A Tasmanian A-League team would draw crowds to rival AFL and Big Bash matches
A Tasmanian A-League team could draw crowds to rival Big Bash and AFL matches, it has been predicted, as a Tassie soccer export throws his support behind the push. READ THE EDITORIAL >>
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FOOTBALL Tasmania boss Bob Gordon says a local team in the A-League would supercharge the sport around the state and attract crowds to rival AFL and Big Bash games.
A Tasmanian A-League team has never been closer with the state government and Premier Peter Gutwein now openly backing the bid and soccer officials scouring Hobart for a greenfield stadium site for entry into the league by 2023.
The latest push is founded on the proposal for a Tasmanian team in the A-League expansion two years ago.
Soccer’s push for entry into a national competition along sits alongside the state’s long-held hopes of joining the AFL.
Cricket already has the enormously successful Hobart Hurricanes franchise and NBL basketball team the Jack Jumpers is on the way.
Soccer seems certain to beat AFL to the punch in Tasmania.
“There is a group of ‘football fanatics’ who are well-connected and are financially well-backed, backing this bid,” Gordon said.
“They are the ones who will be doing the detailed feasibility study and we will be assisting them.
“It is realistic, it is achievable, and we were hoping it might be in time for the Women’s World Cup in 2023 hopefully coming to Tasmania.
“It will be driven by how long it takes to get planning and development approvals and construction done.
“There have been discussions with Football Australia and some A-League clubs and the Premier’s support has been crucial to those discussions.”
Gordon believes the government’s support is well-deserved.
“It’s recognition that we are by far the biggest participation sport in Tasmania and it’s recognition that it’s long overdue that we have a team in the A-League,” he said.
“There has been a lot of work done in preparation for it.
“It is great that the Premier has acknowledged the size of our sport and the importance of it.
“In Hobart, one in three kids play our sport and the numbers are increasing.
“All we are constrained by is the lack of infrastructure for our game – we will often have 1500 kids on two grounds trying to get a game in.
“And there is a lack of a pathway for those kids and an A-League team would be the door into a world game.”
UTAS Stadium would host games once it is reconfigured for soccer for the 2023 Women’s World Cup and a new soccer stadium with a multi-purpose design is sought for Hobart.
Legendary coach Ken Morton said Tasmania has proven it can produce soccer talent.
“We’ve had some of our most gifted players move away to continue their career but now if they could do it on their own patch, even better,” he said.
Local team could plug talent drain
ALEX Cisak used to be the aspiring soccer star with dreams of making it on the world stage.
Now the 31-year-old goalkeeper is nurturing other Tasmanians in their bid to following in his considerable footsteps.
Cisak hopes that instead of their path leading interstate or overseas, local youngsters can go straight into a Tasmanian A-League team before earning their stripes for an international calling.
The prospect of a local A-League team has Cisak – a former Socceroos squad member and player for EPL club Leicester City, as well as Oldham Athletic, Portsmouth, Burnley, Leyton Orient and Sydney FC – excited for the youth among Tasmania’s 40,000 registered players, particularly those in his Limitless Football Academy.
“My career would have been totally different if we had our own A-League team,” Cisak said.
“At 15, there were no opportunities in Tasmania so the only choice was to go to Europe.
“If we had a team here, that would have been my choice for sure.
“Tassie needs it to go forward. It should have been done years ago.
“There are so many good young players here. The numbers are huge.
“It would be silly for the number one sport in the world not to have an A-League team in Tasmania.”
The injection of an A-League team here would be positive.
“It would be massive – numbers would jump and the quality would go up and more of our best players could stay,” Cisak said.
EDITORIAL: We need our own team
ALL indicators suggest that footy is heading for a day of reckoning in Tasmania.
There has been a long, slow slide out of love with the code for a number of reasons but when the state’s own Premier is suggesting AFL is in “decay” in Tasmania, it’s a sure sign things are going devastatingly wrong.
Peter Gutwein, who once upon a time was an accomplished player, has issued an ultimatum to the AFL’s Melbourne-based big wigs.
We’ve run a taskforce, we have a business case that stacks up and we want our own team.
The state government has a five-year $19m deal with Hawthorn to play five games a year in Tasmania.
It expires at the end of this year.
North Melbourne receives about $3m a year from the government-owned Bass Strait ferry operator TT-Line, which also ends this year.
Mr Gutwein will not finalise the arrangements for the next contract with Hawthorn or North Melbourne until we have clarity about a licence for a Tasmanian team.
“I want to see an outcome. Tasmania is part of the Federation and you cannot have a truly national Australian Football League if one of the states doesn’t have a team in it,” he said earlier this week.
The comments came as Mr Gutwein said he would set his sights on a potential Tasmanian A-League team.
On the back of the formation of the new NBL team, the Jack Jumpers, Mr Gutwein’s view is that no sporting competition is truly national unless it has a Tasmanian team in its ranks.
“You can’t have a national competition in any sport, and call it a truly national competition, unless a state like Tasmania plays a part,” he said.
The AFL can shrug this off as mere politics but Mr Gutwein is a popular Premier and it’s about so much more than that when you look at the state of footy in Tasmania.
There has been an exodus from the TSL and the best of the best players have been forced to move.
The league has been struggling for some years now but that it can’t attract or retain players is a major issue that is indicative of a deeper problem that’s making footy less and less attractive to Tasmanians.
That came to a head in December when no Tasmanians were drafted to the AFL.
In today’s Mercury we report that North Melbourne will try to help youngsters shine in front of recruiters with a partnership allowing eight players to play a handful of games in the new VFL competition.
It’s a positive step but it’s not going to light a fire and ignite renewed support for footy in our state.
We’ve said it so many times before, but if the league wants to keep Tasmanians on-side there is only one answer and that is for our state to have its own team.
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