Covid 19 and footy - season (suspended) now resumed

[barracuda]

Actually it is pretty dire for clubs and the AFL. The revenue comes from gate takings and TV rights. With no fans, no takings, so each club suffers big losses. The TV rights only get paid if the games get televised. The cancelling of the first 5 rounds will cost a staggering $400m to the AFL. If a season is cancelled then the revenue lost is around $2bn. Fox and Murdoch don't have to pay if the games are not played. It is that simple.

If the AFL suffers these losses it would be technically bankrupt and would need to seek financing from the banks, or alternatively someone like Murdoch would take over ownership of the league. Either way it would survive, but the consequences would be a huge scaling down of the work the AFL does in the communities, clubs, academies and all grass roots. Effectively the AFL would become like the ARL, with little funding for anything. Player salaries would also be reduced making other sports more attractive for elite athletes. It would take many decades for the AFL to recover if at all.

I continue to be of the view that the teams should be completely isolated from the community and family, and that the full season be played and televised. This will protect the AFL who is then in a better position to support the clubs who will not have gate takings. I see the the NRL is exploring moving all 16 teams to a town in Queensland for this very reason, as they are in the same predicament.

I am not that sympathetic to the players being away from family for three months or so. Most of us have had to do so for our careers at some stage, whether fly in fly out or relocated. I know I have and I don't get to be a footy player.

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/cal...17-p54b4g.html

[KTigers]

Barra, I think the TV deal is worth about $500M per season (not $2bn). Even so, it's a hit that would decimate the finances of the AFL
and the clubs. This is why they are so desperate to play. Without a crowd they've already lost the ticket money, and clubs will maybe
have to refund some of the membership money a lot of us pay to basically get a plastic card that gets us into eleven games at the
SCG every year. With no games there is no TV money, and the sponsors will start jumping ship too. It's not like their businesses will
be going gangbusters if this thing goes on for a long time. It's not pretty.

[The Big Cat]

clubs will maybe
have to refund some of the membership money a lot of us pay to basically get a plastic card that gets us into eleven games at the
SCG every year.

I can’t believe what I’m reading when i see people talking about membership refunds. I pay my membership to help the club, game entry is a bonus not the raison d’etre. When club finances take a hit like now, this the exact time not to be expecting a refund if you support the club!

[MattW]

I can’t believe what I’m reading when i see people talking about membership refunds. I pay my membership to help the club, game entry is a bonus not the raison d’etre. When club finances take a hit like now, this the exact time not to be expecting a refund if you support the club!

Totally.

[barry]

I can’t believe what I’m reading when i see people talking about membership refunds. I pay my membership to help the club, game entry is a bonus not the raison d’etre. When club finances take a hit like now, this the exact time not to be expecting a refund if you support the club!

I don't think that view is universal. And there is no reason why a member shouldnt get a refund if big corporates like foxtel are (only paying for games that go ahead).
Especially when members start losing their jobs and money is tight. $200 means a lot more to Joe blow than it does to a $40m "corporate" like the swans.

[barracuda]

Barra, I think the TV deal is worth about $500M per season (not $2bn). Even so, it's a hit that would decimate the finances of the AFL
and the clubs. This is why they are so desperate to play. Without a crowd they've already lost the ticket money, and clubs will maybe
have to refund some of the membership money a lot of us pay to basically get a plastic card that gets us into eleven games at the
SCG every year. With no games there is no TV money, and the sponsors will start jumping ship too. It's not like their businesses will
be going gangbusters if this thing goes on for a long time. It's not pretty.

Sorry, you are correct, it's 2.5bn over 6 years!

[KTigers]

I don't think that view is universal. And there is no reason why a member shouldnt get a refund if big corporates like foxtel are (only paying for games that go ahead).
Especially when members start losing their jobs and money is tight. $200 means a lot more to Joe blow than it does to a $40m "corporate" like the swans.

Agree. Ultimately it's no different to a ticket to something like the theatre being refunded. People can decide whether they want the
money refunded or treated as a donation to the theatre company or the footy club. And that will be their decision. As you say, not
everyone will be able to afford to not receive a refund, especially those who've lost their jobs as a result of this thing.

[The Big Cat]

I don't think that view is universal. And there is no reason why a member shouldnt get a refund if big corporates like foxtel are (only paying for games that go ahead).

Foxtel is a business and have no emotional attachment to any club, members are supporters of OUR club. If games do not go ahead or progress without spectators, then members have lost nothing except a day at the footy. If you were sick on match day in a normal year would you ask the Swans to refund you the entrance fee? No way. My family and I buy four memberships between us and attend perhaps two games each.

[Blood Fever]

I can’t believe what I’m reading when i see people talking about membership refunds. I pay my membership to help the club, game entry is a bonus not the raison d’etre. When club finances take a hit like now, this the exact time not to be expecting a refund if you support the club!

+1

[stevoswan]

Hutchy on footy classified wants to extend the finals to 10 or 12 teams if it's a shortened season. This seems counter-intuitive. Wouldnt you reduce the finals to final 4 or 5 to get as many h&a games in instead??

Hutchy again proves himself to be one of the more ignorable footy "experts"......he's a bit of a vacuous joke.

[707]

I can’t believe what I’m reading when i see people talking about membership refunds. I pay my membership to help the club, game entry is a bonus not the raison d’etre. When club finances take a hit like now, this the exact time not to be expecting a refund if you support the club!

I'm an interstate member, cost of that is $120?, I get entry to the single game in Adelaide.

Regardless of the outcomes, I won't be asking for a refund or partial refund. As a loyal member I'd like to think I'm doing my bit to support the club at a dire time, a bit like making a donation if we were going broke.

I'd hope as many as possible would see it this way.

[Ludwig]

I think the financial support for the club is a byproduct of the emotional support for the team. The AFL and the clubs are going to take a big financial hit. It's a question of how the losses are divvied up. Those who have profited the most in the past from AFL (the league, the broadcasters and the players) should be ahead of the supporters in the queue for taking a monetary hit. It's been the fans who have taken money from their pockets to be put in the pockets of these other parties. Perhaps now it's time for the flow to go the other way.

The epidemiological estimates that I've heard for the percent of the population likely to be infected by COVID ranges from 40% to 80%, so it's hard to see how the season will go ahead to any great extent. Next season could also be in jeopardy before vaccination and herd immunity kick in to quell the infection rate.