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Some sectors of sports fandom within Australia are currently having a chuckle over the fact that the AFL has voluntarily labeled itself as not being a “major event” in the context of Australia’s 2018/2022 World Cup bid.
This follows the recent news that all relevant sports bodies have reached agreement with the Federal Government on the way forward in relation to the bid and the stadiums required, should the bid be successful.
Those same fans are probably failing to read between the lines of what has actually been agreed to the last 24 hours, so I thought I would do my best to highlight some salient points.
The first question that everyone should ask is why the largest and most prosperous sporting body in Australia, which runs the most successful sporting competition in the land, would willingly suffer the ignominy of labeling itself as minor?
Our first clue is in this ABC report that appeared on their website Monday afternoon.
When asked about the possibility of compensation, the AFL’s chief operating officer, Gillon McLachlan, responded as follows (also replayed on Fox Sports News):
“We can’t forecast that … what we know is the formula’s there, not to provide a windfall gain but to provide that we’re not any worse off. The number will be the number. Given we’re a billion dollar industry now … and half the games could potentially be impacted, it might well be a large number.”
This follows on from an ABC report on the AM show on Monday morning, where the interviewer suggested it will be “tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars.”
In the same program, it was suggested that the bill for compensation would be met jointly by the taxpayer and the FFA.
All of this reminds me that exactly six months ago I estimated a figure of $300 million to compensate the AFL for a disrupted season (at the time that included both the MCG and Etihad being lost to the AFL for 10 weeks).
That figure might be reduced by about a third now that Etihad is being retained by the AFL.
The other thing I suggested at the time was that the dividend the German FA received back in 2006 would only cover a small fraction of that estimated compensation figure.
Now put yourself in Andrew Demetriou’s shoes, negotiating directly with the Federal Government (with the FFA having been sidelined a few months back).
Now do you see how this story ends?
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