The establishment of the North Queensland Fury is the culmination of a very diverse range of inputs from a lot of people and events.
Often only a dream of many, Don Matheson has been able to pull together of range of interested investors to support The North Queensland Fury.
Don’s original idea was to extend his Willows Golf Club with a plan to develop a multi-sports complex and bring in new tenants such as a national football side.
The plan was to include tennis, bowls and football. There was a group bidding for the A-League licence and Don contacted them to offer his development as a potential home base for the new club.
The group bid was unsuccessful but it left Don contemplating a further joust for the license based on a detailed business plan aimed at a club that would be run by North Queenslanders.
Don enlisted the help of a couple of mates – Rockhampton businessmen and football supporters Mitch and Blair Burke – to ask their advice. Mitch is heavily involved in the Rockhampton-based State League football team and Blair is a Football Queensland board member, so they were keen to help out.
As the business plan came together, so did the investment group. The Burke brothers are an integral part of the club’s ownership and direction.
Don secured the input of Townsville businessman and football fanatic Bill Douglas and the North Queensland Football Club (NQFC) was born.
Putting together a business plan for the football club became the responsibility of Willows Golf Resort operations manager Jason Driscoll, to put the figures together.
“At the time we didn’t have any football staff so I threw JD (Driscoll) in the deep end and he did an amazing job, putting together a very professional business plan and budget. It stacked up financially so I presented the business plan to the FFA (Football Federation Australia) and they obviously liked what they saw because in July 2008 they granted us sole North Queensland bidding rights for one of two new clubs to join the Hyundai A-League in 2009/10.”
Jason continues his association with the club through his position as Football manager.
The FFA set serious financial and crowd support criteria to meet, including evidence that at least 5000 North Queenslanders would be interested in becoming members/season ticket holders of a NQ football club.
“We only had two weeks to come up with the criteria so I called on a local marketing guy who had been involved in the early development of both the Townsville Crocodiles NBL team and the North Queensland Cowboys NRL club, and asked if he could help. Two days later we launched a media campaign through the Townsville Bulletin, WIN TV, Radio 4TO/HOT FM and regional newspapers, asking football fans to indicate their interest in purchasing memberships/season tickets.”
The fledgling group then embarked on a tour of North Queensland football clubs, visiting Cairns, Mareeba, Innisfail, Ingham, Ayr, Bowen, Proserpine and Mackay in a three-day whirlwind trip along the NQ coast, to explain the campaign and seek their support in getting the message out to local football communities.
Within 10 days, NQFC had the names and addresses of more than 8000 potential members/season ticket holders from Rockhampton to Cooktown and west to Mt Isa, thanks to the support of Townsville and regional football officials and clubs.
“One keen fan, Townsville’s Dave Robinson, collected more than 3000 himself,” Matheson said. “It was a tremendous result.”
An FFA criteria item was to identify a minimum level of NQ businesses who would be interested in purchasing a corporate box. “We mentioned it in the local paper, and within a few days more than 80 businesses had pledged their support, so we were obviously delighted.”
The Townsville City Council played a major part by offering their considerable support for the bid.
The club appointed its head coach, Glasgow Rangers legend Ian Ferguson, on 15 September 2008
Three days later, in an important milestone for the club, North Queensland Fury FC was born, with a skydiver gliding into Strand Park in Townsville trailing a huge 5m x 4m flag bearing the team’s name, colours and logo. FFA CEO Ben Buckley also flew in from Sydney to officially hand Matheson the club’s Hyundai A-League licence.
“It was very satisfying to see that flag flying above Strand Park,” Matheson said. “It was the end result of a lot of hard work by a small, dedicated group of North Queenslanders, and the support of the NQ football community.”
On 4 February 2009, North Queensland Fury FC announced it had pulled off one of the greatest recruitment coups in Australian sporting history with the signing of former Liverpool striker Robbie Fowler as its inaugural Marquee player.