Business case predicts new team in Tasmania could net AFL millions as Jack Riewoldt, Ricky Nixon weigh in
A 19th AFL club based in Tasmania would be known as the Devils. In the wake of a compelling business case, Apple Isle native Jack Riewoldt says a move south is a “no-brainer” but former player manager Ricky Nixon has a warning.
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Just try to tear it down.
Tasmanian AFL team Taskforce chairman Brett Godfrey said the business case for the state joining the big league is so strong and hole proof he has challenged critics to pick it apart.
The business case was released Friday in Launceston by Godfrey and Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein and has been made public.
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It shows a team would be economically viable without extra AFL subsidisation like the Greater Western Sydney Giants or the Gold Coast Suns, would bring additional revenue to the league through increased content and would be a significant economic driver for Tasmania.
The modelling shows a worst-case scenario of needing $11 million from Tasmanian taxpayers to run the club. More likely, a spend of just $7.3 million on 11 home games will return $110 million to the economy and create 360 jobs.
The state currently pays Hawthorn and North Melbourne $8 million for eight senior men’s AFL games in Tasmania.
“I want you to tear it apart, to challenge it and tell us where we are wrong,” Godfrey said.
“If we are not wrong, if we are materially correct then it is incumbent on the football community of this state and the media that support it to actually poll those club presidents to come forward and say they do believe that Tasmania does deserve to be in the competition.
“They (Tasmania) deserve it not because of heart on the sleeve stuff but because every hurdle and every impediment that has been put in their way over the past 30 years has been addressed.
“All the myths that you can throw at this bid have been debunked.”
The report found the addition of a 19th AFL team in Tasmania, the Devils, would increase annual content by 11 games a year, and – under the current broadcast deal – create an additional $19 million for the AFL, more than covering the newest club’s average broadcast distribution slice.
The team would be based in Hobart and play blockbusters at a redeveloped University of Tasmania Stadium.
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The report called on the creation of a new roofed stadium at Hobart’s Macquarie Point as Blundstone Arena was at capacity, but again Gutwein ruled out this much sought after land as an option.
Godfrey, the former co-creator and chief executive of Virgin Australia, said the game was at risk if Tasmania did not receive a team, with participation and support already in decline.
The report said at this rate, Australian rules would drop from the state’s favourite sport by 2030.
Gutwein said he had already been in contact with AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan and had made an appointment to meet with the AFL boss with Godfrey in coming weeks to go through the report.
Godfrey said a team by 2025 would be ideal, giving the state time to build the club and to most likely coincide with the next broadcast rights deal.
“No, nobody can say Tasmania doesn’t have a team now because of Tasmania, which is kind of what the message has been all through history,” he said.
“This debunks that. It is now if Tasmania doesn’t get a team it is because others north of Bass Strait have decided that’s the case.”
APPLE ISLE TEAM ‘NO BRAINER’: JACK RIEWOLDT
—REBECCA WILLIAMS
Proud Tasmanian Jack Riewoldt is confident an AFL team based on the Apple Isle would be a success, saying it was a “no-brainer” in his eyes.
As the Tasmanian government handed down a report into the establishment of a Tasmanian AFL team, Riewoldt said the state had the talent, financial support and passion to make it work.
“I am a Tasmanian and I’m really invested in the outcome of the report,” he said.
I found it interesting comments during the week about Tasmania not having a side possibly in the next five years.
“We really don’t know when it’s going to come, but the talent down there and the love for the game … it’s a no-brainer in my eyes.”
Player retention was addressed in the report as one of the potential obstacles for a Tasmanian team.
But Riewoldt did not believe players wanting to leave would be an issue.
“I don’t think the retention of players would be an issue whatsoever,” he said.
“Plenty of kids come from regional parts of the country and there are some amazing things to do down in Tasmania.
“I suppose it gets a little bit of a bad rap sometimes because we are so isolated and located far away from the mainland, but ultimately you are there to work and if any kid got the opportunity to play AFL footy in any state, they would jump at it.
