New Brisbane team? FC Brisbane

[northernspirit]

I have to say i find this astonishing, surely Brisbane should be a one town team - Gold Coast and Townsville would be more successful surely - not to mention youd probably end up with 2 Brisbane teams each pulling about 8k opposed to Roars current 16k. Thoughts?

www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,21499774-5003412,00.html


Roar may face challengeMarco Monteverde
April 04, 2007 12:00am
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SUNCORP could soon be home to a second A-League team, with new entity Brisbane FC shaping as a local rival of Queensland Roar by 2010.

Officials of the new club will meet A-League operations manager Rob Abernethy in Sydney on April 20 to discuss their plans of becoming Brisbane's second franchise.

The Roar's Brisbane exclusivity deal ends after the 2009-10 A-League season, leaving open an opportunity for another club.

Brisbane FC general manager of football operations Alan Hunter has been hard at work for several weeks, with the club already having a logo and colours.

"We're playing in Brisbane colours of predominantly blue and white," said Hunter, who captained the Brisbane Strikers to the 1997 NSL championship.

"It's early days, but it's exciting. We know that 2010 is the year that they are looking to expand in the major cities and we want to make sure we're the other team to be playing in Brisbane.

"I think there's room for football every week in Brisbane. If you've got local derbys, people want to come and see those games and be passionate like they are when Manchester City plays against Manchester United."

Hunter has already met state government officials and potential sponsors, including Drug Arm.

He said Brisbane FC's intention was to be based at the Queensland Sports and Athletics Centre at Nathan and play its matches at Suncorp Stadium.

"We'd like to be ready by 2008 or 2009, so if we get the go-ahead we would have two years, or 18 months at the worst, to recruit and organise our structure, a la the Gold Coast Titans in the NRL," he said.

Hunter stressed that for Brisbane FC to be an unqualified success, the club needed Queensland Roar to provide a strong competitor.

Perth Glory is threatening to poach two of Queensland's best talents from under the nose of the Roar.

Palm Beach teenager Mitch Nichols, who has scored five goals in five Premier League matches this season, and his teammate David Dodd are set to head to Perth next month for a two-week trial with the Glory.

[LeedsMariner#4]

Very interesting article
It's certainly going to be an interesting couple of years off the field for the aleague over the next 5 years or so

[Coaster]

Two Brisbane teams would not work - can't get more simple than that - next topic, please.

I'm a brisbane-ite and i'd still rather see a Gold Coast team in before a second Brisbane team.

Man, I hate slow news weeks...

[Andy]

I doubt there will be another Brisbane team. Gold Coast or Townsville are both much better options. Also the pussycats struggle to pack out Suncorp with only one team.

[Jimmydinho]

Roar cant get great numbers as it is to one team, just imagine a 2nd team comming in, there would be no one left to support.

[dibo (pron. "DIB-OH")]

pjimmy86 said:

Roar cant get great numbers as it is to one team, just imagine a 2nd team comming in, there would be no one left to support.

you're kidding right? their average last season was bigger than sydney's.

they'd need to push some sort of north/south thing - the river is the divide in brissy, and the stadium (while on the north side) is right near a main station just near the river and is very central.

but it'd be a way off yet. oh, and a gold coast team would make it difficult too.

[Pete]

I'd believe that a Townsville team has more legs in the long term that two teams in the one city.
That said, if Roar can put together decent performances in the interceding seasons and start packing people into Suncorp, there may be some justification in having a second Brisbane team.
But I see Townsville leading the pack for the second Qld team at this stage. They've already been in some sort of negotiation process with the FFA when the Knights franchise was up for grabs, and they would have learnt a lot, business-wise, from that experience.
I don't think that captaining a side in the old NSL some 10 years ago is much to base your cred on either. What has this Hunter dude been doing in the past 10 yeasr, besides living old football memories? Has he any business expereinece to write about? And the colour scheme of blue and white is already taken by Melbourne Victory.

[northernspirit]

if alan hunter were a smart man he would have joined the gold coast bandwaggon and really got the ball moving in an area that is sustainable

[greenpoleffc]

Quite right ns, there is also a rectangular stadium being built on the Gold Coast for the knuckledraggers - 25,000 seater too I believe.