So what now with the $60 million-plus ready to be invested and hundreds of thousands of fans who dared to dream of having their own A-League club?

The elongated expansion process delivered one team for next season. And another in 2020-21. Though it is progress, it’s not the turbocharge impatient types were after.

Meanwhile in the US (which had a 20-team MLS in 2015 when expansion first came on the Aussie agenda), MLS chief Don Garber this month declared that he wants to expand beyond 28 teams in a state of the league address.

They now have 23 teams, with Cincinnati (2019), Nashville (2020), David Beckham’s Miami (2020) and Austin (by 2021) kicking off soon and Sacramento, St. Louis, Detroit, Charlotte or Phoenix to be named in 2019.

Scroll down to submit your questions for David Davutovic and he will answer them throughout the day (Thursday).
Club license fees have exploded in the wake of the MLS’s aggressive and strategic expansion, valued on average at $333.4 million (US$240m) by Forbes.

There was much wrong with Melbourne Heart’s formation, but without them there was no $11.25 million City Football Group investment — and Melbourne Victory would not be worth $40 million today.

The A-League expansion process was messy and lacked transparency, but take the lessons learnt from this process and apply them moving forward.

If bold decisions are made with big clubs like Victory, Western Sydney and Sydney FC applied as the barometer, soccer could explode in coming seasons.

Expand aggressively and strategically, and A-League license fees will too skyrocket.

Australian soccer needs Western Melbourne and Macarthur South-west Sydney to make an impact.

If Western Melbourne pulls off their trailblazing plan to build and own their own stadium, it will change the face of Australian soccer.

Meanwhile, Macarthur South-west Sydney is a shrewd strategic move into a growth corridor.

The four bids that missed out all brought something different to the Australian soccer’s table of diversity.

Canberra United is armed with a first-class stadium, powerful overseas backing coupled with strong local support and could be used as a powerful political lobbying tool at Federal Government level if the game adopts a collaborative approach a la the AFL.

South Melbourne represented hope for the National Soccer League clubs and those NPL clubs who have greater ambitions than the semi-professional tier.

South-east Victoria (Team 11) galvanised a multicultural region of 1.7 million — some of whom did not know the A-League existed — that has no representation in a major Australian sporting league.

And Southern Expansion had a $20 million bank guarantee, with stadiums ready to go with grand infrastructure plans.

None were perfect, but they all had more pros than cons. The process meant that the focus was on the negatives, as the six bids fought hard for the two coveted spots.

For instance, if Southern Expansion detaches the Illawarra, leaving that for the Wollongong Wolves — there is a ready-made and spicy second division derby ready to go.

Football Federation Australia must continue dialogue with these bids and adopt a long-term A-League expansion strategy coupled with a second division.

Not to mention the bids that were eliminated earlier in the process, including: Tasmania, Wollongong Wolves and the Queensland quartet Brisbane City, Brisbane Strikers, Ipswich and Gold Coast.

One of A-League teams 13 and 14 must come from Queensland, where a separate expansion process should be run, as it’s the biggest market with only one team.

The independent A-League and/or the FFA should look at subsidising or fully funding the club with a view to selling it off down the track, a la Western Sydney Wanderers. This project could unite the club.

Presuming the independent A-League is in place by then, a license fee can be waived for Queensland bid deemed the strongest/most appropriate, that money is invested into building up the club, and with all of the existing clubs eventually sharing in the spoils, one would assume a united approach in growing the club.

Everyone can play a part in seeking potential investors (overseas clubs or consortiums from home or abroad), and 2-4 years down the track, the club is sold (potentially for $20-30 million) and the funds can be equally distributed between the clubs and once its split, say 50-50, between the clubs and the independent A-League.

The league’s money is also reinvested into the competition (marketing and employees).

Time to start thinking long-term.