The WU fan base was POOR when COVID struck and APL was introduced. 

So blaming their dwindling crowd figures on that is wrong. 

WU base wasn't poor to begin with, it was non existent.

Sure they can blame COVID and APL. Slightly

But western United's issues have been around long before both came into existence. 
WU is probably the least affected by it, in terms of a sheer drop in numbers. 
Their base was poor to begin with. 
Their nomadic existence and playing all games away from their heartland bar 1 (western oval) hasn't helped. 
This is not due to COVID or APL
Solely due to decisions the club has made. 

Could always promote an established one

Hardly any team is doing well with crowd numbers. Not helped by Covid and its ongoing impacts, as well as an impotent APL.

If current clubs are doing shit, imagine what it would do for a starter club struggling to establish.

Hey there is Sayers Rd leading in and out, they just need some cattle on both sides fenced off with a couple of poultry farms nearby.
Fans will see this as a rural or cultural experience. Townsend can do some marketing with that. 

I think the saddest thing is that I do think this could have worked if it was executed properly, but the Western Victoria/ Melbourne and Tasmanian Nomads has just lost its way. 

Someone supplied a toilet seat

Hmmm thats a shame... This franchise seemed like such a visionary football focused organisation... You would think, with their army of volunteers and staff, after nearly 5 years, they could have at least dug out the foundations for the shovel ready venture? One shovel-ful from each of their members?

Yes. 
If they actually wanted to build something themselves. 
Privately built and owned didn't they say??

But only council is building a training venue. 
And no other commercial building group investors could be convinced to come in on the project and build anything for them. 

Extraordinary that this kind of technology is being deployed in other countries and not even discussed here:

https://www.thestadiumbusiness.com/2023/02/10/vancouver-fc-reveals-first-image-of-flat-pack-stadium/

WUFC should have been doing this from the start at any of the grounds in the west that could accomodate this. This could seriously have been done at City Vista from the word go. 

Thankfully, only a couple of hundred (if you dont count the players, families, friends and various other sycophants).

The damage wont be too bad when they finally give up on the "dream"

Of course there are issues - it was a con job!
There are still anonymous foreign backers we know nothing about - and the odds are high that these will be Chinese property developers.

What is absolutely diabolical is the lack of transparency from this club.

There must be some serious issues going on behind closed doors. 

To not be publicising the progress being made on their venue, whether it is the construction of the training ground or the "stadium" is just not right. All other clubs would be providing at a minimum fortnightly updates.

They are hiding what is actually going on, there no two ways about it. 

They need to publically address the stadium situation. it will end up being 10 years behind schedule. 

All they need to do is get the exact same temporary stand that the Perth Glory have got behind the goals on the right-hand side of their stadium (TV angle) and pair that with the stand being built at the training ground and they are away. 

Just be honest. The rest of the sporting industry in the country are laughing at them and the APL about how they are even in this league.

It's laughable that anyone still believes that WU were all set to have a stadium up and running by 2020 (as they publicly stated back in 2018.
A few on here were saying, and I quote:  it's shovel ready!!
It was nothing but a con job, surely everyone understands that now - a massive con job to get access to cheap land - it's nothing but a great big property play, and they managed to find a naive local council to give them a bit of a kick start.
So, the first promise in the bid - build and own their own stadium...not kept.
2nd promise in the bid - play out of Geelong to build support acorss the Geelong district and outer Western suburbs of Meloburne...not kept.
What happened next?
Actually tried to use Lakeside as a home base!!  That's how far this farce has gone - shamelessly wanted to use the home ground of the club that should have won the bid in the first place.
And now they're the 3rd club playing out of AAMII.
To think that many on here thought Lakeside was too close a base to warrant an A-League club.
What a farce.

Well you cant deny they have sucked in a lot of people. :P

Interesting take... They must be incredibly astute business men and negotiators over there... well played to WMG... I'd buy a house (or a used car) from them any day.

Shouldn’t most of that criticism be directed to the losing bidders? One didn’t offer anywhere near enough money for the license (SM) and the other was reliant on a taxpayer funded stadium that was never going to happen (T11).

As much as you criticise the WMG bid, it was still the superior bid of the 3 if you are being pragmatic about it. 


Unprofessional? I reckon they played everyone against each other and won.

Hear me out…

-          WU originally wanted to play at AAMI Park. Victory and City say no.
-          WU announce they are playing at Lakeside and SM says Get Fucked.
-          Then a few days later they announce they are playing at AAMI Park.

In my opinion, they leveraged SM (because they knew what rection they’d get) to get what they wanted in the first place… to play at AAMI

"The stadium" is still not being built. 
Council were always going to build a training venue. 

Stuffing up communications? 
No. They pretty much were spewing hot air in the hope someone will come on board with their property deal.. and build them the stadium. Probuild were the first ones to hear them out. 
It seems the cost of getting a share of the property deal may be too much for most potential partners ?

Did they stuff up communications about playing home games at Lakeside too??
That was simply unprofessional 

I think we have ALL been fed bits and pieces.... Who knows really how this all pans out?

You may be 100% right and I am a raving conspiracy theorist but even you must concede that a "club" whose one and only reason for existence was the promise to "build the first ever privately owned Aleague stadium" based on the fact they had a sweetheart deal from a dodgy council to develop empty farmland, hasn't fulfilled any of its promises.....?  Putting their name on a council built ground doesn't cut the mustard, either does "we represent the rooftops and nature strips of the suburban utopia we plan to one day maybe build" ... Not even going to mention their nomadic existence and lack of members...... Quite frankly I don't even care that much anymore.. If it happens and they do end up building something in Tarneit in 4-5 years down the track good luck to the crazy bastards.

In the early days i was fed bits and pieces, which turned out to be accurate. not so much now. 

Hey FTB, do you have any insider info? I understand that no submission to council has been made yet with plans for the stadium, thus no planning approval granted, nor builder appointed let alone finances arranged??? They were awarded the license in 2018 ... this coming November thats 5 years??? has anything happened? Happy to admit my error if so.

Oh and deflecting the "bitter SM fans" with "evidence" of the delayed 16 seat council ground is NOT an achievement of WMG it, is nothing more than what pretty much EVERY other local council is building these days..... 

No, disagree completely. There was never a time when the stadium build was in any doubt. Only the critics kept saying it wouldn’t be built with no evidence to back it up (except to post tweets from bitter SM fans).

Yes, there were delays. they openly admitted to stuffing up their comminucations when they announced the timeline publicly after being awarded the licence. But they also argue they wanted to delay their entry, but the FFA gave them no choice at the time.

Minor correction.
The council will build a tiny....

Well gee taking all things into consideration  I'm sure that even someone such as yourself can possibly empathise with people who may be cynical in regards to length of time it's taken to actually break dirt on this thing.

Speaking of narratives.

Western United Then - We'll build a boutique stadium so that's why we should be in the top flight of football in Australia
Western United Now - We'll build a tiny sub 3k ground that is surrounded by nothing as far as the eye can see that may or may not have the top men's and women's team playing in it.

Oh yeah by May this will be a dynamic game changer for them !!!!   

It’s funny how all of a sudden, you’ve gone from “it’ll never be built” to “its small/it’s not gonna be ready by May.”

The narrative is changing.

Its certainly "boutique"

Ready by May.  They're 'aving a larf.

Friday 3rd February

https://twitter.com/trentus72/status/1621290107507740672?s=20&t=zulZjlUfWKLPmVuHNLoI1w

That's great thanks.