- Moderator
- #551
So the AFL pays for Victorian assets, but doesn't put it's hand in its pocket to pay for infrastructure elsewhere outside of token amounts?
The MCG is still running on the same contract the VFL was effectively bullied into by the Cain Government in 1989. Docklands is the natural replacement for a stadium the VFL owned outright, and in the city that the League will most benefit from.
Most leagues in Australia dont put in anything at all. Take the SANFL and WAFL for example, and yet one has a 50% ownership/management stake in the stadium - and total control for 6 months of the year - and the other is likely to get almost full control over the new Perth one, as it has at Subiaco. The AFL wasnt going to put millions into a stadium to have the SANFL do whatever the hell it wants and reap all the benefits. You'll find the same in Perth. Again, these leagues want their independence, thats great, but the AFL is going to do a minimum to keep that going.
The AFL put 20 million into Metricon and has total management control over the stadium. Similar amounts were put into Blacktown Oval/Spotless Stadium.
Elsewhere the NRL, ARU and FFA have never put a cent in to stadium and facility development.