Battling AFL clubs set to lose payouts

[aker39]

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23732136-12270,00.html

Battling AFL clubs set to lose payouts

Patrick Smith | May 21, 2008

FOR AFL clubs operating on the largesse of the league commission and those clinging to the bottom of the ladder, the future grows more uncertain almost by the day.

The league is yet to decide on how best to stock its new clubs (Gold Coast in 2011 and western Sydney in 2012) but poorly performed clubs are certain to be denied a generous scoop of the youth and out-of-contract player pools as the league furnishes the playing lists of its new clubs.

With their diminished recruiting power already determined if not yet precisely defined, the AFL is now considering abandoning a package of $6.4million in assistance set aside for 2010 to help keep struggling clubs afloat.

The critical review of the AFL commission's annual special dividend (ASD) fund had been planned for next summer but has been brought forward after several club presidents queried the right for clubs to receive the extra compensation.

At the presidents' meeting on May 9, several club chiefs questioned the right of their rivals to receive bloated dividends given the fact that North Melbourne knocked back a $50m offer from the AFL to move to the Gold Coast.

"It was raised by one president and he was supported by others. Several presidents felt clubs should have to go it alone," AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou said yesterday.

The fund is the difference between several clubs returning a profit or running up significant debt. Melbourne will receive $1.25m this year and next; the Bulldogs $3.4m; North Melbourne $2.8m and Sydney $1.5m.

The AFL has budgeted for $6.4m in special dividends in 2011 but the money is yet to be allocated - if at all - to clubs disadvantaged by the draw or stadium deals.

Demetriou said the AFL commission had responded to the concerns of the clubs and accelerated the review of the fund policy.

"Three things can happen," Demetriou said. "The commission can remove the fund, decrease it or increase it. We decided to bring the review forward to give certainty - one way or the other - to our clubs."

With this new challenge to the financial support so fundamental to weaker clubs, the AFL's decision to bring forward the dividend fund review will allow clubs to plan with greater surety.

The North Melbourne special dividend is a more fragile and complicated issue.

Even if the AFL continues with dividend support in 2010 and beyond, the Kangaroos are not guaranteed any share of it. The AFL has said it will not support North Melbourne while a small group of shareholders continues to have control of the club.

A heated meeting last month between the AFL, North Melbourne administrators and the shareholders failed to resolve the issue and the league has now left the problem with the North Melbourne board.

It is believed the shareholders, who include former board member Mark Dawson and former president Andrew Carter, told Demetriou that North Melbourne did not want AFL help beyond 2009 because it had a plan to raise whatever finance was required.

North Melbourne's future is uncertain while the issue of the shareholders remains unresolved.

Although Demetriou said the presidents' meeting was buoyant and the clubs continue to support the introduction of the 17th and 18th teams, there is clearly a growing sense of self-preservation among the clubs.

The AFL's initial suggestions for expansion in the northern markets have drawn criticism from clubs, wary that established teams are not debilitated by the league's largesse to the new clubs.

Included in the AFL blueprint are proposals that the Gold Coast has access to the best 45 Queensland teenagers over the next five years. That in 2010 Gold Coast has the first five selections in the national draft as well as picks 14, 15, 24 and 41. Also, it would be given the chance to recruit up to 10 uncontracted players in the same year.

Carlton, Melbourne and West Coast have said the draft and recruiting concessions are so generous the new teams would have the opportunity to win a premiership in their first five years. Melbourne's general manager of football, Chris Connolly, said the expansion plans were the making of a super team.

Brisbane is concerned that the Gold Coast team would effectively have Queensland as its personal recruiting zone and Collingwood and the Lions have questioned the need for the new team to have its salary cap bloated by an extra 10 per cent in its first five years.

Collingwood president Eddie McGuire has said it would make a mockery of the cap restrictions faced by other clubs.

The AFL administration has decided not to push ahead with the introduction of the western Sydney club until at least 2012 and only awaits the AFL commission to consider its recommendation.

While all 16 AFL clubs begin to comprehend how the expansion plans will affect them individually, some powerful clubs have decided that there is no better place to begin to even out the playing field than the annual special dividends.

From now on it's every club for itself.

[LostDoggy]

Now the true impact of setting up teams at the Gold Coast and West Sydney can be seen.

This is diabolical for us and has the potential to send us to the wall especially given the AFL's fixture policy which offers enormaous advantages to the crowdpulling clubs at the expense of ourselves and others.

Just why the Assistance Fund should be affected by the expansion is beyond me.

Smorgon and Rose need to be on the front foot about this NOW.

[Sockeye Salmon]

The AFL has budgeted for $6.4m in special dividends in 2011 but the money is yet to be allocated - if at all - to clubs disadvantaged by the draw or stadium deals.


So they acknowledge that some clubs are disadvantaged by AFL policy yet are going to remove the compensation they get for it?

