AFL reaches in-principle agreement with Tasmania for 19th team

[bornadog]

The 2 current stadiums already host matches.
They are ready to play without renovation.

The concern I keep hearing is that if they don't build a great facility then much like Gold Coast the player retention will be a challenge.

The renovation can include state of the art training facilities, most likely in Hobart.

[GVGjr]

The 2 current stadiums already host matches.
They are ready to play without renovation.

And remember both grounds host games not host a team full time. They're going to need something more.

[hujsh]

The concern I keep hearing is that if they don't build a great facility then much like Gold Coast the player retention will be a challenge.

I mean... it's a challenge for Adelaide too but they get to be in the competition.

[Bulldog Joe]

The concern I keep hearing is that if they don't build a great facility then much like Gold Coast the player retention will be a challenge.

Player retention will be a challenge regardless..

The age group of AFL players consistently leave Tassie for more excitement and return later in life,

[Bulldog Joe]

And remember both grounds host games not host a team full time. They're going to need something more.

Yes
They do need top class training facilities, but that hardly warrants the proposed expenditure for the stadium,

[Bulldog Legend]

Agree there's not much to worry about although Richmond won't want to lose Nank. Shame for Riewoldt that he will likely miss out by a year or two, would have been an excellent inaugural captain for them.

I think clubs would have absolutely been considering the impact of a Tasmanian team on drafting Tassie boys. Why would you draft a guy who you would anticipate is highly likely to leave in a couple of years?

I doubt TAS would have the same go home factor, one of Tasmania’s issues has been retaining their young people

[Bulldog Legend]

I've said it previously about Tassie, there's something about the place that could trigger if they were just shown some respect and treated somewhere close to equally in Australia's sporting and social construct. An AFL team would help do this.

I'd happily make a five day trip out of it, head to the game on the weekend, off to Barnbougle/ Lost Farm for a few days with wineries along the way.

And a season with one forced bye and one for rest, alongside a single game against each opponent would be perfect for everyone. As for the talent pool, if there was a higher focus on drafting skill rather than athletics then the gap wouldn't look as bad.

I hear what you are saying but bottom line is their population is around 550k compared to VIC 7 million. I am unsure that long term they can be financially viable and they certainly do not have the population to sustain an AFL list so a lot of their players will have to come from interstate and the will face the same go home issues as GC and GWS.
Happy for them to have a go but not sure it will be a success

[Nuggety Back Pocket]

I hear what you are saying but bottom line is their population is around 550k compared to VIC 7 million. I am unsure that long term they can be financially viable and they certainly do not have the population to sustain an AFL list so a lot of their players will have to come from interstate and the will face the same go home issues as GC and GWS.
Happy for them to have a go but not sure it will be a success

The arrival of North Melbourne and Hawthorn with Tasmanian State Government sponsorship of $20 million dollars has effectively killed off the quality and interest in its local 3 major competitions.
We shouldn’t forget Tassie’s amazing number of quality players that have gone on to play with other League Clubs.
These include Royce Hart, Peter Hudson, Daryl Baldock, Ian Stewart, Brent Crosswell, Steve and Rod McPherson,
Scratcher Neal, Colin Robertson, John Greening, John Bonney, Barry Lawrence and many others. It is going to take enormous dollars as the AFL hasl done with GCS and GWS to become competitive coupled with a huge input of good players from other League Clubs to make it competitive. It will be a monumental task. In fairness it should have happened years ago at the expense of Gold Coast Suns and GWS,
but thanks to the almighty dollars from National TV rights it required the AFL to have 2 Clubs in both Sydney and Queensland.

[Bulldog Joe]

The arrival of North Melbourne and Hawthorn with Tasmanian State Government sponsorship of $20 million dollars has effectively killed off the quality and interest in its local 3 major competitions.
We shouldn’t forget Tassie’s amazing number of quality players that have gone on to play with other League Clubs.
These include Royce Hart, Peter Hudson, Daryl Baldock, Ian Stewart, Brent Crosswell, Steve and Rod McPherson,
Scratcher Neal, Colin Robertson, John Greening, John Bonney, Barry Lawrence and many others. It is going to take enormous dollars as the AFL hasl done with GCS and GWS to become competitive coupled with a huge input of good players from other League Clubs to make it competitive. It will be a monumental task. In fairness it should have happened years ago at the expense of Gold Coast Suns and GWS,
but thanks to the almighty dollars from National TV rights it required the AFL to have 2 Clubs in both Sydney and Queensland.

unfortunately the quality in/from Tasmania has declined significantly over the last 20 plus years.

