Another big issue.

[BuntonRules]

The reason why we cannot get our allocation of Melbourne games is because we are one of the clubs shuffled round the country - Tassie, Darwin etc. It is always the out of Victoria clubs that get this. Never do you see 2 Melbourne teams playing these venues.

Why? Are the other clubhs peeved? Do we have cause to approach the AFL as a block - 8 clubs - & say we are sick of it. Equal rights.

Should this happen, a year like this with reduced Melbourne appearances & 2 trips to far flung outposts could not happen. So much better for our southern brethren, & so much better to get the lapsed members to return to the fold.


Sorry for starting another thread, but IMO this is too big an issue to lose somewhere else.

 

[Balony_pony16]

It all comes down to $$$$...playing in unique venues usually requires a melb team to make it financially viable as they act as a good draw card...you can thank the media bias and saturation towards melb teams for this. Like how the Pies never play at Skilled stadium because the cats cash it to fill up the MCG

 

[Skoob]

It all comes down to $$$$...playing in unique venues usually requires a melb team to make it financially viable as they act as a good draw card...you can thank the media bias and saturation towards melb teams for this. Like how the Pies never play at Skilled stadium because the cats cash it to fill up the MCG

I think that is Bunton's point. As Melbourne teams are generally better draw cards why not have 2 Melb' teams play those venues? Instead of Brisbane having to go to Darwin, why not send Collingwood? The idea of Darwin games is to grow the market and yet the games belong to a team that needs the cash, playing a weakish Brisbane team or Dogs. Let Brisbane play another game in melbourne for their disconnected fans and send the Pies to Darwin to draw bigger crowds. Win, Win.

 

[dlanod]

It all comes down to $$$$...playing in unique venues usually requires a melb team to make it financially viable as they act as a good draw card...you can thank the media bias and saturation towards melb teams for this. Like how the Pies never play at Skilled stadium because the cats cash it to fill up the MCG

You partially nailed it, but it's not because Melbourne teams are good draw cards (Melbourne playing in Darwin isn't necessarily a selling point, same with North Melbourne in Hobart). It's because it's the Melbourne clubs that are in the worse positions financially that they have to sell their home games to make ends meet - the Melbournes (Brisbane, Darwin), St Kildas (Wellington), Hawthorns (Launceston), North Melbournes (Hobart), Bulldogs (Darwin), Richmonds (Cairns), etc of the world. The exceptions being Port Adelaide selling a game to Darwin and GWS with Canberra. It's the low drawcard games that get farmed out because they're going to places where AFL is rare enough to draw a crowd regardless of the teams playing, and unfortunately we're a low drawcard game.

The idea of these games getting farmed out aren't to grow the game, regardless of what the AFL may claim. These games get sold to help the clubs making their ends meet.

 

[BuntonRules]

What would help is for the AFL to pay the away team in these matches a 1/2 or a mill to play - so making it a viable option for the struggling Melbourne clubs.