A new super-glamorous Gold Coast soccer team, bankrolled by a billionaire mining magnate, leads 10 proposals for new teams in the A-League competition.
The bids included two from western Sydney and three from Melbourne, along with the Gold Coast United bid that, according to FFA boss Ben Buckley, “blew out of the water” a previous bid from proposed franchise the Gold Coast Galaxy.
The United club would be owned by mining magnate Clive Palmer, and includes plans for a private jet to fly the team to away games and a pre-season tour of Asia.
The new franchise poached some staff from the Galaxy consortium in preparing the bid, and is now leading the pack to get the go ahead for the 2009-2010 season.
The 54-year-old Palmer was named in Australia’s top 200 rich list last week, and is believed to be worth around $1.5 billion.