Gale vows Tigers will play at MCG Samantha Lane
The Age
July 19, 2013 Richmond, closing in on finals, boasting record membership and soon to be debt-free, says it will never again relocate home games for money.
After winning the last of three matches that the club agreed to move to Cairns, chief executive Brendon Gale has acknowledged that the lucrative deal he struck for a struggling side in 2010 created ''hostility and vitriol'' in many fans.
The Tigers were beaten in two of those matches by Gold Coast.
While maintaining the agreement, whereby Richmond gave up home ground advantage but earned more than $1.5 million over three seasons was the right decision, Gale was adamant it would not be repeated while he was in charge.
''Not on my watch,'' he said. ''Why? Because we've stabilised. I'd be loath to do that [again] because we're a football club, and a proud, iconic football club that has a national footprint, but we play our home games at the MCG.''
Richmond's financial turnaround coincides with a jump in membership, from around 39,000 to 60,000 in three years.
Gale said the Cairns games were not popular with the Tiger faithful.
''Absolutely not. Supporters are very passionate, and particularly when you lose games they voice that. When we lost those first two games they were very bumpy times.
''It was a difficult decision internally to work through … and when you lose games there's a lot of hostility and vitriol.''
In contrast, Gold Coast chief executive Travis Auld wants his team to continue playing at Cazaly's Stadium in Cairns, but now requires a new rival willing to move home games to North Queensland.
Even with the obvious financial incentives, that is a less attractive prospect for opposition sides than it was three years ago given the Suns' marked improvement.
The Suns do not want to relocate any of their home games from the Gold Coast for myriad reasons, chiefly their stadium agreement with Metricon. This leaves the AFL, which wants Cairns to continue to host matches, looking for another club.
The Western Bulldogs and Melbourne, playing one home game each in Darwin this season, and Port Adelaide are considered the sides most likely to be lured into sacrificing true home ground advantage in exchange for handsome compensation from the AFL.
Bulldogs CEO Simon Garlick has previously indicated that negotiations had commenced with the Northern Territory government for the Dogs to extend their deal in the Top End beyond 2013, but he told Fairfax Media on Thursday that the club was now open on the matter of location.
''Of course this would be dependent on the arrangement being suitably beneficial for the club and practical in terms of the fixture,'' Garlick said.
Hawthorn, North Melbourne and St Kilda are the three clubs that have ongoing arrangements to play home games on foreign turf, though St Kilda's likely two matches in New Zealand next year remain unconfirmed.
Hawthorn is contracted to play four home-and-away matches a season in Launceston until the end of 2016.
North Melbourne's three-year deal to play two home-and-away matches a season in Hobart is due to expire this year and the next move on the Apple Isle is intriguing in light of AFL Tasmania's push for an association with just one club that plays eight games a season.
http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/gale-vows-tigers-will-play-at-mcg-20130718-2q7bi.html
