2017 AFL international cup

[smasha]

The 2017 AFL international cup kicks off at Royal Park in Melbourne this Sunday. For those that don't know is basically the World cup of our great game minus Australia.

The standard continues to improve and if we really believe our game is the best game in the world we need to get serious about promoting it outside of Australia.

get to a game if you can http://www.afl.com.au/internationalcup

http://worldfootynews.com/ is another great website for news and info.

It is the World's best game.

Soccer,The World Game
Aussie Rules,The World's Game.

 

[NoobPie]

When and what did they trade away w.r.t to 2018 WC rights? At the time of the 2014 WC there were stories that they will struggle to host future WC because they can't sell enough ads to raise revenues to pay for both rights and production costs.

What does their charter say specifically about soccer tv rights?

The SBS had the WC rights until 2022...this gives the overview of the deal with optus

http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/article/2016/03/17/sbs-strike-epl-deal-optus

The SBS charter, of course, says nothing about soccer. The "principle function" is

" to provide multilingual and multicultural radio, television and digital media services that inform, educate and entertain all Australians and, in doing so, reflect Australia's multicultural society."

http://www.sbs.com.au/aboutus/corporate/index/id/25/h/SBS-Charter

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

The SBS had the WC rights until 2022...this gives the overview of the deal with optus

http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/article/2016/03/17/sbs-strike-epl-deal-optus

The SBS charter, of course, says nothing about soccer. The "principle function" is

" to provide multilingual and multicultural radio, television and digital media services that inform, educate and entertain all Australians and, in doing so, reflect Australia's multicultural society."

http://www.sbs.com.au/aboutus/corporate/index/id/25/h/SBS-Charter

That's just good business sense sharing the risk. Public broadcaster even a mixed one like SBS that raises revenue from advertising can't afford to lose decent money on programmings that is mainly funded by advertising. And when these events are outside Oz prime time viewing time zones, advertising revenue will drop away.

SBS can't go to advertisers and charge maximum ad rates when the best games are on at 3am in the morning. That's what happens when you are dependent on Euro time zones and to a lesser extent American time zones.

Why do you reckon Ch9 made its only serious bid for a WC and won the rights for Japan/Korea 2002? Because the best games were on in prime time Oz time and they could charge maximum advertising rates. They on sold part of the rights to SBS who weren't allowed to cover Socceroos games if they qualified, and the semis and final live. So SBS covered live about 1/2 the games usually the "minor country " games and afternoon games and Les and Johhny and most of the production team stayed in Sydney. I think they were in Japan only for the first week. Ch 9 obviously were hoping the Socceroos qualified after getting so close against Iran in 1997, but they didn't, and Ch 9 didn't make the cream they were hoping for.

Private broadcasters can play the long game and rack up a loss now, for a profit later on. No better example than the 2002-2006 footy TV deal. Ch 10 made money but only because they had all the finals over the 5 years as Ch 9 didn't want to clash with their NRL coverage, Ch 9 lost money and the original Fox Footy Channel which was set up and owned by Foxtel (then 50% Telstra, 25% Murdoch, 25% Packer) not Fox Sports (then 50% Murdoch and 50% Packer) lost between $100-$120m as regularly reported in the Fairfax press and other media after 2006 season, but rarely by Murdoch press. The aim was to break 7's control and get people in the southern states to buy pay TV.

It worked in the long run as the next 2007-11 TV deal 7 pays a bigger slice than 9 did for 2002-06, which puts financial pressure on 7 as Kerry Packer on his deathbed knew 7 were going to match his bid so lets screw them, 10 sticks around making a joint bid with 7, but it starts making loses as it loses its exclusive finals component and is stuck with the low drawing Saturday arvo games and Foxtel sticks to its guns and wont pay anymore that its original bid, gets more games, gets a bigger contribution from Austar, scraps Fox Footy Channel and 5 different state versions and shows the game on Fox Sports. In the middle of this deal James Packer sells half his 50% stake in Fox Sports to Stokes and a 1/4 to other investors.

