the rest is.

Also, just noticed that their ground is now called Giants Stadium.  Not sure what that means in terms of getting less sponsorship, or paying out more themselves.

the AFL salary cap is about $12 million and the football department soft cap is 9.5 million. and lets not forget that GWS is on the lower end of the scale. Richmond, West Coast, Collingwood, Hawthorn all turned over close to $80 million last year. 

jfc - just imagine how much A-League clubs could do with ~$26 million in handouts. wtf are they spending their money on if they can't stretch $43 million??? The AFL salary cap is only approx $10 million - where is the other $33 million going?

haha (nelson muntz laugh)

well what about GWS? of their $43 million in revenue last year, roughly 60% of this came from the AFL and government handouts, yet they still made a $600k loss. 

Like, what are they spending their money on? According to the NRL website, it surely can't be player wages:

NRL clubs received a $65.8m increase in distribution of funds, with their annual grants rising from $8.4m in 2017 to $13.1m per club last year. The salary cap for each club’s top 30 players was $9.4m.

source

That leaves $3.7 million left over after player wages (surely the biggest cost for any professional sporting club) each season for club operating costs - this is of course not even beginning to factor in sponsorships and the like. How inept are they that they've developed a $30 million blackhole?

Australian sports are an absolute joke.

How is that even possible?
I thought the Cowboys were a powerhouse club

NRL’s North Queensland Cowboys (Townsville) urgently need a $30m cash injection in order to survive. Almost unbelievable.

Shows what a gamble expansion is even in dominant codes with massive media contracts.

New A-League addition Western Melbourne Group are no closer to a deal on where to play their home games from October.

And 11 teams next year! yay!

ugh!

Beat the 3 years tops threefold!

Gallops done well. Stability 😂😂😂😂

Macarthur South West are back at work today after the summer break.

https://www.facebook.com/mswunited/

I only know of this result because I have a mate coaching, so not sure of other results, but ACT Boys u15 won the National Futsal title being played in Sydney this week. ACT usually does well in boys and girls Futsal championships. We all know Rogic was a Futsal player. We have plenty more like him in the ACT, and for outdoor too, plenty more Valeris and Zelics. You only have to get around the grounds in winter to see the talent base here in the ACT. Anyway, hope we get an A-League side soon to give these boys a clearer pathway to professional football.

So they want $30 million from the government for the training facility. Typically they’ll probably get it because it’s not sockah.

Where does it say Sub 10k ?

6,000 seats plus 3 sides of Hills = ?

Brisbane Gladiators bid needs a bit of a rethink after today’s recommendation to demolish both grandstands was welcomed by QRU.

The end result will be a training facility with a mini stadium of sub-10k capacity

http://www.rugby.com.au/news/2018/12/19/reds-ballymore-stadium-task-force

Thanks Iridium1010, nice to see you again too. Glory are actually very promising this season, alot to be optimist about for this season.

Been considering such a project for a while, just for fun to visually represent or map out the boundaries that have come up more and more into the conversation with current clubs and expansion bids, as too past experiences like the Mariner's experiment in North Sydney and the recent success of pre-season and in-season games taken to regional centres. It's been exciting to have soo many A-League expansion bids from so many regions and maybe one day, we may see most if not all of those regions represented at National league level, be it first or second division.

Is Robert Belteky also still involved in backing the bid?

Gold Coast United have got no chance while they propose to use CBus stadium, cost alone will work against them.

Like Canberra they need a dual stadium policy with a smaller boutique stadium for most games and Cbus for select games.

Roar need something similar with maybe 10 games at Suncorp and the balance elsewhere

Nice maps @GloryPerth

EXCLUSIVE: Wests Tigers considering forming a partnership with the new South West Sydney A-League franchise, via @BulldogRitchie https://t.co/AcgC0U9Syx pic.twitter.com/LKFCWd1aTS

— Telegraph Sport (@telegraph_sport) December 17, 2018

GOLD Coast United chairman Danny Maher believes the chance to resurrect the M1 Derby could be the club’s ticket to an A-League license.

With Western Melbourne and Macarthur South West Sydney on Thursday announced as the new inclusions for an expanded A-League in 2019-20 and 2020-21 respectively, Football Federation Australia’s push for more local derbies will soon come to fruition.

Far from giving up on a return to the national competition, United are hopeful the revival of a derby with Brisbane Roar – Queensland’s only current A-League outfit – will be looked upon favourably by FFA in any future bids.

“We had over 2000 people attend the United vs Roar (Youth) NPL game in (February). Robina was packed, the atmosphere was electric,” Maher said.

“The southeast corner of Queensland is a prime target area for future FFA expansion plans. There are over 18,000 register players on the Gold Coast and Northern Rivers and the Gold Coast is the largest city in Australia without an A-League licence.

“The Brisbane Roar are the only A-League team in Queensland and we are ready to bring back the M1 Derby.”

United was a shock omission from the FFA’s 10-team bid shortlist in June, with the governing body telling club officials they were not looking to base a team in the region in this expansion phase.

