- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
According to an old Jewish saying, if three people say you look sick then lie down. Tasmania’s bid for an AFL team is looking sick.
The cashed-up league has this week ramped up its rock-solid commitment to new teams on the Gold Coast and western Sydney while giving Tasmania lip service.
AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou today toured western Sydney, promising to build a $30 million stadium for the second Sydney team.
Blacktown mayor Leo Kelly blasted rugby league officials for “sitting on their hands” as the AFL spruiked its plans for a western Sydney team in 2012.
Demetriou yesterday told reporters at AFL House in Melbourne: “I can tell you that there will be a team on the Gold Coast in 2011 and there will be a team in western Sydney in 2012.”
That comes before either team submits a business case for meeting the AFL’s strict franchise criteria.
The Tasmanian government meanwhile continues pouring money into a bid for a franchise that does not exist, and which the AFL has no plan to create.
Demetriou says the league is debt free, has an $82 million future fund with secure long-term revenues, and is prepared for any future economic downturn.
However, Demetriou also this week repeated the AFL’s invitation to Tasmania to submit a bid.
It was first offered in April after Tasmania’s aggressive former premier Paul Lennon stormed AFL House in Melbourne to launch the bid as he struggled terminally in opinion polls.
Lennon quit politics in May after a poll showed just 17 per cent of voters supported him as premier.
The job of steering the bid, also being pushed strongly by Hobart’s The Mercury newspaper, fell to Economic Development Minister Paula Wriedt.
Wriedt says Tasmania has only ever wanted to make a case for a team, not necessarily beat the Gold Coast or western Sydney to the 17th or 18th franchise.
She made her own sortie on Melbourne last week, announcing Melbourne-based consultancy firm Gemba will be paid to use its sports and entertainment marketing expertise to build a business model for a Tasmanian team.
“Australians on a whole who love football recognise that Tasmania has been left out and we should be part of a truly national competition,” she said at the launch.
The state government’s bid has the full support of the opposition Liberal party and the Tasmanian Greens’ new leader Nick McKim.
“The Gold Coast team is a goer but the western Sydney team is highly problematic. Tasmania has an opportunity to take that licence,” he told AAP today.
The AFL says the two fastest-growing corridors in Australia are western Sydney and south-east Queensland.
Tapping into those burgeoning populations means the potential for a wealthier competition, funded by more television and sponsorship dollars.
A blogger on the BigFooty.com website says the only way Tasmania will get an AFL team is if it relocates to the Gold Coast or western Sydney should one of those franchises fold.
The same website has run a proposal, drawing on an old joke, for a Tasmanian team having a two-headed jumper.
It failed to amuse The Mercury which ran an image of the mocking guernsey.
The newspaper this week linked Australia’s richest man, mining magnate Andrew Forrest, to the bid as a potential sponsor.
It also linked logistics giant Toll Holdings as a financial backer.
Forrest and Toll Holdings have not confirmed the speculation.
Another approach to the bid has been taken by a group of high-school students.
The Year 11 students from Tasmania’s Hellyer College have just finished a 25-page report on the viability of a Tasmanian AFL team.
“In conclusion to our assignment, it seems that most of the public feel that Tasmania’s government should be spending its money elsewhere, on education, health, etc,” the students’ report for this year’s assessment says.
Wriedt told AAP today that her government remains focused on compiling the best possible business case for a Tasmanian team.
“The AFL has stated it will accept a submission for a Tasmanian team, and we look forward to presenting a compelling case later this year,” she told AAP.
Who’s in your ultimate team? Pick the best team and compete with other fans for daily prizes on Draftstars. For the best odds on the game try out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Think. Is this a bet you really want to place? Set a deposit limit.