I'd be talking to our lawyers.

[wimberga]

Agree EJ and thanks for bringing a most important issue to WOOF.

What worries me is alot of people dont realise that this 'payout' to the dogs, is actually more of a compensation. If i recall correctly, we do not have a deal with our home ground the Dome, but in fact we have a deal with the AFL, which in turn has a deal with the dome. Our home games there pocket us something like $40,000 regardless of the crowd. Terrible, specially since we are starting to draw bigger crowds. Thus we recieve the money from the AFL as compensation for what was a poorly thought out and ludicrous deal in the first place.

If we lose the ASD and the Dome deal stands, we are going to be in dire straits. Until the Dome deal is revised, the ASD should stay.

[aker39]

Can a mod merge the 2 threads

[Bulldog4life]

So they acknowledge that some clubs are disadvantaged by AFL policy yet are going to remove the compensation they get for it?

I'd be talking to our lawyers.

Agree. While they are at it I hope they discuss the financial advantages some Clubs unfairly get on a regular basis through the Anzac Game, Dreamtime Game etc. etc.

[Dry Rot]

Can a mod merge the 2 threads

Done. :)

[Topdog]

Smorgo and Rose need to head into the AFL right now and be joined by their lawyers.

If the AFL take this away than they will need to RADICALLY change the draw to ensure it is random and each club has a chance of making money each year.

[bornadog]

Smorgo and Rose need to head into the AFL right now and be joined by their lawyers.

If the AFL take this away than they will need to RADICALLY change the draw to ensure it is random and each club has a chance of making money each year.

Absolutely agree, its a joke.

[hujsh]

AFL assfaces. If you're going to take our money give us home games that aren't on Sunday arvos and a contract with our stadium where we're not being ass raped:mad:

[westdog54]

So they acknowledge that some clubs are disadvantaged by AFL policy yet are going to remove the compensation they get for it?

I'd be talking to our lawyers.

I fail to understand what part of this these other clubs are missing.

We get a schiessenhausen draw, and have a scheissenhausen stadium deal that we have no control over. How in God's name are we supposed to fend for ourselves if we're given no opportunity to earn a living.

Ridiculous how thoughtless and selfish some club administrators are.

[LostDoggy]

Agree. While they are at it I hope they discuss the financial advantages some Clubs unfairly get on a regular basis through the Anzac Game, Dreamtime Game etc. etc.

I rang up Robert Walls a few weeks ago and said that it is not fair that on one hand they talk about clubs getting 'handouts' and in the next give two clubs the Anzac game every year. Response I got was that until we have more members and turn things around we won't get games like this - and he pointed to St Kilda as an example. Then I had to listen to Collingwood muppets ringing up saying that we can have a blockbuster game if we want. Yeah that's great so whats left - Easter Friday?

[hujsh]

I rang up Robert Walls a few weeks ago and said that it is not fair that on one hand they talk about clubs getting 'handouts' and in the next give two clubs the Anzac game every year. Response I got was that until we have more members and turn things around we won't get games like this - and he pointed to St Kilda as an example. Then I had to listen to Collingwood muppets ringing up saying that we can have a blockbuster game if we want. Yeah that's great so whats left - Easter Friday?

I'd take it. Who doesn't get bored with no TV and no meat

[LostDoggy]

I'd take it. Who doesn't get bored with no TV and no meat

I would take it as well - but I mean they are saying no now - and chances are if they change their minds it will be because one of the bigger clubs talked them into it - so we would dip out again.

[bornadog]

I rang up Robert Walls a few weeks ago and said that it is not fair that on one hand they talk about clubs getting 'handouts' and in the next give two clubs the Anzac game every year. Response I got was that until we have more members and turn things around we won't get games like this - and he pointed to St Kilda as an example. Then I had to listen to Collingwood muppets ringing up saying that we can have a blockbuster game if we want. Yeah that's great so whats left - Easter Friday?

Walls and every one who backs the blockbusters are missing the point. As these teams are exposed more and more, like on ANZAC day, it becomes like a snow ball, picking up more and more members along the way. Have a look at the last ten years since the ANZAC day game was first started and see the benefits, the increase in members the financial rewards that have been picked up by Collingwood and Essendon. Its only going to grow even more, with kids sitting there watching the ANZAC day game on telly for the past ten years and now growing up, working and buying and attending these matches.
The bull that is blurted out, as the so called response, i.e. get more members and you can have a game really makes my blood boil. How are we supposed to do that if we don't get the exposure? It’s not just about on field success. Look at North, arguably the most successful club in the 1990's and never reaped the rewards. Forget their membership numbers this year, it’s full of sympathizes, their real tally is less than 25,000, yet it should be consistently 35,000 plus. They haven't had the exposure on TV, they haven't had the blockbusters, and they have bad draws, just like us. Ask yourself, why are we playing Brisbane Lions at the MCG this year and Collingwood at Telstra Dome? Why are we playing in every state and territory (I know we sold two games), why are we playing so many twilight games.
The playing field is not fair and the whole AFL is contrived and put on to suit the long term plans of the AFL, i.e. not so many clubs in Victoria, but rather a more even spread throughout Australia. The only thing that stops it happening sooner is the passionate fans and the love of the game itself.

