I know there quite a lot of you out there who will howl me down for this but it's just the way I feel.
The team and club are bigger than the individual, yes I'm aware of that, but this is not an ordinary situation. Lance Franklin is the golden goose, the one in a generation player. Buddy brings members, merchandise, exposure, excitement.... It's difficult to quantify but his presence is massive. As much as I love Luke, Sam, Rough et al these guys don't bring the exposure that Lance does. Sam himself recently said that Buddy deserved to be the best paid Hawk. I've stated earlier in this behemoth thread that guys like Pav, Judd and Riewoldt have been getting north of a million for years. It's now 2014, we should pay Lance 1.4 MILLION x 5 years and allow him all the marketing opportunities possible. By the time a 5 year deal is finished there'll be plenty of players in the comp getting a million + a year so I don't think it'll be too far out of place. 7 million over 5, unconditional and he will stay. You throw in ambassador money, car sponsor and as many third party deals as we can and he will be up around 1.8m a year. Ellis and Osborne are at the end of the road, each man would be on 250-300k, the money is there. I'd play a man short on the list to keep Buddy if that was an option.
Sometimes in life you have to pay overs and we have to do it on this occasion. Personally I think he's worth it.