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AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou (R) addresses the media. Slattery Images
Andrew Demetriou’s comments on Monday, in which he said an AFL season could be under threat if Australia is successful in its World Cup bid, have caused quite a stir. Some out there are even starting to think Demetriou is plotting to bring down the bid.
Or that he’s merely an insular, narrow-minded fool.
Or that his comments were, as journalist Ray Gatt put it, “just the AFL boss’s idea of stirring up the rabid masses in the aerial ping pong game.”
But one thing has been missing from all the uproar – some context.
Demetriou was speaking in response to a newspaper report that the MCG could be unavailable for nearly an entire home-and-away season.
What’s the significance of that?
Well, it means his comments were not some baseless pre-planned media assault designed to coincide with the announcement of the draw for the 2010 World Cup, for starters.
More importantly, however, it means 40 to 50-odd games (around a quarter of all games) will need to find new homes should plans for the ground’s reconfiguration go ahead. And that’s just the outcome of the MCG’s unavailability.
Given the FFA are now relying on the occupation of Etihad Stadium for the World Cup – despite the stadium’s protests – another 20-odd games on top of that will need to find homes.
This isn’t about derailing another code’s bid for a massive global event to be held in Australia. This is about making sure that event isn’t detrimental to that code’s rivals.
If the MCG is wiped out for a season, and Etihad is a World Cup venue, then Demetriou’s claim that a season will not go ahead does not actually seem far-fetched.
With no MCG or Etihad, where are Collingwood and Essendon – who both average over 50,000 spectators to home games – going to play? Where are Hawthorn – who have over 50,000 members – going to play?
Right now, the only forthcoming answers are Geelong and Launceston.
When talk of the bid began, it was assumed that the MCG would be out of action for only four weeks, and that Melbourne’s second venue would be an expanded version of the new rectangular stadium. Etihad Stadium would be left to the AFL.
That arrangement seemed fine. It could’ve worked well.
Then came the talk of FIFA needing an extra four weeks at each venue to replace signage and bring the pitch quality up to standard.
Then came the talk of a “design bungle” at the rectangular stadium, meaning expansion would supposedly cost more than the venue’s initial construction.
Then came the talk that the AFL season would be classified as a “major event” by FIFA and would have to shut down for up to two months.
Then, on Monday, came the talk that the MCG might actually be out of action for a whole 16 weeks.
Is it any wonder Andrew Demetriou started talking to the press?
At some point the AFL had to draw a line in the sand and say that enough is enough. The FFA have become increasingly reliant on the MCG and Etihad since the bid process began.
Now, there needs to be some sort of compromise.
For example, if the MCG is indeed going to be taken for 16 weeks, then Etihad should absolutely be left for the AFL. At the very least the FFA should ensure that the AFL season is not given major event status.
It shouldn’t be too hard, mind you. No matter what words I punch into Google, I cannot find a single article outlining any sort of conflict between Major League Baseball and those behind the United States’ World Cup bid.
Which provides a whole different kind of context, doesn’t it?
Maybe we’re all just jumping at shadows. In the States, there is no debate over major event status. It seems as though a repeat of 1994 – when the baseball season continued despite the World Cup – is expected.
Don’t get me wrong, a World Cup would be great for Australia.
And hey, even Andrew Demetriou agrees. He’s been supportive of the bid, much in the same way that the AFL was accommodating of the Olympics and Commonwealth Games.
It’s just that there is a tipping point. And if Etihad is taken for two months, and the MCG for 16 weeks, then that tipping point has been reached.
That’s why Demetriou had to speak out.
The FFA must rise to the challenge of forming a bid that isn’t detrimental to the other codes. To do that, they’ll have to compromise.
Even if it means negotiating with the aerial ping pong game.