A recent trip to Madrid to experience La Liga has inspired Football Federation Victoria CEO Peter Filopoulos’ vision for boutique NPL stadia in Victoria, and these venues could also be used in an expanded A-League.
With a successful strategic policy platform in place to partner with government at all levels, FFV estimates that in just 10 months in 2018 they unlocked in total with all leverageable components around $118 million in funding.
This funding will help fund football’s exponential growth in the southern state as the FFV continue to partner with the Government at local and state levels.
FFV say they've built a model of advocacy that all other states and FFA could learn from, and are now planning for the next Federal Election on the back of 24% growth year on year from 2017.
Inspired by his recent trip to the Spanish capital, Filopoulos’s next big vision is to see how FFV could partner with government to build a series of boutique stadia
He says boutique stadia are the way of the future for current NPL VIC clubs and potentially Victorian clubs that are in a future A-League or A-League Second Division.
“The next thing is, I want to tackle is how we can start building some boutique stadia for our second-tier clubs,” he told FTBL.
“So that one day when we do have a national second tier or a promotion and relegation system, we could have local boutique stadia.
“I was inspired by a trip to Madrid recently seeing La Liga and second-tier clubs who are playing in stadia of much smaller capacity.
“So they aren’t all Bernabeu and Nou Camp stadia over there. And these clubs with these boutique stadia are big clubs.”
La Liga outfit Leganes, for example, on the outskirts of Madrid, host the likes of Barca, Atletico and Real Madrid in the 12,450 capacity Municipal Butarque Stadium.
Rayo Vallecano play at a 14,500 capacity Campo de Futbol de Vallecas stadium in Madrid.
And Diego Castro’s former club Getafe also in the Spanish capital, play out of the 17,000 capacity Coliseum Alfonso Perez.
Big clubs but with boutique stadia that have a wonderful atmosphere – it’s the way of the future says not only Filopoulos but A-League players.
“We’ve got a fascination with big stadia in Australia and that’s the next piece of work I’d love for us to address," added the ambitious FFV CEO.
“To build more boutique stadia in Victoria... these plans also tie in with our Home of Football plans which includes a 5000-seat stadium,” added Filopoulos.
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