Fixture Hawks after Tasmania? Sponsorship extended to 2025!

[Strapping Young Lad]

Gowers would not have been to any AFL presidents meetings yet. Doubt Jeff would have briefed him, so he may not be up to speed on this. Or he may just be taking crap to appease the sponsor like Jeff used to do by suggesting we should play Collingwood or finals there. No one was more pro-Tas than Jeff, he would know.

And we would be stupid to give up hole ground advantage to the Devils. Also against AFL policy. Ain’t going to happen. No benefit for us.

Gowers has already met with our board, and they’d have complete knowledge of what we were looking to negotiate.

 

[speedpeck23]

The club has conceded that they won’t be playing any home games there once the Devils are in. Those four games will be played at MCG, Marvel or a new secondary market (Albury is the best current option for a game or two).

After 2025 ? Would you be happy if we had 13 games in Melbourne with a 12/1 or 11/2 split MCG/Docklands

 

[theiaofseed]

It is also not $13.5m. What is will do, once we are back in Melbourne, is allow us to compete on equal footing with other MCG clubs. We can grow our Melbourne membership, corporate and reserved seat revenue quite considerably. Tas stopped us from being a poor club, but it also stopped the 'Big 4' from becoming a 'Big 5'.

We're richer and more successful than Carlton and Essendon, Tasmania didn't stop shit.

 

[Blackhawk42]

NSW vs Victoria Sheffield Shield game the next big sporting event taking place in Albury at the Lavington Sports Oval. That makes it NRL, A-League, BBL, whatever the Rugby Union league is called and now Sheffield Shield to play games there for competition points.

It can surely only be a matter of time. The timing lines up for the Hawks eventual exit of Tasmania, but the question remains if we are keen to find a new home away from home or simply entrench ourselves back in Melbourne full time.

 

[HODGEYROAD]

Basically if we stopped Tasmania we'd probably just get a bigger slice of the AFL handout pie and it would be status quo financially.

 

[Brant]

NSW vs Victoria Sheffield Shield game the next big sporting event taking place in Albury at the Lavington Sports Oval. That makes it NRL, A-League, BBL, whatever the Rugby Union league is called and now Sheffield Shield to play games there for competition points.

It can surely only be a matter of time. The timing lines up for the Hawks eventual exit of Tasmania, but the question remains if we are keen to find a new home away from home or simply entrench ourselves back in Melbourne full time.

That's gotta depend on whether someone will pay us a few million bucks a year to play there, right?

 

[Blackhawk42]

That's gotta depend on whether someone will pay us a few million bucks a year to play there, right?

100%. I don't trust the Albury council to make a forward-thinking decision like Ballarat's council did.

 

[HedgeFund]

NSW vs Victoria Sheffield Shield game the next big sporting event taking place in Albury at the Lavington Sports Oval. That makes it NRL, A-League, BBL, whatever the Rugby Union league is called and now Sheffield Shield to play games there for competition points.

It can surely only be a matter of time. The timing lines up for the Hawks eventual exit of Tasmania, but the question remains if we are keen to find a new home away from home or simply entrench ourselves back in Melbourne full time.

Barely 100 people turn up to shield game at the MCG and it isn’t televised.

It’s not a “big sporting event”

 

[Blackhawk42]

Barely 100 people turn up to shield game at the MCG and it isn’t televised.

It’s not a “big sporting event”

It's a state league cricket game. Aside from an international fixture it's as significant as it can get (considering the BBL already held a game there on New year's Eve).

The point being that the AFL is the only major sporting body in the country aside from the NBL not to host a game for points in the region in the past decade.

 

[eldorado]

He knows that because even a mid range new major sponsor will pay around $1.5m a year. Then, you deduct the cost of paying opposition clubs $20 for each member that attends a designated away game (call that $1m a year). Then add in revenue from more reserved seating in Melbourne (our memberships will go up if we get nine MCG games instead of six).

The gap each year would be $2m at most. And the AFL might even kick in, so it may well be less.

Forgive me for being less than convinced by your pulled-out-of-my-arse calculations about what the sponsorship really means.

I suppose we should be grateful you somehow still ended up with a $2m profit, rather than a net loss...

 

[HedgeFund]

It's a state league cricket game. Aside from an international fixture it's as significant as it can get (considering the BBL already held a game there on New year's Eve).

