No stadium, no team? You’re joking says the man who wrote the Carter Report

The AFL’s demand for a $750m Hobart stadium before Tasmania is granted an AFL team has been shot down by the man who wrote the celebrated Carter Report.

THE AFL’S “no stadium, no team” demand has been shot down by the architect of the Carter Report into Tasmania’s bid for an AFL team.

Colin Carter, a former AFL Commissioner and Geelong president, found a strong case for Tasmania’s inclusion in the AFL after his two-year investigation.

But he disagreed with AFL boss Gill McLachlan’s stadium condition on a 19th license being issued to Tasmania, a bombshell he dropped on the steps of the Executive Building on June 9.

The state government had already unveiled plans for a future covered 27,000-seat stadium costing an estimated $750m on Hobart’s waterfront.

“I don’t think [a license] should be contingent on a new stadium, which is why in my report I didn’t actually say that it was,” Carter said on SportsDay radio in Melbourne.

Carter’s “gut feel” is that Tasmania will get a license after the 18 club presidents vote on it later this month.

“I think they will. The public support for Tasmania being in the competition is really strong,” Carter said.

“Look at every one of the surveys that newspapers run … I saw one the other day and the responses were about 82 per cent yes.

“One of the things I set out to do, and I believe the AFL believes this too, is that the club is financially viable. So I’d be really surprised if it doesn’t get up.”

A lot is riding on this bid.

“If it doesn’t get up this time I reckon the chances of getting up in the next many, many decades is very much reduced,” Carter said.

“I am very much on the hopeful side.”

With the JackJumpers and instant hit in the NBL, Premier Jeremy Rockliff put responsibility for the future of football in the state squarely onto the shoulders of the AFL.

Colin Carter at UTAS Stadium, Launceston. Picture: Chris Kidd

“The AFL has an opportunity, either the participation in AFL decreases and it dies as a sport in Tasmania, to be overtaken by other sports, or it steps up to the plate and embraces the opportunity and the very strong offer that our Tasmanian government has put forward for the sports fans here,” he said.

Carter believes Tasmania’s AFL team will eventually need to upgrade its Hobart stadium.

“At some stage the Tasmanian football people will need to accept that you need a modern stadium but I don’t think that’s the initial priority,” he said.

“I suspect that any new team is going to struggle for a few years and I reckon filling 14,000-seat stadiums in those first four or five years, rather than having a half-full 25,000 to 30,000 seat stadium, would be a much better option.

“The Tasmanian grounds are regarded as perfectly adequate for playing AFL football at the moment so I’d stick with those.

“If the team is successful the pressure will be on to do something much better, whether it’s a complete renovation of those stadiums or something new.”

The duration of state government’s commitment of $10m a season for 10 years towards operational costs – worth an estimated $120m per year to the state’s economy – plus $50m for a high performance centre needs a rethink.

“I can’t see why you wouldn’t make it longer, and if the thing is outrageously successful there might be a caveat for the government to renegotiate that down,” Carter said.

“They are already spending about that now in payments to Hawthorn and North Melbourne.”