Why the AFL's China venture misses the point

Sorry Basil Its you thats missed the Point. I find it remarkable that so many in this thread have only just worked out this is a business venture with a long term (10yr+) goal of building support and more importantly sponsors. David Koch and Keith Thomas put it together due to a limit in available sponsors in Adelaide. Its added a significant number of non traditional sponsors to PAFC - Chinese and Aust, which enables them to pay for an opposition teams home game, pay for the game to be run by the AFL, oval, facilities, umpires etc. They've got the Fed, SA and Vic state govts involved by running business conferences on the side etc. The AFL have setup a permanent Shanghai office. PAFC runs Aussie Rules football clinics through at last count 100+ primary schools in Shanghai from there own permanent staff. Its established the Shanghai AFL with 8 clubs. All without any money leaving their own bottom line. Crowd figures are irrelevant, although something like 2000+ PAFC supporters travelled for last weeks game and most of the others were corporates - local and Aust. It was shown on internal Chinese TV with an estimated audience of 5 to 8 million ppl. Its in Shanghai because its in the same timezone as Aust so satisfies the AFL broadcasters. China is our biggest trade partner and the guy who runs Shanghai Cred (the biggest sponsor) is in love with AFL and Port Adelaide. Its about the money, it was always about the money. I say all Power to them!

Shanghai has a thriving expat community and outside of Hong Kong is the only other Chinese city where English is widely spoken. It's a great opportunity to export Australian culture or would we rather have more people wearing New York Yankees hats on our streets who are too dopey to be able to name even three players on the Yankees roster. Like it or not the Chinese are going to make up an increasing number of our population. You only have to look at suburbs like Glen Waverly, Mount Waverly and Box Hill to see that these suburbs are overrun with Chinese. Take a look inside any lecture theatre at Monash or Melbourne Universities in technical degrees like IT, engineering, accounting or mathematics and you will see that at least 75% of the students are out of Asia. There's a huge opportunity to export our culture; like the Chinese we should be playing the long game and in China that's 100 years. The Chinese are playing the long game with us - they're looking to snap up all of our farms so why not play the long game with them?

We're talking small numbers here champ. I think it's most Vic expats that turn up to these Giants games involving big Melbourne teams.

Let’s put this match into perspective, it’s only one game out of 198 games played out during the season, excluding the finals. And so every year this single match seems to create a whole lot of hoo-ha about nothing.

At the rate expansion is taking hold in Western Sydney and the Gold Coast, the AFL might be looking at 50 or so years of loss-making investment to crack the US market.

#anon Perhaps....however I'd suggest if you can get 7,000ish to GWS hosting the Suns then there's every chance of getting 10K out of 15K in a game v Ess, supporting the Giants. Because - the peripheral Giants fans are more likely to go to the 'bigger' games. So - I don't think it's a given that 'at least half' would be supporting the big Melb clubs - - I reckon you'd be more likely to drag some neutrals along too.

Tassie is disrespected by the AFL. Gilon is too pc to do anything about it.

Yeah here in Tassie we PAY 7 million a year to host AFL games. How fair is that?

Itsa moot point I'll remain mute.

So true, South Australians, Tasmanians and Victorians shift to Qld and, to a lesser extent, NSW.

Pity the NRL...they can't take money from one area to give to another area. There is none to take.

I think you'll find the AFL is much more in the social fabric of Melbourne, Adelaide, Hobart and Perth. It has far stronger historical roots than does NRL in Sydney and Brisbane. Also, look at how many play AFL in Qld and NSW compared to NRL in Vic, SA, WA & Tas. ---- Ask yaself where has the NRL built any decent regional stadiums in regional areas of the AFL states? The AFL has done this in NSW & Qld ---- AFL punches above it's weight whereas it's just a long wait for the NRL.

Agreed and we don't play a game that was started because some coalminer broke his arm playing union.

