Live football fix

[GoldCoastWhite]

Our local A-League kicks off in a couple of weeks so I'll have some live football to keep me amused in between FFC screenings. Adelaide Utd play Perth Glory tonight at Hindmarsh (great little local A-League ground) so I'll go along to make some noise and have a few beers. Robbie Fowler has signed for Perth this season so hope to see the old fella have a run out. Also thrilled to see page 3 of our local paper reporting that Hindmarsh has banned vuvuzelas. They've been declared a public nuisance under the conditions of entry. A victory for common sense ! I'll still be maintaining my Brisbane Roar membership and loyalty, even if I will catch a few Adelaide games, and I'm flying up to watch them (Brisbane) take on Gold Coast United on August 8th. GCU have a billionaire owner and a nice stadium but crowds in their first season in were very disappointing. Only 50 miles from Brisbane to Robina so it's developing as a good local rivalry and we took 6,000 last year. Hoping for the same, if not more this time so shaping up as a great weekend away. Adelaide to GC is 1,000 miles as the crow flies but domestic flights are pretty cheap, expect I'll pay about £100 return, but it's not one I can do every week ! My nearest away teams are the 2 Melbourne sides, 400 mile flight so I might try to get over there for a couple of Brisbane games. Any of this sound familiar to our USA crew ???

[Jimpav]

That's very insightful mate. Certainly puts mu season ticket whinge into perspective. Are there any teams in Cairns/Darwin/Broome or how far North are they based? I did Melbourne to Perth by  train and then Perth-Sydney by train. It was some trip but must be pretty full on to cover those distances as a player, especially as you are changing climate and time zones.

[GoldCoastWhite]

Townsville is the farthest north Jimpav but the longest journeys are those from Perth to Wellington and vice versa. That's a journey of around 3, 200 miles ! But the Perth boys have a major trek whoever they play. Did you get up to Townsville at all ? Pretty tropical up there so a major climatic change for the Kiwis or any of the southern teams, perticularly early in the season.
Adelaide minimum 5c and max 15 c today, Townsville 15 minimum and 27 max !

[HatterDon]

meanwhile, in deepest darkest South Texas, San Antonio newspapers are still mumbling [roughly once every two weeks] about the possibility of our landing a USL league 2 side in the 7th largest city in the USA -- and one that's neary 60% Hispanic. The USL operates independently of MLS and there are those from USL-1 cities who will tell you that there are several clubs in that league who could compete very well in MLS. USL-2, however, is one rung above Whale poo, and as any Texan will tell you, there's NOTHING lower than that. So I'm stuck with TV, watching the odd MLS match [and most of them are] and waiting for my Fulham to begin playing.

[Jimpav]

Townsville is the farthest north Jimpav but the longest journeys are those from Perth to Wellington and vice versa. That's a journey of around 3, 200 miles ! But the Perth boys have a major trek whoever they play. Did you get up to Townsville at all ? Pretty tropical up there so a major climatic change for the Kiwis or any of the southern teams, perticularly early in the season.
Adelaide minimum 5c and max 15 c today, Townsville 15 minimum and 27 max !

Thanks for that Goldcoast.

I did get up to Townsville on my way up the East Coast but didn't spend any siginicant time there. I just took the ferry over to Magnetic Island which was a fantastic place.

It was exceptionally humid in those parts but this was the wet season (February time). Regretfully I didnlt catch any matches when I was out in Oz but I used to like watching the PL. Was always fun being in a packed bar at 2am watching a match.