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AFL gets its billion dollar baby

Roar Guru
28th April, 2011
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Was there any ever doubt? When dealing with a figure as magical and epic as $1.253 billion and as a professional and resolute organisation as the AFL, they were always going to secure an agreement over ten figures.

Today we had the announcement that the broadcast rights were sealed, signed and delivered for the seasons 2012-2016, and where pay TV is the big winner, ultimately the general fan has lost out.

In terms of the free-to-air coverage, we have upgraded. Much maligned for placing emphasis on the importance of non-football programming when the Friday night and Sunday afternoon timeslots were concerned, Channel Seven will now commit to live football – indeed all football games from next year will be live.

The era of delayed coverage will cease to exist, a massive step forward which quite frankly was overdue. Nowhere else in the world does an equivalent code show their contests anything other than live to air, so whilst it can be seen as a big win for football fans, it’s lessened by the archaic nature of the alternative.

But we are now left with Foxtel taking a stranglehold on the coverage of this indigenous game, telecasting every game other than the grand final live, five of the nine games each round broadcast in their own right, the other four simulcast with the free-to-air broadcaster.

As a result they will revive a separate channel, tipped to be called Foxtel AFL, which is great for footy nuts who will permanently affix their remote to the station but not so great for those who already find their subscription pricey.

No doubt the extra channel will require an extra figure on top of the package you’ve already bought, so it’ll add further strain to the football fan who already battles with the increases your football experience has suffered. All of a sudden, no matter how you enjoy your football, at the game or on the couch, there’s no cheaper alternative.

For the league, you can’t but use the word windfall to describe the agreement.

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They have sought to eclipse the billion dollar mark very early on in negotiations and have not only justified the hard work they have put in but further cemented their place as the premier code in the nation which further assists their dream of setting up successful expansion franchises on the Gold Coast and in Western Sydney.

This deal provides the league with the coffers to make sure the competition’s 17th and 18th clubs receive every chance to succeed in what everyone sees as a tough slog ahead for both.

To grow a club from scratch in rugby league heartland would require nothing but a governing body with deep pockets and a ruthlessness to match. This billion-dollar-plus deal solidifies that dream.

For the rest of the competition you’re looking at the next Collective Bargaining Agreement between the AFL and AFL Players Association.

The players’ union wants to lock in a percentage share of league revenues, and basic sums suggest that should they get their way, this broadcast deal in combination with that CBA condition would see the average salary jump from around $220,000 to north of $370,000.

They’re talking 25-27 per cent and are in a strong position, they are indeed the stars of the show and with such a public gratification of the AFL’s work getting this deal done it’ll be hard to negotiate as hard with the players on their demands.

Make no mistake, the players will get an improved slice of the pie, but to argue on that percentage will be a separate issue, one the AFL is making no secrets it would like to avoid.

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Overall, it’s hard to suggest this new agreement for the next five years is anything other than good for the game, and ultimately that’s what all of us who love the game, cherish the game, play the game or work for the game want.

We do live in a capitalist society and football in this country is big business so in this case, indeed more is more.

But we shouldn’t believe that because $1 billion is such a monstrous and round figure that the crises facing the league will just wash away.

Sure, players will be better remunerated for their craft, and the league’s ability to invest in grass roots and new endeavours increases, the issues facing South Australian football, the poorer clubs, the aforementioned increases facing the general footy punter, they won’t be rectified.

The big clubs will stay strong but North Melbourne, Port Adelaide, are still on their own in trying to survive in a burgeoning league, and this deal brings the revamp for Adelaide Oval, and perhaps the lifeline for football in the festival state, no closer.

So the question is thus: what has been achieved here today?

In a sense not a whole lot, we see the AFL gets stronger, when it was already strong anyway, and because the pay-television broadcaster takes a stranglehold on a premier sporting competition, which is line with the rest of the western world, the average footy fan is further out of pocket.

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The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

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