Next rights period 2012-16 Fox Sports sets up the new Fox Footy pay channel, subscriptions for pay TV have jumped up considerably since 2002, Fox Footy gets better games and wider coverage this deal and more importantly makes money and works better with 7 because of Stokes shareholding in Fox Sports. At some point in this deal Murdoch buys out everyone else in Fox Sports, becomes 100% own, and is 50/50 with Telstra in Foxtel. 2017-2022 Foxtel is sidelined and its News Corp who do all the partnering up deals with ch 7 and the AFL. So the big boys wore big losses over 2 x 5 year deals, to win out in the long run.

Same with the Olympics. Ch 7 host Beijing Olympics on sell stuff to SBS, team sports and minor sports stuff, ie an Olympics in our time zone, so 7 send up a s**t load of commentators and production staff and just break even. 9 win 2010+2012 rights and share them with Foxtel who set up 8 channels. 9 breaks even on Vancouver but losses $40m on London because they want to show they are better than 7 and send over a huge team, but can't sell enough advertising at top $$ because the best events are on in the middle of the night. Foxtel makes a small profit from its 8 channel subscription package as the only thing they cant show live is Opening and Closing ceremonies. People want live sport and avoid 9's ad driven delayed action coverage and buy Foxtel packages in decent numbers. 7 wants the Olympic rights back and bids for multiple games into the future and decides to match what NBC have done and to use multiple platforms to broadcast Rio. But you will note compared to Beijing, because once again it could not max out advertising revenue because of time zone issues, they sent a lot smaller staff to Rio than Beijing and did a s**t load more from the studio in Sydney compared to what they did in Beijing.

SBS as a public broadcaster can't take these sort of long run losses especially when the WC isn't in the east Asian time zone and advertising revenue cant be maximized. So spreading the risk and on-selling stuff to Optus, where they can charge the soccer nuts subscription coverage at a decent price, means SBS have to sell a lot of the furniture, but they still get to keep the house. The SBS coverage of 2018 wont be as comprehensive as 2006, 2010 and 2014 as a a result.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

This longish article in the Guardian was written by a US national Antoun Issa who plays for the Baltimore Washington Eagles. I can't work out if he is in Oz and playing for the USA Revolution in the IC17. But here is article from Wednesday. He reckons the AFL should do more to grow the game thru a detailed strategic plan rather than leave to the ad-hoc nature of expats setting up the game wherever they live in US and other countries.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2...-fails-to-mask-afls-deeply-insular-world-view
This weekend, players from 18 countries will descend on Melbourne to compete in the sixth AFL International Cup, the continued growth of which is an impressive accomplishment and testament to the hard work of the many volunteers working in those countries to draw locals to Australia’s national game.

But for all the fanfare surrounding the tournament, which runs from Saturday for two weeks, it exposes the weakness in the international development of Australian rules football. There has been endless talk and endeavours over the years of the AFL promoting its game overseas – from the underwhelming experiment in South Africa to the current foray into China – but there lacks today a will, let alone a strategic plan or comprehensive budget, to push the game abroad.......................
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2...-fails-to-mask-afls-deeply-insular-world-view

 

[Cmarsh]

This longish article in the Guardian was written by a US national Antoun Issa who plays for the Baltimore Washington Eagles. I can't work out if he is in Oz and playing for the USA Revolution in the IC17. But here is article from Wednesday. He reckons the AFL should do more to grow the game thru a detailed strategic plan rather than leave to the ad-hoc nature of expats setting up the game wherever they live in US and other countries.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2...-fails-to-mask-afls-deeply-insular-world-view
This weekend, players from 18 countries will descend on Melbourne to compete in the sixth AFL International Cup, the continued growth of which is an impressive accomplishment and testament to the hard work of the many volunteers working in those countries to draw locals to Australia’s national game.

