Soccer World Cup wants AFL to shut down for 8 weeks

[NQTIGER]

Did this happen in the USA in 1994? I can't imagine cities the size of LA, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit etc. forsook professional sport for two months.

Yes It did

 

[Fleece]

What was the arrangement when the USA hosted the world cup??

Im sure a compromise can be reached where we give them 4-5 weeks in return for the stadiums or something. 8 weeks is too much, other nations can practice during week days and we will clean the stadiums up adequatley, this is Melbourne we overuse our stadiums for different sports all the time we know what we're doing.

 

[fairdinkum]

To all those people saying 'But the AFL has a contract, the AFL has a contract...', have any of you seen the contract?

I would have thought any stadium management with its wits about it would include provisions in their contracts for the temporary cessation of regular contractual agreements in the unlikely event of a major coup such as the hosting of the World Cup.

 

[GuzzLG]

Did this happen in the USA in 1994? I can't imagine cities the size of LA, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit etc. forsook professional sport for 1-2 months.

There's no NBA or NFL in July, not sure what they did with baseball.

 

[Wetdog]

The AFL must accommodate the World Cup. It would benefit our economy and our standing on the world stage as one of the great sporting nations of the world. It would create jobs and exposure for our Country. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity.

The season should be reduced to 17 rounds split into two halves:

10 rounds from March to May
7 rounds from late July to September

Every team plays each other once. The pre-season cup should be abolished and substituted for a couple of practice matches in February. The finals should take place in September/October.

The AFL and Clubs should be compensated by the Government, Stadiums or whoever else for the lost gate receipts, television revenue etc for the 5 rounds. Simple as that.

 

[shintemaster]

mate the MCG will be filled for every game, there is no such thing as a smaller nation in the world cup.........

having coached in worldcup qualifiers both at youth and senior level i can assure you that the stadiums will be filled to capacity.


Its not North melbourne playing

Fair enough (insert sarcasm meter here and sense of humour in original post).

I guess you'll be able to pick a team to follow and they might even win.

After all, it's not Richmond playing.

 

[Tex_21]

From an economics point of view the WC would be huge.

From a personal point of view I find soccer completely boring as bat shit and would leave the country for 8 weeks if we got it. Would piss me off no end if the footy was disrupted.

 

[DapperDon]

And this is relevant how?

I couldn't care less if it was the game that they played in space by women in bikinis

In 15 years time I'll be wanting to watch and go to the footy like I do now during the footy season.

In 15 years time perhaps the WC can be played in October/November

Perhaps they can, but you need to see the bigger picture. Yes we all love our footy, the 8 weeks off will suck for a majority of people, but the amount of coverage this will bring to our country will be huge. Tourism will explode.

FIFA require 8 weeks as they don't want grounds being used, they need to be in pristine condition, they have warm up matches prior to the cup commencing by memory Socceroos arrived in Germany 3 weeks before their first group match.

Just enjoy this once in a lifetime chance to see the greatest event in the world, you wont see Johnny Farnham opening for this final.

AFL will always be here, World Cups are one in a million, and who knows. In 15 years time Socceroos might be good enough to be a shot.

 

[Hawkers]

From an economics point of view the WC would be huge.

From a personal point of view I find soccer completely boring as bat shit and would leave the country for 8 weeks if we got it. Would piss me off no end if the footy was disrupted.

This is what I would do

Heaps of empty planes flying all over the globe means cheap seats

 

[NQTIGER]

Fair enough (insert sarcasm meter here and sense of humour in original post).

I guess you'll be able to pick a team to follow and they might even win.

After all, it's not Richmond playing.

You are right i will pick a team to follow, and the comment about the size of the stadia was aimed at you guys as small boutique stadiums are right up norths alley, and mate i have eatemn a pie in the outer at arden street on a cold and windy saturday and even in those days when both our teams were shit hot we couldnt fill that ground

 

[thebigboy]

What was the arrangement when the USA hosted the world cup??

Im sure a compromise can be reached where we give them 4-5 weeks in return for the stadiums or something. 8 weeks is too much, other nations can practice during week days and we will clean the stadiums up adequatley, this is Melbourne we overuse our stadiums for different sports all the time we know what we're doing.

You need the 4 week period before the tournament to get everything in place. The turf needs to be perfect, seating will need to be adapted, facilities will need adapting. It's not something that can be done in a week or 2. It takes time to get everything into order.

We may know what were doing but FIFA have strict guidlines in place. There not going to want anything whatsoever to happen that could reduce the quality of the tournament.

I realise the timing cant be changed doesnt make it fair on AFL fans who apart from the Socceroos games and the finals dont care that much about the tournament.

My main beef is the 4 week leadup and the requirement to not compete at all. I'm not saying they cant have the MCG.

