Mike Fitzpatrick on expansion and future.

[McCrann]

Not for profits can go broke. The risk, like with any bubble, is over commitment if their is a sudden economic shock.
It would be a tragedy if the AFL were damaged in this way.

I would suggest the AFL are much better placed to handle any exogenous financial "shock" than their competitors.

The A-League would pretty much go broke, so would the NBL for that matter - they already struggle to keep 8 teams going.

The AFL is in the strongest position given the depth of membership backing up the competition.

In a competitive sense, an economic or financial "shock" could well benefit the AFL competition as a whole medium-long term.

Plus - where else are professional AFL players going to go to ply their trade besides the AFL?

This makes it easier for the AFL to cut salary caps in an emergency without any player exodus unlike sporting competitors like the NRL, A-League, NBL etc, even Big Bash for that matter!

 

[NoobPie]

I would suggest the AFL are much better placed to handle any exogenous financial "shock" than their competitors.

The A-League would pretty much go broke, so would the NBL for that matter - they already struggle to keep 8 teams going.

The AFL is in the strongest position given the depth of membership backing up the competition.

In a competitive sense, an economic or financial "shock" could well benefit the AFL competition as a whole medium-long term.

Plus - where else are professional AFL players going to go to ply their trade besides the AFL?

This makes it easier for the AFL to cut salary caps in an emergency without any player exodus unlike sporting competitors like the NRL, A-League, NBL etc, even Big Bash for that matter!

Very well put, McCrann

The AFL and clubs could collectively absorb a shock better than any other professional code in australia and indeed would probably come out the other end in ruder health than it went in

Here is a good summary of AFL club finances (including AFL distributions)

https://hurlingpeoplenow.wordpress.com/2016/09/20/how-much-money-does-your-club-make/

Most AFL clubs achieve non TV rights revenues that trivialise those of all other codes in this country. Most importantly, the biggest AFL clubs eanr more in ticketing and membership than the entire turnover of by far the biggest A-League club. NRL clubs get a far larger share of their revenue from TV rights than the AFL clubs

Also, putting aside the contribution to the new TV rights of expanding to 18 teams, GWS and Gold Coast already draw only a few million extra from the AFL than the poorest Melbourne clubs

 

[Gigantor]

^ Good points from the last couple of posters. I often find that fans of other codes have zero idea of the annual non-TV revenue of all the AFL clubs, and that even the newer, smaller footy clubs have decent revenue compared to the majority of clubs from other sports.

 

[thegreig]

^ Good points from the last couple of posters. I often find that fans of other codes have zero idea of the annual non-TV revenue of all the AFL clubs, and that even the newer, smaller footy clubs have decent revenue compared to the majority of clubs from other sports.

I often find that fans of other sports and AFL fans have no idea about anything in general, hence why we constantly have stupid threads like this

 

[Gigantor]

I often find that fans of other sports and AFL fans have no idea about anything in general, hence why we constantly have stupid threads like this

Speak for yourself!