But for all the fanfare surrounding the tournament, which runs from Saturday for two weeks, it exposes the weakness in the international development of Australian rules football. There has been endless talk and endeavours over the years of the AFL promoting its game overseas – from the underwhelming experiment in South Africa to the current foray into China – but there lacks today a will, let alone a strategic plan or comprehensive budget, to push the game abroad.......................
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2...-fails-to-mask-afls-deeply-insular-world-view

The result of the AFL being primarily a corporate entity chiefly concerned with running a competition rather than being a genuine custodian of the game.

 

[Aussie in exile]

I remember last time it was held, the AFL was too tight to even help the teams get here. Hopefully this time around they have dipped into their millions and given them a hand.

The AFL are not serious about spreading the game at international level otherwise they would at least pay for the teams expenses

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

The result of the AFL being primarily a corporate entity chiefly concerned with running a competition rather than being a genuine custodian of the game.

I've written elsewhere that the business type people the AFL appoint as commissioners should become Commissioners of the competition and above them should sit the AFL Custodians, about 6 to 8 maybe as many as 10 people from around Oz, some who have decent business/management experience and all of them truly understand the game. It is the Custodians who pass the rule changes, after they have gone an umpired an amateur game of footy with them being implement, they deal with the vision of the game stuff re participation levels and the different forms of the game, ie Auskick, AFL-9's, AFL-12's etc and they deal with the state and international associations.

 

[Mitchell Madness]

That sounds like a lot of money. Given that they don't own a bottomless pit of money, What do you think they should stop funding in order to pay for it?

Given they're spending a lot to keep stragglers afloat, they could let them sink or swim and save millions

 

[telsor]

Given they're spending a lot to keep stragglers afloat, they could let them sink or swim and save millions

So in order to grow the game in the US< they should stop trying to grow the game in NSW & QLD? Not sure that's wise.

 

[NoobPie]

So in order to grow the game in the US< they should stop trying to grow the game in NSW & QLD? Not sure that's wise.

Obviously not....but If it's correct that the afl, for instance, subsidises the usafl to the tune of 71k a year then surely there is Scope for strategic, administrative and / or logistical support?

There might also be an argument for hypothecating some of the revenue from the afl live pass for a beefed up international development dept / program

 

[Gigantor]

I played in 2014 cup. Paid it all by ourselves, as did most teams. Some teams got some sponsorship deals back home to reduce the costs a bit.

This is what many don't get, these players are covering the costs themselves, which takes a huge commitment.

Given the lack of resources, in terms of both money and playing grounds, it's a minor miracle whenever any league takes off anywhere in the world. Under the circumstances, some leagues do surprisingly well.

It's a pity that one of the original IC teams, Denmark, couldn't make it this year, and neither could Sweden.

On the plus side, a number of debuts, and it's still a pretty good turn out for both mens and womens. Unbelievable that Pakistan is sending a women's team - that in itself is a major story.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

The AFL Canada twitter account had a link to this story saying that CBC Sports and Team Canada had come to an agreement to stream all of the male and female team games would be streamed live. That's a decent get by the Canadians.

CBC SPORTS & AFL CANADA ANNOUNCE BROADCAST AGREEMENT FOR THE 2017 INTERNATIONAL CUP FROM MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA STARTING SATURDAY NIGHT
Aug 04, 2017
All ten men’s and women’s Team Canada matches will be available live on cbcsports.ca and via the CBC Sports app for iOS and Android

CBC Sports today announced a broadcast partnership agreement with AFL Canada to stream all ten International Cup games played by the Canadian National AFL Women’s team, the Northern Lights and the Canadian National AFL Men’s team, Northwind.

The International Cup runs August 5-19 in Melbourne Australia, with the Grand Final’s for both the Women’s and Men’s competitions to be curtain raisers to AFL matches at Etihad stadium and the Melbourne Cricket Ground respectively. All Northern Lights and Northwind matches will be live streamed and made available on demand at CBCSports.ca, as well as via the CBC Sports app for iOS and Android devices within Canada.
http://www.cbc.ca/mediacentre/press...-broadcast-agreement-for-the-2017-internation

 

[Cmarsh]

Pretty embarrassing when an overseas country shows more interest in broadcasting this tournament then any Australian broadcaster.

