PREMIER League football club leaders Sutherland Sharks are examining plans for an eventual bid for an A-League licence and possibly playing out of Toyota Stadium.
The Sharks don't have the finances to bid by themselves, but are looking at a number of other options a few weeks out from their game against Sydney FC at Seymour Shaw Park. They can seek a joint venture with other Premier League clubs and their major sponsors or form a joint venture with Wollongong in a similar vein to the St George-Illawarra
NRL joint venture.
There is talk of the club waiting for the planned (second division) B-League competition in five or more years time and hope to win promotion to the A-League.
However, as the Wollongong bid is well advanced, it would be less expensive for any Sutherland consortium to join up and play half their home games at WIN Stadium and the other half at Toyota Stadium.
Sutherland's Scottish-born coach Brian Brown said a second A-League side, apart from Sydney FC, was ``imperative'' in the country's largest city.
"Playing an A-League side out of Shark [Toyota] Park would entice more supporters than playing all games in Wollongong,'' said Brown, referring to the country's biggest junior football nursery (about 18,000 players) in Sutherland Shire.
Referring to the NRL played in winter and the A League in summer, Brown said: ``It would also give Cronulla Sharks revenue all-year round.
"I would be surprised if this isn't already on the table, and if it isn't, it should be because it just makes good sense.''
John Hills, the Pipe King multi-millionaire and major sponsor of Sutherland Sharks, said he had been a vocal supporter ``for years'' of a Shire-based side playing in the big league.
"Since the old National League era in soccer I've supported that concept,'' Hills said. "I still support it today. I don't have the answers about who we would need to finance an A-League bid.
"However. I will be having discussions with Cronulla Sharks where I was a major sponsor for three years about this and other matters.''
Hills, who has financed Sutherland Sharks to the tune of about $2 million in recent years, including having the country's first synthetic grass surface laid for football games, has ongoing plans to fund a redevelopment of Seymour Shaw Park and its surrounds.
Sydney FC's sole Sydney licence agreement for the first five years expires at the end of next season.
Sutherland, who hold a commanding seven-point lead at the top of the Premier League ladder, hosts Sydney FC in an exhibition match at Seymour Shaw Park tomorrow fortnight, July 2.