Growing up as a Westie.

For a long period of time Western Sydney was a disenfranchised area. There was a lack of infrastructure, hospitals, schools and roads, particularly when I was growing up.

If we wanted to go into the city we had to make a day trip. If there was an accident on Parramatta Road it was like going to Newcastle for the day.

When I went to Sydney University there were people there that didn’t even know where Parramatta or the suburbs surrounding it was. If you ask ed them they had never heard it.

We have got a population base here that includes 300,000 people who have to go to the city dealing with traffic and leaving at 5am and coming home at 8pm.

They don’t see their kids because they need to chase bread for their family.

So for us, as a club, it’s about what we can do to alleviate those problems.

What can we do to bring jobs, infrastructure, roads, hospitals, proper schooling as well as opportunities to bring international events.

So when you’ve got these things that are afforded to other regions of the city, and they haven’t traditionally been coming to Western Sydney, then you start dealing with people who say there is an unfair narrative here.

Western Sydney finally get an A-League team.

They tried to do football here a myriad of times in various forms but with Western Sydney Wanderers it was the first time people came together as a collective for a common theme through the global game of football.

But it was also propelled by the underlying issues of the region over a long period of time that were here before many of supporters were even born.

But many local people understood it as a reflection of the historical element that I mentioned before.

What the Wanderers did was it didn’t matter what creed, race, religious denomination you were, it brought everyone together to represent the region that for so long was down trodden and treated as second class.

It didn’t only do things for football and this is the point of difference of Western Sydney has with other clubs - it’s beyond football. 

We advocated for the second airport, and the stadium would not have been built without us. 

The stadium

This is where we sit as a club.

The powers that be at the Asian Football Confederation wanted the 2014 Asian Champions League final, that we ended up winning, to be played at the ANZ stadium.

They wanted it to be a big event.

At the time we had not played at ANZ Stadium before, so the supporters of our club loved Paramatta, they wanted us to play the final at Paramatta Stadium.

We could have gone to the bigger venue and played in front of 83,000 supporters and the club would have made a stack load of money.

But we settled for 16,000 even though the capacity is 18,000 as we had to provide ticketing for the dignitaries.

So, the club forgo the opportunity to make a killing at this final - and we would have.

Instead we wanted to ensure that we remained loyal and true to the football element of our club, to our supporters, and to our team.

We could have done a short take and taken the money. But I don't  think it would have provided us with the opportunity of winning.

The night of the Asian Champions League final when we went to Parramatta Stadium there was only one lift for people to get up to the corporate seating areas and higher section of the stadium.

So you had dignitaries from all over the world and I said to the NSW Premier at the time, “this is embarrassing we can’t have dignitaries from overseas waiting for a lift to go to their seats.”

So we kept the lift fairly occupied upstairs so we could ensure that the Premier was waiting. Then when the Premier went upstairs there was a conversation of what do we do about this situation here?

So there certainly was a conversation of renovating the venue and in the next few months after that it became about knocking the venue down and then building a new one.

Wanderers and New Stadium Legacy

Building a new stadium at Parramatta could not have been done without the Wanderers.

This a legacy from the club and its supporters that have made a difference in a very short period of time. To ensure that such infrastructure as a sports stadium at Western Sydney can be done.

This brings a raft of opportunities whether it’s concerts or cultural elements to Parramatta and surrounding regions.

Players will be playing in a state of the art football stadium. Not a sports stadium, but a football stadium where it will have the biggest rating in Australian sport.

The supporters will feel intimately involved in the match and will be able to bring that passion closer to the team and support it.

As a football administrator I also advocated very strongly for safe standing areas to make it as authentic a football stadium as can be.

So, It will be the first of its kind in Australia and it will also have the country's steepest stand and have a safe standing area for about 1200 people which will add to the atmosphere.

This story will continue and we will keep making sure that we are at the forefront of discussions for football and for Western Sydney and this another example of it.

As told to Con Stamocostas