“I love going home, I think it’s an amazing place and I think it’s got the economy and the support to uphold its own AFL team.”
The report suggested Tasmanian team should be based in Hobart, but also play home games in Launceston.
Riewoldt did not anticipate a tug of war between the two cities.
“Gone are the days of the rivalries between north and south and having the border at Campbell Town, if there is going to be a team down there, it will be Tasmania’s team,” he said.
“If there is one thing that Tasmanians do, whether it’s football, political, any sort of reason, is they bind and bond behind their own and that is why a Tasmanian team will work.”
STARS WON’T GO TO TASSIE: NIXON
—JON RALPH
Player management pioneer Ricky Nixon says a Tasmanian stand-alone would never be able to retain enough superstar talent to be an AFL powerhouse.
And Nixon believes the league would have to hand the team an extra salary cap allowance to keep its list together.
Nixon has represented many of the game’s megastars including Nick Riewoldt, Gary Ablett Sr, Jason Dunstall, Tony Lockett and Wayne Carey.
Having negotiated massive endorsement deals for those players as well as dozens who have considered moving states, he believes retention would be one of the team’s biggest challenges.
Player managers with stars on a Tasmanian list with huge marketing potential and rock-star dispositions such as Dustin Martin and Jordan De Goey would be inundated with offers from teams in mainland Australia.
“I am pro a team down there but you need to realise that the population between Geelong and Werribee alone will be bigger than the whole of Tassie,” Nixon told the Herald Sun.
“What people within the AFL and those sitting on the boards of Tasmanian football don’t understand is how difficult it is to get players moving interstate.
“There are two moves you make. Going home is easy but getting the stars to move interstate can be impossible.
“Just look at Gary Ablett Jr. He has come back from Gold Coast and there are a lot of examples of players like that.
“It is something the Tasmanian application will have to consider.
“The thing is opportunities outside and after football are the best in Melbourne by a country mile, with Perth second and the rest a long way back.
“We are talking about what a club can do for a player after football.
“(Endorsements) can be worth half a million extra a year for the biggest players. They are things a player can only take advantage of during their career.”
Tasmania’s population was 534,000 in June last year, with Victoria’s 6.594 million people and the NSW population 8.08 million.
Sydney’s players still take advantage of a rent allowance bonus given high property prices, but Nixon says Tasmanian-based players might need compensation for missed financial opportunities and pure retention.
“They would need what Brisbane had (in the early 2000s),” he said.
“They had the best players and they received extra money to keep the players up there.
“Guys like Simon Black and Justin Leppitsch stayed because of it.
“It assisted Brisbane in keeping those players under the cap.”
ROOS, HAWKS OUT?
—BRETT STUBBS
Tasmania may no longer be Hawthorn’s and North Melbourne’s ATM if the Tasmanian Government follows recommendations in its Taskforce’s report.
Hawthorn in Launceston and North Melbourne in Hobart play eight games a year in the state, picking up a combined $8 million of taxpayers money – and that’s before ticket sales, memberships, merchandise, sponsorships and corporates.
But the Taskforce’s business case said the current contracts should be reviewed when they expire at the end of next season.
The report does not recommend cutting the contracts but states:
“Given the relative declining ‘interest’ in Hawthorn and North Melbourne’s Tasmanian content, coupled with Hawthorn publicly advising they have other options, the State should reconsider or at least revalue both ‘sponsorships’ up on their contract maturities in 2021.”
But Taskforce chairman Brett Godfrey said the previous deals had driving the tourism sector, particularly with Hawthorn in Launceston, but less so with North Melbourne in Hobart, and advised future deals be closely reassessed.
Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein said he had spoken to Hawks president Jeff Kennett and Roos president Ben Buckley prior to the report being made public and said the relationship between all three had been incredibly beneficial to all parties.
But he did say the length of any future deals might be shortened to coincide with the creation of a Tasmanian AFL team.
“A three-to-four-year arrangement is something we’ll be looking at,” Gutwein said.
“We’ll take advice from the Taskforce on that, work through with the clubs as well as they have been an exceptional addition to the state.”
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