There will be plenty of Canberrans waking up on Wednesday with an eye roll and a "here we go again" after more than a decade of false starts, empty promises and crushed dreams.

It's hard to erase the memory of Football Federation Australia telling Canberrans: turn up to this Socceroos game or that A-League fixture and you'll be first in the expansion line.

It's hard to forget the heartbreak in Ivan Slavich's voice when he reluctantly decided it was time to move on from his 2008 bid, refunding memberships to soccer tragics who had paid for an A-League dream before it was ripped away.

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We bottled up the pain and allowed ourselves to believe when Michael Caggiano picked up the baton in 2018, signed up 9000 members, secured sponsors, found investors and delivered a compelling bid that surely made it impossible for the FFA to turn us away. Again. But they did, and it stung.

Rumours have been swirling for the past three months that the A-League - now run by the Australian Professional Leagues instead of the FFA - was ready to make Canberra its next expansion target.

Even so, one member of the National Premier League community said just last week: "I'll believe it when I see it, we've been led on before and nothing's happened."

The trepidation is understandable, and widespread, after promises of A-League Men's teams, new sparkling stadiums in Civic and a Canberra Cannons revival in the NBL over the years.

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But if soccer fans are willing to believe and hope again, this time appears to be different. APL chief executive Danny Townsend isn't mucking around. He's not interested in stringing anyone along, which is exactly what he said when he briefed the media on Tuesday.

"We're coming," Townsend said when an off-the-cuff comment about "a likely team" was made.

The APL is determined to ease concerns for Canberrans, even though there is still a bit of wiggle room and plenty to be done over the next three or four months to lock in a capital licence.

And there is reason to feel positive with them, because they have changed the expansion process and eliminated the dog-eat-dog world that cannibalised Australian soccer communities back in 2008 and then again in 2018.

The APL has run an internal process to find the best locations for expansion, measuring 13 different markets across a variety of metrics that helped them settle on Canberra and Auckland.

The announcement isn't an invitation for other established teams, or hopeful regions, to throw up their hands and say: "what about us?" The announcement is to generate confidence with supporters as the APL team and Caggiano go to the market to find investors.

"I never give up on anything," Caggiano says with a grin.

"After the disappointment in 2018, I vowed to the community that I would keep pushing until Canberra had an A-League Men's team to call its own.

"Today is a deserved reward for the amazing football people that have never wavered in their support for me and the team, for making this dream a reality.

"The demand is here. We were blown away by the support in 2018, we had more than 100 volunteers working on a bid.

"...This needs to be a team for the people of Canberra, built by people from Canberra and the community and stakeholders will be integral to making that happen."

There's still plenty of water to go under the bridge, of course. The APL needs to find an investor. Not just any investor, but the right investor who understands Canberra, understands the connection with the women's side and is willing to buy into the capital.

There are also still plenty of questions hanging in the air. What happens to the Canberra United women's team? Capital Football will likely agree to relinquish the licence to have the men's and women's team under the same banner.

What about the name, logo and colours? There have already been talks about building on the Canberra United women's brand and green colours, which would fit for everyone. But, that will depend on the investor, and there will also be calls to bring back the Cosmos.

Where will they play? All of a sudden ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr now has the missing link for a new stadium, which he said needed year-round content and not just Canberra Raiders and ACT Brumbies games.

Where will they train? Maybe at the Home of Football in Throsby. Maybe at the AIS. Maybe at Mckellar Park ... or maybe somewhere else.

Who's going to coach? Who's the marquee player? How about a combination of Carl Valeri as inaugural manager and Tom Rogic as the star signing. Not a bad start, if it goes down that path.

But the biggest change in questions this time around? Canberra soccer fans are asking when, not if. And the APL says that answer is simple: Canberra's team to make its debut in the first round of the 2024-25 season.

That leaves about 18 months to answer all of the other questions and, thanks to the APL's fresh approach, it gives people time to dream again. The A-League is coming.

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