With the two new clubs coming in, the screws are going to be turned on and hit the poorer clubs. We have to be ready, we need success, we need members and we need to be financial.

[LostDoggy]

Walls is a d*ckhead that wouldn't know his left hand if it jumped up and bit him. What flippin' code in the world has 'blockbuster' games reserved only for the big teams? That's just a ridiculous concept anyway -- do Manchester United and Liverpool get a special match every year ad infinitum? Does the Yankees and Red Sox? Or any other bloody league in the world? This makes my blood boil. If Robert Walls and other AFL stooges can't understand the basic concept of a FAIR draw they shouldn't be even talking about sport, but get into the casino business where they can rig the game and screw the punter all the want, but get their grubby hands the hell off of our national football code.

The fact is, the true blockbuster game we have is the Grand Final, and teams have to earn the right to get into it. When was the last time Collingwood and Essendon earnt the right to play each other in a Grand Final? Exactly.

Anzac day should just be another day on the footy calendar and the draw should determine who gets to play it every year -- that Collingwood, a bunch of ferals, and Essendon, blueblood shithe@ds, should somehow pretend to represent our country and our soldiers every single year, and continue to play on the sentiment that the crappy games they serve up is somehow analogous to our soldiers' efforts in wars past is an insult to every other team in the competition and to our country in general. The media's pompous sermonising and heavy-handed sentimentalism every year around that match makes me want to hurl.

I say it again -- Walls is a DICKHE@D.

[bornadog]

Walls is a d*ckhead that wouldn't know his left hand if it jumped up and bit him. What flippin' code in the world has 'blockbuster' games reserved only for the big teams? That's just a ridiculous concept anyway -- do Manchester United and Liverpool get a special match every year ad infinitum? Does the Yankees and Red Sox? Or any other bloody league in the world? This makes my blood boil. If Robert Walls and other AFL stooges can't understand the basic concept of a FAIR draw they shouldn't be even talking about sport, but get into the casino business where they can rig the game and screw the punter all the want, but get their grubby hands the hell off of our national football code.

The fact is, the true blockbuster game we have is the Grand Final, and teams have to earn the right to get into it. When was the last time Collingwood and Essendon earnt the right to play each other in a Grand Final? Exactly.

Anzac day should just be another day on the footy calendar and the draw should determine who gets to play it every year -- that Collingwood, a bunch of ferals, and Essendon, blueblood shithe@ds, should somehow pretend to represent our country and our soldiers every single year, and continue to play on the sentiment that the crappy games they serve up is somehow analogous to our soldiers' efforts in wars past is an insult to every other team in the competition and to our country in general. The media's pompous sermonising and heavy-handed sentimentalism every year around that match makes me want to hurl.

I say it again -- Walls is a DICKHE@D.

Glad I am not the only one that thinks like this.

[Cyberdoggie]

Glad I am not the only one that thinks like this.


they can't get rid of the asd without causing a major stir.

You can't have an unfair competition and not compensate as a result.

i can understand their position with the nth board but the afl will get a
sh!#fight from many clubs over this.
We are not just talking the poor clubs, collingwood and essendon will crack it if they loose their rights to the anzac game etc. It effects everyone.

[LostDoggy]

collingwood and essendon will crack it if they loose their rights to the anzac game etc.


Let's get one thing straight: COLLINGWOOD AND ESSENDON DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHTS TO ANY GAME.

How can any two teams in a competition have a stranglehold over the draw? They may have played it for a few years, but they do NOT have the RIGHT to it. That's like saying that some teams have a RIGHT to the flag, or to Christmas. Anzac Day belongs to all of us, including the vast majority who are NOT Collingwood or Essendon fans.

[Topdog]

Let's get one thing straight: COLLINGWOOD AND ESSENDON DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHTS TO ANY GAME.

How can any two teams in a competition have a stranglehold over the draw? They may have played it for a few years, but they do NOT have the RIGHT to it. That's like saying that some teams have a RIGHT to the flag, or to Christmas. Anzac Day belongs to all of us, including the vast majority who are NOT Collingwood or Essendon fans.

However if you ask the AFL, Collingwood and Essendon have the rights to the game.

Unfortunately at the moment thats all that matters.

