North now trying to take Cairns off us

[one-eyed]

 


AFL boss Andrew Demetriou willing to help Shinboners expand to tropical north Queensland
Andrew Hamilton
The Courier-Mail
November 18, 2010

CAIRNS has emerged as a potential semi-permanent AFL venue, with the league vowing to help the embattled Kangaroos find a new second home.

The cash-strapped Kangaroos missed out on an AFL-endorsed bid to play seven home games a season in Hobart and Launceston when the Tasmanian Government opted to renew its association with Hawthorn.

Now, three years after knocking back a $100 million relocation package to move to the Gold Coast, the Kangaroos are once again looking for greener pastures.

AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou said the league would help the Kangaroos if they wished to explore playing home games in the tropics.

"We don't steer clubs, they have boards to make policies decisions," he said.

"But if they come to the AFL and ask for assistance, we will do our best to help them.

"We tried to help them out a couple of years ago, but ultimately they have a board that is chartered to decide the direction of their football club."

Cairns will host its first premiership match next season when Richmond play the Suns and Demetriou said government-funded upgrades to Cazaly's Stadium meant more regular fixturing was a distinct possibility - as was the case when AFL football first arrived in Launceston.

"We will have a good look at it," he said.

"It was how Tasmanian footy started. I remember York Park when it had a single grandstand with a great surface but was very cold and wet and windy.

"Now there is a fully covered stand the whole way around the ground. It is a terrific facility and it got to that point because we put more content in there.

"I think Cairns and North Queensland have a real appetite for Australian football and Cazaly's is a really great facility opportunity for us."

Demetriou agreed the failure of the Kangaroos' Tasmanian bid left the club needing to find an alternative region to expand its supporter base.

"The North Melbourne Football Club is obviously seeking another market to broaden its supporter base," he said.

"Hawthorn - with 8000 Tasmanian members out of 50,000 members - is a perfect example of that.

"North Melbourne saw an opportunity and now they will have to go back to the drawing board but it will be a challenge for them because they need to grow to keep pace with the opposition."

http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/afl/afl-boss-andrew-demetriou-willing-to-help-shinboners-expand-to-tropical-north-queensland/story-e6frepex-1225955210040

[tony_montana]

why is the stuffing AFL helping these gypsies? they spurned their offer, let them survive on their own now, LIKE THEY WANTED! no loss to the comp if they just stuff awff! sick and tired of hearing about this loser club

[Infamy]

why is the effing AFL helping these gypsies? they spurned their offer, let them survive on their own now, LIKE THEY WANTED! no loss to the comp if they just eff awff! sick and tired of hearing about this loser club

The AFL doesnt want another Fitzroy situation
Theyre scared that the few North supporters there are will be lost to AFL forever like many Fitzroy fans were

[tony_montana]

why is the effing AFL helping these gypsies? they spurned their offer, let them survive on their own now, LIKE THEY WANTED! no loss to the comp if they just eff awff! sick and tired of hearing about this loser club

The AFL doesnt want another Fitzroy situation
Theyre scared that the few North supporters there are will be lost to AFL forever like many Fitzroy fans were

Unfortunately should have been North instead of fitzroy in the first place, North just dont have the volume of supporters needed to survive outright in Melbourne so they should be given the ultimatem - shunted off forcefully or die. Fitzroy were just shafted

[Infamy]

Personally I don't know what they're worried about, they should have a look at the NFL which has the biggest average crowds of any sport in the world. The franchise owners there are never worried about alienating fans from another city. As the intro of the movie Baseketball said "The Minneapolis Lakers moved to Los Angeles where there are no lakes. The Oilers moved to Tennessee where there is no oil. The Jazz moved to Salt Lake City where they don't allow music. The Raiders moved from Oakland to LA back to Oakland, no-one seemed to notice."

[tiger101]

didnt see this here I just posted the article from the heraldsun about this in view from the outer 

anyways.. every attempt from them to sell games just makes them look even more stupid for not accepting to move to the Gold Coast.

[tony_montana]

Personally I don't know what they're worried about, they should have a look at the NFL which has the biggest average crowds of any sport in the world. The franchise owners there are never worried about alienating fans from another city. As the intro of the movie Baseketball said "The Minneapolis Lakers moved to Los Angeles where there are no lakes. The Oilers moved to Tennessee where there is no oil. The Jazz moved to Salt Lake City where they don't allow music. The Raiders moved from Oakland to LA back to Oakland, no-one seemed to notice."