All up a 8 week break, with only a handful of WC games of any great interest. In that time over 60 AFL games would normally be played and I would watch about 20 of them on TV and attend 4-5.

if your a soccer fan it's nirvana but for primarily AFL fans it's a sideshow and interest centred on the Socceroos.

Fair doesn't exist in a competitive market. Microsoft don't consider being fair when they are making a decision that will effect there biggest rivals, and it won't happen in the sporting industry either.

I love footy as much as the next bloke and the idea of not watching the Bombers play every week live is not something that I like but the chance to host the worst greatest event is something that doesn't come around very often. England invented the game and have only hosted the tournament once.

I would suggest that if the tournament was held here, 80%+ of the population will be excited about it and would watch it and follow it with extreme interest, not just following the national team. Naturally, a few people won't and there noses will be put out of joint. This happens. The fact that the whole world's attention for a month would be focused on our country would provide a lot of Aussies with a sense of great pride.

 

[Ron The Bear]

There's no NBA or NFL in July, not sure what they did with baseball.

Fair enough.

Perhaps FIFA can come in November. Interesting to see whether they regard horse racing as a "major competition".

 

[Hawkers]

Perhaps they can, but you need to see the bigger picture. Yes we all love our footy, the 8 weeks off will suck for a majority of people, but the amount of coverage this will bring to our country will be huge. Tourism will explode.

FIFA require 8 weeks as they don't want grounds being used, they need to be in pristine condition, they have warm up matches prior to the cup commencing by memory Socceroos arrived in Germany 3 weeks before their first group match.

Just enjoy this once in a lifetime chance to see the greatest event in the world, you wont see Johnny Farnham opening for this final.

AFL will always be here, World Cups are one in a million, and who knows. In 15 years time Socceroos might be good enough to be a shot.

I understand all that. I don't understand why they can't play it around our existing structure.

It seems that the FFA or FIFA are saying 'we don't care about your existing sports. If you want the world cup do something about it'

If the reason they play the WC in the Northern Hemisphere summer is because of disruption to their leagues how about soccer accommodates soccer and moves their league timetables around rather than make us move ours?

 

[Giants FC]

From an economics point of view the WC would be huge.

I wonder whether it would be as huge as some are predicting. Once the costs of security (which will make APEC look like a Sunday school picnic) are taken into account, a lot of the benefits will be lost.

 

[NQTIGER]

I wonder whether it would be as huge as some are predicting. Once the costs of security (which will make APEC look like a Sunday school picnic) are taken into account, a lot of the benefits will be lost.

lol security, take a look at what south africa will be like in terms of success, and consider their security issues. we are a kindergarten playground compared to there and some south american countries.

mate the stadiums will not be bug enough.

 

[lazy]

This will be easily solved. The accountants will work out how much this will cost the AFL in lost revenue and the Government will write out a cheque to the AFL and a nice bonus for Vlad and the Commission.

Get ready for a smiling Vlad with heavy pockets telling the media how the AFL were happy to accomodate the WC for this one off year.

Has nobody worked out yet that its money that makes the world go around?

 

[RobbieK]

I understand all that. I don't understand why they can't play it around our existing structure.

It seems that the FFA or FIFA are saying 'we don't care about your existing sports. If you want the world cup do something about it'

If the reason they play the WC in the Northern Hemisphere summer is because of disruption to their leagues how about soccer accommodates soccer and moves their league timetables around rather than make us move ours?

You don't seem to understand that the World Cup fits within the existing structure of basically every international football league.

The expectation for every football league in every country in the world to change their dates, dates which have been constructed so that every 2 years the world cup or continental championship can be held at the same time without disrupting them, so that a single league in Australia should stay the same is parochialism on a ridiculous level.

 

[Hawkers]

You don't seem to understand that the World Cup fits within the existing structure of basically every international football league.

The expectation for every football league in every country in the world to change their dates, dates which have been constructed so that every 2 years the world cup or continental championship can be held at the same time without disrupting them, should change so that a single league in Australia should change is parochialism on a ridiculous level.

If they are all the same then surely it's easier to change them.

Why should Aussie Rules and Rugby have to move. As I said earlier - soccer can accommodate soccer. It's not our fault that Soccer have decided that June/July is the best time to play the WC so why should we be punished?

If they want to play it here then they have to fit in with our schedule - the same schedule that we've had for well over 100 years

 

[RobbieK]

If they are all the same then surely it's easier to change them.

Why should Aussie Rules and Rugby have to move. As I said earlier - soccer can accommodate soccer. It's not our fault that Soccer have decided that June/July is the best time to play the WC so why should we be punished?

If they want to play it here then they have to fit in with our schedule - the same schedule that we've had for well over 100 years

Seriously, are you as dense as you are making yourself out to be? You are suggesting that hundreds of leagues around the world should change their dates so that two don't have to. It makes no sense whatsoever.