[ledge]

Heres a fair thought, as in another code they have a game for charity and it involves the winner of the FA cup and the premier league winner, i know the AFL would never give it to charity but why dont they make the Anzac game the grand final replay game so you did EARN it, or maybe the premeirship side plays the winner of the pre season cup then?

Have you noticed Carlton have fallen by the wayside? Years ago the AFL/VFL would have them involved in as much as they could.
Carlton i beleive would have got away with everything , i think the league knew it for years but once it came out in the open they had no option but to smack them.
The AFL werent upset about the way Carton did illegal things , they were upset because Carlton got caught by outside people and it found the AFL for what it is, a dictatorship.
The AFL were cornered and left no option but to turn on its own.
Liberals looking after Liberals.

[LostDoggy]

Walls and every one who backs the blockbusters are missing the point. As these teams are exposed more and more, like on ANZAC day, it becomes like a snow ball, picking up more and more members along the way. Have a look at the last ten years since the ANZAC day game was first started and see the benefits, the increase in members the financial rewards that have been picked up by Collingwood and Essendon. Its only going to grow even more, with kids sitting there watching the ANZAC day game on telly for the past ten years and now growing up, working and buying and attending these matches.
The bull that is blurted out, as the so called response, i.e. get more members and you can have a game really makes my blood boil. How are we supposed to do that if we don't get the exposure? It’s not just about on field success. Look at North, arguably the most successful club in the 1990's and never reaped the rewards. Forget their membership numbers this year, it’s full of sympathizes, their real tally is less than 25,000, yet it should be consistently 35,000 plus. They haven't had the exposure on TV, they haven't had the blockbusters, and they have bad draws, just like us. Ask yourself, why are we playing Brisbane Lions at the MCG this year and Collingwood at Telstra Dome? Why are we playing in every state and territory (I know we sold two games), why are we playing so many twilight games.
The playing field is not fair and the whole AFL is contrived and put on to suit the long term plans of the AFL, i.e. not so many clubs in Victoria, but rather a more even spread throughout Australia. The only thing that stops it happening sooner is the passionate fans and the love of the game itself.

With the two new clubs coming in, the screws are going to be turned on and hit the poorer clubs. We have to be ready, we need success, we need members and we need to be financial.

Passionately well said. However, it is a shame that this thread is on our board preaching to the converted. As in politics, the alternative argument opinion and voice needs to be heard to those who hold these simple views without looking at the broader implications. As in all political media campaigns you focus on a few simple points and keep ramming it home. OK - bulldogs play a brand of exciting football that people enjoy and need more exposure for them to grow their brand, Collingwood is disliked by so many because they are over-exposed, Essendon are down the bottom and will be for some time - don't deserve exposure. Keep ramming it home people.

NB: My son believes this is all a waste of time, he compares other bulldog supporters to the People's Front of Judea (Monty Pythons Life of Brian) - the part where Brian is about to be crucified and the mob are getting restless, instead of rallying the mob into action - they hold another meeting. :o

[Sockeye Salmon]

Walls and every one who backs the blockbusters are missing the point. As these teams are exposed more and more, like on ANZAC day, it becomes like a snow ball, picking up more and more members along the way. Have a look at the last ten years since the ANZAC day game was first started and see the benefits, the increase in members the financial rewards that have been picked up by Collingwood and Essendon. Its only going to grow even more, with kids sitting there watching the ANZAC day game on telly for the past ten years and now growing up, working and buying and attending these matches.
The bull that is blurted out, as the so called response, i.e. get more members and you can have a game really makes my blood boil. How are we supposed to do that if we don't get the exposure? It’s not just about on field success. Look at North, arguably the most successful club in the 1990's and never reaped the rewards. Forget their membership numbers this year, it’s full of sympathizes, their real tally is less than 25,000, yet it should be consistently 35,000 plus. They haven't had the exposure on TV, they haven't had the blockbusters, and they have bad draws, just like us. Ask yourself, why are we playing Brisbane Lions at the MCG this year and Collingwood at Telstra Dome? Why are we playing in every state and territory (I know we sold two games), why are we playing so many twilight games.
The playing field is not fair and the whole AFL is contrived and put on to suit the long term plans of the AFL, i.e. not so many clubs in Victoria, but rather a more even spread throughout Australia. The only thing that stops it happening sooner is the passionate fans and the love of the game itself.

With the two new clubs coming in, the screws are going to be turned on and hit the poorer clubs. We have to be ready, we need success, we need members and we need to be financial.

What frustrates me most about the "get yourself a new idea" bollocks is that North pioneered Friday nights, now they hardly ever get one. We wanted to try Monday nights and the AFL said it was impossible to fixture - then promptly played Collingwood v Port Adelaide on a Monday night.

We want to play two games in a row in Darwin and get turned down, but we get an away fixture in Tassie.

We copped a home game v a non-Victorian side on Mother's Day every year until the AFL gave up on Mother's Day altogether this year.