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What rot. While Victorian clubs pay running costs for venues, they don't pay rent. The WA clubs pay $3m in rent every year for a 3rd rate venue. That's not a horrendous overhead?
This is really a hypothetical, because there's a zero chance of any Victorian club choosing to play at another Victorian venue, so it's never going to confront the AFL whether or not to approve it. But I would be surprised if a club made arrangements to play at another venue (assuming it met minimum requirements such as capacity, facilities and statutory requirements), the AFL would knock you back.
Unless you are going to pull a crowd of 70k+ then playing at the MCG is just a waste fo time, all you are doing is generating revenue for the MCC. TD you need to get close to 50k to make what you would squeezing 10k at a suburban stadium. The overheads on these stadiums charged by third party organisations are horrendous.
It is why Collo pulled off the cosmic joke of all time ditching OO and taking the blues to TD to play teams like Freo where they draw 16k to the game and they have nothing other than an expensive bill to show for it. 16k they would have made money at OO.
I think you're seriously underestimating how much it costs to build and maintain a sporting stadium. Not that you're the lone ranger there, Carlton made that mistake as well.
If the AFL is going to acquire OO from Carlton then it could be used as a low cost alternative for crowds they do not anticipate to go above 35k. As long as it is the AFL running the show and not Carlton, they couldn't run a chook raffle and not come out making a million dollar loss.
The problem isn't stadiums, it's lack of supporters. You've got the best stadiums in Australia to play out of, yet you're jealous of arrangements other clubs have to pay exorbidant rents for 3rd rate dungheaps? Imagine if you were paying $3m a year for the privilege of playing at Optus Oval? Then you'd have something to complain about.
We should utilise other stadiums around Melbourne that are available and not being used for anything.
Do better out of Arden St.....jeez, it would cost $50 million just to bring Arden St up to AFL standard! You're saying you'd rather see your club spend $50 million and play out of a far inferior stadium to the one you've got now? Interest alone would be more than your current stadium costs, and that doesn't include running costs of the 'new' Arden st.
TD suits us for games against other Melbourne clubs, we would average 40k to those in Melbourne, outside of years we are playing poorly. But against interstate teams they are not profitable. It is not just us, most clubs here would struggle to make any money out of hosting any interstate club that didn't originate here (ie Swans and Lions).
2 Stadiums for 9 clubs is not sufficient. We need a third and we need to have more power in terms of who we wish to play where.