It is funny to hear people using phrases like AFL mafia. Don't think the AFL cares what the NRL is up to - they hardly get anyone to their games and the viewing figures are laughable in WA,SA and VIC. It is even funnier when people complain that a channel doesn't show NRL games, not realising the AFL took less so ch7 had to show the local games every week. The NRL could've done the same, but wanted more money instead.

Spoken like the true NRL fan you are.

#Baggio re exhibition games played overseas - yep - there were for a while annual games at the Oval in London, and some exhibition matches in Canada and Japan in particular back in the '80s. And then VFL on ESPN got a bit of a cult following before ESPN could afford to go all American. The reality though is that that cult following showed that you actually could draw people in. And unlike say soccer in Australia where many people I know love their EPL team but couldn't give a rats about the A-League; in the case of Aust Footy for people overseas who stumble upon it then it IS only logical to adopt an AFL team and follow from afar.....there's no local pro league after all. That said - across those nations you mentioned and a respectable number more - there are small communities of AFL followers/participants that while in most instances were initially expat dominated - that has often changed. There are leagues such as Denmark which are 30 years old.....and via the International Cup every 3 years from 2002, there are many players who have made at least one pilgrimage to Australia to represent their nation in the home of footy. These internationals have some pretty vibrant international competitions and annual or semi annual tournaments. While Australian AFL players can't represent their nation with a sherrin - there are many who have and done so with such passion as might surprise many in Australia. So - - the main issue to me is how to cut through the clutter. In most cases - the international sporting calendar is so full that it's hard to stumble across AFL if you're not specifically looking for it. That's the greatest challenge. Finding ways to get a minute of clean air. re the modern game.....yep....can be scrappy. But back in the '80s it could be pretty awful too - - especially on those chopped up muddy ovals or come finals time as the mud had dried out but the grass was absent in the goal to goal line and the TV spectacle was far from flash. A game like last years AFL Grand Final is definitely marketable. Like most sports - a great game is a great game and an ordinary one is to be endured except for the hard core fans or the gamblers!!

Funny how the obvious: growing the game in the USA and having a team in Tasmania is overlooked by the AFL. Imagine the interest in the States if Mason Cox was playing in front of his home crowd and the avenues that might open up for more players from the USA to come to the AFL. Secondly the way the AFL has shafted a traditional football following State in Tasmania is a disgrace and deeply disrespectful to the Island State. Every time I see a Melbourne based club wearing a Tasmania logo I cringe. Wanna wear that badge relocate there. That would be the honourable thing. O

The Giants Showgrounds average this year is 11,325. They got over 15K vs Essendon in March, close to 12.7K v Rich in Apr At least half of those fans attending will be supporting the big Melbourne clubs.

Hmmm....a quick google and estimation..... Based on Australia ~25 million (2018) vs USA ~325 million (2017) - - it's more like the USA has 13 times the population. The NFL itself is reportedly around a $14 billion revenue entity, however, the broader NFL including clubs gets to around $25 billion. Although, is that double counting the around $8 billion the NFL reportedly distributed? Might then be a case of a roughly $30 billion industry annually? 2017 numbers saw the AFL annual revenue around $650 mill whereby the clubs revenue ladder provides an aggregated around $1billion revenue. I gather the AFL distributions to clubs was around $280mill aggregated so total revenue might be estimated around $1.38billion?? So - before going down the path of AUD vs USD.......NFL light years ahead.

#anon Don't need to spin it......seriously.....who'd pencil that game in from the fixtures to get to?? No one. There's zero attraction other than to the hard core supporter group......and that's fine as the game gives a measure of that which actually is okay for the current point in time. The Giants Showgrounds average this year is 11,325. They got over 15K vs Essendon in March, close to 12.7K v Rich in Apr,......and in May and Jun the Carlton (they are on the nose with their own supporters.....I wouldn't travel interstate either) and Suns have dropped. They host Brisbane in Rnd 16, Collingwood in Rnd 18, Sydney in Rnd 20, and the Bulldogs in Rnd 22. If I were a 3 game Giants Sydney based member I'd be heading to the Round 18 and 20 games. Not the Suns or Carlton other than just to be sure to see a win!!