Would most clubs would be close to secure financially now?
Pretty much. Some questions still remain around Penrith, GC and Manly but with the new T.V deal and careful management they will be o.k.
Would most clubs would be close to secure financially now?
Will the ARLC have the balls to cut a Sydney team or force a relocation after the botches of the late 90's and the Northern Eagles fiasco, or does anyone think that there will be any teams that can't survive after this new deal?
AFL has decided it will prop up it's struggling clubs AND expand their game to new horizons. We now have the same income as them nearly and our clubs do not require as much central funding or expansion funding. I fail to see any logical reasoning why we are not able to do the same, what exactly is the ARLC going to spend its new found wealth on? I really hope they are not going to squander it on new caprets and tea sets for the commision offices, we have seen enough pocket lining in RL at the expense of the growth of the game.
"But I wanna team in PERTH"
You fail to even see the benefits of structured, measured growth over time. 18 months ago a couple of clubs were going to fall over. The ARLC are being cautious. Nothing wrong with that. While you make some good arguments for expansion, you conveniently forgot what happened to the game after the last lot of major expansions.... Shit storm....
And there are plenty of Australian sporting expansions that havent worked either. GWS and the Suns is a failure. North Coast Fury and Gold Coast FC?
There are also plenty of sporting expansions that have worked very succesfully, Swans, Dockers, Lions, Warriors, Force etc
well said Red. It seems the Commission has fallen into the trap of saying we can say nothing until we have a strategy , taking too long to announce the strategy then not being able to hold water and start leaking information when pressed by journos.
I love the continued comments that no-one from the NRL told anyone to prepare bids...did the bidders imagine the original 2013 date and the revised 2015 date, did the NRL ever say guys we may not expand please dont waste yours or the publics money? I must have dreamt of NRL hierarchy inspecting bid regions and make comment.
Last time I checked the new footy year starts in 27 days and we have no news on the cap or the club grants.
If this is how the Commission goes about business no wonder David Gallop agreed to go quickly and quietly!
It'd be delusional on our part to believe that the AFL would stop propping up their western Sydney franchise. They may choose to merge it with a struggling Melbourne team like they did with the Bears, but as with Brisbane and the Swans, they're in it for the long term. Regardless of how few spectators turn up to watch games or how few watch on television they will continue to fund it until it turns around, even if that takes 20 or more years. The AFL isn't the A-League. The fact they have a competition with the likes of Collingwood, Carlton, West Coast and so forth ensures that despite the ups and downs they will still pull in enough money to essentially fund this team indefinitely. And they will.GWS' abysmal first year both on and off the field would have rocked even the most strident AFL apologist, and I honestly don't see them surviving 5 years...
Not strictly speaking true!
Back in 2009 the NRL met with the WARL and recommended to them that they should abandon JB cup and put their resources into developing an SG Ball set up ready for expansion
IN 2010 the NRL met with the WA Govt to suggest to them that the redevelopment of nib should include more corporate boxes and a third home team changing room to accomodate the needs of a future NRL team in Perth.
Whilst they have never directly said there will be expansion the fact they have never said there will not be expansion has been enough for areas to develop bids and spend money and resources doing so.
For us it is not a problem as that has the double positive of developing the game in WA anyway but for clubs like NS or areas like CQ that would be money and time they copuld have spent elsewhere.
The ARLC needs to get its shit together and quickly and tell the bids what is happening and who should keep spending resources developing.
Except at day 1 of the next deal, a ninth game will still have no value for TV if they haven't got some runs on the board for the new teams to show they produce ratings worth paying extra for.Day 1 of the next deal is a much more realistic timetable than during the life of the current deal.