AFL 2014

[gyfox]

Interesting article. Colless has more idea of how Sydney works than the AFL bureaucrats who have made the decisions on GWS. There is a view amongst the Mexicans that the Swans have been a raging success in capturing Sydney for the AFL, after all they get the largest crowds of any club in the city. Indeed their on field performance has been great after some early worrying years but when you look at the share of the market as expressed by attendance at professional games in the Sydney market even with the inclusion of GWS the AFL has grown from fractionally under 11% in 1983 to 12.7% in 2013. Using total attendance as an indicator last season the Swans and GWS combined drew less than the Swans at their peak. The difficulty that the AFL has is that competition in the market has increased since 2005 with the establishment of the A-League. When compared to figures I have for the NSL attendance at club football in Sydney has tripled since 2003 and in 2013 was 50k greater than the AFL. Currently the Sydney market which totals 3.4m attendees pa is roughly split:-

League - 53%
Football - 25%
AFL - 13%
Union - 9%

Time will tell whether GWS can harvest a level of spectator support that when added to its excellent corporate support results in it not being an unequal burden of the AFL's finances.

The success of the plant will not only be measured in its impact on finances it will also be measured in take up of the game in Sydney at club level. Currently it has been going backwards but it is probably too early for this to be an accurate measure.

[yob]

Cost of Lance Allowance has been scrapped.

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2014-03-04/afl-to-scrap-cola

But will be retained for GWS (wth a different name). Because of the cost of living in Western Sydney. Dot dot dot...

[cam]

2013 AFL Annual Report released yesterday.
http://www.afl.com.au/afl-hq/annual-reports
http://www.afl.com.au/news/2014-03-04/afls-446m-record

- Record revenue of $446 million, up 4% on 2012
- Net profit of $16.6 million in 2013, up by $9.9 million on 2012
- Total of 6,368,346 attended matches - average of 32,163 per game which is the fourth highest in the world
- Record membership of 756,717 across the league
- Grand Final was Australia's most-watched sporting event of the year - avg of 3.63 million TV audience

Healthy.

[gyfox]

2013 AFL Annual Report released yesterday.
http://www.afl.com.au/afl-hq/annual-reports
http://www.afl.com.au/news/2014-03-04/afls-446m-record

- Record revenue of $446 million, up 4% on 2012
- Net profit of $16.6 million in 2013, up by $9.9 million on 2012
- Total of 6,368,346 attended matches - average of 32,163 per game which is the fourth highest in the world
- Record membership of 756,717 across the league
- Grand Final was Australia's most-watched sporting event of the year - avg of 3.63 million TV audience

Healthy.

The $11.5m additional allocation to the expansion clubs was down $3m and is certainly not an excessive amount.

Is the fact that 10 of the clubs made an operating loss a major issue? Is this what all the equalisation discussion is about? How bad are the worst losses?

[yob]

Is the fact that 10 of the clubs made an operating loss a major issue? Is this what all the equalisation discussion is about?

The big issue with financial losses from clubs is that they're due to cost escalation in football department spending. No club is short on revenue. The big revenue gaps between clubs is largely due to consolidation with social clubs and whatnot and not a reflection of underlying performance of the football clubs (although obviously there's still a gap).

There's a few elements to the equalisation that are being addressed. It's hard to simplify but I'll have a crack.

1) COLA - Mexico wants it gone, Sydney doesn't.

2) Big V Small Vic clubs - always has, always will.

3) Football department spending - the problem with caps on TPP & no home grounds is that the money has to be spent somewhere. So it's either spend it on more investments to make the gap bigger next year, or spend it on football departments.

4) Assets - The difference between net asset positions of rich and poor Vic clubs is approaching 30-40 million dollars - with the rich clubs having a net asset position of 30-40 million dollars.

5) Special assistance - poor clubs receive around 1-2.5 million extra annual distribution boost tagged as special assistance. Rich clubs don't like it because it's levied upon their gate receipts. They also don't like it because there's nothing special about it at all. The poor clubs don't like it because a) they want more and b) it's usually a tied grant. The AFL only gives you the special distribution if you agree to limit your TPP at 92% of the cap.

6) Fixture inequality. Classic size of pie v size of piece arguments, North Melbourne would rather the television rights be worth less so they can have more Friday night games.

