Demitriou OUT!

[jo172]

Erm, why exactly?

I like you guys, i wish we had your money and I'm by no means a parochial anti-interstate Vic type, but you guys did come and join OUR competition.

This is exactly what's wrong with Victorians led by AD, they're still convinced it's their competition.

It's not, we bought it from you in the early 90s.

The second AD leaves and you stop being protected by an ex-player you're club is going the way of Fitzroy and University.

 

[jo172]

Now there you guys have a genuine case.

Why should the new expansion teams not have to pay?

That's bullshit, a) there's no cause of action and b) if the expansion teams should have to pay so should the Victorian teams.

Would be hilarious to see that whole Mazda sponsorship you just got go up in smoke

 

[KingsCrow]

Erm, why exactly?

I like you guys, i wish we had your money and I'm by no means a parochial anti-interstate Vic type, but you guys did come and join OUR competition.

Seriously. Look at the history mate. In the expansions period, Collingwood was broke. They were trading insolvent. Richmond was broke - ever hear of the Save Our Skins campaign? St Kilda were broke too. These were the big Melbourne clubs that were desperate for cash.

North were financially OK during this period. So were Melbourne. Footscray were not rich either and even poor old Fitzroy was bumbling along.

Exactly. Your competition was a rabble, interstate clubs saved you.



And you have to remember, if one club leaves Melbourne, it just means that the future Victorian AFL supporters will have 9 teams to choose from instead of 10. If North leave, are you telling me that every single supporter will turn its back on the AFL. They wont. But it would mean that the remaining clubs would be stronger.

 

[PrideOf]

LOL.

Is it footy first or a business first mate? Seriously, what did we all sit down and watch last weekend? two of the finest accounting teams in the crunch numbers or two teams of 22 footballers play football.

I understand the sentiment, but **** that's naive.

I went to the movies last week and I sat down to watch some fine actors and great effects. But the reason it was made was to make money, not so that I had something to watch on a Tuesday night. Or the fact that movies have been made since the 1920s so they must continue to be made to keep up a tradition in movie-making.

 

[jackster83]

Now there you guys have a genuine case.

Why should the new expansion teams not have to pay?

It is utter bull**** that the new teams do not have to pay.

Adelaide, Port, Freo and WC had to pay, so what makes these new teams different?

It's because Demetriou is on his own little evil scheme, attacking non-AFL territory and trying to steal rugby league supporters and dollars. Crowds for Sydney and Brisbane are already pretty ordinary (~25k) despite these teams playing in 6 grand finals between them this decade. WSYD in particular will be lucky to get 20k people turn up after the novelty has died down. With a small supporter base comes less financial income, and hence the AFL will end up propping up these clubs as it already does to several Vic teams.

 

[SweetLeftFoot]

This is exactly what's wrong with Victorians led by AD, they're still convinced it's their competition.

It's not, we bought it from you in the early 90s.

The second AD leaves and you stop being protected by an ex-player you're club is going the way of Fitzroy and University.

Wow.

OK - its not a Victorian competition now, I fully agree. But WHEN you guys came in, it was. That's why you had to pay the license fee.

As regards us 'being protected', the man tried to kill us less than 12 months ago. I'd hate to see a CEO who is against us ...

 

[SweetLeftFoot]

That's bullshit, a) there's no cause of action and b) if the expansion teams should have to pay so should the Victorian teams.

Would be hilarious to see that whole Mazda sponsorship you just got go up in smoke

You are arguing that we should have to pay to join a competition we have already been in for 83 years? Seriously mate, I can see you are consumed with anti-Vic emotion here, but look at this logically.

Say I own a big housing development, one with 12 blocks already built on it.

Then three more people come along and say they want in to my development, because its on the nicest street, has good facilities, and is popular.

I sell these three people, lets call them the Bananabender family, the Sandgropers and the Croweaters, their blocks.

You're honestly suggesting that I should then make the 12 existing owners pay AGAIN for their land just because some new people have moved in?

You guys are all about how the 'free market' should rule the game, yet many of you at least, seem to have a fundamental misunderstanding of even the most basic precepts of captalism.

Anyway, its impossible to have an honest debate with most interstate types about this stuff because you are too clouded by anti Vic sentiment.

The funny thing is that I, and many other North supporters, have always been big fans of interstate expansion.

 

[SweetLeftFoot]

Exactly. Your competition was a rabble, interstate clubs saved you.

Saved the big clubs. I would have been more than happy to see arrogant bastards like Collingwood and Richmond in the crap. They have a big enough supporter base to always bail them out, they should have had to do it.

Lots of these problems arose because the nature of expansion was hurried - precisely to bail out the Collingwoods. It is plain as the nose on our face that the first two teams in should have been a WA team and a SA team. But it didn't hapen that way

And you have to remember, if one club leaves Melbourne, it just means that the future Victorian AFL supporters will have 9 teams to choose from instead of 10. If North leave, are you telling me that every single supporter will turn its back on the AFL. They wont. But it would mean that the remaining clubs would be stronger.

You'd be surprised. I wouldn't have backed the GC club, none would any of my family. And we would have turned off footy. Sure, I would have watched the GF but there'd be no emotional and financial involvement. Look at Fitzroy, the figures show that about 20 per cent of their fans have any feeling for Fitzroy.

Don't forget YOUR CLUB voted against the merger of two Melbourne teams that interstate sides always demand. ALL the interstate sides did. If the North and Fitzroy merger had gone ahead, so many of these problems wouldn't exist.

People preach free marke here but seem fundamentally unaware of how a business works.

The AFL has a large customer base in Victoria. The heartland of the game.

It has to spend less than $10m a year maintaining that base with subsidies to us, Melbourne and Footscray.

And you guys cry foul.

But the AFL is dropping well over 15 times that amount, with far more every year after, to go to amarketplace in the GC where the people have already demonstrated they dislike the product. same with WS.

How in God's name does that make any sense?

 

[SweetLeftFoot]

I understand the sentiment, but **** that's naive.

I went to the movies last week and I sat down to watch some fine actors and great effects. But the reason it was made was to make money, not so that I had something to watch on a Tuesday night. Or the fact that movies have been made since the 1920s so they must continue to be made to keep up a tradition in movie-making.

And using that example, we see how mass market puerile crap dominates the major theatres, while quality productions scrabble to be financed or get screens.

 

[SweetLeftFoot]

It is utter bull**** that the new teams do not have to pay.

Adelaide, Port, Freo and WC had to pay, so what makes these new teams different?

It's because Demetriou is on his own little evil scheme, attacking non-AFL territory and trying to steal rugby league supporters and dollars. Crowds for Sydney and Brisbane are already pretty ordinary (~25k) despite these teams playing in 6 grand finals between them this decade. WSYD in particular will be lucky to get 20k people turn up after the novelty has died down. With a small supporter base comes less financial income, and hence the AFL will end up propping up these clubs as it already does to several Vic teams.

Precisely. I couldn't agree more. And if you guys get angry about the piddling couple of million Melbourne clubs get, wait til you see what this lot will suck up.