Etihad in League's sightsBy Ben Guthrie
afl.com.au
Sun 03 Jun, 2012THE AFL has not ruled out purchasing Etihad Stadium before the expected takeover date in 2025, League chairman Mike Fitzpatrick has said.
In an interview on Fox Footy on Sunday evening, Fitzpatrick said the League had already floated the possibility of taking over the stadium from its current owners.
"We can either wait until we take possession of it, and we've also spoken a few times with the owners [discussing] whether we could take it early and we just haven't been able to get an agreement," Fitzpatrick told Eddie McGuire Tonight.
In a wide-ranging interview, Fitzpatrick also said he believes AFL boss Andrew Demetriou has "unfinished business" and was likely to stay in the top job for some time.
"I think there's still some unfinished business for Andrew. The expansion clubs are operating, but they're not stable, in my view, yet," he said.
"We want to get up a good, stable 18-team competition.
"We've still got some smaller initiatives ... that we really need to get in to place."
But Fitzpatrick said the AFL Commission would not hesitate to move Demetriou on if it felt the time was right.
"You can be rest assured, that when the commission thinks he's starting to flag or tire, we'll tap him on the shoulder," he said.
"But at the moment, I must say, he's doing a terrific job."
Fitzpatrick also spoke about the need for the AFL to strengthen its expansion clubs in the near future.
"[It's] very much consolidation," he said.
"I think the last three or so years we have been pretty brave, we've had a go.
"We've now got the two teams operating, we've got to look after the 18 clubs and make sure they're in good shape."
Fitzpatrick said he felt the commission wasn't brave enough when he joined it in 2003, but had made good decisions in the past few years.
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