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Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Melbourne Heart ticking the boxes
Author: Grantley Bernard
From: Fox Sports/Herald Sun
Date: October 14th 2008
MELBOURNE'S second A-League team could be approved before Christmas.
Football Federation Australia is close to rubber-stamping plans for the city's second club after last month awarding preferred bidder status to the Melbourne Heart consortium.
"We've been in pretty regular discussions with the consortium," FFA chief executive Ben Buckley said.
"We've got a lot more detail to work through in the next month and we'll do that in due course. But we're still confident they've got all the right ingredients to make it work.
"If all things went according to plan, we'd hope to do it this side of Christmas.
"It's about making sure the business plan, the business model and operation model is first-class before we give it the formal tick-off.
"But everything we've seen to date would suggest that it would be in order."
That basically seals Melbourne Heart's inclusion in the A-League for the 2010-11 season and gives them a healthy 20-month lead-in time to prepare for their first game.
The A-League will expand from eight to 10 teams next season with the inclusion of Gold Coast and Townsville.
There has been talk of another team from West Sydney, Canberra or Tasmania joining the second Melbourne team to make it 12 teams for 2010.
But the fact no other team is even close to being as advanced as Melbourne Heart raises the possibility the A-League could be an 11-team competition for the 2010-11 season.
If that is the case, it is likely to draw opposition from existing clubs, especially Melbourne Victory.
Victory were opposed to a second team in Melbourne and does not want an odd number of teams.
"All the clubs don't want to see byes," Victory chairman Geoff Lord said recently.
"They don't want to see an odd number of clubs.
"That's been portrayed to the FFA and it really does need, in our view and all the clubs', a second club to come in in that second intake."
Melbourne Heart, which will play home games at the stadium being built in Swan St, will not necessarily be the team's name.
http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,,24492692-23215,00.html
From: Fox Sports/Herald Sun
Date: October 14th 2008
MELBOURNE'S second A-League team could be approved before Christmas.
Football Federation Australia is close to rubber-stamping plans for the city's second club after last month awarding preferred bidder status to the Melbourne Heart consortium.
"We've been in pretty regular discussions with the consortium," FFA chief executive Ben Buckley said.
"We've got a lot more detail to work through in the next month and we'll do that in due course. But we're still confident they've got all the right ingredients to make it work.
"If all things went according to plan, we'd hope to do it this side of Christmas.
"It's about making sure the business plan, the business model and operation model is first-class before we give it the formal tick-off.
"But everything we've seen to date would suggest that it would be in order."
That basically seals Melbourne Heart's inclusion in the A-League for the 2010-11 season and gives them a healthy 20-month lead-in time to prepare for their first game.
The A-League will expand from eight to 10 teams next season with the inclusion of Gold Coast and Townsville.
There has been talk of another team from West Sydney, Canberra or Tasmania joining the second Melbourne team to make it 12 teams for 2010.
But the fact no other team is even close to being as advanced as Melbourne Heart raises the possibility the A-League could be an 11-team competition for the 2010-11 season.
If that is the case, it is likely to draw opposition from existing clubs, especially Melbourne Victory.
Victory were opposed to a second team in Melbourne and does not want an odd number of teams.
"All the clubs don't want to see byes," Victory chairman Geoff Lord said recently.
"They don't want to see an odd number of clubs.
"That's been portrayed to the FFA and it really does need, in our view and all the clubs', a second club to come in in that second intake."
Melbourne Heart, which will play home games at the stadium being built in Swan St, will not necessarily be the team's name.
http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,,24492692-23215,00.html
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