7) Draft issues. This will always be tinkered with. Brisbane can't retain draftees, Adelaide can't retain Victorian draftees but can't draft South Aussies because they were all drafted by Victorian clubs and don't want to come home. Free agency will come in to this as well.

Docklands - this will probably get raised with poor Victorian clubs insisting the AFL buy the stadium so they can run the asset in to the ground. The AFL offered $250 million to buy the stadium, the owners want $280 million.

9) Nobody will give a sh*t what SA and WA wants because it's worked since 1987.

[yob]

Saint Nick is parroting the usual garbage about impoverished footballers only getting a quarter of all revenues.

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/n ... 347qb.html

Start paying for your own stadiums, then we'll talk.

[yob]

First bogan to be sent to the big house for season 2014:

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/w ... 34c0m.html

[bazza]

It's a disgrace how the media targets AFL fans. 1 person says something and it's all over the news. Wouldn't happen if it was any other sport.

Barely a week after being made the face of an anti-racism campaign, Sydney FC have lodged a formal complaint regarding an alleged racist incident involving Ali Abbas during Saturday night's Sydney derby.

Football Federation Australia confirmed that the Iraqi midfielder had pressed forward with the complaint after discussions with club officials on Sunday morning, with the club releasing a statement the same afternoon.

The Sky Blues won the match 3-1 at Allianz Stadium, a result that temporarily lifted the side into top four.

“Sydney FC has confirmed it will lodge an official complaint with Football Federation Australia on Monday over comments made to midfielder Ali Abbas during Sydney FC's 3-1 victory over Western Sydney Wanderers last night,” a the statement read. “Abbas complained about comments made to him in relation to his cultural and religious background.”
Advertisement

Abbas was one of the players used in an advertisement for the A-League's “Erase Racism Round”, which took place last weekend. The campaign used players of various ethnic and cultural backgrounds to support a push to eliminate racism from the sport.

Sydney FC chief executive Tony Pignata said the club was now pursuing formal action with the governing body.

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/sydn ... z2vW2cntGP

[gyfox]

AFL mourns death of Dean Bailey after battle with lung cancer

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-11/d ... le/5312114

[yob]

Numpty Victorian team proposes new system for player trading - strip the player of the right to consent to the trade.

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2014-03-12/p ... rade-power

No sir, that's not slavery.

[Simmo79]

Honestly, some people have no concept of the law of the land. It will only take 1 player and 1 motivated club to bring about true free agency through the courts.

[bazza]

Honestly, some people have no concept of the law of the land. It will only take 1 player and 1 motivated club to bring about true free agency through the courts.

If you don't like the AFL's rules you can play in one of the other Victorian rules competitions

[bazza]

The 7:30 Report investigates how things are run down at dodge city

http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2014/s3968301.htm

7.30 has spoken to senior club officials, both current and past, from around the country, who tell similar stories. All declined to go on camera for fear of repercussions for their clubs or themselves. The word most commonly used to describe their run-ins with the AFL was "bullying".

JEFF KENNETT: As president of Hawthorn, when the AFL was trying to move us out of Tasmania onto the mainland, and I said, "No, we have a commitment to Tasmania. We have 8,000 members there. We enjoy playing there. We're not going." And then I was offered a handful of money. Not me personally, but the club.

LOUISE MILLIGAN: How much money?

JEFF KENNETT: Oh, well, I think it was $1 or $2 million a year.

LOUISE MILLIGAN: And who offered it?

JEFF KENNETT: Oh, one of the senior officials of the AFL. And I'm just saying, they tried to press their point, and when they weren't getting their way, in the end, they just turned round and said, "We'll try and buy you."

[yob]

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/a ... 6861017066

Hird’s lawyer Stephen Amendola also repeated his criticisms of how the AFL ran the disciplinary process that led to the suspension.

“They looked to behave like a bunch of cashed-up bogans who thought they could do what they wanted,” Amendola said.

“(It was) just a complete failure of process and it fundamentally arises from the (AFL) Commission structure.” Demetriou again refuted Tania Hird’s allegation that he had alerted the Bombers that the supplements program was under scrutiny.

[yob]

Caro wants Hird's head again.

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/b ... hvl6y.html

The prospect of Hird being paid to be suspended for 12 months, then paid out his 2 year contract extension after having been banned, is just mouth watering. But of course the Essendon fans will assume this is just rool profeshnl and renew their memberships.