the better brisbane club hopefully.

who the hell came up with roar, seriously

Don’t rule out Townsville either ... that new stadium needs a second tenant, Uncle Frank may be getting a call.

Nah but your owners might. 

this decision was made about 6 years ago.

when expansion was already overdue.

maybe we should be like a video store and fine the ffa overdue fees. we could have enough money to start a rival comp from NPL teams that would be much more interesting than the a-league.

There's a process complete with timeline that spells it out. They're giving all bidders a fair hearing.

Deadline for submission of Proposals	31 August 2018
Confirmation of preferred bidders	September 2018

See? A rigorous process.

So I guess that new operating model was just talk?

@ TheSelectFew

I’m not sure you understand the politics in play in Brisbane - Gladiators/Roar are pretty much joined at the hip on this. Pourre and Cavallucchi are best mates, the sponsors on the back of Roars shirt today are also major sponsors of Brisbane City and part of the ownership consortium for FCBC. The spilling of former MD Mark Kingsman is believed to have been done in part to make Roar more supportive/favourable to FCBC.

From Roars perspective the “worst” bid would likely be Strikers, they have the possibility to split Roars older supporters who remember the good ol’ days. One more reason why FCBC is the likely shoe-in for Brisbane, and with BRFCs support lol

I think FC Brisbane City is a compelling bid playing out of a revamped Ballymore. Would they be able to get a solid supporter base and develop a good rivalry with the Roar. 

https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/amp.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/ffa-opens-tenders-for-a-league-expansion-bids-but-clubs-sceptical-20180329-p4z701.html

According to this article lots of the bidders and or investors are holding off until a new opperating model is introduced. Bidders or investors mentioned are Celtic, Ajax and Red Bull.

@ Bocca

Ballymore is unfortunatly not getting redeveloped. It’s getting a $30m Rugby Training Center built next to it and necessary repairs made. Not to say it’s not suitable on that basis and 12-15k in there for a Derby will look and feel terrific.

How they develop a rivalry with Roar is debatable - Brisbane City historically aren’t the most popular club in the city especially after opposing AAFC and pro/rel so let’s not assume they’ll pick up supporters from other NPL clubs etc ... they will pick up some disgruntled Roar fans which may feed the rivalry but the novelty of getting to/from Ballymore on game day (especially friday and Sunday games when transport is at it’s worst) may test their new found loyalty.

Whoever comes in it just needs to work.

A-League clubs reject expansion plans

    THE 10 A-League clubs have rejected Football Federation Australia’s expansion plans after the governing body excluded its member clubs from consultation.Australian Professional Football Clubs Association chairman Greg Griffin contacted FFA chief executive


https://myaccount.news.com.au/sites/adelaidenow/subscribe.html?sourceCode=AAWEB_WRE170_a_GGL&mode=premium&dest=http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/football/a-league/teams/adelaide/the-10-aleague-clubs-have-rejected-football-federation-australias-expansion-plans/news-story/bd1ac1a506dcec0f1cc3f47ce3f27c15&memtype=anonymous


(PAYWALL)

They can't even get control of their own comp and then the FFA decide to muck around with it.

I wouldn't be happy either.

The A-League (or even top nation leagues to cover the eventuality of a Div 2) needs to be interdependent of the FFA.

The FFA is in too many pies trying to control everything!

and there it is

I must have missed something over the last few months. Why are Wollongong Wolves not the number 1 option?

From Bocca's link

FFA opens tenders for A-League expansion bids, but clubs sceptical

DOMINIC BOSSI MARCH 29, 2018

Football Federation Australia has answered long-held calls to expand the A-League, but the official opening of the bidding process on Thursday was met with protests from existing clubs and scepticism from potential new entrants.The FFA hopes to announce two new entrants to the A-League in October, after formally inviting bids to expand the A-League to a 12-team competition. However, it will be a process the organisation will likely undergo without the blessing or assistance of the existing clubs.

In a letter sent to FFA chief executive David Gallop and seen by Fairfax Media, the Australian Professional Football Clubs Association criticised the FFA board for embarking on the process of expansion while the governance of the FFA congress remains unresolved and before a new operating model for the A-League has been agreed upon.

While existing clubs desperately want the competition to increase to as many as a 16 teams in four years' time, they do not want expansion to happen until the game's governance has been resolved. The timing of the A-League's announcement was met with scepticism from the clubs, given the imminent ruling from FIFA on the congress review committee and on the afternoon before the Easter long weekend.

"[APFCA] does not accept the legitimacy of the process, whatever that may have been, adopted by FFA Administration and the FFA Board to expand the A-League competition. Unless and until the corporate governance issues have been resolved, any decision made by the FFA Board as to expansion lacks all legitimacy and will not be accepted by APFCA," the letter read.

Some bidders were quick to announce their candidacy, such as the Craig Foster-led Southern Expansion bid from South Sydney and another from Gold Coast. However, several other bidders known to Fairfax Media will not be submitting an expression of interest due to significant concerns over the state of the game and the administration of the FFA.

