Weekender 1: Come on Canberra we can do it.

The Weekender is 600 words about football, written by anyone from Canberra or our region.

See How to write for The Weekender for more details.

Canberra will get an A-League team!

by Eamonn Flanagan.

Now I've got your attention, I'm going to tell you why, when and finally what you can do to help.

Townsville has a population of 170,000 with few, if anybody, in its hinterland. And they nearly made the A-League in Season 4. Melbourne businesswoman Melissa Fischer-Massa is set to pour $6 million into the new Townsville franchise.

Fantastic news...for Canberra I think.

And Canberrans should take heart. Our football future is secure.

Our Capital, Canberra has a population of 350,000 including Queanbeyan, 450,000 live within 1 hour of Canberra Stadium and 800,000 within a 3 hour drive.

And our city is growing, is still the youngest city in Australia, and has a very affluent population compared to say...Townsville.

Canberra will have an A-League team

When? That even I can't predict although I'm getting closer to making a prediction.

In twenty years will we have an A-League team? Yes
In ten years will we have an A-League team? Yes
In five? Hopefully....with your help it could be sooner.

We have one chance to organise this team, the community support, and the financial backing and when we do we need to get it right.

Canberra Arrows, Canberra Cosmos

Stop! Right there. That is the past. We can learn from the past for sure but there is NO value in talking about how Canberra has been here before. We haven't.

A Canberra football team never played in the A-League. They never went into a National Televised League. They never went into a League where one team attracts average crowds of 26,000 or where the average crowd for the league is 15,000.

They never went into a League with 17,000 registered players through Capital Football. They never went into a League when the City, the Nation felt proud of our national teams; the Socceroos and Matildas.

They never went into a league when people in Canberra, the children, wear the National football jersey with pride at their clubs on Saturday morning, or around the shopping centres. It's never happened before.

It is a different time.

The Central Coast Mariners started with 800 members. Canberra Cosmos averaged 3,000 in a league full of ethnic stereotypes and teams, negative media coverage and well I won't go on.

We would get 3,000 members in our first season!

And of course we have Asia.

We might never qualify. Previous national teams from Canberra didn't come close to winnning anything.

True but they didn't have a Salary Cap. And besides Canberra could play three games in Asia every year.

For $50,000 from ACT Government the team could play three games pre-season in China one year, Japan the next, Indonesia or Vietnam after that, and take our Export Business community with them. That's a cheap investment I think in the long-term future of Canberra.

We need money. Lots of it. And it will probably come from Melbourne, Sydney, Qatar or Beijing, Mumbai or London. And let's face it $6 million might be a lot to me, but to own a club for $6 mill for some people on this planet is well, chicken feed.

What can you do?

If you would like to see Canberra in the A-League. Then you must do your bit, you simply must.

For now it's simple. And this might be all you ever have to do to get our team playing.

For yourself, for your kids, because you just think the National Capital should have a team, or because you hate Sydney. Then here's what you have to do.

When you talk to people about football/soccer, talk about the A-League. And then talk about how you'd like to see a team from Canberra in the A-League.

And then when Canberrans wince, say it's been tried before, say national teams fail in Canberra, you smile your best smile, with confidence and say, not this time mate, we can do it, and we will.

And spout any of the reasons above.

And if they disagree.

Give them a very simple question closed question.

Do you want to see an A-League team in Canberra. Yes or no.

Canberra football needs your support. Together we can do it.