While we can point to Baldock, Stewart, Hudson, Crosswell, Roach and even Rocket Eade through the 60s to 80s the nimbers of high class players has seriously.

We have the Riewoldt cousins (and Queensland even claim Nick) but I can't think of any others since we had Hawthorn as a regular team playing in Tas since the calendar ticked into the 2000s

[jeemak]

I hear what you are saying but bottom line is their population is around 550k compared to VIC 7 million. I am unsure that long term they can be financially viable and they certainly do not have the population to sustain an AFL list so a lot of their players will have to come from interstate and the will face the same go home issues as GC and GWS.
Happy for them to have a go but not sure it will be a success

I understand, though I'd counter it with the comment that Tassie is actually awesome and would be a bit like Geelong for players rather than the GC or Western Sydney, and it only 1.5 hours travel to Melbourne which isn't a huge impost.

Everyone talks about what Tassie can't do, and not what it potentially can do. The issues we see with Tassie's current football state are born out of neglect. Half the love attributed to Sydney, GWS or GCS and Brisbane will see the team thrive and new generations developed in a genuine football state as supporters of the local team rather than legacy teams from a state/ city that fills them with resentment.

The population argument interests me, it's as if the Victorian clubs think there's some version of support that assumes every person in the state follows a footy team. And it's bullshit. Sure, ask a Victorian who they support these days and they'll nominate a team, but dig a little deeper and you might find that less and less people actually follow the game closely and plenty of people nominate a team just because that's who their parents or grandparents followed. With that in mind, the division of clubs vs. Victorian population is only ~80K people more than population per club in Tassie, but it doesn't account for people moving from interstate in huge numbers to Melbourne or international migration. Both of which likely come with previous biases towards sporting codes and teams supported that will take generations to change, much like Tasmania's will.

If the AFL continues to ignore 550K people who have football in their culture/ heritage then it will be to their detriment, and a sign of gross negligence, hubris and arrogance combined. Ignoring captive markets and throwing shitloads of money into development markets that are culturally different and likely to always be is one of the dumbest things I can think the AFL could do. So I guess that's what they will do.

[FrediKanoute]

Player retention will be a challenge regardless..

The age group of AFL players consistently leave Tassie for more excitement and return later in life,

COuld have a veterans team - the Tassie Hasbeens

[bornadog]

unfortunately the quality in/from Tasmania has declined significantly over the last 20 plus years.

While we can point to Baldock, Stewart, Hudson, Crosswell, Roach and even Rocket Eade through the 60s to 80s the nimbers of high class players has seriously.

We have the Riewoldt cousins (and Queensland even claim Nick) but I can't think of any others since we had Hawthorn as a regular team playing in Tas since the calendar ticked into the 2000s

Ryan Gardner, Liam Jones, Ben Brown, Jeremy Howe, to name a few

[DOG GOD]

Imo Gill has never wanted a Tassie team. His stake on having to have a brand new roofed stadium to get a team over the line is laughable when you have 1 ground in Launceston with one of the best surfaces in the AFL.

The whole thing is becoming a farce.

Why build a 28,000 seat stadium when you’re never going to get more than 15,000 there.

Last night, Collingwood who have a huge following in Tassie and hawthorn played at UTAS in Launceston. Tickets were FREE and there would’ve been no more than 4000 there. So who’s going to watch Tassie vs GC at the new stadium in Hobart ?

[GVGjr]

Imo Gill has never wanted a Tassie team. His stake on having to have a brand new roofed stadium to get a team over the line is laughable when you have 1 ground in Launceston with one of the best surfaces in the AFL.

The whole thing is becoming a farce.

Why build a 28,000 seat stadium when you’re never going to get more than 15,000 there.

Last night, Collingwood who have a huge following in Tassie and hawthorn played at UTAS in Launceston. Tickets were FREE and there would’ve been no more than 4000 there. So who’s going to watch Tassie vs GC at the new stadium in Hobart ?

I'm not so sure he doesn't want a team down there and as far as the stadium is concerned, I do think it's preferential to have a stadium you can grow into not out of. The last thing you want to do in Australia is try and justify extending or renovating a stadium a few years later as it will cost a fortune. Perhaps they could get the stadium capacity down to something more like 22K.

[bornadog]

I'm not so sure he doesn't want a team down there and as far as the stadium is concerned, I do think it's preferential to have a stadium you can grow into not out of. The last thing you want to do in Australia is try and justify extending or renovating a stadium a few years later as it will cost a fortune. Perhaps they could get the stadium capacity down to something more like 22K.

Gill wants a stadium with a roof on. Not worth spending money on a roofed stadium with a capacity of only 22k

I tend to agree with Dog God, the population is just not there in Tassie to warrant a team.