An expanded 10-team A-League is set to kick off next year with North Queensland granted provisional inclusion today.
The Football Federation Australia have given North Queensland Football Club 30 days to meet final requirements for the 10th license after awarding it "exclusive negotiating status".
Massive local government and community support ensured NQ FC was chosen ahead of another Townsville-based consortium headed by Melbourne businesswoman Milissa Fischer.
The Townsville City Council came through with a $A1 million cash injection and it's understood they will underwrite financial losses.
The prospective club has been sent final conditions of entry, which includes requirements of $6 million in capital, a stadium agreement, key club personnel and crowd and corporate support.
Chairman Don Matheson assured the club was on track to tick off all boxes, including Dairy Farmers Stadium as their home ground.
"We're confident Townsville and North Queensland will get behind a sport like football. They've been excellent with other sports and we have received great local support," Matheson told AAP.
"The Cowboys have gone through a rough trot (in the NRL) at the moment and they're still getting 16,000 to 18,000 to home games and even 20,000 when they would only get a couple thousand in Sydney."
It would see North Queensland join Gold Coast Galaxy as the two new teams added to the current eight-club premiership, which kicked off in 2005-06.
The new additions would make Queensland the equal most represented state in the competition, along with NSW, with three teams.
FFA were known to be determined to have a Townsville up and running for next year to ensure an even 10-team competition, as well as three places in the Asian Champions League.
NQ FC will start engaging community input from tomorrow for a team name and brand, while they have a four-person short-list for chief executive.
Matheson ruled out reports of former Liverpool star Ian Rush and Newcastle coach Gary van Egmond, who led the Jets to last season's A-League title, being among the five names tabled as potential coach.
"Although there is an air of excitement, the reality is that we have only 12 months to prepare for our first game, six months to form a competitive football department and team and virtually only a couple of months to create a commercial operation and business centre," he said.
FFA boss Ben Buckley indicated more teams will be added to the A-League in season six for a possible 12-club competition by 2010-11.
"Since it commenced three years ago, it has had cut through in the busy Australian sporting landscape with average crowds, viewership, membership, media coverage and profitability trending upwards each season," Buckley said.
"The attractiveness of the competition is clearly reflected in the level of interest in our expansion plans.
"FFA's view is that the Hyundai A-League has the capacity to be at least a 12-team competition."
