Western Melbourne aim to hit the ground running as hard work starts

It has been hard work over the past two years as the Western Melbourne Group soccer consortium found the finance, ambition and know how to put together the sort of bid that would convince the FFA to give them the nod to be Melbourne's third A-League team.

But in many ways the harder work begins now both for Western Melbourne, who enter the A-League in season 2019-20 and the Macarthur-South West Sydney group, whose entry to the competition will be delayed until 2020-21.

Lou Sticca, pictured here in 2012, has worked hard on the Western Melbourne bid.Credit:Brendan Esposito

Lou Sticca, the soccer agent and entrepreneur who has been a key driver for the bid, Steve Horvat, the former Socceroo central defender who has been the public face of Western Melbourne, and Maurice Bisetto, an audit partner with KPMG, have been front and square as the tortuous process of negotiation, bidding and then more negotiation has taken place.

The mechanics of putting the bid together is one thing, along with the lobbying and raising the multimillion-dollar sum required as a ''dowry payment'' to gain the new licence.

The fact that Western Melbourne alone amongst the bidders were prepared to privately finance the construction of their own boutique stadium at Tarneit was a huge factor in their favour.

But it will take several seasons to build, and the new club will play for the first few campaigns out of the AFL club Geelong's GMHBA Stadium in Kardinia Park.

Many regarded the Dandenong-based Team 11 as the favourite for a licence, but in the end their lack of a stadium deal – or the state government's preparedness to publicly commit to building a new $140 million venue in Dandenong – tipped the scales in Western Melbourne's favour despite the fact that the south-east consortium had offered some $13 million as a franchise fee.

South Melbourne, the former NSL powerhouse, were also in the running and reportedly offered some $15 million for the licence, but they were also overlooked despite the fact that they have an existing club, social infrastructure and supporter base and their own ground at Albert Park.

Neither Western Melbourne nor the FFA will say how much they paid, but it is unlikely that it will have been less than their rivals.

Putting a team together in short order is not an easy task, but Western Sydney Wanderers, the last new team into the league, proved it could be done as they found instant success, reaching the grand final in their first year.

Western Melbourne will be desperate to hit the ground running and be competitive from the outset.



Establishing a start-up in any market is difficult. Giving people a reason to desert a team they might have followed in the past and support your club because they are the new boys in the block in the area that you live in  is even harder.

Sticca was both excited and measured on Thursday as he sought to dampen expectation and douse the fervour that naturally accompanied the bid's success.

As a longtime player agent he has the phone numbers of many players around the world and of many more agents, so sourcing a new team might not be the hardest thing for him and his group.

But finding the right players who can be on the pace straight away with little time for preparation (probably three months from next July before the A-League kicks off in October 2019) is a tougher assignment.

Sticca has strong links with Scottish Premier League giants Celtic, having been involved when the Hoops toured Australia a few years ago. A number of his clients have either played for or been linked with the Glasgow club in the past.

So it is not surprising that Scott Brown, the Scotland international and Celtic captain, has already been linked as one potential marquee player for the fledgling club.

Sticca was reluctant to speculate much on Thursday afternoon as he digested what has, for him, been an all-consuming task over the past two years.

''It's only been two hours so it's too early to talk about marquee players or coaches.

''I was confident that we would succeed although many seemed to think Team 11 was the favourite.

''But we believe we offered a unique opportunity for the game to own its own stadium, which it has never done.

''We feel we will attract lots of fans. There are more than 1.5 million people who live over the Westgate Bridge from the city and we want to capitalise on that population, give them a club from their own region they can get behind.''

Critics argued that the Tarneit area lacked the sort of transport and built infrastructure required to underpin a new $150 million stadium but Sticca said that was simply not the case.

''There's a railway line that runs on our southern boundary. There are roadworks and massive infrastructure improvements. It's a fast-growing area, there are new estates popping up all the time, and we hope to be the beneficiary of that.''

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