Mega Thread Port Forum 'General AFL Talk' Thread Part 6

[finbarr]

I don’t really care if the GF remains at the MCG, but with that all clubs outside Melbourne should be given a minimum quota of games on the ground during home and away. But the AFL would prefer us play Hawthorn in Tassie or Melbourne in Alice Springs or Darwin than at a 3/4 empty MCG.

 

[PatientMental]

I get Docklands has its issues but what are they going to spend $300m on? The viewing experience is great and transport there is as good as any stadium.

More outer stadium renovations apparently.

 

[Coobk001]

Chris Judd is a dead set flog.

What did he say?

Basically every time he's talked about our games this year he has picked our opposition and talked us down.

Fev is just honest, Judd is just a dick head.

No idea what was said in the Judd instance, but to Fevs credit I liked that when Eddie was trumpeting the VFL deal, he was the only panel member in a bit of disbelief and sorta asking what about the rest of the country.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

I get Docklands has its issues but what are they going to spend $300m on? The viewing experience is great and transport there is as good as any stadium.

It doesn't take much to chew up $100m in technology alone. How much does 2 new you beaut biggest TV screens in the southern hemisphere cost? They will want them. All the WiFi stuff so that that you have full access to all mobile services including ordering beers and food from your seat, access to stats, social media etc. You need a shit load of servers at Docklands just to do that. Check out the story NBC did on the new Minneapolis stadium that hosted the Super bowl to get an idea of what is coming our way.

Go look at what the new stadiums in USA and Europe are offering and we are years behind them. Last 6 months in the stadium deals thread I have written about some of the great new facilities at new stadiums recently completed or in construction for NFL teams. Check out how much they have spent on technology in those stadiums and basically double it for Oz allowing for exchange rate and more expensive cost of imported technology and labour in Oz compared to USA. The AFL wants stuff they have got to be at Docklands.

 

[Coobk001]

How is it good business locking something like this in so far in advance? There would be another 2-3 state elections before the deal was set to expire anyway.

Wasn't expiring for 20 years, could've been 5 elections.



On another note though let's just put 40 years into perspective.

Within 40 years (or just over), 8 clubs have joined the AFL, 1 has merged/died, 1 has relocated, the VFA has become the VFL, the AFL clubs have created reserves teams in the lower competitions, AFL has become full time professional, TV deal has gone from peanuts to billions, a new billion dollar stadium has been built in WA, they've played AFL across 3 stadiums in Perth, in SA there was a split between SACA and SANFL, SA Footy moved to and built a new stadium at West Lakes, the SACA and SANFL got back together and we built another stadium in the process knocking down all the other stands we'd built within the previous 30 years, we removed the ridiculous long term agreement regarding the number of finals that must be played at the MCG, in Melbourne they built an entirely new stadium with a roof, they built a monstrosity of a stand at Princes Park, they rebuilt every grandstand in the entire MCG, we've held multiple Commonwealth games and the Olympics, we've gone from 1 game on tv a week with a highlights show for the rest, to 9 games live on 2 tv stations, dedicated channels, 4-5 radio broadcasts, video streaming live around the world on devices like mobile phones which didn't even exist until 20-30 years ago, Victoria's population has nearly doubled, Perths population has more than doubled, we've found out cigarettes kill you, expanded space research significantly, gone through mining booms, many global financial crashes, a technological revolution, mainstream pr0n only started about 48-49 years ago, etc.....

Could go on and on, but 40 years is ridiculous!

So much can change in that time.

The MCG is absolutely the home of footy for now. FOR NOW!

However there is no doubt that the thought of making this game truly national and possibly sharing the location of the GF over time exists.

This game shouldn't be all about money, we need to grow beyond pure money making and build the most even national competition possible, and locking us into a long term 40 year agreement that goes against this vision is simply short sighted, and bad business.

 

[finbarr]

Why is the MCG as GF venue suddenly being questioned? Is it because Adelaide just lost a grand final there to Richmond? God those campaigners whinge about everything.

 

[Chrizzt]

Har har..meanwhile the Shouter apparently has a scoop that Sloaney is leaving

I thought that guy was off twitter. Just had a quick look through his feed and looks like a crows supporter has taken over posting. Hilariously just a Port troll account now.

 

[NoddyHolder]

Why is the MCG as GF venue suddenly being questioned? Is it because Adelaide just lost a grand final there to Richmond? God those campaigners whinge about everything.

They love creating their own narrative and doggedly sticking to it. I've had crow supporters state to me as unequivocal fact that the crows only lost the grand final because they had to play at Richmond's home ground. No acknowledgement that their opponent played significantly better on the day - or that their own team turned up with a 'job done' attitude, apparently thinking that they were only their to collect their medals before heading home for the tickertape parade down king William street.

That game could have been played in Tex's backyard, with his nanna umpiring and they still would have lost.

 

[dirty2]

Thats ****ed... grand final should play at the highest ranked team in the grand final.... afl my ass... vfl with expansion teams

 

[Portology]

The whole give the MCG another 20 years of guranteed grand finals is bullshit. We are effectively back to 1992 and giving them the next 40 years locked up. It means the opportunity of doing a Super Bowl sharing around becomes non existent as you have a 60+ year history of GF's in the national comp come 2057. So the incentive to upgrade grounds to 70-80k to host a GF every 5 years isn't there for another 20 years.

And it's all because of Docklands and the AFL trying to secure that. AFL paid $200m in November 2016 took out a loan for that and another loan for $80m for working capital when if they waited to 31 st December 2025 they got it for just $30.