Ridiculous that a thread about an active tournament is moved to the footy industry board too.

 

[telsor]

Ok, I was beaten by the rain.

Ire v Png was looking good. Couple of pts in it at 3QTR time.

Canada women beat Fiji by a golden pt. Long after the final siren should have gone.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Watched the last 10 minutes or so of the China v Croatia game. it was tight. It was 39v32 when I turned it on. Croata kicked a goal to take it 39v38 after about 5 minutes of watching. Couple of minutes later China kicked a goal and was about 45v38. Croatia took a mark and goal to take it to 45v44 and the clock said 15.04. They play 17.30 quarters and the Chinese stacked the back line and handled the Croatian attack pretty well for two and half minutes. It looked a decent standard of amateur footy by both sides. The AFL are streaming games at

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVNIihETzsAGXnyN0pnJHDA

 

[Cmarsh]

US men side easily beat Canada 45 to 25. Bit of a scrappy match but genuinely well fought contest. You can tell it means something to them judging by the US reaction after their win.

 

[Gigantor]

The final few minutes of the Canada v Fiji womens game was quite frenetic.

 

[mikey127]

Biggest upset was GB beating South Africa. Previously GB have had nig nodies but lacked skill, something they seem to have addressed this year. Things seemed to have platued in South Africa since the reduction of AFL funding.

 

[mikey127]

The final few minutes of the Canada v Fiji womens game was quite frenetic.

Had Fiji wom it would have been the biggest upset in International cup history mens ir womens. Canada meant to walk straight into the final and Fiji meant to struggle. Great to say David Rodan helping out the Fiji girls.

 

[BringBackTorps]

The point is, why we don't know the finer details of the transaction (that I am aware), we know that SBS traded what could easily be justified within its charter - soccer world cup matches - for an EPL match a week which surely can't

The SBS Charter was created when there was no internet. All major foreign sports are easily accessible to people in Australia via the internet/cable TV. There is no mention of soccer in the SBS Charter.

The Charter does not state foreign sports should be favoured; nor local sports should not be equally covered & supported. There are a huge no. of multicultural AFL players/supporters/sponsors etc., but SBS provides no coverage of that; such coverage would concur with its Charter duty to "reflect Australia's multicultural society". Interestingly, c.20% of Aust.'s population is Irish -why dont the GAA games get c.20% of its sports'coverage, or any coverage at all? How about table tennis for our large Chinese-heritage pop.; or hockey, for our large Indian pop.?

How many millions$ is SBS spending on soccer -now, & since it commenced; & now, cycling Tour De France etc.?

I believe in 2017 there is absolutely no justification for a taxpayer-funded organization to favour any sport -although it is reasonable to consider how much following various professional sports have locally. SBS has been "appropriated"by pro-soccer, anti AF Executives. It should be held to account for its anti AF bias, pro soccer bias.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

If the Kiwis are here you have to have a hakka

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

CBC are streaming the Canadian games on their website and app. A good crowd at this pub late Saturday night in Toronto in the well healed suburb of Yorkville right at the edge of the CBD and near the Uni of Toronto. Hemmingway's is a well know rooftop patio bar in Toronto. I went there 20 years ago and when I lived in Toronto 27 years ago.



a few hours earlier watching the Women's team play

 

[Gigantor]

In the men's today, US have had a 7 goal win against Sth Africa and Canada have got up against Great Britain.

In 2nd div, Sri Lanka got its nose ahead of China before China kicked the last few goals of the game.

In the women's, Great Britain have beaten Fiji and the US have beaten PNG.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

All of today's results at this page
http://www.worldfootynews.com/index.php?topic=IC2017

and probably tomorrow will be moved to this page
http://www.worldfootynews.com/staticpages/index.php/IC17_Results_and_Ladders