World Footy News

This opinion piece expands the argument that I made in a letter to The Age and an earlier piece (Show Me the Money!). It is not that I think the AFL should stop funding Queensland and start funding the USA with the money it saves. I actually believe the development of footy in Queensland should be a top AFL priority. What I'm saying is if it's worthwhile for the AFL to spend $10m (Australian) in Queensland then surely it's worthwhile to spend $0.5m in the US.

Even though Queensland has had a formal league since 1964 and USFooty has only been around since 1998, the two places are not too different from each other in terms of players and development (see table for a comparison). Queensland has 3,600 adult players while the US has around 2,000. Queensland has over 22,000 participants in Auskick while USFooty claims to have conducted clinics for around 20,000 kids annually (see the World Footy News Census for more discussion of these numbers). Admittedly, the US numbers are approximations but I would argue that with better financing these numbers would become more accurate and they would quickly overtake the Queensland numbers. The biggest discrepancy comes with comparing junior players in both places. Queensland has about 11,000 while the US may have 40. But this goes exactly to my point. The US needs to take the next step and to do this it needs money to finance full-time administrators, coaches and junior development officers.

To me the most important difference between the two places is “potential”. The potential for growth in the US is absolutely enormous and far outweighs the growth potential in Queensland. The US population is almost 100 times the size of the Queensland population and the US economy is more than 1000 times that of Queensland. The AFL does not have to dominate the US sports market to be a huge success. In a country where a regular high school football game can draw 5,000 people, there is plenty of market for everyone. A 50% share of the Queensland market is equal to less than 0.5% of the US market. While I agree that growing the US market is significantly riskier than growing the Queensland market, the upside difference is enormous. Further, remember that I’m arguing that the US investment should be increased to just 5% of the current AFL investment in Queensland.

The AFL needs to take a hard look at its investment decisions and its development priorities. With limited funding, USFooty has been remarkably successful. USFooty needs to take the next step and develop junior football, but in order to do that it needs a substantial increase in AFL funding.

Notes:
1. Queensland numbers from AFL 2004 Annual Report
2. USFooty numbers from World Footy News Census 2004 and USFooty 2003 Achievements (metrics may differ)
3. Spending numbers from AFL 2004 Annual Report and personal educated guess
4. Queensland demographics from ABS
5. US Earnings from BLS
6. All money in $AUS