I can understand you not liking the fact there is no AFL for that 8 weeks, if we get the World Cup. I can't understand how any rational person would think the solution is not to suck it up and take the compensation that will no doubt come, and is instead to force a change on every other country in the world.

 

[LionDylan]

Piss off, why cant they do their shitty little event in summer?

 

[Hawkers]

Seriously, are you as dense as you are making yourself out to be? You are suggesting that hundreds of leagues around the world should change their dates so that two don't have to. It makes no sense whatsoever.

I can understand you not liking the fact there is no AFL for that 8 weeks, if we get the World Cup. I can't understand how any rational person would think the solution is not to suck it up and take the compensation that will no doubt come, and is instead to force a change on every other country in the world.

I'm not suggesting that. I couldn't care less how it's handled or what soccer does as long as there is no disruption to the footy season

 

[Redb#]

You need the 4 week period before the tournament to get everything in place. The turf needs to be perfect, seating will need to be adapted, facilities will need adapting. It's not something that can be done in a week or 2. It takes time to get everything into order.

We may know what were doing but FIFA have strict guidlines in place. There not going to want anything whatsoever to happen that could reduce the quality of the tournament.

Fair doesn't exist in a competitive market. Microsoft don't consider being fair when they are making a decision that will effect there biggest rivals, and it won't happen in the sporting industry either.

I love footy as much as the next bloke and the idea of not watching the Bombers play every week live is not something that I like but the chance to host the worst greatest event is something that doesn't come around very often. England invented the game and have only hosted the tournament once.

I would suggest that if the tournament was held here, 80%+ of the population will be excited about it and would watch it and follow it with extreme interest, not just following the national team. Naturally, a few people won't and there noses will be put out of joint. This happens. The fact that the whole world's attention for a month would be focused on our country would provide a lot of Aussies with a sense of great pride.

Let's just say the AFL agreed to no use of the MCG for 8 weeks. This fits in with all of FIFA's requirements. The AFL would need to be massively compensated, but say it is agreed.

Eithad has removable turf so no-one can argue about pitch quality, although they do seem to stuff it up reguarly. In 10 years might have artifical turf? But lets say it also clear for 8 weeks.

Princes Park, Geelong, the old VFL grounds, Windy Hill, Vic Park, Arden St (with added temp seating) could host AFL games in the 4 weeks leading up to the tournament and the first 2 weeks, leaving a 2 week mid season break for WC finals.

It appears FIFA wont allow any of that.

 

[The_Eagles]

The World Cup ffs...8 weeks disruption is a small price to pay.

 

[SaintsSeptember]

I realise the timing cant be changed doesnt make it fair on AFL fans who apart from the Socceroos games and the finals dont care that much about the tournament.

My main beef is the 4 week leadup and the requirement to not compete at all. I'm not saying they cant have the MCG.

All up a 8 week break, with only a handful of WC games of any great interest. In that time over 60 AFL games would normally be played and I would watch about 20 of them on TV and attend 4-5.

if your a soccer fan it's nirvana but for primarily AFL fans it's a sideshow and interest centred on the Socceroos.

Exactly, and the fact that they pander to teams like Chelsea, Real Madrid etc will only piss of AFL devotee's more.

AFL could demand : Significant upgrades to Manuka , Aurora etc.

In the four week period before the World cup the AFL would be able to utilise Stadiums in the Capital cities not used by the Soccer. ( I'm calling it Soccer not football on purpose ).
So of the currently used Stadiums:
Kardinia Park, SCG, Gabba, Whatever they use at Darwin ( AFL games scheduled as of 2010) Aurora , Manuka Oval, Football Park, could all be used for the four weeks prior to the cup.

During the cup only Skilled, Darwin, and Aurora could be used.

Wouldn't be the best but I would consider a couple of split rounds could be run in the four weeks before the world cup.
For the other four weeks, we'll just have to watch soccer.

 

[RobbieK]

Let's just say the AFL agreed to no use of the MCG for 8 weeks. This fits in with all of FIFA's requirements. The AFL would need to be massively compensated, but say it is agreed.

Eithad has removable turf so no-one can argue about pitch quality, although they do seem to stuff it up reguarly. In 10 years might have artifical turf? But lets say it also clear for 8 weeks.

Princes Park, Geelong, the old VFL grounds, Windy Hill, Vic Park, Arden St (with added temp seating) could host AFL games in the 4 weeks leading up to the tournament and the first 2 weeks, leaving a 2 week mid season break for WC finals.

It appears FIFA wont allow any of that.

I don't think the AFL would want it either, to be honest - do you really see those grounds hosting 21st century AFL games?

The AFL will kick up a stink, but they know the World Cup will be the biggest sporting event to ever be hosted in this country, they will take compensation and they will plan the league accordingly.