Aerial artist’s impression of Throsby’s Home of Football in 2022 – still a dream for local players. Photo: ACT YourSay Conversations.
On my arrival in Canberra in 1988, I was advised about the sports worthy of being covered at the time on the ABC.
The Raiders and the Cannons were the main game, followed by the Capitals and ACT rep teams in Australian rules and rugby union.
With the Canberra City Arrows no longer in the National Soccer League, there was a definite void in the coverage of football in the ACT.
There was plenty of lobbying for greater coverage by the late Steve Doszpot, Johnny Warren and Charlie Perkins, but before the Cosmos and Canberra Eclipse, it was pretty much about the local league.
Not that coverage of local competitions wasn’t justified, it was just difficult to provide equal coverage for the sport when it was competing for airtime against teams as prominent as the Raiders and Cannons.
There was genuine frustration that football, as the biggest sport in the world, wasn’t getting a fair go, whether it be coverage, funding or facilities.
That was in the late 1980s.
In 2025, it would appear there has been very little movement on facilities and funding for football in the ACT when compared to other sports.
While money is spent on Canberra Stadium, Manuka Oval, Stromlo with mountain bikes, criterion and aquatics, Gungahlin enclosed oval, Woden with track and field, Narrabundah Ball Park, and the list goes on, there is not a lot of love being directed towards football.
There is no facility in Canberra of a high standard that could be regarded as the home of football in the Territory.
Sure, Canberra United plays its home games at McKellar Stadium, which is far from state-of-the-art, but it’s functional.
The Home of Football envisioned for Throsby didn’t get off the ground and effectively halted momentum for significant money to be spent on a major facility in Canberra.
In 2014, the University of Canberra announced plans for a boutique football venue, but that hasn’t got off the ground, nor has the redevelopment of Deakin Stadium.
Gungahlin Enclosed is hardly ideal for football, as three other football codes use it, and the surface is unpredictable to say the least, while Hawker is hardly state-of-the-art.
In the meantime, Phillip Oval has undergone significant redevelopment for AFL and cricket, while major work is underway at the home grounds of Royals rugby and the Woden Valley Rams, as well as the new Belconnen Basketball Stadium.
This is, of course, on top of the Brumbies’ facility at UC, the Raiders’ training complex at Braddon, and the money spent on securing three AFL games a year at Manuka.
The ACT Government has announced plans for new football fields at Stromlo, but it is not what you would regard as the Home of Football in Canberra – a venue to showcase the sport in a purpose-built 5000-seat stadium.
With an estimated 43,116 people playing the sport in Canberra, those lobbying for a greater piece of the ACT Government funding pie have upped the ante in the wake of the demise of Gungahlin United.
Gungahlin United’s unpaid $180,000 ground hire debt to the ACT Government is seen as a contributing factor, along with a number of other issues, ultimately resulting in the club folding.
Nick Houston is the spokesperson for the lobby group Fund Football Fairly ACT. He believes his code is getting a poor deal out of the government.
“We use more grounds because of our high numbers, and we are therefore paying more in ground hire fees,” Nich explains.
“Football is effectively subsidising the other sports. A lot of sports are getting more funding than football, even though we have more participants.”
The call is not new, but it is timely, with questions raised about whether more could have been done to prevent Gungahlin United’s collapse.
It also raises questions about whether football is getting a fair go in Canberra.
It would be good to know what plans are in place for a purpose-built football facility in the ACT. It would need to cater for at least 5000 spectators, and the ground would have to be purpose-built for the sport and not shared with other codes.
