Australia

NT joins Tasmania in bid for next AFL team with model ‘unprecedented in Australian sport’


The Northern Territory’s bid for the next AFL team licence is urging the league’s administration to forgo commercial considerations and establish an AFL club with “social impact” as the “key objective”.

AFL Northern Territory today released its long-awaited report which it will use to lobby AFL headquarters to make the NT home to an AFL side.

“The Northern Territory does not meet the conventional AFL licence measures of being a region of large and growing population and a non-traditional AFL centre,” the report said.

“Whilst this is clear and undeniable, this project has uncovered a unique opportunity to review this expansion differently.

“The potential of an AFL team based out of the NT to affect social and community change is immense and is worthy of further exploration.”

AFLNT chief executive Stuart Totham said it could be 10 years before a Territory team was in the AFL and urged everyone involved to “dream big”.

“If you’ve got a team here it’s a pathway to a career, it’s a pathway to a better life.”

Mr Totham also said a team from the Territory would include a women’s team and would not be Darwin-centric.

“This is a team for all Territorians,” he said.

The Northern Territory bid comes three months after an AFL taskforce delivered a report backing a bid for Tasmania to be granted the next AFL team licence.

But where the Tasmanian document implored the AFL to consider financial factors, such as the “substantial” possibility the code would lose ground to other sports elbowing their way into the market, the Northern Territory’s argument is largely based on the positive social impacts that would trickle down from a local team.

Tasmania is looking to join the AFL by 2025.

AFL matches in Darwin are currently played at TIO Stadium.(

Supplied: Celina Whan / AFLNT

)

Mr Totham said the Territory had taken a different approach to Tasmania.

“Tassie have taken an approach that we [Tasmania] deserve a team, and maybe they do,” he said.

“With us … a bit more pragmatic, what do we need to get ready, because we know we are not ready, we know we can’t have a team at the moment.

“We’ve got work to do.”

He said a team in the Territory would see more local players in the AFL and stressed the importance of the NT doing everything it could to be ready if the AFL gave it the green light.

“It’s not about saying we need a team today … if in 10 years’ time an opportunity became available, what are the things we need to work on to make sure we are ready to take that opportunity.”

The findings of the report by consultants Bastion EBA, commissioned by AFL Northern Territory with a $100,000 grant from the NT government, conceded a Northern Territory team would likely run at a $15 million loss.

Dustin Martin handpasses against Essendon
Darwin hosted the 2020 AFL Dreamtime match to frenzied local crowds.(

AAP: Julian Smith

)

The projected annual operating cost is just over $45 million, with an estimated revenue of $30 million.

The report said money from the federal and NT governments would be recouped due to transformative impacts a local professional team could have on social outcomes for Territorians.

The report said the most viable strategy for establishing an AFL team in the NT was through an “unconventional model”.

“The unconventional model emphasises social impact as the core objective of the team to drive funding that fills the revenue gap,” the report said.

“Prioritising social impact would be unprecedented in Australian and potentially global professional sport.”

COVID delayed bid: AFLNT

The AFL Northern Territory board received the report in September 2019 but sat on it for more than 18 months.

Earlier this year Mr Totham said administrative upheaval due to the coronavirus pandemic had led to significant delays in the release of the report.

The funding for the “scoping study” into a potential AFL team was first announced by Chief Minister Michael Gunner in October 2018



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