Steve Price: Round Zero one of the dumbest decisions the AFL Commission has ever made
The bizarre decision to launch the footy season with four games interstate is one of the dumbest decisions the AFL Commission has ever made.
Opinion
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After five months with no footy, the Commission that runs the AFL from Melbourne has bizarrely launched the season with four games interstate in the rugby league states of NSW and Queensland.
In what will be seen as one of the dumbest decisions ever taken by the Commission – and that’s saying something – AFL fans have again been treated with utter contempt. New Commission CEO Andrew Dillon has obviously inherited a thought bubble from his previous boss Gillon McLachlan.
Dillon earlier this week was valiantly defending the Zero round, bragging about sellout crowds at Giants Stadium in Western Sydney and Heritage Bank stadium on the Gold Coast. One has a capacity of 23,500 (Giants Stadium), the other 22,500 (Heritage), less than half the capacity of the MCG at both grounds combined.
Sadly, for hungry fans of four of the biggest clubs in Australia – Richmond, Collingwood, Carlton and Melbourne – you will need to have either paid highly inflated airfares or spent a fortune on fuel to get to see your team in ZERO ROUND. What a joke and what a weak bunch of CEOs who run those clubs, three of which have won five of the last seven premierships.
What the hell were they thinking when they agreed to this crazy experiment – certainly not the fans that pay their wages. The Commission and the clubs need to quickly wake up that we are in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis that they are not immune from.
Signing up as a club member and attending an AFL match is now considered by many an indulgence and a hit to the household budget. Footy is becoming discretionary and the people running it are in danger of making it a spectator sport for the elite.
I gather the proponents of Zero Round argue they are attempting to cash in on the NRL’s attention being focused on the Las Vegas double header that Rugby League’s wily boss Peter V’Landys pulled off last weekend.
The Vegas double header was a huge success, on the ground and off, with 45,000 fans packing Allegiant stadium and the US version of Fox agreeing to televise both games and to broadcast one game a week all season.
Las Vegas is a five-year deal and interest in rugby league back home has surged off the back of the glittering opening. TV ratings were off the charts with record ratings for Fox League domestically and nearly 850,000 people watching game one.
True enough the Vegas games have left Sydney this weekend without any matches in the harbour city – Newcastle Knights are home to the Canberra Raiders and the NZ Warriors host the Sharks.
Apparently, that led the AFL to believe playing Thursday night’s Swans and Melbourne game at the SCG and a Saturday night match between the GWS Giants and Collingwood in a boutique stadium at Homebush would convince league fans to give AFL a look.
Even more bizarre is the idea that at 3.20pm Saturday afternoon in late summer/early autumn Gold Coast residents would leave the beach to watch the Tigers and Suns play a match.
Only the Friday night clash at the Gabba between the Lions and Carlton can be justified as sensible scheduling.
Given the hundreds of millions of sponsorship dollars, and Victorian supporters money ploughed into the Gold Coast and GWS for no result, isn’t it time someone running our game realised rugby league people don’t care? Having had two eight-year stints in Sydney I can tell you AFL is a niche sport there at best.
The Sydney Swans is a great brand and have had consistent on field success including two flags, but they have a rusted-on, largely north shore and inner east Sydney fan base of around 35-45,000 people. Crowd numbers for the Giants over the past two seasons have been almost as embarrassing as those for AFLW. As for the Gold Coast Suns they have had 15 years and haven’t even played a final.
Can anyone imagine during the club leadership days of people like John Elliott at Carlton, Ian Wilson at Richmond or even Jeff Kennett at Hawthorn that someone at the AFL would get away with the Zero Round nonsense we are forced to put up with this weekend.
Let’s deal with cost in a cost-of-living crisis. With a long weekend in Victoria this Monday, a Richmond fan could contemplate flying to the Gold Coast after work Friday and flying back Monday in time for work Tuesday.
If you are a Mum, Dad and two children flying back on Jetstar on Monday afternoon you will be paying $698 for a one-way economy ticket or $2800 for the family just to get home. If you can’t leave work early Friday afternoon add another $2400 for the family to get there on Jetstar Friday evening. That’s over $5000 on a budget airline that might or might not get you there and back.
Add to that the cost of three nights’ accommodation, tickets to the away game, local transport and food and you could probably go to Bali for two weeks and it would be cheaper. The alternative is an 18 hour drive each way.
Even Sydney flights are through the roof, upwards of $700 one way. Don’t even start looking at flying to Adelaide for Gather Round, with flight ticket gouging out of control.
This entire vanity project by the Commission must be a one- off.
Melbourne, whether the Commission like it or not, is ground zero the AFL and the supporters deserve so much better and whoever thought up the name Zero round needs a new job.
And it seems the various club CEO’s have lost their voices. In a survey published last weekend where the President’s and CEOs were asked a series of questions, they requested to remain anonymous. Brave.
After the AFL lectured us all to vote “yes” in the Voice referendum it’s perhaps not surprising. Their answers were predictable.
Asked about the AFL staging an annual Gay Pride round, 56 per cent said yes, on this Zero round concept 67 per cent were in favour, while 83 per cent admitted their clubs had a drug culture issue, but it was no worse than the rest of society.
Presumably Zero Round and Gather Round keep the TV broadcasters happy as most supporters from the big Melbourne clubs can’t afford to go so, they watch those games on TV.
The home ground of Melbourne deserves better and this booby prize to NSW and Queensland after missing out on the Gather round should be a one-off.
Steve Price is a 30- year uninterrupted Richmond member and his two daughters were joined from birth. He is not going to ZERO round.
Likes
— NRL’s Las Vegas season opener and the brave decision to take it on.
— St Kilda’s newest food and drink venue the Saint George in the hands of the legendary Karen Martini.
— Three- week jail terms for Extinction Rebellion protesters on the West Gate Bridge – should have been three months.
— Sensible decision hopefully coming from Vic Pol on cancelling speed camera fines for people fleeing the Grampians bushfires.
Dislikes
— PM Albanese dishing out taxpayers money at ASEAN for projects like a climate change institute in Brunei.
— Inability of Victorian motorists to merge onto a dual lane freeway or toll road.
— Greedy private health insurers jacking up premiums yet again with NIB hitting customers with a 4.1 per cent jump.
— Grumpy old Paul Keating showing his colours intervening in Australia’s foreign affairs from the sidelines.
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Originally published as Steve Price: Round Zero one of the dumbest decisions the AFL Commission has ever made
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