ACT shelves World Cup support
BY CHRIS DUTTON AND MICHAEL INMAN
27/10/2009 7:41:00 AM
The ACT Government is preparing to turn its back on the world game and withdraw its support for Australia's FIFA World Cup bid and future A-League matches.
ACT sport minister Andrew Barr declared yesterday his intention to back out of Football Federation Australia's 2018 or 2022 World Cup bids in favour of luring a separate sporting ''bonanza'' to the capital.

And in a further blow to the ACT's relationship with the FFA, Mr Barr said the A-League clash between the Central Coast Mariners and Adelaide United on Saturday night could be the competition's last at Canberra Stadium. Mr Barr had initially hoped to host World Cup games or have international teams based in Canberra for the duration of the tournament.

But instead of spending millions of dollars on the infrastructure required to be an active participant in the World Cup, he now hopes to throw stranded NRL, AFL and Super rugby teams a Canberra lifeline.

If a bid was successful those codes would be unable to play on World Cup venues for up to two months before and during the tournament.

''[The AFL, NRL and Super15] are going to have to move away from Sydney and Melbourne and it might be strategically to our advantage not to have anything to do with the football World Cup and take extra AFL, rugby league and rugby union [matches] instead,'' Mr Barr said.

''If the other competitions aren't going to go into obedience [with FIFA and suspend action] for that period, then it could be a bonanza for Canberra.

''So we'll just be strategic in what we do in Canberra because we may be able to get the big tourism benefits that we want without having to outlay $200million on a new stadium.''

Canberra needs $200million to upgrade the Canberra Stadium precinct if it is to meet FIFA regulations and host World Cup matches.

Canberra Stadium and Manuka Oval will be upgraded to some extent, regardless of the ACT's involvement in the World Cup.

Federal Cabinet meets this week to discuss what funding it will provide to Australia's bid.

The ACT is relying on the Rudd Government to foot the majority of the $200million bill for a new stadium.

The FFA snubbed Canberra's attempt to enter the A-League last month and opted to award the 12th licence to western Sydney.

Mr Barr said there was no point hosting future A-League matches between two out-of-town teams.

Instead, he will lobby the FFA to bring more Socceroos internationals to Canberra Stadium.

Capital Football chief executive Heather Reid is hopeful Canberra would play some role in the World Cup bid to give the region's soccer fans an unforgettable experience.

But former National Soccer League player and father of current Socceroo Carl, Walter Valeri, backed the Government's decision.

''It was a sad day when Canberra got left out of the A-League and it's fair enough to say 'why should we support the World Cup when you can't even give it to us on a regular basis?''' Valeri said.

NRL clubs have already voiced their displeasure and shown unwillingness to ''shut down'' for eight weeks while soccer fever sweeps the country.

Canberra Raiders chairman John McIntyre supported Mr Barr's stance.

Mr McIntyre said the Raiders would be happy to share Canberra with other rugby league and sporting teams to make the capital a thriving national sport hub for the duration of the World Cup.

However, Adelaide United coach Aurelio Vidmar said, ''Every Australian, regardless of what state, needs to support these World Cup bids.

''I think it's very important that all codes, whether its football, rugby, netball, whatever it is, everyone should be supporting it.

''Every state and every government should be supporting it, because it's a massive tournament.''

Without the ACT, we will have to go to FIFA and explain why a country that can't even talk it's own capital into hosting games should be given the rights to the biggest competition in the world.

Is it me, or is every other code serious on attempting to undermine our FIFA World Cup Bid. Are they really that scared of us. Jesus Christ!!!

Yes and no. The great perception around the world is that Sydney is this huge and all powerful Aussie metropolis (the same opinion is held in Sydney, I believe), but it won't pass FIFA's attention that the political capital of the nation doesn't want to be a part of the finals. And even if it does - you can bet that the English, USA, etc., will make a point of bringing it up whenever possible.

Without the ACT, we will have to go to FIFA and explain why a country that can't even talk it's own capital into hosting games should be given the rights to the biggest competition in the world.

Pretoria is not a venue for next year's finals in S Africa

AND JACKK YOU CAN GO FUCKYOURSELF ALSO

AND JACKK YOU CAN GO FUCKYOURSELF ALSO

I think this is less the other codes.
More canberra being pissed at the FFA.

copy from andrew barr face book

Interests:Politics, Music, Cooking, Cycling, Movies, Reading, Food, Wine, Tourism, Art, Theatre, most sports especially AFL, Rugby Union, Rugby League, Cricket, Basketball, Tennis, Netball and Golf.

copy from andrew barr face book

Interests:Politics, Music, Cooking, Cycling, Movies, Reading, Food, Wine, Tourism, Art, Theatre, most sports especially AFL, Rugby Union, Rugby League, Cricket, Basketball, Tennis, Netball and Golf.


:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

The Canberra/Queanbeyan urban region is Australia's 8th largest city, at 400k+ plus people. By 2018 or so, you can make that 450k. Just forget that it's the Nation's Capital for a sec and recognise that like the Gold Coast (6th largest City/Region) and Newcastle (7th) being involved, it's VERY important for the Canberra region to be involved as a Host City, with a Host Stadium, for the strength of our World Cup bid!

While I see your point, this just highlights one of the major problems with the Australian bid. We need to use at least 8 different cities, and we simply don't have 8 cities that are credible world cup venues, in which building a new stadium of 50,000+ can be justified. While 400k sounds like a reasonably big population, that's for the entire catchment area of Canberra. It's not like a typical city in other countries that might only have a population of 400k, but have numerous other reasonably sized towns within a short drive on top of that. The Raiders & Brumbies can't even fill the existing stadium there.