But with FFA chairman Chris Nikou confirming the introduction of Western Melbourne and Macarthur South West Sydney was just the start of A-League growth, Maher said there was optimism for United’s future.

The club spent three seasons in the A-League from 2009-2012 before owner Clive Palmer was stripped of the license.

“We were grateful that the FFA informed us early on that the Gold Coast was not a geography being considered in this round. Given Gold Coast United was the only bid in Queensland that met all the criteria for season 2019, it was quite clear at that point that Sydney and Melbourne were the destinations for the new licenses,” Maher said.

“Less than one year ago we brought back Gold Coast United with a statement of bringing back the A-League and within three months we’d mobilised $30 million through an international football group and put together an A-League bid.

“Our process has just begun and we are extremely well positioned. With our new first-class academy facilities at Coplick (Family Sports Park), our alliance with the Bond Institute of Health and Sport, a $160 million stadium and the backing of an international football group together with local business and community, we are ready to go.”

THE team behind Tasmania’s A-League bid says the state could have its own club in the competition as soon as 2021, after Football Federation Australia’s new chairman flagged further expansion.

Tasmania’s bid appeared dead in the water after the state failed to make the expansion shortlist when it was whittled from 15 to 10 bids by FFA in June.

A-LEAGUE ANNOUNCES EXPANSION RACE WINNERS

A Western Melbourne team will join the competition next season, and a third Sydney club based at Campbelltown will boost the number of A-League clubs to 12 the season after.

However, after confirming the successful bids last week, FFA chair Chris Nikou said his new board was “firmly in favour” of adding more teams, though without a definite timetable.

Nikou said a timetable for moving to 14 teams and then 16 would have to wait for the new operating model for an independent A-League due to be completed by the end of March.

He said his preference would be to add more teams starting the year after the Macarthur South West United team is admitted in 2020-21.

The Tasmanian bid has been backed by Melbourne millionaire Harry Stamoulis, and bid spokeswoman Victoria Morton said Stamoulis was still committed to the state’s push for a future licence.

“From our perspective, we are still here and we’re just waiting for everything to line up,” Morton said.

“The bid is still strong, we are waiting for the new A-League working model to be finalised.”

Morton said Tasmania could have a team in the competition within three years.

“From our point of view, we are ready to start forming our club whenever we’re granted a licence — as soon as possible, from our perspective,” she said.

“I believe the first opportunity would be 2021, unless the new A-League working model changes that.”

While Tasmania’s bid failed to make the 10-team shortlist for the latest round of expansion, Morton said that was not cause for concern.

“We continue to believe our bid is strong and was when first presented,” she said.

“We believe that the selection criteria will be different once the new operating model is in place.”

With the expansion process under-way, I thought I'd make a mock up of the current and potential support catchments of teams.

I've utilised locales teams have played in pre-seasons past to help with boundaries into the regions. The Wanderers playing a game in Mudgee being a recent example. Also, locales where clubs' Fan Forums have been hosted, training bases, formal ties with local football associations, news articles, blogs/opinions, fan forums online etc..

The Sydney Divide & Melbourne's Non-Geographic Rivalry: Exploring 'The Dividing Line' in Sydney was one of the motivations for doing this and again, it's just a suggestion or guess from varying sources, but depending who you speak to like WSW or SFC fans will have their own views on this - but there may be a loose consensus in there which I've attempted to reflect. Also, I try to recognise or reflect the boundaries in these intra-city rivalries can be a little more fluid or less clearly defined. An example there is the scenario in Melbourne and Melbourne City's identity forging not so much on geography but other areas - though I've read from fans in the past that City's heart of support may be about the Northern suburbs of Melbourne, including their headquarters and training facilities being in the grounds of Latrobe University. So for circumstances like that, I've just noted how those teams share that boundary in it's entirety.

Possible Future End-Game: This map also attempts to show how most of the teams and bids are informed or aim to appeal to certain regions and just how exciting this could be. With that, the map attempts to reflect a future nearer to it's fullest extent, where the A-League and the Second Division and potential Pyramid (P/R) are up and running. Also noted in the map are just some centres I highlighted that could be within the scope of future second division sides, including Darwin and Cairns. I've included some old NSL regions that may be revisited in the future for the 2nd Div, namely Gippsland Falcons/Eastern Pride's region - a neat potential future rivalry with Team 11 there (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gippsland_Falcons_SC - https://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/when-the-falcons-took-flight-a-region-soared-with-them--but-crash-was-coming-20111201-1o9a0.html). For point of reference, by time our professional leagues have grown to this point, Australia may have a population pushing 35 Million - Presently our Nation's Population is 24.6M. While most of that growth is projected to be within our Capital Cities, the Peri-Urban and Regional Cities will also grow significantly in that period which will benefit most of these expansion sides.

Territorial Boundaries for Current & Future A-League Teams:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1AppjfBAXgvHiEeCHUp9-OlVST6st91FW (More detail)

Preview images:

Roarnix would fold!