This is a way for the AFL to get $300m+ out of the Vic government to do up Docklands because having to finance a $280m loan repayment in 7 years, as the AFL said they could pay off the loan 2 years quicker than if they waited until end of 2025, means there is no extra monies for tenant clubs compared to what the private owners needed to pull out the ground, unless the AFL stick in an artificial subsidy to the tenant clubs. Apparently the AFL has negotiated upgrade monies for the MCG. No doubt it's private boxes and the AFL Members reserve area.

So the AFL runs to the Vic government with the begging bowl and the trade off is another 20 years GF as other states have started to get their shit together and there is a small chance that a GF might not be played at MCG post 2037.

What do the non Vic clubs get? An orgasmic 40 minutes per game they play there, to train there and a gurantee that non Vic clubs get to play 2 games a year at the MCG. At least the AFL is going to pay for Charter flights for non Vic clubs after a MCG prelim final and for the GF for their flight to Melbourne at their preferred time not the airlines.

Once again just like the 1992 MCG deal and 1999 Docklands deal negotiated by Graeme Samuel, great deal for the AFL, shit deal for its constituent clubs.

IMO the worst aspect of the old Docklands and MCG deals (I don't recall precisely which one) was their finals 'quota', which cost some teams home prelim finals. I can't comment on the actual deals for the Etihad resident clubs at the time, because those arrangements didn't directly threaten to impact us.

Grand Final can and should stay at the MCG. It's Wembley, not Superbowl, nor Champions League. Yes I know analogy is... the mother of all screwed up comparisons

2 games a year for non-Vic is a very 'bare minimum' commitment though. Cynical, even, since (I think?) most non-Vic clubs already get that most years. 3/year would be significantly better but I can't be bothered to spin the statistical wheels of draw generation to see how that could look.

Looked at politically, $200m for two modest "stadium upgrades" seems quite frugal compared to the $700m or more being splashed about NSW "instead of being spent on Health and Education". Right now there's a window inside which the AFL and the Vic gov can get away with the Jedi mind trick of pointing at the seemingly extravagant spending in NSW, even after the scaling back of Gladys's original plan, to avoid exactly the same question being asked.

The other clever political aspect is that the AFL focusing on Vic gov leaves the Vic clubs free to go cap-in-hand to local and Federal governments with their own 'electorate-based' sorry "community based" pork barreling proposals. As the Doggies, North and Geelong have done quite successfully.

 

[El Zorro]

Why is the MCG as GF venue suddenly being questioned? Is it because Adelaide just lost a grand final there to Richmond? God those campaigners whinge about everything.

They are right though. I'm pretty confident that they would've won it at Adelaide Oval or maybe even at a neutral ground.

 

[Grave Danger]

I thought that guy was off twitter. Just had a quick look through his feed and looks like a crows supporter has taken over posting. Hilariously just a Port troll account now.

"I’ll reveal after 100 retweets...."

What a w***er.

 

[OneGreatClub]

Sam McLure staying Bec Goddard and the Crows have parted ways and that there is ‘unrest’ between a senior Crows administrator and Bec and some of the players and her. Get onto it Elspeth.. oh wait

 

[Magus]

Har har..meanwhile the Shouter apparently has a scoop that Sloaney is leaving

A scoop hey? I wonder what gave it away. Could it be the fact that everyone that isn't a slack jawed yokel from Broken Hill ends up leaving?

 

[Janey]

Sam McLure staying Bec Goddard and the Crows have parted ways and that there is ‘unrest’ between a senior Crows administrator and Bec and some of the players and her. Get onto it Elspeth.. oh wait

Also suggesting that Erin will leave and probably go to Collingwood.

 

[Alyx]

Compare the pair:

 

[Garibaldi Red]

101: How to lie about everything you stand for.

Figure 1: Including email subscribers into your membership number.

View attachment 482222

They do have free Membership and they have counted them in the total. The AFL will do an audit of their Members. Watch it come down when that is completed.
Adelaide Oval has a capacity of 53,500

The article says there has been a “spike in digital memberships”.

Imagine if the AFL delved deeper than just delete free digital memberships and reported the usernames. What a laugh that would be.

 

[OneGreatClub]

Also suggesting that Erin will leave and probably go to Collingwood.

Never mind, nothing to see here, Elspeth’s friend, Rebecca Adamson, has tweeted a positive spin

 

[El Zorro]

Compare the pair:

It's ****ing embarrassing to share the state with these people.

 

[Chrizzt]

They are right though. I'm pretty confident that they would've won it at Adelaide Oval or maybe even at a neutral ground.

Yeah I'm not convinced. The crows were spooked by the occasion, not the ground.

 

[bomberclifford]

Har har..meanwhile the Shouter apparently has a scoop that Sloaney is leaving

You mean the same guy that had the 'scoop' a month ago that Sloane had already signed?

 

[El Zorro]

Yeah I'm not convinced. The crows were spooked by the occasion, not the ground.

Isn't the ground a big part of the occasion?

 

[OneGreatClub]

You mean the same guy that had the 'scoop' a month ago that Sloane had already signed?

That’s him

 

[bomberclifford]

That’s him

So his claim is that if Crows won the flag, Sloane would have left, but then Sloane agreed to a deal, but then Sloane changed his mind when his wife became pregnant. This is Roby-esque in it's mental gymnastics to manufacture a series of posts that can at some point in the future be claimed as 'correct'.

This counts as 'football media' these days.

Lol.

 

[frenchconnection]

Fair enough with GF at MCG, but now they have to ensure each club gets at least 3 games at the MCG each year.

No ifs or buts.

AND make Collingwood & others travel a bit more!