I thought these comments by Buckley were interesting: http://www.smh.com.au/sport/a-league/north-queensland-fury-axed-from-aleague-20110301-1bcru.html
So the truth has come out - the Fury could only raise a fifth of the minimum financial requirement. Seems like the FFA might actually have made a sensible decision at last. With the money saved from not having to prop up the Fury for another year, perhaps the FFA could fund a decent advertising for the whole A-League...
I have been hoping for some time now that Clive Palmer would swap the coast for NQF.... Dropping gold coast would have no real impact, as it seems obvious to me that the few fans that turned up week in, week out were formerly Queensland roar fans, and with Brisbane just up the road, talented kids in the area already had a genuine step-up. The case is different in Townsville for the reasons Cpt socceroo has explained, and crowds of 6000/7000 are acceptable as they argueabley have the smallest population base (correct me on this if im wrong).... On top of this, I doubt we will see the Gold Coast last any longer than next season... The crowds will most likely drop even further as the hardcore supporters realise a library has a better atmosphere, and Palmer will cut them off life support...
Thats why they are pushing for this new second West Sydney bid, so they can stay at 10 teams, when the Coast die.
Surely 'they' are pushing the West Sydney bid because 'they' believe it will be successful in engaging a large latent supporter base. growing the League as it were.
yeah, and all soccer fans in Australia are apparently conspiracy theoristsAlthough you have to ask why Murdoch's rags support football so much in the UK yet take every opportunity to stick the boot into the game Down Under God I hate Rebecca Wilson and Marco Monteverde!
Murdoch cares only for $$$, not for anything else. Very sad day for football in Australia. The league should consolidate and wait for 15k-20k averages before expanding beyond 10 teams.
Its a sad day indeed, but I'm finding it cringe-worthy waiting with dread for the inevitable gloating in the main stream media from the sokkah-haterz out there to stick the boot in. Its just plain embarrassing that when other codes are expanding, football plonks down Fury in Townsville and 2 years later they are contracted I just hate reading negative football stories and it seems the last 12 months have been ripe for the haters to get stuck in( South Africa is a criminals paradise - Cup in Danger etc; Socceroos 'fail' to progress to R16; FFA fails to land 2022 bid; Socceroos fall to Japan in Asian Cup 2011; crowds down in the A-League = football dying in Australia!; Fury put down by FFA; despite the great football on show over the course of season 6; just what do you think the media will focus on as we come up to the showpiece event of the season?) I'm sick of Football not getting to tell the positive stories, we've come so far, yet we are still up against the dinosaurs of this country when it comes to gaining respect