Tasmania keen to become a one-club stateBy Nick Bowen and Matt Thompson
afl.com.au
Wednesday, June 26, 2013TASMANIA is pushing to become a one-team AFL state and might overlook existing incumbents Hawthorn and North Melbourne for another club prepared to embrace the Apple Isle as its primary development market.
AFL Tasmania chief executive Scott Wade told AFL.com.au on Wednesday the ideal AFL model for Tasmania would involve one existing club playing eight matches a year, splitting those games evenly between Launceston's Aurora Stadium and Hobart's Blundstone Arena.
Wade said the current two-team model had not seen Tasmanians embrace either Hawthorn or North as their own team.
"(We want) an AFL club in Tasmania that we can develop a long-term relationship with, whereby the club is one Tasmanians call their own."
AFL Tasmania director James Henderson told News Limited the Western Bulldogs, Melbourne and St Kilda were teams that could be attracted to play in Tasmania.
Wade did not expect the proposed one-team model would come in before the expiration of Hawthorn's current contract at the end of 2016.
Tasmanian sports minister Michelle O'Byrne told AFL.com.au the state government welcomed AFL Tasmania's one-team proposal as a step towards Tasmania eventually having its own AFL team.
"Our ultimate goal is for Tasmania to have its own team and we know that the AFL in the past has recognised the strength of our case," Ms O'Byrne said.
"While there are arrangements in place for both Hawthorn and North Melbourne to deliver the elite AFL product at both ends of Tasmania, we will welcome any opportunity to take the next step and for Tasmania to have its own entity join the AFL."
Read more at: http://www.afl.com.au/news/2013-06-26/tassie-wants-one-team-only-