It’s time the AFL Commission put an end to the expansion debate by giving a firm commitment and timeline – and the Tasmanian Devils should be a team.
Let’s look at some of the arguments put forward by opponents of a team for the Apple Isle.
Tasmania can’t afford it
The Tasmanian Government gives $7 million a year to Hawthorn and North Melbourne for the privilege of hosting less-attractive home games, usually against non-Victorian teams.
This could be diverted and perhaps increased towards a home team and would be recouped by the Tasmanian economy, with revenue from tourism associated with visiting supporters to Devils’ home games.
Add to this a $20 million grant annually, commensurate with money given to other expansion clubs, and there is $30 million in the coffers already.
There is also capacity for good sponsorship deals with local and interstate companies, who would find a Tasmanian brand attractive. Membership would also be strong, with 20,000 possible initially, many from a loyal Tassie diaspora around the country.
The Gold Coast Suns made a $1.6 million profit last year after a $23.7 million grant and a membership of just 11,000.
Tasmania is a captured market and therefore not of interest
AFL in Tassie is under pressure from basketball, which has good prospects of gaining a team in the NBL.
Footy clubs across Tassie are going into recess and a once strong heartland is bleeding. An AFL team will rejuvenate the code in the state and return it to its former glory.
Tasmania’s population is too small
With 510,000 and growing – with about half of that in greater Hobart – there are smaller areas in Australia with teams in national competitions. Townsville, Wollongong, Cairns, Gosford, Geelong, Sunshine Coast, Canberra and Bendigo all have top-level teams.
Tasmania’s economy is on the move and has a lower unemployment rate than Queensland and Western Australia. There is a new-found confidence in how the state is progressing and we have a record number of visitors.
Tasmanians will just continue to support their current favourite team
Once loyal and proud Tasmanians see a team wearing the famous green, gold and primrose, they will get behind it.
Tassie currently has 10,000 Hawthorn members alone and many people are members of other clubs. A healthy number will shift but, importantly, many new fans will join.
Of course, on the positive side…
Tasmania is one of the first places to play our great game
This proud state has produced so many champions and has a reputation for producing tough footballers.
The red mud of Scottsdale, the gravel oval at Queenstown, the exploits of Baldock, Hudson, Stewart and Hart are all part of our footy folklore.
If everything is reduced to TV ratings and expansion markets, and a heartland is left behind, are we losing part of the fabric that made footy such a unique game?
Including Tassie is a pushback to a soulless, purely economic vision.
A 19th team opens the door for a 20th
Include Tassie and Canberra or Darwin, and we are very close to a true national competition.
It is time to stop the standard ‘Tassie deserves a team but there are challenges’ line and give us a firm timeline for entry.
The Tasmanian Devils will add a team that many people will adopt as their second team, seen as the underdogs from the Apple Isle.
It took cricket administrators until 1977-78 to give Tasmania entry into the Sheffield Shield, and since then we have more than held our own in domestic cricket, winning crowns and producing two Australian captains.
2022 would be a perfect time for entry as that’s when the current Kangaroos and Hawks deals lapse. The Devils vs Collingwood in a cauldron like UTAS Stadium or Blundstone Arena, how good would that be?
Gee
Roar Rookie
The only way Tasmania gets a team is if they started watching soccer or rugby in big numbers. As soon as they stop caring about football those clowns running the game they will throw money at a Tassie team, that's the scenario that seems to works for teams north of river.
Floreat Pica
Guest
They'll certainly be called the 'Devils', but the moniker of the 'Cartographers' would allow for some amusingly puerile double-entendre in their song.
diddle17
Roar Rookie
More teams do force the AFL's hand to put together a fixture that is fairer and rational. The current fixture is cynical and greedy, and dubious at every turn. It basically mocks the punter. Wild idea - play each other once every year, alternate the home/away, and promote and capitalise on the currency of it being a one-off event. The issue with Tasmania is so sad. It's a no-brainer that they should field a team in a national competition, but it gets too hard too easily. The biggest sticking point for a team after you might tick off on all manner of feasibility issues, is where do you put them? There's a silent war going on between Launceston and Hobart when it comes to a whole host of investment opportunities and projects, and on this topic they've basically cancelled each other out of the conversation. I think Tasmania as a 'state' team is probably off the table for this reason. Could it be a 'city' team then? By this point the AFL is yawning and Gillon's dreaming about his next thoroughbred investment.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
We need a person running the AFL to actually sound like he wants a Tas Team. Till we get rid of Gomer Pyle that aint gonna happen. Tassie, historically, is the third oldest AFL area. They live, breathe, eat Footy. —- He is an embarrassment to the sport. I imagine, as a player, he would have never laid a hip n shoulder. That’s if he ever did. —- Tassie deserves better.
