Explain the Gold Coast Suns for us then.
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Please withdraw your money from the AFL.
Fk the clubs relying on your money Tassie.
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Not a small market. You now have a game each weekend in SE Queensland.
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QLD have more registered juniors than south Australia, let alone Tassie.
And 5M+ population vs 550k.
I get that the GC are ■■■■, and the absolute bare minimum supporter base and population base and grassroots base and juniors to prop up a team.
Hobart is not even a quarter of that.
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It’s not only that they are ■■■■, they are an actual financial liability for the competition, no matter how many kids the league is happy to see running around in free GC gear. The place is a sporting team grave yard no matter what code.
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It’s only a “graveyard” if you judge it by the income from bums on seats at the matches. TV rights are what would pay for the Tasmanian team, provided the payment went to the Tasmanian club and local Tasmanian football and not to fattening the wallets of the AFL bosses.
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I think part of the reason junior participation numbers have fallen in country areas is the continual screwing around with leagues . Certainly where I live some parents have to drive from trentham to Navarre for a game of footy. That trip is 1hr50 each way and 165k. Then add to that the so called points system that has made the competitions even more uneven than it was. The disbanding of the VCFL board and creation of hubs has made this worse. Bendigo league is a prime example of in-equality with clubs such as Maryborough, Castlemaine and Kyneton unlikely ever to challenge for a flag against. Due the population explosion in Bendigo and shrinkage of small towns . The Alberton league was raped by these AFL hubs leaving them with 6 clubs from 14. Grassroots footy is in major trouble . The game looks
like rugby, kids don’t see as many speccies, Gun full forwards that kick 100 a year plus. It’s an athletes game not a footballers game. There is nothing for the kids to look at and say wow I really want to be like them .
As for Tassie the afl is a joke Fitzroy could’ve been setup down there years ago. And yes the state has shot itself in the foot with nth vs sth in fighting. How can the afl spend millions on women’s Comp that produces unwatchable games and yet can’t afford a team in Hobart. I hope the premier sticks to his guns and sends hawthorn and north to the wall
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To quote myself regarding 2019:
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So fold Gold Coast and pay each one of those Queensland kids a hundred dollars a year to play footy.
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I mean, even Brisbane still needs a heap of cash pumped into it and they won 3 flags 15 years ago, meaning all those kids watching should now be paying members. It seems like they hae turned it around now, maybe, but just because Queensland has a high ceiling for growth and i guess profit, doesnt mean it doesn’t have a very low floor. Tassie is high floor, low ceiling.
As much as I think we should have our own team, for me it has to be a relocation. Victoria has too many teams for a national comp. It will take a few decades to wash the stink of the blue and white off in the mighty Derwent but I think that’s what we need to do.
Note also that Gold Coast charge some ridiculous prices to get into their not-full stadium. I think they’re happy with their tiny band of fans (and gouging the opposition).
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I agree north should be forced there but it will never happen as it needs to be voted yes by 75 percent of their members. There are too many melbourne teams. If it were possible one to tassie and one to Canberra and we’d be set i think.
There are at least six teams in a worse position that Fitzroy was. The difference is that no-one externally funded Fitzroy while the AFL funds all Teams.
18 teams are enough, don’t care they move a Team to Tassie, Mumbai or to the Moon. Season should be 34 games playing everyone twice. Run the season from February to November or play two games each week. It can be done.
I meant the numerous clubs that have folded up there. Gold Coast United / Chargers.
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Tassie will need to sell their soul. Gills AwFL are not moving there if it’s going to lose them any money whilst GC and GWS drain the rest of the comps cash (or the banks as it is these days). Pure gangster style - will need a big downpayment and 20 years of guaranteed funding at cost of Tas taxpayers. Probably they will also force them to build a useless new stadium so they have a few PR shots to add to their own bios.
Tas gov likely be be putting up hundreds of millions upfront and I reckon the AFL would be shaking them down for $20-40m per year in ongoing support. This is why it won’t happen.
Maybe it’s high time the AFL was cleaned out. The clubs could do it, but the problem will always be finding enough common ground for them to get together and boot out Jill and the rest of the incumbents at AFL House. “Divide and conquer” has always been Jill’s style, and Vlad’s, and Wayne Jackson’s before him. (Remember Jackson - he was fire-proof. He was the asbestos king, boss of BRL Hardy.)
Really, what is needed is for government(s) to put pressure on the AFL: there’s more chance of that happening, than of the clubs showing a united front against the Commission and Executive who are only nominally answerable to them.
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Which it wouldn’t.
Perhaps the Tasmanian Premier is not such a push-over as Jill thinks ?
He’s called their bluff already, so the ball’s in Tassie’s court.
I think Gutwein is being quite fair and reasonable about it too. He isn’t demanding a team go down there ASAP he just wants a timeline set in concrete no matter if that’s 5 years down the track. The AFL should be offering something like a team in the VFL from 2022 and then a team in the AFL by 2025 but Gil seems like he doesn’t even want to negotiate
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