Key report tabled on stand-alone team, Hawthorn and Tasmanian Government set to begin talks on Launceston agreement
A report handed to the Tasmanian government could be the catalyst for a 19th AFL team in the Apple Isle. Meanwhile, they are set to speak with Hawthorn about their current agreement in Launceston.
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Hawthorn and the Tasmanian Government will begin talks over the future of the club’s lucrative Launceston agreement in the coming months.
A clause in the Hawks’ current five-year $19 million deal to play four “home” games and one pre-season match at York Park requires the parties to return to the negotiating table in the first half of this year.
The arrangement expires at the end of 2021.
The battle for control of footy on the Apple Isle is set to heat up with the release of a key report into the viability of a stand-alone Tasmanian team.
The report, written by the Tasmanian AFL Taskforce, chaired by former Virgin boss Brett Godfrey, was handed to the government before Christmas and is to be tabled in parliament.
It explored impediments to a 19th AFL licence including financial sustainability, player retention and the staging of matches in the north and south of the state.
“The taskforce has delivered a comprehensive document, which the government is taking the appropriate time to review and consider,” a spokeswoman for Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein said yesterday.
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AFL boss Gillon McLachlan last year declared “the building blocks are in place” for Tasmania to eventually secure a team.
Western Bulldogs president Peter Gordon recently said he believed the AFL should consider expanding to 19 or 20 teams.
“In the NFL there are 32 teams and in the NBA and Major League Baseball there are 30. Australian football and the AFL and Tasmania are crying out for a Tasmanian team,” Gordon said last year.
A move to 20 teams would open the door to a more pure fixture in which teams only play each other once before the finals.
North Melbourne’s deal to play four matches a season at Hobart’s Blundstone Arena also expires at the end of 2021.
The Kangaroos are adamant they have no intention of playing any additional ‘home’ games in Tassie.
Former Tasmanian premier Will Hodgman, who resigned earlier this month, said last year the government was willing to explore options with “any number of other clubs” to play games in Hobart or Launceston after the expiry of its existing deals with the Hawks and Roos as it seeks to establish its own team.
But Hodgman said going footy-free beyond 2021 until Tasmania secured a licence was not an option.
Premier Gutwein, his replacement, hails from Launceston.
Originally published as Key report tabled on stand-alone team, Hawthorn and Tasmanian Government set to begin talks on Launceston agreement