Presidents cast doubt on Tassie bid
THE AFL faces a significant task to change the views of a core group of presidents on a 19th licence after willing and robust talks with the AFL Commission on Tuesday.
The AFL Commission met on Tuesday then went through a list of 15 agenda items with AFL presidents.
But there was opposition from a group of presidents led by Gold Coast chairman Tony Cochrane, who made clear his views that the 19th licence was not financially viable.
While details are still scant on the 11 core ‘work streams’ that will make up the Tasmanian bid, many presidents remain far from convinced.
The lack of a stadium deal and concerns over the viability of a billion-dollar coveredroof stadium in a city of 206,000 are at the front of their minds.
AFL presidents Andrew Pridham (Sydney), Jeff Browne (Collingwood), Jeff Kennett (Hawthorn) and Cochrane are among those with significant reservations.
“It was a good discussion,” Pridham said on Tuesday night. “The ball is in the AFL’s court to come back with the best proposal (but) the stadium must be part of it.”
The AFL has a big task to convince the presidents in eight weeks given so much work must be done by an AFL-Tasmanian government task force.
An AFL spokesman said the AFL would continue to progress those 11 work streams with the Tasmanian task force and Tasmanian government.
In theory it would take a two-thirds majority of AFL presidents to vote down an AFL Commission recommendation but the league wants to establish a consensus position.
Kennett believes the Tasmanian government needs to up its current $10m commitment over 10 years (with a $50m start-up fund) to $20m a season over 15 years.
Eight of those presidents met on Monday night at Kennett’s house but there is no rebel group, only individual concerns about how the AFL would afford that team.
The league updated the presidents on the league’s financial modelling and the likely lift in the $6.5m soft cap.
Other likely areas of discussion were concussion funding for players, the TV rights deal, the season structure, crowd numbers through Covid and the floating fixture.
The AFL is hoping for an increased TV rights deal that would not only fund an annual distribution for a Tasmanian side but would fund concussion payouts, the AFL and AFLW pay deals and a new funding model for clubs.