One nice little earner Mark Hawthorne
September 27, 2010There is another group that won't profit from this weekend's rematch, but they have already had a win.
They are called the AFL's 14 non-competing clubs.
In an effort to make this Saturday a ''peoples' grand final'', the AFL will not give the non-competing clubs their allocation of 1000 tickets each. Those tickets will instead go to Collingwood and St Kilda members.
It's a decision that will end, if only temporarily, one of the nice little earners that occurs on the last weekend in September every year.
The AFL has a person with the job title ''manager of integrity services'', and has fined a few club officials for betting $2 on who kicks the first goal, but there seems to be a blind spot when it comes to the business of selling grand final tickets.
Officially, it is illegal to sell any ticket to a declared event under the Sports Event Ticketing (Fair Access) Act of 2002 at a profit in Victoria.
The grand final is at the top of that list of declared events. Get caught selling a ticket at a premium, and the potential fine is $7000. Unless the seller is an AFL club.
Legal advice sent from the AFL to its clubs in 2007 informed them: ''The AFL authorises all AFL clubs to sell tickets at a premium. In relation to other authorised sellers/distributors the AFL will only authorise tickets to be sold at a premium if the tickets are sold as part of a package that includes other benefits.''
Just how a club distributes its 1000 tickets must be declared to the AFL.
Most are distributed via just two methods - game-day functions, which include a match ticket in the price, or via one of the 30-odd official AFL on-sellers.
Interstate clubs love the on-sellers. Fremantle sold 830 of its allocation of 1000 grand final tickets through on-sellers. Cash-strapped Port Adelaide punted on 590 of its tickets via on-sellers. Brisbane sold 497, and West Coast sold 425.
Melbourne clubs also use these ticker resellers, but to a lesser extent.
Essendon sold 322 tickets via on-sellers. That's almost as many as the 357 it gave to club sponsors, and more than the 275 that went to coteries groups. Melbourne allocated 312 grand final tickets to on-sellers.
Richmond 250 tickets, Hawthorn 200 and the Western Bulldogs 170.
The face value of a prime grand final ticket is $235. Just what each club charges the on-sellers is not disclosed but, given selling at a premium is allowed, it's evidently a multimillion-dollar business. It's also far from being the biggest ticket industry operated on grand final day.
The latter part of that AFL legal note advises clubs that grand final tickets must be sold as ''part of a package that includes other benefits''.
On Saturday, several clubs operated functions costing between $1100 and $1750 a head, that included a prime match ticket worth $235.
Do the maths. One Collingwood fan did. He paid the Western Bulldogs $1100 for such an event, and provided Sporting Life with a picture of what he called his ''$865 breakfast''. With it came a seat in row CC, the top deck of the Ponsford Stand.
Some clubs put on their events with aplomb. North Melbourne allocated 728 grand final tickets to corporate functions, the bulk of which went to its popular grand final breakfast, a Melbourne tradition since 1966 that is televised live each year.
Other clubs run breakfasts costing $1550, for which there is minimal entertainment to go with the bacon and eggs. They were sold out for one reason - they came with a ticket to the game.
For anyone who scores an extra ticket to this Saturday's grand final replay, here's an idea. Place a classified ad charging $1000 for someone to come over to your house for brekkie, then sell them your spare ticket at face value.
If anyone from the AFL accuses you of ticket scalping, show them the pots and kettles you used to prepare breakfast, and ask them which is blacker.
http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/one-nice-little-earner-20100926-15se7.html