SportsFanGC
Roar Guru
Agree - NZ has literally zero interest in Aussie Rules and our most recent evidence for this was the shambles that was St. Kilda playing in Wellington on ANZAC with declining crowds year in year out (and they were Aussies that flew there for the game!).
clipper
Roar Rookie
I get the feeling that when people making comments like this, or putting a league team in Christchurch, that they have never actually been to NZ.
SportsFanGC
Roar Guru
I would say that Geelong's location with respect to Melbourne is a massive benefit. That and the fact that Geelong is a founding Club of the current day league.
IAP
Guest
Hobart has a higher population than Geelong. That better?
IAP
Guest
The Aints don't count. I think you and I both agree that they're a non-entity. Whatever they do with them I don't care. Even writing this sentence about them is making me bored. I just don't care.
Fat Toad
Roar Rookie
As a Canberra resident, I can tell you that in a market crowded with Rugby, league, women’s soccer and regular visits from the AFL it is hard for any team to break even much less prosper. While I have been banging on for ages about sending Carlton to Tassie for all their previous crimes (Go Tassie Convicts!!), there is only one way Tassie gets a team. Until it can be demonstrated that a Tassie team is a strong net economic plus for the AFL it will not happen. I am not a great fan of the AFL administration but Tassie has been given a clear set of criteria to meet. So, they know what has to happen, I would like to see how they are performing against those criteria as part of this discussion, but on that front it is mostly comments from the crickets.
James Pettifer
Guest
Ever wonder why there have been so many Tasmanian born cricketers playing for Australia in the recent past - out of the last 52 test cricketers, 7 were born in Tasmania (Hilfenhaus, Bailey, Doherty, Faulkner, Paine, Wade, Doolan). Perhaps because there is state representation. Tasmania is ripe for the taking for a winter spor
RT
Roar Rookie
I’m just pointing out the hypocrisy of a Brisbane supporter suggesting to get rid of Vic teams based on crowd numbers.
Timothy Holt
Guest
Aye and the Giant is rousing from a rather long sleep. Yeeha.
RT
Roar Rookie
Maybe in the 1970s.
Paul D
Roar Guru
Get rid of the only team in Brisbane as opposed to move one of 9 sides in Melbourne - classic snapshot of vfl entitlement right there
RT
Roar Rookie
Maybe we could extend the crowd hunger games to all states and get rid of Brisbane.
Fat Toad
Roar Rookie
I think the way to do it is to send a Melbourne team to Hobart. I think that the obvious choice is Carlton, they have been terrible for the last hundred years (or there abouts). They should be well suited to transportation! Additionally, they have had various Chairmen charged with crimes, and were located close to both Pentridge Prison and the Old Melbourne Jail giving ready access to players. I suggest that they be renamed the Tassie Convicts or the Tassie Transports. I also think that the playing uniform should be bottle green based on the old Corrections Victoria prison uniforms.
Cat
Roar Guru
1st – Absolutely agree, the AFL can never start a team again without having facilities ready from day one. 2nd – GWS concessions were probably a little too much but spread out over two years is far better then the single year GC got. Mostly because one draft year can be weak in a position but two years in a row is unlikely. 3rd – Probably will be you are severely weakening two teams and adding a third that needs support. Hawthorn with all their gaming revenue would survive (but would feel a large strain) but NM would be the new St Kilda and require a huge increase in AFL distributions. This is the biggest issue with adding a new team to Tas. No one wants to address the point of adding one team that weakens two others. 4th – Aren't the two grounds already 'AFL standard' considering they have both been hosting games for years now? Hypothetically, I doubt it, $100m wasn't enough to get NM to go to GC. Why would any support vote to move a team further away and make it more difficult to follow?
Professor X
Guest
In 20 years yes, now no
SportsFanGC
Roar Guru
If they go to Tasmania I hope they learn the lesson of the botched entry of the Suns and give them the advantages that the Giants were given. First they need an elite training and administration facility so that they enter the league on the same footing as every other AFL Club, including Brisbane who will finally have facilities to call their own in a couple of years time. Have a look at what Fremantle, West Coast, Gold Coast and the rest of the Vic Clubs currently call home (even more so what Hawthorn intend to do at Dingley). Secondly they need solid draft concessions for at least two years so that when the player shedding begins back to Melbourne/Adelaide/Perth they have some level of insulation and are able to retain a core of players to keep them going (ala GWS). Third - redirect all current money going to Hawthorn and North Melbourne straight into the Tassie team and ensure that they are both sent back to Melbourne for "home games". Fourth - AFL to use its leverage as it does in Melbourne to upgrade both Bellerive and Launceston stadiums to professional AFL standard in line with what the other 18 Clubs already play from. Hypothetically if they offered St. Kilda $100M to move to Tasmania full time, would they take it?