One bid, based in a state capital city and which has significant financial backing from Australia and abroad, will not consider lodging an application to join the A-League club before the FFA has established a new operating model for the competition, granting clubs full ownership over their trademarks and independence from the FFA. A source involved with that bid labelled the current A-League set-up as "a flawed model", suggesting they would not be prepared to lose money while the current FFA administrators remain.

It's understood several football companies from overseas interested in purchasing controlling stakes in A-League clubs are unwilling to bid for licences or financially commit support to other bids while the uncertainty over the FFA governance remains and before the A-League has independence from the FFA. Among those are Scottish giants Celtic, Dutch club Ajax Amsterdam and energy drink company, Red Bull.

Gallop said his preference would be to have a new A-League operating model in place as well as the governance crisis solved, however was not prepared to wait that long before opening the bidding process.

"Of course ideally the other issues such as congress and a new operating model would be resolved but most people in the game would also accept that we can’t just keep standing still and the evidence suggests expansion will be a shot in the arm to the competition," Gallop said. "It will be critically important that we take into account the impact on the existing clubs".

While the FFA has not involved the existing clubs thus far in the expansion process, Gallop says the organisation will include stakeholders.

“We are looking for new clubs that are going to not just be successful in their own right but make the league as a whole more commercially successful. It will be important that the existing clubs, Member Federations and PFA are given opportunities to make submissions on the impact on their own organisations and their views on the options as they unfold," he said.

Good on him i say. 

I am a bit tired of the whinging through the media get it sorted or get out of the way.

Article from Bossie Above

"One bid, based in a state capital city and which has significant financial backing from Australia and abroad, will not consider lodging an application to join the A-League club before the FFA has established a new operating model for the competition, granting clubs full ownership over their trademarks and independence from the FFA. A source involved with that bid labelled the current A-League set-up as "a flawed model", suggesting they would not be prepared to lose money while the current FFA administrators remain.

It's understood several football companies from overseas interested in purchasing controlling stakes in A-League clubs are unwilling to bid for licences or financially commit support to other bids while the uncertainty over the FFA governance remains and before the A-League has independence from the FFA. Among those are Scottish giants Celtic, Dutch club Ajax Amsterdam and energy drink company, Red Bull."


This part of the article for me is really telling. We have people who are willing to invest in Australian football  but not until the current model is updated and the governance issues are resolved. We could have an amazing league if we want it. 

No doubt, honestly you would have to be an idiot to want in while the FFA are still in control in the current setup, very smart from these potential owners, just wait it out until real change has hopefully happened, save your money.

Looks like FFA is dragging their feet on the operating model so they can screen out foreign investors. They'll get the pliable head above water mom and pop investor clubs this time round. Yes Sir Lowy, right away Sir Lowy.

This is bs.

As Benjamin said, they're gonna pass everything on to their preferred bids.

I hope everyone submits on the last day and I hope there are a mountain of applicants all meeting the criteria to show this is viable. Hopefully after this lot is turfed, there is still enough interest from those rejected bidder to properly expand.

Plenty of discussion on “what if’s“ and “I hope ...” but this is by all accounts a done deal. Fox and FFA have already decided hence about 5 minutes allowed at the end of this process to selected the two “preferred” bids - Southern Sydney (foreign owned) are in, and privately FCBC say they’re in ...... that may be dependent on Ballymore getting the government grant to do the safety work at Ballymore though

This whole sham of a process is only going to make the divisions in football worse. Typical Lowe/Gallop outcome 😞

Putin won the election, too.

If what Waz says is true, then a missed opportunity to get some ‘geographic’ rivalry happening. Suncorp and Ballymore less than 3km apart. You might get a couple of thousand new fans in the area, but does nothing for the big growth areas of Brisbane.

Even Rugby League with all its milllions couldn’t make such a ‘forced’ rivalry work. SEQ Crushers lasted 2 seasons for 2 wooden spoons.

it needs to be independent of the clubs owners as well

@ bundorahbrah

Why does it need to be independent of the club owners. Part of Football culture IS clubs getting together and forming their own competition - that’s how the very first League in England came in to become ng and it’s how it’s run 140 years later. Are we so incompetent or corrupt in Australia that we can’t do what most of the world is able to do?

Part of the problem today is the clubs don’t have a direct say in how their competitions are run, independent means some dickhead (Gallop and State Feds) with no skin in the game making all the big decisions - look how that’s worked out.

The league needs to be governed and controlled by the stakeholders (the clubs + 1 share for the FFA) and administered by an independent commission/group

It’s not hard. Just do what the rest of the world does. We are not unique.

How can you have expressions of interest in something that may have a completely new entity running it after  FIFA steps in (assuming we ever hear from them again..supposed to be before Easter ...sure I saw a Bunny heading my way this morning ) ?

Announcement of two new teams in October... sounds like next seasons marketing done.

Because FFA already already know what FIFA are coming back with and are pressing on?