Scheduling

[Mr Consistent]

I thought I would write another piece which focuses on a different part of the AFL and how it impacts our great club (last week I was annoyed with tanking allegations, but surely after a flogging from NMFC no one can actually accuse us of being awesome and deliberately losing matches.......)

I find it interesting that the AFL will continue to put certain clubs on in the prime spots while continually putting others on in less attractive timeslots (Sunday and twiglight games).

Take Collingwood for example, this year they have 10 games in the prime time slot of Saturday or Friday night football. (6 Friday and 4 Saturday). They also get another four games on Saturday afternoon.

Compare this to Melbourne who get 1 Friday night clash, two Saturday night games (both in QLD) and 13 Sunday games which traditionally do not attract as bigger crowd or TV audience.

Both Melbourne and Collingwood enjoy the Queens Birthday match which is excluded from the above stats.

My point is that it does not take a genius to work out that Collingwood is the biggest pulling audience TV wise in the land, and are right up there in the attendance figures as well (over 1 million patrons to their games), but in my opinion it is making the higher profile clubs more high profile while the lower profile clubs will suffer the effects of a less attractive draw. Major considerations of a poor fixture – including a heap of Sunday games are:

• Less appealing for sponsors to put money into the club (flow on effects to performance by providing better facilities)
• Lower membership drawing potential (as members find Sunday games less appealing than Saturday / Friday games
• Lessened chance to attract new supporters via exposure (as MFC are not exposed well by the AFL)

In effect by the AFL chasing the TV rights bounty, they are possibly shooting themselves in the foot. The more power you give to Collingwood by virtue of an advantageous draw, the less likely it is you are able to effectively promote the other clubs in the competition.

I know the TV rights money is critical for the game, but I think a little more equity in the scheduling of games could be a big driver in giving the smaller clubs a chance of a more sustainable future.

It would be good to get at least another Friday night game next year, and a few more MCG games on a Saturday afternoon time slot. Two little things that can have big positive effects on how we go as a club.

In reality, some could argue that because Collingwood are so big (like Carlton, Essendon etc) these clubs don’t need the exposure help, as their supporters will get a good crowd / TV audience whenever the game is played). So minor movements to make it more even could be very beneficial for the AFL.

Who have we got managing this for us at the Club and what do you think our chances are of getting a better draw in 2010?? Possibly having the top two picks in the draft might help, as everyone likes to watch great young players emerge…..

 

[WattsGoodForYou]

Its been a problem for a long time, the AFL has favourites. Especially Essendon and Collingwood. Collingwood travel the least, and when they do its often in prime time positions. The whole system where good teams get better and bad teams get poorer is stupid. It should be a equal system. I am sick of seeing Collingwood play Carlton twice a year its just not that interesting. I would rather see a system where the teams play each other once, then based on either perceptions or positions of the previous year teams are soughted into 4 sections. For the remainder of the rounds so, a bottom 4 team would play 2 teams from the bottom , 2 from the next two levels and only one from the top level. This would mean teams get a fairer chance against teams on their own level. It also gives a better indication to where teams are really at.

Howver that is all null as we will have 18 teams and we may then play a different amount of games per season...