Former A-League4Canberra bid chief Ivan Slavich says he would be hesitant to deal with Football Federation Australia again unless it drastically changes its views on A-League expansion.
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But Slavich is confident a Canberra bid would have the required financial backing and grassroots support to overcome concerns about the city's population base.
That would seemingly put a red line through Canberra, which had a population of 379,200 in 2012 and is expected to grow to half a million by 2034.
Slavich was at the forefront of the Canberra bid, which attempted to gain entry into the A-League in 2008, when expansion was first put on the table.
Having seen the North Queensland Fury and Gold Coast United - both clubs which are now defunct - and later the Western Sydney Wanderers preferred to Canberra, Slavich said he would be wary of dealing with the FFA again.
"Why would we waste all this time for them to say no again?" Slavich said.
"You would have to have a scenario where the FFA goes, 'I think strategically having a team in the national capital is the way to go and we really want this to happen. This is what we're going to do to support that to happen. We're not just going to give it to you, but if you meet criteria a, b, c and d, then you'll get a shot'.
"Under those circumstances you would do a bid."
The A-League4Canberra bid generated $5 million of capital consisting of government and corporate support and foundation memberships.
There was also a petition signed by 20,000 people and strong support for Socceroos games in Canberra in 2008 and 2015.
However, the bid fell $1 million short of the $6 million target set by the FFA.
"It's a problem we don't have that population base here, but I think we can compensate that," Slavich said.
"When we put our bid together, assuming a crowd of between 10,000 and 12,000 to each game, we were expecting to break even in about year five.
"And you need that cash up front as working capital to fund yourself until you get to that point.
"If you don't have that working capital or a fund, you're going to fall over inside the first five years."
Slavich recently stepped down from the board of Capital Football to avoid a conflict of interest when his company Trident Corporate Services conducted Capital Football's infrastructure report.
"One of the most revealing statistics was an ABS graph that looks at sport by participation," Slavich said.
"The thing about Canberra is that Canberra is massively a soccer town.
"Football is the number one participation sport in Canberra by miles.
"I bloody want an A-League team for Canberra very much."
Capital Football's focus is on a men's team in the National Youth League.
