South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas says his government will be vigilant to keep Gather Round

South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas says his government needs to be “vigilant” about hanging onto the hosting rights of Gather Round, as speculation builds of a move when the SA deal is up.

South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas says his government needs to be “vigilant” about hanging onto the hosting rights of Gather Round.

With the popularity of the event exceeding all expectations again, there has been speculation that other states were gearing up to lobby the AFL about a possible relocation down the track.

“Last year it sort of snuck up on people,” Malinauskas said. “This year the secret’s out.

“We’ve created a problem for ourselves in that the success of this event is now so widely known around the rest of the country, that the competition to take it off us is real.

“That’s something we have to be vigilant about and we have to be willing to earn the right to continue to have this investment in our state.”

The inaugural Gather Round saw more than 268,000 fans converge on Adelaide across the weekend including 40,000 people from interstate contributing more than $83 million to the state’s economy.

Before it was even finished last year, Malinauskas and then AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan agreed to a new contract that meant Gather Round remained in South Australia until 2026.

Premier of South Australia Peter Malinauskas. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Brenton Edwards

“Look, undoubtedly it’s exceeded last year and that was $83 million,” Malinauskas said. “Every number is up on last year by a significant margin. So we’d expect that to result in a broader, bigger economic impact.

“We are really working hard to make sure Gather Round evolves. It can’t be the same year in, year out. The thing that makes it special is we can tweak it and improve it.

“We have the opportunity to do that with other venues … that’s something we’re clearly working on.

“We have to be careful not to overplay our hand – we don’t need lots of events, we need a few events we do extremely well and we have a calendar that reflects that now. We want to make sure we get that balance right.”

When asked whether there would be a game in the Barossa Valley wine region next year, Malinauskas said: “We’ve made no secret about the fact that we’d love to have another venue in the Barossa and that’s something we’ve been happy to work on with the AFL for some time.

“We haven’t been able to clinch that deal just yet. But I’d say watch that space.”