Cricket officials see similarities in AFL pay deal

CRICKET Australia claims the AFL’s new landmark pay agreement is more closely aligned to the deal it is trying to strike with players rather than the existing revenue share model it is fighting to scrap.

The AFL’s stunning $1.84 billion six-year deal announced on Tuesday has put immediate heat on CA which is still at war with players only 10 days out from the expiry date of the current Memorandum of Understanding.

Comparisons between the two situations are inevitable given the AFL is the code Australian cricket has long measured itself against.

As CA fights to make fundamental changes to its 20year revenue share model, its footballing counterparts in Melbourne are celebrating a guaranteed 28 per cent share of unbudgeted AFL revenue and 11.2 per cent of unforeseen club revenues.

However, CA said making links between the AFL’s new mega-deal and cricket’s current revenue share which the players were desperate to retain was misleading.

“First, it only contemplates a share of revenue above budget forecast, rather than a fixed percentage of defined revenue streams,” a CA spokesman said.

“Second, it takes the costs of generating that revenue into account, whereas the current cricket model does not and is simply a gross share.

“So this model is very different to cricket’s and in important respects, is much closer to the modified model that CA has proposed.”

The AFL Players Association failed in its bid to win its players full revenue share for the first time but president Matthew Pavlich claimed players had still achieved a milestone by having their wages “tied to AFL revenue.”

Cricketers claim this is the deal the current revenue share arrangement provides them.