The Tasmanian government has made a bold $150 million bid to secure the creation of the southern state’s first AFL team.
Tasmania’s new Premier Jeremy Rockliff made the private submission to the AFL early this month with the view to establish a team in Hobart, which would be expected to join the competition by 2028 and as early as 2026.
An artists’ impression of how the new stadium could look in Hobart.
The government proposal envisaged a 10-year deal worth $100 million with a further $50 million in start-up costs, including a state-of-the-art high-performance facility placed within walking distance of Hobart’s CBD, prioritising the attraction and retention of elite football talent.
The submission also sought clarification from head office regarding its pledged support to rebuild the game at grassroots level in the once-talent-rich football state. The government bid comes with tri-partisan support after Tasmania’s Liberal government reached agreements with both state Labor and the Greens.
While the AFL has not yet provided a formal response to the premier, talks held last week between league bosses and the government-sanctioned Tasmanian taskforce indicated that the league wanted a longer-term commitment than 10 years.
As negotiations continue it is also understood that the taskforce would consider a compromise proposal which could lead to the granting of a decade-long provisional licence. In another compromise, the government could underwrite the Tasmanian team to the tune of $12.5 million each year with the AFL contributing to the start-up costs.
The AFL has denied it made a formal bid for an annual $20 million commitment from the government amid fears it is pushing for a major cash grab to win over the 18 club presidents. The $10 million annual funding proposal is in line with the 2021 Colin Carter report, which estimated a state government contribution of between $7 million and $11 million per annum. The taskforce projections have the proposed team boasting a start-up membership of 30,000.
A level of angst is building among key players involved in the Tasmanian bid as it awaits clarification upon its football soft cap, player list sizes and the quality of its fixture. Current costings according to the bid would place the new team roughly 12th or 13th in annual turnover, including AFL contributions.
Details of the bid have emerged as AFL boss Gillon McLachlan faces a battle to win over a number of sceptical club presidents. McLachlan, who on Friday denied he had lost the hunger to lead the creation of a stand-alone Tasmanian team, is adamant he does not want to put the Tasmanian proposal to a vote but rather gain unanimous club support.
While a number of clubs have been unwilling to take a final position on Tasmania before the full details of the proposal are unveiled, Sydney, Collingwood and the Gold Coast have all indicated they are unlikely to support the bid. A final decision is still scheduled in August after what looms as an historic meeting between the AFL Commission and the 18 clubs.
Rockliff’s submission comes after former premier Peter Gutwein’s shock resignation earlier this year, an announcement viewed by the AFL as a setback for the Tasmanian bid. Both McLachlan and his chairman Richard Goyder were scheduled to fly to Tasmania to meet Gutwein.
Responding this week to suggestions that some clubs still saw the relocation of North Melbourne to Tasmania as a preferable alternative - an alternative previously explored by McLachlan - Rockliff said: “Tasmania has waited long enough and Tasmanians won’t accept a team with half its heart in Melbourne.
“The roaring success of the JackJumpers prove how important this is to Tasmania, and we do not want to see the AFL get left behind. It’s time to make history once and for all.”
The Kangaroos, too, have wholeheartedly rejected the relocation talks.
The Tasmanian campaign has repeatedly stated that this bid looms as the last opportunity to save Australian rules football in one of its historic heartland states and set it upon a thriving expansionist pathway.
Should Tasmania fail in its bid to win a licence, Rockliff’s government has indicated the state will no longer underwrite the multimillion-dollar deals funding Hawthorn and to a lesser extent North Melbourne to play in Tasmania. No other start-up AFL team has been underwritten by public money.
AFL executive Travis Auld has been leading the negotiations with the taskforce along with the league’s new Tasmanian boss Sam Graham, while the league’s general manager of football Brad Scott has been working on issues such as list sizes, the soft cap, football pathways, a second-tier competition and special draft rules for the new team.
Four-time premiership coach Alastair Clarkson recently visited the United States in part to look at top-of-the range football and basketball facilities as part of the proposal to create an elite training and administration base for the team, which would most likely be built alongside the proposed new stadium in the regatta grounds, alongside the Derwent River less than a kilometre from the CBD, or at nearby Sandy Bay.
Negotiations continue as McLachlan also works to secure a new long-term broadcast deal for the competition beyond 2024 and a new pay deal for AFL players with the current CBA up this year.
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