D-Day for AFL team
Gutwein demand to AFL: tell us if we’re in or out forever
THE AFL is today expected to respond to Premier Peter Gutwein’s ultimatum about a new state team.
Mr Gutwein wrote to the league refusing to commit funding to Hawthorn or North Melbourne without knowing the future of Tasmania’s AFL dreams.
TASMANIA’S game of chicken with the AFL is expected to come to a head today.
The state government has sought and been given assurances it will get a response from league headquarters by the end of this week on whether the state will be given a pathway and timeline to its own AFL club or the league has put a line through a Tasmanian AFL side forever.
Premier Peter Gutwein reiterated his hard-line stance that he would not enter renegotiations with Tasmania’s fly-in, flyout clubs Hawthorn and North Melbourne until an answer from the AFL was received.
The deal is worth more than $8m to the two clubs and expires after this season.
The Premier’s stance came as St Kilda emerged as a third AFL club with links to playing games on the Apple Isle. The Saints have not ruled out playing games in Tasmania if “an appropriate opportunity” arises.
“My office has been in touch with the AFL this week, I’m expecting to receive it (a response from the AFL) this week,” Mr Gutwein said.
“I’ll certainly be very disappointed if we haven’t received something back from the AFL by the end of this week.
“I’ve made it perfectly clear to the AFL that until we have an answer either in terms of a timeline or they tell us once and for all we are not getting a team, we are not in a position to finalise those arrangements with Hawthorn or North Melbourne moving forward.”
The Saints have a deal with Tourism and Events Queensland to host a game in Cairns this season.
“Most people are aware that we have strong ties with Tasmania so would not be surprised to hear we would never rule out discussions regarding playing games in that state,” the St Kilda spokesman said.
Tasmania’s AFL Taskforce business case has been aimed at the creation of a 19th licence.
The impact of COVID on the league’s finances was believed to have put paid to this avenue.
But leading economist Saul Eslake said the AFL’s announcement this week of a much smaller operating loss, just $22.8m compared to the $100m first forecast, meant expansion was still a realistic goal. He said the loss represented a minuscule 2.9 per cent of its operating revenue.
“And they still had $231m to distribute to their 18 existing clubs, representing an average of $12.8m to each club.
“So if they’d had a 19th club it would hardly have made much difference, less than 2 per cent of their diminished operating revenue in 2020 or 1.6 per cent of their 2019 revenue,” Mr Eslake said.
“So to say that this is a reason for not having a Tasmanian team would just be an extension of the usual pathetic non-excuses that the AFL has given for not becoming a ‘truly national’ competition since (former AFL chief executive) Andrew Demetriou was running the show.”