The level playing field
By Caroline Wilson
realfooty.theage.com.au
September 19, 2004
Tomorrow should prove an expensive and significant day for the AFL, but should deliver good news for the Kangaroos, Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs.
All three Victorian clubs are experiencing various degrees of hardship that would have sent normal companies out of business long ago - and they are not the only ones.
Between them, they will receive a collective handout of between $3.5 million and $4 million from the AFL's competitive balance fund following a rubber-stamping from the commission.
Those are the formalities. For the second time, the Kangaroos will receive $1 million, while the Western Bulldogs - whose annual handout now stands at $1.5 million - will receive AFL help for the third time, an amount the club has been unofficially assured of for at least the next three seasons.
Melbourne, too, has applied for $1.5 million, a sum it hopes to receive retrospectively, to cover its $1.5 million forecast loss for 2004, and be allocated again for next year.
The Demons, despite some scepticism among their rivals, have convinced the AFL their disastrous state is not caused entirely by bad management, but thanks in no small part to history beyond their control.
After the debt-ridden club receives some short-term relief, it will turn again to the Melbourne Cricket Club, from which it already receives an annual six-figure sum but from which it expects significantly more in terms of cash and corporate and moral support.
Once the commission has dealt with those formalities, there are far bigger decisions pending tomorrow and it is hoped that the AFL directors spend some serious time debating them before changing into their dinner suits and heading off for the Brownlow Medal count.
No decision is expected on how to deal with the long-term issues facing the struggling Victorian clubs, but at least two teams are pushing for something more than the prospect of annual handouts.
The Kangaroos are seeking a guaranteed yearly million-dollar allowance at least until the end of 2007. Melbourne has requested an estimated $1.5 million, also for the next three years, and both clubs would like an answer before the end of the year in order to plan their forseeable futures.
The Bulldogs have virtually been assured of help until the end of 2007 and of all the clubs, it is the Dogs who need it most. Even allowing for the extra $1.5 million, the club will still lose a six-figure sum in 2004.
The Kangaroos will turn a profit of about $300,000 once the $1 million has been added to their balance sheet and while some traditionalists are horrified at the thought of the club turning its back on Arden Street, the prospect of a move to Princes Park certainly appears financially prudent.
Melbourne appears determined to leave the Junction Oval behind and become a co-tenant at the Olympic Park precinct - albeit second-string co-tenant behind Collingwood - and can expect some help from the MCC in doing as much.
Given the amount of money the AFL has ploughed into its northern markets - not to mention the on-going salary-cap concessions to Brisbane and Sydney - the push for long-term financial support is unlikely to go away. And the Victorian clubs' perilous situation is not restricted to three.
Carlton's debt situation has been diluted by the Telstra Dome deal, but the Blues' financial problems remain serious. In far bigger trouble is Richmond, which is expected to lose at least $2.4 million this season and is cutting costs so savagely you have to wonder how the club can function over the next few years.
The Tigers have been told they cannot even contemplate applying to the competitive balance fund until their annual budget is cut by a reported $2 million. The other basket case of 2004, Hawthorn, at least appears to have a savings account.
All of which only further underlines the urgent push for a level playing field. AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou was adamant after last Wednesday's meeting with Collingwood that the league would not budge on the issue of salary-cap concessions until after 2006.
But Wayne Jackson's parting gift to Brisbane may not be as safe in the short term as the league insists. The concessions will be reviewed by the commission before the end of this year and the feeling emanating from the talks four days ago was that several commissioners are starting to wonder whether the competition is being so clearly compromised that radical action is required. It's a subject that begs to be debated tomorrow.
The commission talks should also prove significant in terms of attendance after only half the eight-man AFL board turned up for Wednesday's visit to Collingwood's new Olympic Park home. Of the four who did not turn up, only one, Graeme John, was out of the country.
The no-shows, given that these meetings are scheduled months in advance, seem strange given the seriousness of the issues facing the competition.
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