The point being that the AFL is the only major sporting body in the country aside from the NBL not to host a game for points in the region in the past decade.

…and that won’t change.

State league cricket is not a big sporting event. No one watches it and no one attends the game.

Entry is free.

You’re comparing apples and oranges.

The AFL wouldn’t bat an eyelid at the fact that a shield cricket game is being played in Albury.

It wouldn’t “move the needle a millimetre” in their consideration as to the viability of playing for premiership points there.

 

[Blackhawk42]

State league cricket is not a big sporting event. No one watches it and no one attends the game.

Entry is free.

The AFL wouldn’t bat an eyelid at the fact that a shield cricket game is being played in Albury.

It would “move the needle a millimetre” in their consideration as to the viability of playing for premiership points there.

Of course they wouldn't bat an eyelid.

Look at the thread title and the subsequent discussion.

Life after Tassie for Hawthorn... Is it all MCG or do we look elsewhere? Where is a realistic opportunity for elsewhere? Albury is certainly one. I'm stating that following the success of the BBL (attendance over 10 000) there will now be a state league cricket game played here, to join those aforementioned sports in playing for points at Lavington Sports Oval. The AFL haven't, but the location is screaming for it in my opinion. We (Hawthorn) may have zero interest, but the opportunity exists if we want to explore it.

 

[HedgeFund]

Of course they wouldn't bat an eyelid.

Look at the thread title and the subsequent discussion.

Life after Tassie for Hawthorn... Is it all MCG or do we look elsewhere? Where is a realistic opportunity for elsewhere? Albury is certainly one. I'm stating that following the success of the BBL (attendance over 10 000) there will now be a state league cricket game played here, to join those aforementioned sports in playing for points at Lavington Sports Oval. The AFL haven't, but the location is screaming for it in my opinion. We (Hawthorn) may have zero interest, but the opportunity exists if we want to explore it.

Understand that, but unless the AFL feel that Albury / Wodonga is an untapped commercial market, then it doesn’t really meet their criteria.

Ballarat and Geelong have been massive growth areas in Victoria, and are 1 - 1.5hrs drive from the city. The western fringe of the metro area is slowly working its way up the Princes / Western highways.

Geelong Falcons and GWV Rebels are based in those towns. Bushrangers are based in Wangaratta.

Albury/Wodonga (with respect) is a solid 3 - 3.5 hrs away and in a totally different category. Football up there isn’t booming as a growth sport. Corowa-Rutherglen is about to go into recess due to lack of senior players.

It’s more akin to the LaTrobe Valley as somewhere to “grow the game” - maybe a preseason fixture or two as a novelty, but not somewhere the AFL would bankroll an attempt to grow a market (like Ballarat for WB).

I think as one of the big 4 financial clubs we simply don’t need to look for a “Tassie replacement.” Better to consolidate back in Melbourne and look to join Richmond / Collingwood as clubs who demand MCG games because we draw big crowds / watchers.

 

[Blackhawk42]

Understand that, but unless the AFL feel that Albury / Wodonga is an untapped commercial market, then it doesn’t really meet their criteria.

Ballarat and Geelong have been massive growth areas in Victoria, and are 1 - 1.5hrs drive from the city. The western fringe of the metro area is slowly working its way up the Princes / Western highways.

Geelong Falcons and GWV Rebels are based in those towns. Bushrangers are based in Wangaratta.

Albury/Wodonga (with respect) is a solid 3 - 3.5 hrs away and in a totally different category. Football up there isn’t booming as a growth sport. Corowa-Rutherglen is about to go into recess due to lack of senior players.

It’s more akin to the LaTrobe Valley as somewhere to “grow the game” - maybe a preseason fixture or two as a novelty, but not somewhere the AFL would bankroll an attempt to grow a market (like Ballarat for WB).

I think as one of the big 4 financial clubs we simply don’t need to look for a “Tassie replacement.” Better to consolidate back in Melbourne and look to join Richmond / Collingwood as clubs who demand MCG games because we draw big crowds / watchers.

The populations of Ballarat and Albury/Wodonga are basically identical.

