AFC Asian Cup Local Organising Committee chief executive Michael Brown offers his opinion on the Latrobe Valley as a potential host site for visiting international teams and their pre-competition camps in 2015.
SPORT brings people together, and no sport does that better than the world game, football.
So I’m delighted that Latrobe is in the mix as a potential pre-competition host for the 2015 Asian Cup, the biggest football tournament ever staged in Australia.
The Latrobe City Stadium has been short-listed as one of 27 venues in every state and territory that could serve as a preparation base for one of the 16 finalists in the lead-up to the tournament itself.
What a great opportunity for the sports-loving people of the region to get involved in this once-in-a-generation opportunity for Australia.
What a chance to extend a special welcome to one of the great teams of Asia, the region which holds the key to the future for our children and grandchildren.
What a chance to see Australia’s emerging stars like Tom Rogic, Tommy Oar, Robbie Kruse and Mat Ryan, as well as Japanese greats like Keisuke Honda and Shinji Kagawa, Korea’s Lee Chung-Yong or China’s Gao Lin, all performing in our biggest regional championship, in our own backyard.
It’s going to be a full-on summer festival of football – 32 matches in the five host cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra and Newcastle spread over 23 days, and the eyes of Asia and the world will be on Australia.
The figures are staggering.
The potential TV reach is 2.5 billion people.
We expect some 45,000 international visitors, who will add around $225 million to our gross domestic product, and Latrobe City could increase its share of that if one of the teams chooses it as a pre-competition base.
Sport builds bridges, and the Asian Cup will be a crucial bridge-builder for Australia, as football opens doors in trade, business, tourism, education and culture.
The teams competing in Australia are likely to include more than half of our top 10 trading partners, including Asia’s big three – China, Japan and South Korea.
Our legacy will be felt in our classrooms, where schools will be using an Asian Cup-inspired learning program, and in our lounge rooms, where we hope the buzz of the Asian Cup brings people together.
Australia is one of the world’s great multicultural nations, and we have appointed some 150 community ambassadors to help embrace our large populations of Chinese, Arabic, Japanese, Korean and Iranian descent.
Almost one in 10 Australians, after all, are of Asian background.
So what happens now?
The Local Organising Committee, which I head, will furnish Latrobe with contact details of the 2015 Asian Cup finalists, as we will for all other pre-competition candidate cities.
We will provide the competing nations with brochures outlining their options – the locations, facilities and what the regions have to offer.
We will bring them together.
Then it’s up to the cities and teams to talk to each other and reach agreements to make it happen.
I heartily encourage the pre-competition hosts to welcome a “second team” under their wing.
We will all get behind the Socceroos.
We hope they can go all the way to the final and, who knows, lift the silver Asian Cup trophy at their third attempt after reaching the quarter-finals in 2007 and the decider in 2011.
But Australians are famous for warm welcomes and I look forward to our pre-competition hosts “adopting” a second country.
What a buzz that would send through our communities.
Remember the electric atmosphere of the Sydney Olympics?
I hope we can recreate that, with bells on, right around the nation.
I hope to see the world’s most popular game bring Australians together as never before, and to bring Australians closer together with our valued neighbours from the rest of Asia.
Michael Brown is CEO of the AFC Asian Cup 2015 Local Organising Committee. He is a former CEO of AFL club Hawthorn and a former Deputy CEO of Cricket Australia. The Asian Cup will take place from January 9-31, 2015, in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra and Newcastle. For more information visit www.afcasiancup.com
