Western United have won a championship before building the stadium that sealed them a licence and face at least another season without a permanent home before a planned start to hosting games at their under-construction training base in 2023-24.
The club have received plenty of criticism for their lack of a consistent home ground and the dragged-out process of building their own stadium and training base in Tarneit, on Melbourne's western outskirts.
After claiming their maiden A-League Men championship on Saturday night, chief executive Chris Pehlivanis flagged United would make their small training stadium their home ground for the 2023-24 season, with plans for a "main stadium" two years later.
"In 12 months, our training facility is going to be ready. That's going to be a 5,000-seat stadium, and we're trying to get it up to 8,000 to play out of there for two seasons," he told reporters on Sunday.
"It's going to have three pitches available for an elite training facility, which for us will give us a home, and it's the first step in our journey.
"Playing out of that boutique little stadium of 8,000 for the next two-to-three years will allow us to build what we think will be a fortress, and from there we'll get an identity.
"Then two years after that our (main) stadium will be ready, and that's when I think you'll see the best of this club and that's when this club will genuinely have a competitive edge."
United played home games in Melbourne, Ballarat, Geelong and Tasmania this season and Pehlivanis flagged AAMI Park or Lakeside Stadium as a potential main home venues for 2022-23.
"We're working with APL and working with the state government to find a solution that everyone's happy with," he said.
"Is it AAMI Park? Is it Lakeside? They're the only couple of options we have. Either/or for me works."
United fans made plenty of noise in AAMI Park's north end as John Aloisi led the expansion club to a breakthrough championship and the coach believes the achievement can drive his outfit forward.
"It's not easy, but this helps success on the pitch helps, it helps you grow quicker. You saw how many fans we had there tonight. That's great," he said in his post-match press conference.
"Sometimes we're playing in Ballarat in front of, I don't know, 500 people so to win this will help us grow as a football club."
Pehlivanis reiterated those sentiments on Sunday.
"We're a club still building a stadium, we're a club still building our fan base, we're a club still building our commercial partners," he said.
"But this is a free kick we needed and ultimately, we've got to leverage this, we've got to maximise this."
