Starburns_
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- Mar 30, 2011
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Hang on, you're worried about Tasmania being a drain on the AFL, but when I tell you that the state government has publicly stated it will support the local team financially so it won't be a drain, you have an issue with that? Don't you think Tasmania deserves a chance to be viable with 10 years of low drain startup time?
No, nowhere 'deserves' a team. The concept of deserving a team is a bullshit emotional argument that gets trotted out because the financial argument is weak.
Still, to answer the question more fully, if a team in a market with virtually no scope for growth needs assistance from the outset then it's always going to be a financial leech on the rest of the competition and probably not all that 'deserving' from that perspective.
That said, financial assistance is not necessarily a bad thing in isolation, but when there are already roughly 6 clubs in this bracket it doesn't make sense to add any more until that number has shrunk.
The way I see it, the team will certainly be supported for at least a decade as you suggested. If after that time, they are not viable, they can fold, get more sponsors, find other ways to fund themselves, or they can get some assistance from the AFL - which would be entirely appropriate given the AFL threw 100 Million into GC.
The AFL won't fold a club, especially a new start-up, and the value of a sponsorship for a Tasmanian team is much less than most other places due to factors of exposure.
League assistance to Tasmania is not the same as assistance to GC either. A standalone club in an already captive (and small) market shouldn't need anywhere near the assistance that a club strategically placed in an expansion market does. GC and GWS are meant to be generational exercises (that will eventually grow the game overall), all the pro-Tasmania rhetoric is about being able to make an immediate impact.
The Tasmanian team will never be a drain on the competition like the other new franchise teams were/are. And let's not forget what an extra team adds to the broadcast rights, so essentially it is funded. People get fixated on the money that gets paid to lots of clubs, but it is paid for by the broadcast rights which is predicated on a certain number of teams and matches. The whole "drain" thing needs to be put into context.
Much like with sponsorship, TV money from Tassie is still less than what it would be in most other locations due to the ratings factor.