Club CEOs willing to share IP to get through this.
Benny Gale on the membership working group given our AFL record 100k+ membership.
'Stunning' move as AFL club bosses join ranksSam McClure
The Age
31 March 2020The AFL’s 18 crisis-stricken clubs have joined forces to create a survival plan to ensure their long-term existence.
Working in unison for the first time, club bosses have put aside their own agendas to share ideas and intellectual property to help each other stay afloat. The chief executives have devised three crucial elements to help survive the game’s economic disaster: finance, membership and state leagues.
Gold Coast boss and former head of football at the AFL Mark Evans will lead the financial working group, alongside fellow heavy hitters Gary Pert (Melbourne), Tom Harley (Sydney) and Trevor Nisbett (West Coast).
Evans will also lead a smaller subcommittee in the financial working group that will concentrate on the best way to deal with a reduced football department soft cap for 2021 on.
He told The Age that the 18 senior club figures had taken a collegiate approach to ensure their survival.
“The best thing that’s come out of this entire situation is the way the CEOs and the AFL have banded together. It’s been stunning,’’ Evans said yesterday.
“It’s been completely the opposite to how it would usually be. Where you would protect the absolute intricacies of your program ... this has been the complete opposite.”
Reigning premiership CEO Brendon Gale will work alongside former colleague and now Carlton boss Cain Liddle to help clubs keep their membership base. In their time together at Richmond they grew the Tigers’ membership base to become the largest in the AFL.Hawthorn chief Justin Reeves, newly instated Fremantle CEO Simon Garlick, Collingwood’s Mark Anderson and North Melbourne’s Ben Amarfio also form part of the membership group.
Experienced Brisbane Lions boss Greg Swann will help guide the clubs through the problems surrounding the game’s state leagues, helped by Geelong figurehead Brian Cook, Bulldogs chief Ameet Bains, Port Adelaide’s Keith Thomas and St Kilda’s Matthew Finnis.
The 18 club chiefs have also set up a WhatsApp message group, where each can share their ideas.
The Age has been told the idea for working groups started when all 18 club bosses got together two weeks ago on a Saturday morning, the day after the Formula One grand prix was cancelled.
It’s understood the AFL began to contact clubs that afternoon, flagging that the impending season would be vastly different. The club heads agreed they needed to devise a plan of attack, given how financially impacted each would be.
AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan announced the following Monday that the season would be reduced to 17 games plus finals.
The working groups are now more important than ever, given the possibility of a further reduced – or possibly even abandoned – season.
Several have told The Age the closer bond the club bosses are creating will help portray a unilateral view towards the game’s longevity and will also help clubs to continue to present their own identity.
WORKING GROUPSFINANCE: Dave Matthews (GWS), Trevor Nisbett (WC), Tom Harley (Syd), Andrew Fagan (Adel), Mark Evans (GC), Xavier Campbell (Ess), Gary Pert (Melb)
MEMBERSHIP: Brendon Gale (Rich), Cain Liddle (Carl), Justin Reeves (Haw), Simon Garlick (Frem), Mark Anderson (Coll), Ben Amarfio (NM)
STATE LEAGUES: Greg Swann (BL), Keith Thomas (Port), Brian Cook (Geel), Matthew Finnis (StK), Ameet Bains (WB).
https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/stunning-move-as-afl-club-bosses-join-ranks-20200330-p54fem.html
