Hobart moved a step closer to getting a brand new, $750 million, roofed stadium on the waterfront this week when Anthony Albanese's federal government gave it their backing.

The Apple Isle's trying desperately to get an AFL team and need a new ground for it to play on.

That's right, they don't even have a team yet and the feds have already said they'll work with their Tasmanian counterparts on their infrastructure needs.

Meanwhile, in Australia's capital, ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr has pretty much put out any hope Canberra will ever get a new one.

Even though Canberra's population is more than double that of Hobart's.

And despite the momentum created by the election of a federal Labor government less than three months ago, where Albanese pledged he was going to be a "friend" of the ever-neglected ACT.

It was hoped he'd open the purse strings and "Voila" we'd soon be heading to a brand new venue in Civic to watch the next NRL/Super Rugby/A-League game.

But now Barr's saying a new "$1 billion" stadium in Civic that would only seat 20,000 was at least two years away from being considered - with construction taking 3-6 years after that.

That's despite his own feasibility study stating a fully covered, 25,000 seat stadium would cost significantly less than that - $637 million if started in 2027.

For the $750m the feds are potentially stumping up for Hobart, maybe we could start looking at ideas like raising the base of the stadium up so it went over the top of Parkes Way and the road didn't need to be diverted around it.

But Barr's rhetoric is all starting to sound very dour, with the chief minister seemingly putting a new stadium on the same priority list as a "space port" or a second airport. Might as well throw constructing a multiverse in there while we're coming up with ideas that are never going to happen.

Maybe we could build a floating stadium on the lake. Or even better, drain the lake and build the stadium there.

Yet down in Tassie it all sounds tickety-boo.

"It's important that that 19th license is secured and that the AFL operates in good faith with Tasmanians to ensure that that 19th license is delivered," federal infrastructure minister Catherine King said this week.

"We'll have discussions with the Tasmanian government about infrastructure needs, including infrastructure needs for sporting facilities, to enable that to function well, if that 19th license occurs.

"This is about not going out too early, not going out announcing things that, really, we may not be able to deliver because, at the end of the day, securing that 19th license is really important."

And that's all for an imaginary AFL team that might never exist. Unlike the ACT's actual NRL team, the Canberra Raiders, or our actual Super Rugby team, the ACT Brumbies. But the same as our hoped for A-League Men's team.

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