He is not just talking about Dunedin's new covered stadium - though he is tremendously excited about the venue and the guarantee the surface will be dry.
Brown, a foundation member of the Wellington club, has lofty ambitions for the Phoenix this season.
"The club has come a long way in five years. But we haven't really achieved what we want to do yet," he said.
"It feels like it would be a great year to do something. We've got experience and we're quite settled in terms of personnel. And there's a sense that, for the first time, we're having a proper build-up to the season."
Brown has vague memories of playing in Dunedin as a schoolboy and later with Miramar, and he is pleased to be back in the city.
"It's really great to be here, to have a look at the new stadium and to take a sort of Phoenix roadshow to Dunedin."
The A-League does not kick off for six weeks but Brown said the Phoenix players were already having intensive meetings with the coaching staff, indicating how seriously they were taking the Roar.
"The problem we sometimes have is getting a decent game in the pre-season. This is a big step up for us. It's our first chance to see how close we are to the top level. We've been working hard for a couple of months and we want to see where we're at."
The Phoenix game will be the biggest football occasion in Dunedin since the city hosted a pool of the under-17 world cup in 1999.
The football community, still buzzing from the All Whites' unbeaten run at the World Cup in South Africa last year, gets a rare chance to see professionals in action.
For Brown, the regular All Whites midfielder, the issue of whether New Zealand football is capitalising on the World Cup fairytale is "an interesting conversation I like to have".
"We spend four years between drinks. The only real meaningful games for us are a year or two out, against Pacific Island teams, and then 180 minutes against the fifth-placed Concacaf team.
"While that situation remains, it's very hard to sustain that level of public interest.
"We need to look to be a part of Asia. I've said that from day one. Look at what Australia has done. They get to play games of importance every single year.
"We play Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands. With the best will in the world, that's not going to sustain [the public's] interest."
Brown is a staunch backer of Terry Serepisos, the businessman and Phoenix owner who faces bankruptcy proceedings in Wellington.
"It's a saga that has been going on for a long time now. Hopefully, for everyone involved, there's some sort of resolution.
"Terry deserves our backing, and he has it. He's done a lot for football and a lot for me, personally."
It will be a strong, settled Phoenix team that plays at the new stadium tonight. The core of experience includes Brown, Mark Paston, Ben Sigmund, Paul Ifill, Andrew Durante, Leo Bertos and Vince Lia. Coach Ricki Herbert has also welcomed new striker Maceo Rigters (ex-Blackburn) and fullbacks Jimmy Downey and Niko Tsattalios.
PHOENIX v ROAR
- Forsyth Barr Stadium, today, 5.30pm
• Phoenix: Mark Paston, Manny Muscat, Tony Lochhead, Tim Brown, Leo Bertos, Paul Ifill, Chris Greenacre, Daniel Cortes, Niko Tsattalios, Mirjan Pavlovic, Vince Lia, Ben Sigmund, Jimmy Downey, Tony Warner, Andrew Durante, Lucas Pantelis, Dani Sanchez, Matt Thurtell, Cory Chettleburgh, Billy Mehmet, Maceo Rigters.
• Roar: Michael Theoklitos, Matt Smith, Shane Stefanutto, Matt Jurman, Ivan Franjic, Erik Paartalu, Massimo Murdocca, Matt Mundy, Jack Hingert, Nick Fitzgerald, Mitch Nichols, Luke Brattan, Kofi Danning, Andrew Redmayne, James Meyer, Thomas Broich, George Lambadaridis, Chris Bush, James Donachie, Tommy Cirjak.
