Why is the idea of a football club in Canberra hopeless? It's not a tiny little village after all? Funny though, the team name and your comment had me thinking, Well, the NJ Cosmos of the old NASL were hardly the worst club any season and they sure turned out the crowds but they couldn't stay in business either.
It probably isn't a hopeless idea in theory - we were just a bunch of cynics. Canberra has about 300,000 people in a market competing with professional Rugby league and Union, and AFL promotions. The Cosmos were the evolutionary endpoint of the ACT Soccer Federation's efforts to get represented in the national league. There were several previous incarnations. Resources had to come from the local clubs, which meant less money for junior soccer and a whole heap of local jealousies and rivalries coming to the fore in the administration of same. Sponsorship was minimal. Crowds averaged over 1,500, the stadium was world class but it just never proved economically viable to keep entering a 'franchise' (for that is what they now are) in the national competition. I never thought I'd ever be writing something like this - I even miss the buggers, even though I'm now living 1,000 km away in anotehr state!
At least you're living in Australia, mate. Something I've been itching to do since visiting in 2000 (but before the Olympics, mind you, not during).