It's been essentially handed to GWS who have hogged the Riverina from Canberra through Wagga and down to the border. The issue is that there is no real desire for the Giants to play home games there and nor should there be. It's been a vibrant AFL market since the beginning of time with all clubs represented in support.
There stands a newly renovated sporting precinct which has now hosted all major Australian domestic sport leagues except for the AFL. It's the perfect opportunity, but the final question still remains... Does a team want to make it happen? And can the Albury city council make it worth the while?
The drive isn't a difficult one. You'll find plenty of border residents who make the trip back and forth to Melbourne on the same day to watch their sides play.

The Corowa example doesn't really affect the proposal. Tassie is close to having a full time team and clubs down there are dropping like flies.
That area has a small population and is attempting to service 4 teams across 3 leagues. Covid followed by extensive flood damage has understandably taken its toll.

 

[Walshawk]

Forgive me for being less than convinced by your pulled-out-of-my-arse calculations about what the sponsorship really means.

I suppose we should be grateful you somehow still ended up with a $2m profit, rather than a net loss...

The figures we absolutely pulled from my arse. They were in response to a post stating that we will be $13.5m (the value of the deal) worse off over 24/25 without this deal. I was simply illustrating that it is not as simple as that, that we would have a new sponsor, that there are costs involved in playing four games in another state, and that the gap would be a lot, lot less.

I’m all likelihood,, that will be our situation in 26 or 27 when Tas comes in.

 

[HedgeFund]

The populations of Ballarat and Albury/Wodonga are basically identical.

Disagree.

Ballarat - 127k
Albury (56.5k) / Wodonga (44k) is 102.5k

More importantly, as you pointed out, southern NSW is GWS territory all the way to the border (being Albury).

They don’t cover Wodonga BUT the NSW govt is nowhere near as supportive of AFL as the Victorian govt. There’s clear border politics involved which wasn’t the case with Geelong or Ballarat.

On the issue of the drive, we’ll the AFL half-arsed tried to turn the Bendigo Gold into the Bendigo Bombers and the support for AFL only 2hrs from the city with a population of 101k was insufficient to warrant an AFL club trying to utilised Queen Elizabeth Oval (which is pretty sweet).

So I think we will have to agree to disagree on this one.

 

[pattymalone00]

Some hawks Tassie chatter in this

 

[pattymalone00]

This game at Norwood probably is a good time to bring up I’ve always wondered when tassie comes in if we still want to sell 1 or 2 games if we should do a deal similar to what the dogs do in Ballarat and play some games in a part of regional Victoria…

 

[peetoo]

This game at Norwood probably is a good time to bring up I’ve always wondered when tassie comes in if we still want to sell 1 or 2 games if we should do a deal similar to what the dogs do in Ballarat and play some games in a part of regional Victoria…

The good thing about York park is it is nice and big. We don’t want to be tiny ground specialists

More worrying is this gather round, while nice for some, seems to have delivered us a mere 13 games in Melbourne out of 23. So scrap selling games as the AFL is doing that anyway

 

[Walshawk]

If/when Tassie come in the AFL will either need to scrap Gather around of extend the season to 24 games (you can just add an extra round with an odd number of teams. So, you could have 19 neutral games - nine at Gather and ten to sell to the rest of the Nation.

 

[offtherails9]

Yeah been thinking recently we really need the extra games back in Melbourne. Bit sick of Tasmania now. Need as much Melb as possible.

 

[Walshawk]

Yeah been thinking recently we really need the extra games back in Melbourne. Bit sick of Tasmania now. Need as much Melb as possible.

Gather Round extends our time without games in Melbourne. We will know within three weeks if Tas get their team. Hopefully the club has worked out where we want our games from 2027.

 

[MrPremiership]

We need more games in Melbourne.

6 home MCG games is just poor.

 

[HedgeFund]

The good thing about York park is it is nice and big. We don’t want to be tiny ground specialists

More worrying is this gather round, while nice for some, seems to have delivered us a mere 13 games in Melbourne out of 23. So scrap selling games as the AFL is doing that anyway

Gather Round has zero impact on the number of games we have in Melbourne.

It was an additional round for every club on top of the standard fixture.

 

[Walshawk]

We need more games in Melbourne.

6 home MCG games is just poor.

Hopefully we are back in contention and drawing large crowds in 2025/26 when we re negotiating to play more MCG games. Melbourne and Richmond get ten games, Pies nine, Bombers and Blues as Marvel tenants will be playing five games there from 2025. Surely nine is the minimum for us.