I think this is a temporary arrangement.  The designs for the centre of excellence at the University in Campbelltown were finalised a couple of months ago and construction should start soon.

Looks like alot of good people involved in and around Macarthur fc!

Can someone explain the discrepancies in these reports?

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/macarthur-fc-set-to-move-into-brand-new-training-base-from-2021-20191028-p5350w.html

Macarthur FC set to move into brand-new training base from 2021

Macarthur FC are set to walk into a state-of-the-art training complex in their second season in the A-League after breaking ground on the construction of a new facility in Campbelltown on Monday.

Five football fields, a gym, swimming pool, indoor futsal courts and administration facilities will be included in the new facility funded by the federal government, local council and Western Sydney University.

The Bulls will become the major tenant of the facility once it's completed in two years time, allowing the club to move in before the start of the 2021/22 A-League season.

The A-League expansion club will train out of the WSU campus for their inaugural season next year before moving into the 7000 square metre elite sports facility across the road the following year.

The proposal for the training base was understood to have been one of the items in the club's original bid document when vying for one of the two A-League expansion licences last year. Club sources suggest they have spent the past year negotiating the facility primarily with the Campbelltown City Council.

The design of the centre of excellence suggest Macarthur could be about to bid for a W-League licence as well, with fields, change rooms and other facilities set aside specifically for women's teams. The Bulls will house their A-League and National Youth League squads at the facility as well as their indigenous football academy, Dharawal FC.

Monday's announcement of the site sees the Bulls become the second football club in Sydney to have a large-scale, elite training base after Western Sydney Wanderers moved into their permanent home in Rooty Hill this season. They will have up to 10 football fields there as well as offices, gymnasium and other facilities. Sydney FC have flagged their intention to open a Centre Of Excellence but are yet to finalise a site for their club base.

Macarthur's inaugural head coach, Ante Milicic is set to formally begin working with the club this week while balancing his duties with the Matildas. Milicic has been living in Croatia in recent years but relocated back to Sydney this week.

https://www.macarthurfc.com.au/news/macarthur-fc-announce-partnership-fairfield-city-council-house-training-base 

Macarthur FC Announce Partnership with Fairfield City Council to House Training Base

Macarthur FC today announced a partnership with Fairfield City Council, that will see the A-League expansion club use the recently redeveloped Fairfield Showground as the team’s training base, when the clubs pre-season training begins in September.

The partnership will see Macarthur FC use the upgraded facilities as the main training base for the A-League squad.

Fairfield Showground has recently undergone a $25 million redevelopment, which includes the installation of a $3.5 million synthetic football pitch - alongside the existing turf pitch, in addition to upgraded lighting and a new $5.1 million multipurpose amenity building.

The partnership between Macarthur FC and Fairfield City Council establishes a local connection with the most northern parts of the club’s catchment area.

With preparations well underway for the clubs first pre-season, Macarthur FC Head Coach, Ante Milicic welcomed the partnership.

“Providing the players with these first-class facilities, enables us to have the best preparation for our inaugural season.” Milicic added.

“The training fields at Fairfield Showground will provide the coaching staff and players with a great advantage when planning for each session.” Milicic said.

Fairfield City Mayor, Frank Carbone welcomed Macarthur FC to Fairfield.

“Welcoming Macarthur FC to Fairfield Showground is a proud moment for our City. It demonstrates the importance of this wonderful facility in providing high-class facilities and reinforces the investment in the Showground.

“Fairfield Showground was always envisaged to be a place for the whole community to enjoy. From grassroots to elite sports teams, family-friendly festivals, parks and playgrounds, there really is something for everyone,” the Mayor said.

All I can make out of this is that they still have plans to build their own training base in Campbelltown which will be ready for when they enter their second season in the A-league.

As for their first season they've signed a deal to play at Fairfield Showground, instead of what they had originally planned in Campbelltown for their first season. 

Here are some population stats from the so called catchment areas/local government areas for this franchise.
I've categorised the LGA's: Main Catchment: 262,298, Regional Catchment 81,345, Secondary Catchment 275,534 & Ambitious Catchment 373,931


Main Catchment:
Campbelltown: 168,139


Camden:94,159


Regional Catchment:
Wingecarribee: 50,493


Goulburn Mulwaree: 30,852


Secondary Catchment (Both border Campbelltown, I have queries over how much of Liverpool will feel engaged with MFC as I would say most already support WSW and a few Syd FC, however I think Wollondilly is a genuine catchment area):

Wollondilly: 52,230


Liverpool: 223,304


Overly Ambitious (I don't see people from here travelling to CTown hence the overly ambitious catchment, thought about adding Georges River 158,411 & Fairfield 210,612 but didn't):

Canterbury-Bankstown: 373,931

Macarthur's catchment is south west Sydney which includes the areas served by the District Football Associations of Bankstown, Southern Districts and Macarthur.  As will always be the case there is overlap with both Wanderers and Sydney FC.

Macarthur FC Head Coach Ante Milicic continues to expand his inaugural team with the signing of 23-year old Liverpool local and former Olyroos centre forward Milislav Popovic.

Popovic, returns to home, following stints in Italy, Germany, and Austria, most notably with FC Cologne in the Bundesliga and German second tier side Eintracht Braunschweig.

