Tasmania Devils boss Brendon Gale on why the club needs a stadium

Tasmania Devils boss Brendon Gale has declared a new stadium can play a key role in altering the club’s “destiny” and its “competitive strength” upon entry into the AFL. His say on the hot topic here.

Brendon Gale is welcomed as inaugural CEO of Tasmania Football Club in Penguin Tasmania. Picture: Tasmania Football Club

Tasmania Devils boss Brendon Gale has reiterated the importance the divisive Macquarie Point stadium is to the club’s financial health, and expressed his passion for helping build his home state club from the ground up.

Gale was unveiled as the Devils CEO at Penguin on Thursday, where it was evident helping Tasmania’s AFL dream become reality was the passion project he needed after his flag-laden Richmond tenure.

Gale feels the stadium naysayers should take a long-term view, pointing to Port Adelaide, Fremantle and Geelong as major winners financially after stadium upgrades interstate.

Gale said the club would press on assuming the scheduled first men’s season of 2028 will proceed as planned, and leave stadium decisions to “people on a higher pay grade than me.”

“We need to commercialise the club, this is an expensive business and we need to make money,” Gale said.

“We’re pushing for an entry date for men in 2028, everything we’re doing is heading towards that.

“What happens as far as the stadium is concerned is out of our control.

“All I can say is as far as the team is concerned it (stadium) is really important. In this cut throat industry you need competitive strength, and stadium finances go to the heart of that.

“I’ve seen it, I’ve lived it. I’ve seen the experience of clubs with poor stadium deals. I’ve seen the Adelaide Oval change the destiny of Port Adelaide, and a city and a state.

“Similar with Fremantle and similar with Geelong. Their stadium has altered their destiny, revolutionised it.

“We just put our faith in the hands of government. There’s strong political support and I feel very strongly about the importance of the stadium to the health of the club.”

Brendon Gale at his first press conference. Picture: Tasmania Football Club

Gale understands the commercial realities of Tasmania may be more challenging than leading the Tigers, one of Melbourne’s biggest clubs.

“We’re always going to have challenges because of the size and scale of our state and club, and that’s OK,” he said.

“There’s big market clubs, there’s smaller market clubs. We’ll never doubt the passion for this game in our state, we’ll get corporate support and there’ll be national brands who want to partner with our club, but the stadium becomes really important.

“I’m just proceeding on the basis it’s going ahead, and I’ll leave those decisions to those on a much higher pay grade than me.”

Gale said the appeal of leading the Devils was as much a stimulus decision as one led by the sentiment of coming home.

“I love the cut and thrust of competition, that’s why we love football, but I feel really strongly about the social impact this club can have in Tasmania, and creating accessible role models and heroes for boys and girls to aspire to be,” he said.

“I’ve been in Melbourne a long time and been away from the grassroots a long time. This little campaign will really benefit me as well.

“My heroes were local heroes. I fell in love with football (at Penguin), this is where it became magical.

“I arrived at a point where it was perhaps the right time to go (leave Richmond) and the club (Devils) loomed really large.

“Not just from a heart point of view because it is my home, but from an intellectual point of view. I haven’t had the opportunity to help build a club from scratch.

“I can’t say I really coveted it because four or five years ago I didn’t think it would really happen, all the planets aligned.

“Importantly for the purpose of being here (Penguin) today, it’s where I fell in love with football and fell in love with the mighty Penguin Blues. It was a special time of my life.”

Gale will spend the next period touring the state and speaking to various stakeholders from junior football up.

“It’s building on the work the board has already undertaken, building that depth of engagement and starting to build the club,” he said.

“We need to build out the football teams and the programs, and we have some key decisions to make around departments and list management.

“You want people who want to come down and build a legacy. There’s some wonderful people who are Tasmanian, there’s many more who aren’t. We’ll leave that door open. ”