Dear Buggalugs,

After a long and rewarding journey, tomorrow we believe the Football Federation of Australia will sit down and decide the fates of the six remaining bids seeking to be a part of the A-League.

For our bid, there is a chance the FFA will announce that we will enter the A-League next season, there is a chance they will push expansion back until the following season, there is also a chance the FFA may announce two successful bids or they may decide on more. There is of-course a chance that the bid may not be successful at all.
 

No matter what the result, our message to the community is the same – thank you.
 

The one thing that has struck the bid team throughout this process is the amazing level of support from football supporters across the ACT and Southern NSW region.

We now have almost 8,000 Foundation Members – people who have signed up to show their support for having an A-League team based out of Canberra. Eight thousand people united behind a club representing a unique region steeped in football history, honouring the memory of Steve Doszpot.

But it’s more than that. When we called for volunteers more than 100 people came forward to help – they signed up members, they handed out flyers and attended events to promote the bid.

Businesses came forward offering support, some displayed posters in their window, some showed their support on social media, others provided services such as printing of promotional materials and consulting. We forged a partnership with the Australian Sports Foundation to further community programs, and received public and financial support from the ACT Government.

This is the reason that the Canberra and Capital Region Bid has come so far. When this process began there were 15 bids contesting two spots, and Canberra were by all measures huge underdogs. We were told in no uncertain terms by those in-the-know that the next two teams would come again from the large city markets of Melbourne and Sydney.

Yet here we sit on the eve of a decision, favourites now in many judges’ eyes, and that is because of you. We know for a fact that the FFA now see our bid as very attractive due to the enormous wave of support that football fans across the region have shown for this bid.

So thank you, thank you for making this bid too hard to ignore.


The good news is that for those who haven’t yet signed up as Foundation Members it’s not too late, in fact this is just the beginning. From the moment the FFA delivers the green light, we will change from a bid to a club. And the first order of business is for you, the Foundation Members, to choose the club’s name, colours and crest.

There will be a cost in activating your Foundation Membership, but we are mindful to make it affordable. The founding principal of the community-based club is inclusion, and we don’t want to exclude anyone through price.

This will secure your right to vote on the key decisions to come, and help write the next chapter of Australian football history.

There are a number of people who have been working hard behind the scenes to make this happen. Thank you to Aaron Walker, Adam Castle, Alberto Florez, Alex Belperio, Arshad Hafiz, Ben Hugosson, Boyan Taseski, Jeshua Hollis, Kasey Lam, Patrick Pentony, Russ Gibbs and Nick Titcume.

While you have already done enough, if you want to help there is still one last thing you can do. Share this email with anyone you think may want to sign up as a Foundation Member. Let’s get to 10,000 and send a big message to the A-League – we are on our way!


We look forward to sharing the next part of the journey with you.