Canberra A-League expansion: Can Michael Caggiano find a $25m investor?

The capital's soccer community went into excitement meltdown on Wednesday after the Australian Professional Leagues confirmed their intention to add an expansion team in Canberra for the 2024-25 season.

Caggiano's team is set to meet with community competitions in the coming weeks and the bid team from 2018 will reopen memberships soon to add to their 9000-strong list.

But more importantly, Caggiano is on a mission to find an investor to partner with as the final piece of the puzzle, beginning his search for a financial backers overseas and at home.

The APL is keen to partner with overseas clubs looking to expand and add more teams to their business, or find investors who see value in being a part of the competition. The licence fee is believed to be around $25 million.

"There's a few investors that I've been talking to and I've closed before for a team [as part of previous bids], Canberra is a really saleable pitch to an international or local investor," Caggiano said.

"I know I've done it before, I've put money in the bank for times. I can do it again. This is about who is the best investor for Canberra, and not just about men's football."

There are also sceptics, who fear Canberra will be burned again after missing out on expansion licences in 2008 and then again in 2018.

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The process has changed this time. Instead of opening up the expansion plan to all interested parties and inviting bidders to fight each other, the APL says it wants Canberra and Auckland after assessing 13 potential markets.

Why should Canberrans trust the process now? "Believe in me, like you have, and trust me, like you have," Caggiano said in a message to the soccer community.

"I won't stop until it's done, and this is another step. Take solace in the fact the [APL] has gone public, that's what makes it real. They're saying Canberra is the most logical place for football investment in Australia and they want to work with me to do that."

The expansion news led to support from ACT and federal politicians and players, coaches and fans of the game at all levels.

The APL is working on a timeline of securing investors by the end of June to give teams in Auckland and Canberra more than 12 months lead-in to their first season, which will start at the end of next year.

The ACT government had an in-principle $1.5 million per-season agreement with Caggiano's previous bid and will likely honour the arrangement which is similar to the ACT Brumbies, Canberra Raiders and GWS Giants' performance deals.

Caggiano and his team, which includes Bede Gahan and several others, have continued to work behind the scenes for the past five years to identify team sponsors, major investors, and ownership models.

"We're not starting from scratch and that's the thing that's different," Caggiano said.

"In the past we've always been outsiders trying to convince the FFA to include us [over] the past 20 years.

"But now this is a fresh approach, we're inside the room, we're closing with them and we're working with them.

"I'm probably the only person in Australia who knows what it takes to close an A-League investment, and if I'm confident everyone else should be."

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