New CEO of A-League expansion outfit Macarthur South-West Sydney, Archie Fraser believes they have all the elements to create a successful and competitive A-League franchise.
Fraser who took over the role on Tuesday labelled the job as ‘taking over a blank canvas’ and said he has all the right tools to make sure his side are able to make an immediate impact upon their initiation in the 2020-21 A-League season.
“I am just amazed at the amount of activity that’s going on in and around the area,” Fraser said.
“We have also got Campbelltown Stadium that has been around since the late 90’s which is around 20,000 seat capacity,
“There is a centre of excellence being built right near the Western Sydney University so the club will have a training facility set for them with half a dozen pitches,
“The sense of community coming together with the support of the council and on top of that the people who have invested are football people who understand the history of the game,
“Hand me a blank canvas with all those elements – you would like to think that it would make us pretty successful and pretty competitive.”
The former CEO of the St Kilda Football Club and North Queensland Fury described the competition as falling flat over the past few seasons.
However, Fraser believes that the next bunch of A-League expansion sides and an independently ran competition can help add a much-needed ‘spark’ for Australia’s premier competition.
“I think first of all putting together a competitive team adding to the strength of the A-League,” Fraser said.
“We can agree the A-League has been a wee-bit flat but in the next couple of years with the new Melbourne team coming in and the new South-West Macarthur team coming in it just adds a bit more of a spark,”
“Obviously by then it is likely that the A-League will be ran independently so that should bring some positives.”
With the inception of the Sydney based outfit, it means that there will be a new derby on the scene with Macarthur sharing geographical borders with the Western Sydney Wanderers.
Fraser insists that the introduction of another local derby to the competition will help had extra excitement to the league along with increased fan engagement.
“It will add another local derby to the scene which is exciting,” Fraser said.
“There’s already a rivalry between the regions – a distinct geographical cut off between the two areas so that will be exciting,”
“Any-time you add a local derby to a league it just adds value and it builds up the fan engagement and excitement.”
