Canberra A-League bid to be modeled on German Bundesliga licence

Would be easier to just make Southern Expansion play a home game or two in Canberra. 

No chance in hell. Canberra is an "18th team" expansion side at best.

Should be in now.
Already have a w league and youth league side.
Plenty of talent comes out of that region. Both boys and girls.

Need a bit of green in the league at least

17k registered players comes out as 30k participants.  There are another 7k or so registered players in NSW not too far away so its a good base for player development.  The problem is the value it brings to central funds.  50k subscribers in the region is less than 2% of STV subscribers.

Would be the ideal foundation member of a second tier

I think the 50+1 model would be perfect for a transition to an independent League.  Got no clue how it would ever be instituted and you've got to be sure that City et al would never accept it.

Would love it.

Look at the Canberra w league side they had this year.
Even with lots of injuries to the starters, the Squad finshed 5th on the ladder with more than 2/3s of there squad, players under 20y.o.
Almost all of the young players are from the Canberra region.

Boric-98
Hunt-99
Carpenter-00
Morgan-01
Maher-99
Sayer-01
Roestbakken-01
Hughes-00
Plessas-98
Gordon-00
Oliviero-99
Colvill-00
Flannery-99
Whittall-97

The region produces bucket loads of talented boys and girls and has done so for many years.
Rogic etc.

Whatever model works, I hope they get in. The national comp should include the national capital.
Always thought a straight swap with the capital of NZ made sense when the time was right, OzTAM regions be damned :-)

I was involved with club football in Canberra for a number of years and there's no doubt it's a fertile breeding ground for players. The issue always will be on the corporate and social side. The Canberra economy is the public service. If you run a company there it's either because you chiseled your job off the department and turned consultant, or you sell something to a government department, you deliver something to a government department, or you hire a property manager for your 5 rental properties. Beyond that the "corporate sector" is ActewAGL. A team might jag a front of shirt sponsor now and then when some hot gov contract is up and they want their name in the shop window, but beyond that you're relying on a multinational porno or fireworks company to sponsor the team. On the social side.... half of Canberra isn't even from there. The rusted on locals are either Brumbies or Raiders. It's funny that in these sorts of conversations they always talk up the Canberra region to pad out the numbers - Queanbeyan and Goulburn. Yet in every facet of daily life Canberrans dump on those places at every opportunity. But they want a sporting team... Suddenly it's Canberra/Queanbeyan with 400,000 people. Yeah, nah.

In Canberra club land there's a couple of very well placed local clubs which could support a second div side with their own resources - Canberra FC and Olympic. Below that, maybe Tuggers and Belconnen. Then after that... basically nothing. Monaro Panthers is a phoenix club with some potential but still relatively young. Then the numbers are padded out with park teams like Bunda and some regionals from NSW. Even if all the clubs got together to field an Adelaide Crows style rep team (and they won't), the heavy lifting would come from 2 clubs and they'd rather go it alone (or tell themselves they can). The big fish small pond mentality in Capital Football is very very strong.

It’s criminal a team from the capital city doesn’t have a pro team.

It's equally criminal that a city with the highest average salaries in Australia can't "afford" to start one.

if the mariners can have a functioning team with 300k, so can canberra with almost 400k

imagine Sydney and melbourne having teams, 1 per 300k. 30 bloody teams. more than enough, provided that football is the number 1 code after all

a canberra team excites me as much as watching parliament. such a boring, soulless place.

With 200k that actually are "Canberran". That number takes in Queanbeyan at the very least, and likely they tack on Goulburn and Yass. When you cross the border between ACT and NSW at Qbn the mentality changes. It has a Raiders Group leagues club in the town but I always noticed more St George and even Roosters gear (and never, ever Cronulla) around the place. Many people do live in Qbn and connect with Canberra, but also there's a sizeable element that has wafted on down from the South Coast. A lot of what is counted as "Canberra" for a Canberra bid could also be counted on as the South Coast for a Gong bid.

@libel that is the most out of date, circa-2000 comment ever. Canberra has grown so much in the past 10 years. It's appetite for an A-League licence is as good as ever and it's potential is huge. The city is growing big time.

A community based club for one of the biggest untapped regions, the nations capital, that produced Rogic and other talent. It always seemed odd that the nz capital was in the a league but ours was not. Really hope it takes off 

whatever you reckon chief

but i'm still no more excited

Maybe what works for League and what works for Football are two different things, and anyone from the area who as interesting in supporting a football team in Canberra would regardless.

That is actually a really clean and accurate summary of the Capital Football landscape

Canberra genuinely has some quality players kicking around mixed in with some absolute rubbish but it really does appear the A league scouts don't even both coming for a look. I ran into patrick zwansjik (sp?) at a game scouting once but other than that if it weren't for Andy Bernal i highly doubt any players would move from Canberra to the next level 

Can't agree with that regarding the social side. The younger generation, the ones that were born here and call themselves Canberran would support a club here in a heartbeat if they have an interest in football (the most popular sport for both adults and children in ACT in 2016). I've spoken to many people that have little interest in the a-league (due to no foxtel and a local team) and they would 100% buy a membership. In terms of rusted on Brumbies or Raiders fans, why would that impact on an a-league team? They don't play in the summer and there's no big bash team. 

There are bars and restaurants popping up all over the place, with the Kingston foreshore etc. The social side of Canberra is as good as it has ever been and is continuously growing. It sounds like you're comparing Canberra to how it was 10-15 years ago.

I know brumbies and raiders fans who would get an a league membership or go to games

I think about his all the time lol

Yep.  Finally someone speaking sense.  

Second division team at best.

They also have the Wagga and Griffith population to tap into as well, the riverina is full of europeans who would probably make the trip over for home games and then griffith to melbourne is a 5 hour drive, or you could have the melbourne side play a game in shepparton would be a decent crowd I reckon

What the fuck. 

For me that's a yes and no. I know for a fact a scouter that lives there linked to Celtic - he's not particularly active these days but he has people's ear, and if you're good enough to get him to roll out of bed on the weekend and watch you he can get you to Scotland. There's a bit of an inner circle thing going on in Canberra with some of the core football fraternity we identify as Sydney figures actually being Canberra residents. It's very much a case, indeed as you say, that there's talent in among rubbish. You need to be at a couple of decent clubs and know the right people to get scouted there. In my own experience I would say 5 scouters are capable  (as in, I saw the proof of one player they got o/s). In each case these guys aren't actively involved in the NPL clubs, they just have the connections because they're migrants from o/s.

The big fish small pond mentality works against players who don't have connections, and like NPL football in general there's nowhere to go if you're good enough to rise but have no stepping stone. I tried for a good 12 months to get a young kid into one of the big Capital football teams - African kid with massive potential. It only turned out half way though this all that he played U18 Development League in England for a bloody big EPL club. And that wasn't him telling us, that was us doing our own research trying to find a way to fill the blank bit in his resume that looked like he'd never kicked a bloody football in his life. Bit of a "could've fkn told us mate" there. But as it goes with a lot of kids - no stepping stone and a doctor father riding him to get a real job meant career over. And this kid was a more complete package than Awer Mabil when Adelaide United took a punt on him.

Wait what? lol