The AFL has made a habit of helping out the Sydney Swans Football Club financially.
Since South Melbourne took flight to the Harbour City in the early-1980s, the AFL has poured millions of dollars into ensuring the Swans are a viable competitor in the code’s premier competition.
Cognisant of the need for credibility and success by the local team in the country’s largest television market, the powers that be at AFL House in Melbourne have often swum against the tide in their endeavours to keep Sydney in the top half of the table.
At present, the AFL is pouring over the details of an in-principal agreement between the Swans and Hawthorn’s dual-premiership winning forward Lance Franklin to ensure the club does not commit financial suicide by signing a nine-year, $10 million deal with the 26-year-old.
And well might the governing body be hesitant about such a contract being signed.
What is currently believed to be on the table can in time destroy the club’s player list and, by extension, require further financial assistance from the AFL – something the remainder of the league will not tolerate.
Should a player under contract to an AFL club be delisted prior to the expiration of the contract, the residual amount will be carried on the club’s books until it is paid out in full.
Standard practice is for the outstanding amount to be included in a single year.
Potentially for the Swans, should Franklin – who would be contracted until the age of 35 under the proposal on the table – lose form or fitness and be jettisoned from the club’s list significantly ahead of the contract’s scheduled termination, the club would be left with a crippling financial impost.
To date, Franklin has been hardly a gilt-edged example of an injury-free footballer.
Indeed, signing a player in his mid-20s to a nine-year, eight-figure sum is something that would never have previously been contemplated.
It is the two factors combined that has the AFL nervous.
At the end of the 2013 season there was just two players in the competition who had played to 35 years of age – Dustin Fletcher and Brent Harvey.
To put the Franklin contract into perspective, should he average 19 games per season for the next nine years, he would end up playing 344 games, which would place him (at present) as the 14th most capped player in the competition’s history.
The chances of ‘Buddy’ getting to 35 and remaining a first-pick player are relatively slim when you look at those figures.
Luck – both for him and the Swans – would have to play a very big part.
It is believed the terms of the contract put to Franklin would see him paid less than a million dollars in his first two years with the club, after which there would be a significant ramping, prior to a reduction in the ninth year.
The lessened dollar value in the early stages of the contract is no doubt predicated on the alleged $900,000 per year currently being paid to former Adelaide forward Kurt Tippett, who controversially joined the club between seasons.
If Franklin’s form wavered significantly late in his contract, the club would have only two options – delist him and pay the remaining monies in total against the next season’s salary cap or continue to carry him on the books as a contracted player while paying him a seven-figure sum to effectively sit on the sidelines as a spectator.
Either way, what the Swans are proposing carries enormous risks for the club’s future in the next five to nine years.
It is therefore not surprising to see the AFL having its doubts.
It has to approve the deal before it can go ahead and it would not be unexpected at all if it sought some significant variations, primarily in the longevity of the contract.
If it insists the period be watered down, it will be fascinating to see how Franklin and his management respond.
Either way, one thing is guaranteed – the longstanding ‘cost-of-living allowance’ Sydney has over and above the regular salary-cap, which has been a perennial bugbear for the other clubs in the competition, will soon be a thing of the past.
Under the current arrangement with the AFL, the Swans receive an additional ten percent on top of the standard annual club cap of $9.14 million as an offset for the higher living costs in the country’s biggest city.
Unsurprisingly, the mega-deal signed by Tippett and the one mooted for Franklin have had the other clubs up in arms, with the commonly held belief the extra dividend afforded the Swans is merely allowing them to sign-up marquee players, rather than being spread across the entire playing group.
Buddy may have already bid farewell to his Hawks teammates but there remains some water to flow under the Sydney Harbour Bridge before his moniker makes it onto a new contract.
Just how the AFL reacts will be as closely tracked as one of Franklin’s arcing 50-metre drop punts.
Liquid
Guest
Pickering is incorrect. If Buddy retires, the Swans have to pay the remainder of his contract in that year, or keep him on the list. There is no risk for Sydney, as they will have factored in the high likelihood that the AFL will not let this happen to them.
Australian Rules
Guest
Lazza, obviously thy're some of the biggest sporting organisations in the world. But what they "make" (I assume you mean revenue) is certainly not what they "keep" (by way of profit). This is a corresponding list of net DEBT for those clubs: Real Madrid -300m Barcelona -280m Manchester Utd -715m Bayern Munich +100m (yay the Bunda) Chelsea -700m Arsenal -200m I think these figures are a little old, but you get the idea.
Andy_Roo
Roar Guru
St. Ignatius College (Riverview) has fielded a team in the Sydney AFL's U/18 Division One for many years now and has won the premiership a least once.
