Canberra A-League bid 'further behind' plans for Auckland expansion

A-League Commissioner Nick Garcia says an Auckland franchise will be a shot in the arm for the competition, with the owner of a second Kiwi club likely to be confirmed as early as Wednesday.

The APL is in the final stages of negotiations with a $25 million backer for the new New Zealand team with several parties reportedly keen to invest.

But while Auckland is surging ahead and will have more than a year to plan for its debut season in 2024-25, Canberra's bid team has fallen conspicuously quiet in recent months.

The APL had initially hoped to have investors finalised by the end of June before pushing the deadline back to October.

Garcia revealed at the season launch in Sydney on Tuesday that an agreement for a new Auckland side was at the pointy end of talks.

"Expansion in Auckland is going particularly well and you can expect an announcement on that in the coming weeks for sure," Garcia said.

"There was a lot of interest in Auckland. We moved from what was effectively building one consortium into a bidding process is a great position to be in.

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"The conversations we're having have been with really sophisticated global sports investors.

"It's a really good shot in the arm for confidence in the A-Leagues going forward.

Canberra has had several false starts at joining the A-League since the idea of being an expansion location was first flagged 15 years ago.

Football Australia continually overlooked Canberra's previous bids in favour of adding teams in Sydney and Melbourne, despite the capital's proposal having superior financial backing.

Now the market appears to have softened and it is taking time to generate momentum again, but Garcia said the APL was wedded to breaking into the Canberra market.

"We are still very confident in getting the right investors in those markets with good owners that those teams will fly," Garcia said.

The creation of the two additional sides does not change TV rights distributions for existing clubs who are into their third year of a five-year broadcast deal with ViacomCBS, who show games on Network Ten and sister streaming platform Paramount+.

The deal was met with scorn by fans due to technical issues with Paramount+, most notably the absence of a pause-rewind function which sources indicated could be close to resolution this year.

Despite the platform's flaws, the APL claims in their annual report that over the last 12 months the ALM and ALW have experienced 31 and 63 per cent increase in viewership respectively.

The broadcaster has a three-year contract extension clause in its favour, something the APL expects the rights holder to trigger.

"It's an option for Paramount and their view is they want to invest in football long-term," said APL chief executive Danny Townsend.

"I don't think we'll be having conversations with them for another year or so.

"We'd expect (them to take the option). They've really gotten behind the league in the last couple of years and we're very grateful for that."

Meanwhile, Townsend confirmed discussions to sell grand final hosting rights to the NSW government were "ongoing" after it was reported last month that the APL could ditch that agreement in favour of a Magic Round-style event.

"We're a way off but the sooner you can make those changes, if you want to make them, the better," Townsend added.

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