“The (Sunshine Coast) region definitely needs a football facility that will be used by other codes as well.”

That’s not this hack talking. This is a quote directly attributed to Frank Farina.

Yep, the same bloke who has played for, and coached, the Socceroos in the past. He captain-coached the Brisbane Strikers to its only title in the now-defunct NSL in 1997 too.

In other words, the Queensland Roar coach knows a thing or two about what makes his game, and the sporting community in general, tick.

> Related Stockland Stadium stories

The fact the Sunshine Coast Fire will likely have to shift the QSL grand final to a Brisbane venue, even if it earns the right, is nothing short of embarrassing.

Other teams in the competition would be laughing at us behind our back. And rightly so.

But that is what the Fire boys face because Football Queensland doesn’t believe the Stockland Park facility is suitable to host the grand final.

Again, that is probably on the money. It is not the villain here.

No undercover grandstand seating and complete exposure to the elements has given Football Queensland cold feet.

Watching supporters getting drenched should it be raining on grand final day wouldn’t be a good look for FQ when it is trying to promote the fledgling league as best as possible.

It’s why our council has to come out and give us an iron-clad guarantee that it will proceed with the stadium’s construction.

The Fire is number one right now, but is being treated like a second-class citizen.

Shifting the game to somewhere like Ballymore, which has been flagged as a possibility, is ludicrous.

At an optimistic guess, a crowd of around 4000-5000 would turn up to a QSL grand final in Brisbane, so long as a local team was featured.

That crowd would simply be rendered invisible in a stadium that has a capacity of around 25,000. Any atmosphere at all would be non-existent.

However, it does seem strange that despite the fact a possible QSL final here is in grave danger, an A-League pre-season match will still be held at Stockland Park next month.

No offence to the new league, but the trial game between the Roar and Wellington Phoenix on July 27 will definitely attract a bigger crowd than the QSL decider ever would.

But not only could a lack of a suitable stadium cost us the QSL final, it could mean we could miss out on hosting an A-League home and away match.

Farina, on the Coast yesterday to promote the trial match, said the Sunshine Coast would be a likely candidate to hold a fair dinkum Roar game if there was a stadium here.

And Farina is confident the council will proceed with the plan.

“When the new stadium gets built, which I think is going to happen, you’ll see us travelling up here a lot more because there’s nothing better than coming up and playing in fantastic venues,” he said.

“It makes it a definite, not possibility but a reality, that you could have A-League games up here as well.

“The region is growing so much not just in general population but also in football followers, and I think it’s overdue in terms of building a new stadium.”

Here here.