Asian Cup legacy for Canberra football - I want to hear the plan

“We’re building a platform,” Michael Brown says. “We want to leave a legacy – we often talk about how good it’s going to be – but what is it? How do we define it?

“We’ll see other legacies in the fact that we need to upgrade some stadia and venues, and they will be local football facilities. Teams will be looking to play on facilities that are absolutely world class, and we’ve got to prepare 10 warm-up facilities across the eastern seaboard and that’s an obvious benefit.”

The leader of the Asian Cup football tournament to be held in Australia in 2015 says he wants to leave a legacy.

Amen brother!

Let's see you do it.

We have no A-League team in Canberra nor any hope of professional football or A-League youth team but apparently we are getting some Asia Cup games.

The Olympics left nothing for Canberra football - nothing. Not a skerrick of benefit - worse the Cosmos were dumped the minute the tournament was over.

The AFL get $30 million over ten years for three or four games, an upgrade to Manuka and poor old poorly connected football somehow continues to get nothing.

And you can hear the Brumbies and Raiders desperate to see Canberra Stadium is upgraded - to suit them. Fair enough they are the only sports that use it - and they can thank football - at the Sydney Olympics for the first upgrade and now the football at the Asian Cup for the next.

The ACT Governments policy which supports male sports teams incredibly disproportionately to female - and also professional sports like League and Union, way more than huge community sports like football means Canberra football has been going backwards over many many years.

We have to share fields, pay increased rates in the six months we're deemed not to be in season and when we do have fields there is little suitable for skilful play, no centre for Futsal, and have you seen where the poor ACTAS fellas used to train...maybe they still do....at Kambah.

So what does Canberra need apart from the obvious..a team, a youth team and some pathways.

Go for Gold!

A legacy would leave us with two fantastic training and football venues.

North and South. Turn McKellar into a six thousand seater state of the art football training complex. Forget Hawker, unless we can take over the grass fields that surround it for exclusive use.

Build a training venue in South Canberra to host a National Team - a football complex, with indoor facilities, that is football owned and run.

Again - we need a small football complex with room for growth that contains a state of the art field, futsal and real private commercial facilities inbuilt.

And let's get the Clubs or private enterprise in conjunction with community or Capital Football to run it. Capital Football should not run a commercial enterprise alone. We've learned from Hawker surely!

 A legacy doesn't just mean a field....for AFL, or a training facilities for GWS. It means something for the football community of Canberra. Something big.

Our CEO at Capital Football is on the Asia Cup 2015 Committee so here's hoping our sights are aimed way higher than ever before.

For so long in Canberra we've settled for way less than our sizeable community deserves.

Michael Brown - your test in Canberra is not to deliver three games that sell out, your test is to leave a legacy for football and the juniors who play in their droves. We're on your side. Let's do it!