A-League soccer, 2023: Competition expansion could help sale of Newcastle Jets

Australia Professional Leagues (APL) announced on Wednesday that Canberra and Auckland were preferred markets for their next round of expansion ahead of the 2024-25 season.

They beat out 11 other contenders including north Queensland, Gold Coast and Wollongong and are now on track to join the competition in little more than 18 months, pending the finalisation of licence applications in June.

The Jets have been bankrolled by the owners of four rival clubs since Martin Lee had his licence stripped in January 2021.

Talks have been on-going with a Melbourne-based consortium for more than 12 months but are yet to be finalised.

"It has been two years since the ownership group came together," Mattiske said. "There is now a strong focus on that transition to new ownership and significant energy is being put into that. Pleasingly we are seeing good interest.

"When you think about the interest the APL is reporting around two expansion franchises, that is a positive for the game in that it does demonstrate that there are parties domestically and internationally that are looking to the A-League. That will only bode well for the Jets."

The licence fee for an expansion club is understood to be around $25 million. Other start-up costs could require millions more.

The Herald understands the Jets are on the market for about $15m.

APL CEO Danny Townsend said Canberra and Auckland teams joining the competition were not a formality, but they now had the chance to "show us how" they can make it work.

He said the ACT needed to prove it had the "component parts" of a successful football club to be formally awarded a licence.

"The stadium, training facilities, engagement with the local community ... corporate support from the ACT, government support ... those rocks ... need to be in the jar and we need to have a collective group of people to invest in that jar," he said.

"The market is ready, the football community wants a team, the women's team is there already that we want to enhance and invest in.

"There's no reason why it wouldn't (be a formality), but I wouldn't say it's a fait accompli."

Canberra A-League bid director Michael Caggiano is confident he can find investors to fund a $25m licence within three months.

The national capital hasn't had a team in the men's top-tier since the Canberra Cosmos folded in 2001, while the Auckland-based Football Kingz folded in 2004.

It's not Auckland's first A-League experience, having hosted the New Zealand Knights for the competition's first two seasons before they had their licence revoked in 2007.

Townsend said the Knights' failure, due to poor crowds and on-field performance, didn't stop his confidence in taking a "better path".

"Auckland is the biggest metro city in Australia and New Zealand without a team," he said.

"We're not overly concerned about history and why things worked or didn't.

"Obviously we look at why the Knights didn't work and you learn from that."

Gaggiano said expanding through the APL process rather than via FA was "totally different", adding a Canberra-based team was a matter of "not if, but when and with whom".

"I've been working with the APL, they are genuinely engaged, interested and working with us on bringing football investment to Canberra," he said.

"This is about the best investor, not any investor. The best investor for this region that's going to contribute to football and to help football grow and be more valuable as a whole.

"It's not about who can drop the most money, it's about what's best for the game and best for the leagues."

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