North Queensland FC is the tentative name for the bid headed by Don Matheson, a Townsville-based property developer.

He is bidding together with an unnamed Melbourne-based marketing group that has previously worked with the AFL. Both parties are putting in the start up money.

The NQFC submission is set to be handed to the FFA in two to three weeks' time with the hope of a green light for season five of the A-League.

However, it’s known that the NQFC bid is struggling to make headway with Dairy Farmers Stadium in Townsville, a fact that is causing some frustration with officials.

And Matheson was keen to distance himself from two earlier Townsville bids – that splintered from one original submission – which struggled to build a compelling case for inclusion in the A-League.

“We’ve really come off the back of those groups,” he told au.fourfourtwo.com.

“We were introduced as potential investors [to them] but were unhappy with the way both in the way they conducted their bid and the business plan behind their bid.

"So we moved away from that, and myself and a Melbourne group came together to present our own proposal.

“And I don’t see that the other two [bids] exist anymore.”

This is why Matheson’s bid is also keen to distance itself from using the name North Queensland Thunder.

He added: “They’ve had their chance at it but in our case we’ve put a thorough investigation to create this business plan which we’re certainly happy with the fact that the town will get behind it.

“In some ways we’ve had to clean up behind these other bids. They just haven’t done a lot of good, even though they had lots of passion for football.

"But in saying that, we’ve learnt from that and hopefully we’ll have our act together when we put in our bid.”

As for the headline grabbing story of Gary Van Egmond coaching North Queensland, Matheson did not douse the speculation.

“Look at his record," he said. "He’d be way up there on our list. A very, very good coach and a lot of players who have played under him have done well.

“I think he’s a sensational coach, very down to earth and he fits our bill.

“I know the players think the world of him and love to play for him. Which is critical and you need that chemistry. Gary’s got it.”

Matheson added the club is clear in the type of football people they want involved.

“We have a good football model and we’re speaking with players at the moment but of course I can’t reveal names. Acclimatising to Townsville has to be taken into consideration.”

However, Matheson concedes the all-important stadium deal is still not signed off – and it could be a dark cloud on the NQFC horizon.

“It’s one of the points we’re caught on at the moment and we’re working really hard on it," he said.

“Like anything, the key to us being successful is having a good agreement with Dairy Farmers stadium from day one. And it’s critical because it’s the only area where we can grow the game up here.

“We’re really working through the costs because as I said, we’ve only got one chance to get this right with the stadium and so we want to make sure we do it right.”

He says there is a plan B in terms of the stadium, but added: “It’s proving a little cost prohibitive at the moment but that stadium could be adapted. So it’s an option.

“We’re expecting crowds of up to 15,000. And if we’re very successful – and that’s what we want to be – we could get crowds of 20,000 plus and there always has been just one stadium that could handle that and it’s Dairy Farmers.”

Dairy Farmers stadium, home to the North Queensland Cowboys NRL side, holds 25,000 and is owned by Stadiums Queensland (which also owns Suncorp and Skilled Stadiums) – a state government off-shoot.

Matheson has been less than impressed with his dealings with them so far.

“I think the stadium is sincere I just don’t know if they’re making a great enough effort to accommodate us in the first couple of years,” he said.

“That’s something we have to work through and we’ll probably seek the FFA’s assistance in working through this one.

“The government has to look at the big picture; they only have one tenant there for half a year. So how aggressively they want to find that tenant is up to them.

“I mean, there are potential World Cup bids with stadiums potentially being built so they need to take the blinkers off and say ‘how hard can we try to look after these people?’.

“Yes, I’d like to work on more productive things like putting a side together rather than focusing on the stadium,” he added.

However, he remains hopeful that his bid and the city will adapt to its new tag as an A-League town.

“I just feel soccer will fit the landscape of a growing Townsville,” he said.

“We’re really comfortable with the enthusiasm behind sport up here and we’re really happy with the product and where soccer has been heading in the last three or four years.

“We’re creating a business plan to show us that we can create a sustainable franchise over the next 10 to 20 years.”

Matheson is a junior soccer coach in the region but his business background is in property development. He describes his fellow investors in Townsville as having “five star businesses”.

And he says putting together the business plan has been made much easier by the fact that the A-League has taken off so quickly over the last three years.

“It makes it a helluva lot easier for us to promote our product with the A-League being such an exciting product.

“Football’s growth over the last four-five years has been brilliant.”

“But the most important thing we want is a sustainable business. That’s why we’re tipping a lot of money into it.

"We’ll put up $6m to guarantee potential losses but ultimately we’ll capitalize it to $10m which will carry us through."