Identified as a special talent from a young age, Popovic played in several local junior representative sides, including with club association partner, Southern Districts Metro team, before going onto Marconi Stallions and Blacktown Demons.
...


https://www.macarthurfc.com.au/news/liverpool-local-milislav-popovic-signs-macarthur-fc?fbclid=IwAR2IgbumPm2dJQLCSwkPibx_rf67JfcFomFkf2ANoRmisnq1uaAj1eML978

the other brother

                                                      BULLS
                                                        3 5 2
                                                 A Federici (vc)

                  J McGing?             A Jovanovic ?             ?
                                                  M Milligan (c)
    I Franjic                 D Genreau              T Oar               J Daley? (Seattle Sounders}                            
                                 M Popovic            M Derbyshire                                                    
                                       
M Najjar
L Rose
N Suman

I’d aim for a backline of

Federici
Pierias - Milligan - Susnajr - Garrucio

So apparently the Bulls are intending to have no active support. Active memberships at $440, double most other clubs equivalent package. 

In general prices are all very much on the high side. I would suggest price gouging your fans before they've even formed any attachment to the club is a poor commercial decision.

Isn't the "Bullpen" active support?

Could it be that active fans are on long side and not behind goals

Very strange, especially seeing as the same seats at the opposite end of the the pitch are general admin and cost $150 a season. Even the platinum membership is only $260 a season which are very good seats. I predict a strong unofficial active group at the opposite end. 

No, platinum =$490, gold $440. 

Active support in small bays behind the goals at $440 is just bizarre. No one will pay that when they can get GA and sit on the hill behind and just move to active during the game. 

https://membership.macarthurfc.com.au/

Bloody hell the prices for a new club 

Macarthur FC Head Coach, Ante Milicic has bolstered his inaugural playing roster with the acquisition of experienced Socceroo defender Ivan Franjic.

Franjic, an experienced campaigner, joins Macarthur FC after previous A-League stints with Brisbane Roar, Melbourne City, and most recently Perth Glory, who went down in the semi-final to eventual champions Sydney FC.

Welcoming Franjic to the club, will be some familiar faces including former Socceroo teammates from the 2014 World Cup and 2015 Asian Cup, Mark Milligan, and Tommy Oar.

Amassing 241 top league matches and 20 caps for the Socceroos, the 32-year old is no stranger to Milicic, having worked with him in the national team setup during both the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and the 2015 AFC Asian Cup in Australia.

...

https://www.macarthurfc.com.au/news/franjic-strengthens-bulls-defence?fbclid=IwAR0j3AuRezIepBqoSd5Lt_kSF09n3jS_erCMy6kopdOIQgyxgbzan7NybzE

440 is fucking obscene for active.

I did see a guy on social media say he emailed the club about it and got this reply:

"Based on a 13 home game season as per previous seasons, the $440 price works out to $33.85 a game. There is only 800 seats available in the Bullpen and it is a high demand section. There are different ranges of packages available across the stadium that are more affordable, such as General Admission, which is located on the grass hill behind the bullpen, which is only $21.54 based on 13 games as well."

 If the club are going to be dickheads and go all Supply and Demand to justify the decision, then the active groups should do the same and take them up on the general admission suggestion for half the price and on the hill.

If they are trying to get a thriving active section for those prices its cleary not going to happen. This attitude of trying to gouge supporters because an area is popular is not going to work, its just self defeating. The only reason its popular is because there are genuine fans that want to be active and want to go nuts behind the goal. They are usually the worst seats in the house and would also be the worst viewing seats. Shame on the club, if a club tried this in Germany the supportets would rip those in charge a new ass. 

$440 a season for active support is a total fucking disgrace. There's been so many positives from the club since they've got the license, and now I read this garbage.

For a club that has bragged about playing out of a stadium that is costing them next to nothing to hire, I think it is a total disgrace any of their memberships would be anything over $400 a season, let alone active support which should be the cheapest for obvious reasons that don't even need explaining.

Not a bad way to piss off your own fans. 

Over $30 per game behind the goals is terrible value for money for A League quality football.
Thats also under the assumption the season ticket holder attends every game. So if you missed a couple of games it edges closer to $40 per game.

Surely they will get some vocal backlash over this and will adjust the price accordingly.

Moronic move. Should be as cheap as possible so that there is a shortage, driving up interest. You also want to do everything you can to make the stadium full so that the match day experience is exciting and keeps bringing people back. A crowd attracts a crowd and all that. 

The cynical part of me wonders if the owners want it to fail so that they have an excuse to bail. I genuinely know nothing about them though so I will chalk this one up to my football-based paranoia.

That temporary Fairfield Showgrounds move could be a master stroke by Macarthur hierarchy. It would initially be a better sell in order to attain the services of good players. It would not take as long to get to as compared to Campbelltown Uni facilities. Sydney roads, wow, disgraceful, either in a carpark or pay a Fortune on tolls! Do that 5-6 days a week.

Given that the club is meant to be getting a very cheap rental rate, why are they charging so much? 

Yeppppppp.

Reading between the lines, you'd have to conclude that Macarthur is NOT trying to encourage any active support.

Macarthur FC Head Coach Ante Milicic has increased the depth of his inaugural playing squad with 20-year old gloveman Nick Suman from Western Sydney Wanderers joining the A-League newcomers.

Hawkesbury junior, Suman, played his club football for Sydney United before joining the WS Wanderers Academy in 2015. He would go onto to become a regular starter in the Wanderers NPL 2 team and part of the clubs Foxtel Y-League Championship side.

Featuring in 5 A-League matches for the Wanderers, the left footer will be guided by plenty of experience with teammate and fellow keeper Adam Federici, and the club’s goalkeeping coach, former NZ All Whites keeper - Glen Moss.
...


https://www.macarthurfc.com.au/news/macarthur-fc-strengthen-keeper-ranks?fbclid=IwAR1yHPHbcnSl3gcWBJZEyzYTubP06JhN6j6zLwgSZ12FqWMiVLVzWdPCTd4

Sold out platinum memberships they did 

That is about 600 to 650 seats.

The Macron kits is coming out soon according to Twitter, Aussie Juve perhaps? 
Platinum tickets sold out, wow what about that!