Asian Cup 2015: Tournament to turn a profit and lead the way for more major football events

ASIAN Cup boss Michael Brown says he hopes the success of the tournament paves the way for Australia to host more major football tournaments.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - JANUARY 31: Mathew Ryan of Australia celebrates with fans after Australia defeated Korea Republic during the 2015 Asian Cup final match between Korea Republic and the Australian Socceroos at ANZ Stadium on January 31, 2015 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)

ASIAN Cup boss Michael Brown says he hopes the success of the tournament paves the way for Australia to host more major football tournaments, as organisers prepare to return a profit of $4m-$6m to governments who backed it.

Though a final audit of the Asian Cup balance sheet will be needed to provide exact numbers, Brown said ticket sales would finish between $18m-$20m — well above the $14m budgeted for, as more than 650,000 people attended the 32 games.

The surplus will be returned to the federal and NSW, Victorian and Queensland governments who provided $61m to host the Asian Cup, and Brown said that would provide further lustre to a tournament seen as rehabilitating the idea of Australia hosting football events, following the ignominy of the 2022 World Cup bid.

CONFED CUP CAN HELP ROOS’ WC CAMPAIGN

SIMON HILL: AUSSIE FOOTBALL’S NEXT BIG CHALLENGE

CUP TRIUMPH HAS FOOTBALL STANDING TALL

Fans flocked to games as Australia showed it can host major football events.

Already Football Federation CEO David Gallop has outlined a bid for the 2023 Women’s World Cup, and Brown said tangible economic benefits would be felt.

“There’s a lot of data still to come in, especially around the tickets and where the purchasers were from and whether they travelled, but everything we’ve heard from government is that they are extremely happy,” Brown said.

“Tourism Australia are happy, I spoke to the Commonwealth government and they’re over the moon, and even the Mayor of Newcastle told us the other night that having Asian Cup matches there brought about $13m into the region.

“I’m sure FFA would love to see the surplus spent on football-related infrastructure but that’s a matter for them and government.”

Brown said he had received a letter from Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, president of the Asian Football Confederation, praising it as “the most successful Asian Cup”, and said the tournament had proved Australia would embrace football events.

“Anything Australia can do in hosting football tournaments just adds to the credibility,” Brown said. “The letter I got just shows that the credibility of the game here and of Australia is extensive.

“We had 16 teams here of wide political and social differences, without a single issue arising, and throughout we had fantastic supporters whose behaviour was impeccable.

“We’re hearing commentators talk about the influence the tournament has had on Australia, and the opportunities that arise to host similar events.”

The range of nationalities at games showed how football can reach new crowds in Australia.

Brown noted that the biggest legacy for football would come from converting swathes of the hundreds of thousands of supporters into A-League members, or at least attendees, after they had witnessed high-level football played here.

“We’ve got 650,000 people, 280,000 of them from multicultural backgrounds, who watched our games and we need to translate as many as possible of them into A-League followers.

“Building a clubland that’s really strong would be something huge the Asian Cup could do for football.”