THE AFL is set to stick to its expansion time frame, with the Gold Coast Football Club still marked down to join the league in 2011.
The GC17 bid team are still waiting to find out whether they will be awarded the league's 17th licence.
If -- or when -- they get the green light, it has always been said they would enter the league in 2011. But there has been some recent speculation that the AFL would consider delaying their entry until 2012.
There are a few reasons for this, one being that it would give the league more time to redevelop Gold Coast Stadium at Carrara.
However, it would be a blow to many people -- including the youngsters who opted out of the national draft to sign with the Coast on the proviso that 2011 would be the club's first year in the AFL.
AFL Commission chairman Mike Fitzpatrick said that it was doubtful the delay in confirming the new team would push back the national competition entry in 2011.
"The decisions we made in pushing ahead with the Gold Coast team competing in the TAC Cup (in 2009) gives us a lot of flexibility. But there is no view that we would be pushing the timing back," he said.
GC17 project manager and key AFL executive Scott Munn also said the bid team had been given no indication of a later start-up date.
The bid team are hardly resting on their laurels while they wait for the official go-ahead. Munn said everyone was busily preparing for next season, which will mark the Coast's entrance into the Victorian under-18 TAC Cup.
"We will have a season launch, the NAB Cup (pre-season competition) obviously because we have a game here, the three AFL premiership matches, also we will be refitting the players' rooms at Carrara and things like that," he said.
"So there are a lot of functional things we are doing now."
Although the AFL Commission revealed earlier this week that the GC17 bid team had met its criteria, the league delayed its decision.
Bid team leader John Witheriff is hoping for the green light before Christmas.
AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou said the AFL was right to be monitoring the financial crisis.
"I think every business, every sporting code, anyone who is involved in the outlay of millions of dollars has to be very, very prudent and very
diligent in any exercise they undertake that relates to those quantum of dollars," Demetriou said.
"The AFL has always said consistently that our decisions are to no way disadvantage clubs or disadvantage our players".
Last Modified on 24/11/2009 10:20
