There are myriad suggestions that a new Wellington Phoenix W-League side would actually be based in Sydney due to prohibitive travel costs.
Wellington Phoenix CEO, David Dome, has reportedly said that New Zealand fans would still be able to watch the team however, in two or three appearances in the Kiwi capital each season.
The travel costs involved in making bi-weekly trips across the Tasman has long been the greatest barrier to New Zealand having a semi-professional women's club side, with many of the national team calling the W-League home over the years.
But both Dome and New Zealand football's CEO, Andrew Pragnell, believe now is the time for a club of New Zealand's own.
“There’s some great momentum on this side of the Tasman and I think there’s a real interest,” chief executive Andrew Pragnell told Stuff.
“Any stakeholder or commission partner who jumped on board with the Wellington Phoenix W-League side is jumping on board, not only for the development of young players to play in the W-League, but then a World Cup in three years' time," Dome added.
“There is some real decent interest from commercial partners around professional women's football. But the World Cup would focus and hone the whole thing, [so] people can say, look, there is an end goal, a very strong end goal, short term, that we can aim for and be a part of.
"I still think it has a lot of relevance, even outside the World Cup bid. We need to have professional women's football in this country.
“There is definite interest in professional football in this country with a number of key stakeholders. A lot of people want to make this happen. Our feedback out of Australia is that our proposition to date is viewed very favourably, and they do want to expand the W-League. So I think we've got a lot of it in place.
“The World Cup, it just gives it an added emphasis in that it does make a lot of sense, if there is a World Cup here in 2023, that both Australia and New Zealand have professional women's teams.
“[A Phoenix W-League team] would have to be strengthened by some Australian-based players, but we don’t want to be drawing on the existing W-League base," Dome told Stuff earlier this year.
"We’d also be keen on bringing OFC players through, and potentially having them considered a plus, in terms of the import sports, or having them considered domestic players as well."
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