My comment earlier about Canberra was meant to be a joke (although clearly not taken that way by some), but there is some truth behind my point. Canberra is not a huge tourist attraction at the best of times, and certainly not in June/July. I just don't think the absence of Canberra from the bid will make any difference to those making the decision. There really are much bigger negatives than that - e.g. distance between venues, distance from rest of world, time difference from Europe, availability of sufficient accommodation in Melbourne & Sydney, getting AFL/NRL agreement to free up stadia ....

Also, once again (As I've mentioned elsewhere), strategically, Canberra, like Wollongong and Gold Coast is not too far from a major capital city, Sydney ofcourse. Even the other Eastern States capitals are not too far, by plane.

So these places can and will certainly draw fans coming from Sydney, Brisbane or wherever, aswell as the overseas visitors.

TBH With USA, Korea/Japan etc... now South Africa hosting in recent couple decades, given our strong context, we're actually quite late on the scene - If we had the set up we had now, back in the 80s or 90s, we may've been bidding for 2002, even 1994!

Even if we're considered smaller fry, in some ways, the world knows what Australia can offer, including Sydney 2000.

While I see your point, this just highlights one of the major problems with the Australian bid. We need to use at least 8 different cities, and we simply don't have 8 cities that are credible world cup venues, in which building a new stadium of 50,000+ can be justified. While 400k sounds like a reasonably big population, that's for the entire catchment area of Canberra. It's not like a typical city in other countries that might only have a population of 400k, but have numerous other reasonably sized towns within a short drive on top of that. The Raiders & Brumbies can't even fill the existing stadium there.

First point. Stadiums don't have to be 50,000+. FIFA require stadiums to have a minimum capacity of 40,000 after the FIFA allocation of seats. In South Africa that makes the minimum capacity 42,000. My understanding is that for 2018/22 the minimum is 44,000.

Second point. The 5 mainland capital cities are certainly credible World Cup venues.

With FIFA allowing up to 3 stadium per venue city in the bid we have 8 stadiums/potential stadiums that are credible World Cup stadiums.

Add to these cities Townsville which is in the centre of a regional population of 620,000 in Northern Queensland

Between these 9 credible cities we have 12 credible stadiums which I understand is the minimum that FIFA require in the bid.

Canberra Stadium's record crowds of 29,000 for Union, 25,000 for League and 20,000 for Football show that the 25,000 capacity is under what is required. A 45,000 seat stadium with 10,000 removable seating is a sensible solution for a World Cup venue there and the final 35,000 seat venue would be well used by the Brumbies (10 games a year), the Raiders (15), Canberra A-League W-League and Y-League (25), the Wallabies (1), the Kangaroos (1) and the Socceroos (1). Those games alone would result in excess of 500,000 spectators per annum attending the venue without including any finals games. Dairy Farmer's Stadium in Townsville originally had a capacity of 31,000 and with a record attendance of over 30,000 a venue larger than its current capacity of 26,500 is also well justified. Again a 45,000 seat capacity stadium with 10,000 removable seating would be appropriate. The resulting 35,000 seat stadium would continue to host the Cowboys (15 home games a year) and the Fury A-League and eventually W-League and Y-League (25) and result in 400,000 spectators attending the ground annually.

My understanding is that one city can have two stadiums, and the remainder of the ten stadiums must be spread out across 10 cities.

Once viewed like that, you start to see that we can't even get past first base.

Canberra is pretty much out.

The Gold Coast can't be upgraded to the minimum of 43,000.

So we are only just able to make up 8 host cities (and some of these are an absolute stretch):

1. Sydney (2 stadiums)
2. Brisbane
3. Melbourne
4. Adelaide
5. Perth
6. Newcastle
7. Townsville
8. Wollongong

As I said a stretch!!

Then we need to find 3 more cities to have a stadium with 43,000 capacity.

But where??!!

Folks - forget about it -it's already looking impossible - and it has nothing to do with the NRL/AFL/Korfball, and everything to do with FFA incompetence and bungling.

Edited by pippinu: 28/10/2009 04:30:15 PM

Do you honestly think it makes sense to use the all time record attendances as a benchmark? The rugby union record (28,753) was set for the 2004 Super 14 final. Hardly representative. By the same logic, you could say the 31,000 capacity at MRS is under what Victory require given that their record attendance is over 55,000. The reality is 31,000 will be more than enough for Victory 99% of the time, and 25,000 is more than enough for Canberra 99% of the time. For the other 1% of the time, you just accept there will be a sell out and some people miss out. Or alternatively you build more huge stadia that won't even be half full most of the time, and see clubs get hammered on overpriced stadium deals for decades to come. Not to mention the detrimental impact it has on atmosphere at games (one of the big problems in the A League).

Anyway, my point here was simply that whether Canberra is involved or not, it won't affect our chances of getting the WC.

On the wider issue of whether we will be awarded the WC - if you choose to believe we will, that's fine by me, I guess only time will tell. I would genuinely love to be wrong about this - and that's not something I say lightly! Unfortunately though, all of the people talking up our bid are completely lacking in objectivity IMO. Remember it's not just a case of meeting minimum criteria set by FIFA, it's a case of convincing them that Australia would be a better host than all of the other countries bidding. And remember too that FIFA politics will come into it, and that's not something that is likely to help us much. We're not one of Blatter's pet projects like USA or S Africa.

Is it definite that there can be 3 stadia per city? I had heard 2. Source appreciated if you have one. The reality is 3 in one city becomes extremely difficult from a logistical point of view anyway, and highly unlikely to be seen in a positive light when compared to other countries who will propose 10-12 distinct host cities.