Players set to enjoy $20m windfall
Greg Denham
The Australian
February 09, 2006
PLAYERS could win a $20million pay increase across the board next year under the next phase of their Collective Bargaining Agreement with the league.
While AFL Players Association chief executive Brendon Gale would not be drawn on an actual percentage rise yesterday, union sources have acknowledged that the players will receive a significant windfall, as much as 20 per cent, following the signing off of the AFL's new five-year $780m broadcast rights deal, as well as having the MCG at full capacity in April.
"It's far too early to call a figure because we are waiting on the AFL's projected revenues for 2007 and 2008 before we form the basis of total player payments in the final two years of the current CBA," Gale said.
Gale said he expected projections from the league within a month.
The AFL will be $280m better off for five years from 2007 because of the 56 per cent increase in the sale of its television rights.
The players' union is also debating whether to rework total player payments for the next two years, or incorporate them in a new five-year CBA player-payment schedule which would run for the duration of the broadcast rights period secured last month by the Seven and Ten Networks.
After three years of modest 3 per cent pay increases, including this season, which basically kept pace with inflation, in the new arrangement players will get their biggest percentage increase in 2007, which will be scaled down over time.
The AFLPA could target increases over the next five years totalling about 50 per cent.
Of major concern to the players is their diminishing percentage earnings compared to overall AFL revenue. In the past eight years this has dropped from its peak in 2001 of 22.3 per cent, to 20.1 per cent last year.
Gale stressed that it was something the players want to have restored to a more appropriate level. "They have an extremely strong expectation that it will," he said.
He said elite rugby union players and cricketers worked on annual payments based on 25 per cent of defined revenues from those sports.
"Working for a fixed percentage in the future is something broadly supported by the players," Gale said.
What has alarmed the union is the widening gap between total football revenue and total player payments over the past three years.
Total football revenue has increased by 22 per cent since 2003, while players' wages increased by 9 per cent.
Total player payment increases (30 per cent) were in line with the increase in total football revenue (31 per cent) between 1999 and 2002.
"The game's grown and we haven't," Gale said.
Players will this year share total player payments of almost $104m, which does not include additional payments for marketing (additional services agreement) of about $6m and veterans' allowances of about $5m.
When the previous CBA was agreed to, the competition was facing tough economic conditions with seven clubs each posting losses of more then $1m. Over the past three years there has been enormous growth at AFL and club level.
While Gale would not speculate on the breakdown of the players' expected pay increase, it is understood that a significant part of any increase will be directed at player benefits such as welfare, education, training and particularly their retirement fund.
AFLPA funding from the AFL for these programs will be about $8m this year, and that could nearly double. Every player receives $13,000 annually towards his retirement fund and this is expected to increase dramatically from 2007.
Gale said that while the players demanded a significant increase in remuneration, they were also mindful of retaining the health of the 16 clubs, game development, particularly in NSW and Queensland, and they did not want fans to be inconvenienced by cost increases.
He stressed that the players contributed to almost 50,000 hours collectively last year for AFL game development, promotion and club community activities.
Gale said he would neither push immediately for free agency nor use it as a trade-off for a bigger slice of AFL revenue in the next CBA discussions with the AFL.
"We are of the very strong view that there is a place in the AFL for some model of free agency that would not compromise competitive balance," Gale said. "But in all likelihood it's at least three years away. It certainly won't be before 2009."
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,18086986%255E36035,00.html