TW
Guest
Yep and that comp is expanding next year - AFL NSW will likely be adding a 9/10 yrs division. The AFL NSW guys do everything possible to keep it rolling - The schools provide the players and grounds and the AFL does everything else. Our game had to battle for many years to get into those schools which is RU heartland and was kept out by "Footy Politics" despite Soccer Football getting in a few years a go.
Jorji Costava
Guest
Clever contract by the Swans. The salary cap will grow one hell of a lot in the next 5 or 6 seasons. With Buddy's size, and if he looks after himself he could be playing under valued in a few years time. Must be happy times for Buddy. All that money at his age and getting to live on the beach in Sydney. Good on the lad! Just hope he does the smart thing with all that cash and does not end up like Fev.
Judy Morris
Guest
I'm surprised that you think Brisbane is financial at the moment.Reading comments by our now coach he was saying how they were counting on the $1.8 million offered to them to prop up the club by the AFL They want to take 30 players overseas to train and bond..If the board didn't see things the way the AFL wants they will withhold the money.Why would they need that money if they have enough of their own? I know they have a new training complex but is that owned or to be paid for.Hopefully the team might become the number one priority again in the future and not everything else. This team deserves better [FITZROY--BRISBANE LIONS ] Better consideration of Melbourne Lions supporters might improve their gate receipts.
teo
Guest
Some fantastic comments on here, I have yet to see the word "flog"
teo
Guest
It's been massive news up here...It's NRL Grandfinal week and this Buddy story is huge. Secretly the AFL would be very happy....
Liam
Roar Rookie
SE QLD would be far more developed than Sydney/New/Woll in terms of grass roots clubs, % of population who follow the code, and general interest in the code. Brisbane by all accounts should be be in a far stronger postion than they are now.
teo
Guest
Actually they don't have to pay him if he retires. On Trade Radio today Liam Pickering said "If Buddy retires and doesn't play he doesn't get paid, simple as that"
teo
Guest
I think it's more about the media as opposed to being mobbed by fans. Obviously Buddy will feature heavily in Swans Marketing and his face and stature is highly recognisable. The AFL media is not a force In Sydney like it is in Melbourne, it is staggering really how heavily saturated the Victorian market is with AFL. I believe it is respite from the media that Buddy is seeking and in a city where you have NRL, AFL, Super Rugby and several A League teams there just simply isn't the media concentration on AFL. Buddy will be massive, with our all time greats heading into retirement this move has assured (if it goes through) that Sydney will keep a strong presence up here.
Geronimo
Guest
Amen
Geronimo
Guest
Yes the mere fact that the AFL clubs in AFL states have a strong second tier competition helps develop their players and the AFL has acknowledged this by upgrading the NEAFL but its still behind the other AFL states by a distance..
Australian Rules
Guest
Geronimo I would certainly expect the NRL's revenue to be higher this year. The ambitious goal set by the ARLC was for the NRL to generate $300M in revenue by 2017.
Penster
Guest
Valid point and it's the free market of course. Sounds like the AFL looking over the contract is simply due diligence and the media are enjoying words like "veto" to stir things up. However look at Melbourne Club - it does noone any favours to have perennially mismanaged clubs that need bailing out, Saints are a basket case too. Not that this is Sydney's case, but I think the governing body has to keep an eye on big interesting contracts. There's also the question of the COLA and if it's being used correctly or "stockpiled" (wouldn't think so).
Christo the Daddyo
Guest
If the negotiations have been going on for a year I really can't see the AFL being able to block it. Both the Swans and Franklin's management would have spent enough time getting the details right, that would block any attempt to derail the deal. And why would the AFL want to block the deal anyway? At the end of the day, the high profile Swans get a high profile player, the Giants look like getting a great ruckman (who quite frankly is a far better fit for the Giants anyway), and the AFL gets talked about ad nauseum in the media after the season has finished. Everyone's a winner, baby!
Christo the Daddyo
Guest
Which may well be evidence that Dalgety has a good point about Qld (and NSW for that matter) needing extra help as they are not natural AFL states.
Geronimo
Guest
Mark, Good point - its too early to say Remember how the Melbourne clubs raided Sydney and Brisbane clubs high draft picks in the 90's Nathan Buckley, Anthony Rocca, Shannon Grant, Darren Gaspar , the Italian named centreman who went to the Pies. There was no compensation for Gaspar as Richmond fudged his salary. How ex Carlton coach Kinnear as Swans coach swapped the Swans No 1 draft pick for Carlton Centre half back McKenzie and then Kinnear went back to carlton asssistant coach and McKenzie played less than 20 games. r
Geronimo
Guest
The AFL do it - do you think they would fund it without having an eye on the books..
Geronimo
Guest
Lazza, Do you mean Del Piero TV rights. AR Surely the NRL figure will be higher this year - $135m sounds too low...