THE AFL will become an 18-team competition within four years,
with plans to establish a Gold Coast team by 2011 and a team in
western Sydney by 2012.
In an exclusive interview with The Age, AFL chairman Mike
Fitzpatrick has revealed the league has begun packaging a nine-game
per round, home-and-away season to be sold as the linchpin of AFL
broadcast rights beyond 2011. It is set to announce a tender
process for two new club licences before the start of this
season.
Conceding that it would prove "virtually impossible" to tempt
even the most struggling Victorian club to move, Mr Fitzpatrick
said he had spoken to all three AFL TV broadcasters, and the Nine
Network, about the league's intention to expand by 2012. "We've
spoken to the networks and they are very keen to get more content.
It's quite clear the Melbourne clubs have emotional attachments and
infrastructures they are not prepared to relinquish."
The AFL had done much work last year trying to persuade North
Melbourne to move to the Gold Coast, and was disappointed when it
chose not to. "If you can't get a team to relocate on the basis
that North was offered, then I don't think it's ever going to
happen. In a sense it has solved a problem for us. If we are
looking at establishing a 17th team on the Gold Coast by 2010-2011,
the 18th team out of Sydney could follow within a year."
Mr Fitzpatrick will outline his expansion plans to the 16
existing clubs next week. The plans include building a 10,000-seat
stadium, with administrative, training and social facilities, at
Blacktown in Sydney's west.
#Mr Fitzpatrick and league chief executive Andrew Demetriou
outlined the expanded competition plans to channels Seven, Nine,
Ten and Foxtel in Sydney before Christmas.
Nine executive Jeff Browne, whose network plans to bid with
Foxtel for the media rights beyond 2011, said: "I have a policy of
not discussing any talks we might have with the AFL."
The new Queensland team is expected to be offered similar
inducements to the $100 million package put to North Melbourne.
Mr Fitzpatrick did not rule out shortening the premiership
season to 17 rounds by 2012 to ensure each team played each other
once. "It's obviously something we'd look at."
By building the Blacktown stadium, Mr Demetriou's aim to
schedule a weekly game in Sydney by 2015 has been brought forward
by three years.
Mr Fitzpatrick, who became AFL chairman a year ago, said: "One
of the issues I had when I came in was that we didn't have the
relationship with government that we should have and other codes
were organising themselves quite successfully around us."
The Blacktown stadium should be completed in time for a NAB Cup
pre-season fixture in March next year. The two-oval complex will be
home for the second Sydney team, to play most of its home games at
Telstra Stadium at Homebush.
The league's plan is certain to antagonise the Sydney Swans,
which have long insisted the Sydney market is nowhere near ready
for another team.
Mr Fitzpatrick also revealed that the AFL was considering drug
testing footballers by taking hair or saliva samples. "We are
reviewing our illicit drugs policy and these new technologies we
are investigating, of hair and oral testing, could detect drug use
going back three months."
Last Modified on 27/11/2008 10:28