The new Gold Coast AFL team will be able to play home games in front of its own fans after the league was able to negotiate its way out of its previous agreement with the Queensland Government that any second team based in the state had to play home games at the Gabba in Brisbane until the end of 2015.
Under the new deal, the Brisbane Lions are the big winners with the possibility of the club playing two extra home matches at the Gabba each season until 2020.
However despite this major development, the league did not formally grant the licence to the proposed 17th club - as expected - at its commission meeting in Sydney on Tuesday.
The new club, currently known as GC17, has already appointed a coach in former West Coast Eagles captain and Collingwood assistant coach Guy McKenna and signed a number of young local players ahead of its debut in Victoria's TAC Cup under 18 competition in 2009.
While the AFL granted permission on Tuesday for the new team to begin competing in that competition in 2009, ahead of an expected move into the VFL in 2010 and the AFL in 2011, it did not formally grant GC17 the licence to begin operations.
"The AFL commission is pleased to confirm that GC17 has met the criteria established by the AFL commission in April this year," AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou said.
"We commend the enormous effort of GC17, under the leadership of chairman John Witheriff and his board, as they have done everything required by the commission including amassing more than 42,000 supporters, gaining the backing of 111 businesses, establishing a community engagement strategy, building business plans and beginning the foundations of a strong and successful club on the Gold Coast."
But while Demetriou said it was clear 'the Gold Coast community has thrown its support behind GC17', the league still wants more details before formally granting the licence at a time of global financial uncertainty.
"This is a generational decision for Australian football and the AFL commission is committed to making prudent financial decisions based on a complete and proper process and a clear understanding of the current economic situation," he said.
However GC17 chairman John Witheriff remains confident his consortium will soon be granted the license to become the competition's 17th team.
"The Gold Coast community have demonstrated to the AFL that we want our own AFL team and that the Gold Coast Football Club has the foundations for success," he said.
"We understand the AFL still has some work to do before making a final decision on the license and we remain extremely confident of a positive outcome for the Gold Coast."
However the new club is free to play its home matches at Carrara despite the league initially being tied to playing the new Gold Coast team at the Gabba until the end of 2015 as part of financing the re-development of the ground.
As part of the new deal, the Gold Coast team will still have to play its home game against Brisbane at the Gabba until 2015 but will be able to play all its remaining home games at Carrara.
The league has also guaranteed the Gabba the right to stage the Easter Thursday night match until 2020 while the Lions will also be given the opportunity to play an extra game