FIRST it was the Federal Government and now it's Brisbane Lions fans who have turned against the club's proposed move to Springfield, in Brisbane's west.
Last August the Lions announced they would build a new training and administration facility 25 minutes west of the Gabba, that would be up and running by 2016.
It has since provided nothing but headaches.
The newly-elected Coalition government has not guaranteed to uphold the former Labor government's pre-election promise of $15 million for the project, leaving one quarter of the $60 million funding missing.
The project is at a standstill.
Now the fans have spoken, with almost 900 of them filling out an online survey conducted by fan advocacy group The Lion's Roar.
Almost two-thirds (63 per cent) of the respondents were members with full voting rights.
The results are not good news for the club.
More than half (53 per cent) oppose the relocation of the training and administration base to Springfield.
Even more disturbing was the 80 per cent of people surveyed who believed the club had not been transparent in telling fans why Springfield was the preferred site.
At the time of the announcement last year, the Lions said the decision was two years in the making and the club had put a line through a number of alternatives.
They currently train at three venues – the Gabba, Coorparoo and very occasionally at the AFL Queensland headquarters at Yeronga.
Much of the current angst appears to stem from Lions chairman Bob Sharpless' role as the deputy chairman of the Springfield Land Corporation, which is party to a Heads of Agreement for the site with the Ipswich City Council.
However, Sharpless has vehemently denied any conflict of interest arising from his two roles, recently telling AFL.com.au there was no commercial benefit for the Springfield Land Corporation from the proposed deal.
In the same interview, Sharpless also said he and fellow director Mick Power, who has commercial interests in the area with his company BMD, abstained from any boardroom votes on the development.
Lions chief executive Malcolm Holmes, who had handled the club's negotiation of the deal, recently resigned from his role, continuing a time of instability.
The survey also asked fans if they supported Sharpless as chairman – 52.7 per cent said no.
Sharpless had little to say on the results on Monday night.
"We welcome input of members and will take the findings into consideration," he said.