The States is a much much bigger market though, there are lots of cities that would jump at the chance of having a team represent them in the biggest(or close to) sport in the country - no matter where they came from. The market here is almost at full capacity now. Cant get a permanent 3rd team into queensland or GWS and Tassie is off the cards in the short/medium term

[Infamy]

Personally I don't know what they're worried about, they should have a look at the NFL which has the biggest average crowds of any sport in the world. The franchise owners there are never worried about alienating fans from another city. As the intro of the movie Baseketball said "The Minneapolis Lakers moved to Los Angeles where there are no lakes. The Oilers moved to Tennessee where there is no oil. The Jazz moved to Salt Lake City where they don't allow music. The Raiders moved from Oakland to LA back to Oakland, no-one seemed to notice."

The States is a much much bigger market though, there are lots of cities that would jump at the chance of having a team represent them in the biggest(or close to) sport in the country - no matter where they came from. The market here is almost at full capacity now. Cant get a permanent 3rd team into queensland or GWS and Tassie is off the cards in the short/medium term

The market may be bigger in terms of the amount of cities they can have in the competition, however these cities aren't actually that big, their supporters are just fanatical. Helps when you have one national football code aswell.
Most cities with teams in the NFL have populations of only half a million people. That's not that big.
Gold Coast has 600k, Newcastle 540k and Canberra 350-400k, they should have no problem supporting a team if they liked the code enough

[tony_montana]

Personally I don't know what they're worried about, they should have a look at the NFL which has the biggest average crowds of any sport in the world.

The States is a much much bigger market though, there are lots of cities that would jump at the chance of having a team represent them in the biggest(or close to) sport in the country - no matter where they came from. The market here is almost at full capacity now. Cant get a permanent 3rd team into queensland or GWS and Tassie is off the cards in the short/medium term

The market may be bigger in terms of the amount of cities they can have in the competition, however these cities aren't actually that big, their supporters are just fanatical. Helps when you have one national football code aswell.
Most cities with teams in the NFL have populations of only half a million people. That's not that big.
Gold Coast has 600k, Newcastle 540k and Canberra 350-400k, they should have no problem supporting a team if they liked the code enough

thats the bottom line though isnt it?

[Infamy]

Newcastle would be pretty tough market to crack, but Gold Coast with all the ex-pats should be fine. Canberra was ripe for the picking a long time ago but the NRL beat it to the punch and the AFL missed out on a bit opportunity.

[WilliamPowell]

Who cares what North does ... because whatever they do whether it be with the AFL's assistance or not they will fail because that is what the North Melbourne Footy Club stands for "Stuffing Up"

Any organisation that turns down $100 mil clearly hasn't got a clue and deserves the miserable existence that they have carried around for their entire petty existence and will continue to do so for however long they are around

 

[Judge Roughneck]

Afl bloody pricks. Ditto north

[Smokey]

why is the effing AFL helping these gypsies? they spurned their offer, let them survive on their own now, LIKE THEY WANTED! no loss to the comp if they just eff awff! sick and tired of hearing about this loser club

The AFL doesnt want another Fitzroy situation
Theyre scared that the few North supporters there are will be lost to AFL forever like many Fitzroy fans were

Unfortunately should have been North instead of fitzroy in the first place, North just dont have the volume of supporters needed to survive outright in Melbourne so they should be given the ultimatem - shunted off forcefully or die. Fitzroy were just shafted

Agree with both of your comments TM.   

[Hellenic Tiger]

Who cares what North does ... because whatever they do whether it be with the AFL's assistance or not they will fail because that is what the North Melbourne Footy Club stands for "Stuffing Up"

Any organisation that turns down $100 mil clearly hasn't got a clue and deserves the miserable existence that they have carried around for their entire petty existence and will continue to do so for however long they are around

 

North does not stand for stuffing up in my opinion.

North IMHO opinion stands for no fans no support no sponsors no character no identity no nothing just talking about pathetic antequated mythical Shinboner Spirit. Destitute club that has been on life support for years. Time to take them out of the coma and euthanase them.
I hate losing to Carlton and Collingwood but because North are pathetic and all of the aforementioned I hate losing to them as it is a dent to your character, prestige and identity just so 10 off beats can have their 5 minutes in the sun. They can play on the moon and they will have very few supporting them. If Wayne Carey could not get the members on board then nobody will. Fk off Norf.

[bojangles17]

afl may look to play even more fixtures there, doubt it would involve taking our ONE game away though