2011 confirmed for next IC, location up for tender

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2011 confirmed for next IC, location up for tender

Authored by: Brett Northey
on Friday, January 09 2009 @ 01:01 pm ACDT

Although again, to be fair, NZ have had more support from the AFL in recent years than most other countries.

There are lots of good arguments why it should be in one place or another, but as Troy suggests, it will probably take a bid with pretty big backing to get it to a city outside of Australia - key issues I would think will be finding a place that has:

1. the interest
2. the facilities
3. the attraction to other nations
4. the right climate at the right time of year to suit most nations
5. the extensive support staff needed
6. strong financial backing
7. ease of access

I would think point 1 could be argued against, in that it need not be somewhere already converted.

Point 2 is a restriction, but the USAFL have used polo fields successfully to set up a location, as have the AFL in Dubai for a NAB Cup game in 2008.

Point 3 is important. Without the enticement of AFL matches to be seen, every other bid will start behind most Australian capital cities.

Point 4 is less difficult if the AFL is prepared to stage it during the AFL season, then most current footy countries can probably offer reasonable conditions.

Point 5 is a big one. If we assume that the AFL are not going to fly in a large number of support staff for 2 weeks, then a nation would need to have sufficient numbers for field umpires, goal umpires, boundary umpires, trainers, match day officials, media liaison, etc. You would think some umpires and staff would be flown in, and most countries would probably be required to supply some umpires. But most international Australian Football tournaments so far staged outside of Australia have been weekend events, not 2 week events. So a big ask for volunteers, be they from Australia or elsewhere.

Point 6 would probably make it very hard for some of the less developed nations. I just doubt big companies are excited by backing a tournament in say PNG or Samoa.

Point 7 worries me. How easy is it for sportsmen from developing countries to get entry to countries like the US for a sport few in the US government will have heard of?

I suspect it would be very very difficult for a potential host to be any country other than Australia (that's what I think not what I want), but if it was to be another nation, I think it would most likely come from the US, Canada, NZ, South Africa or a European country with reasonable Aussie Rules numbers already, such as England or Denmark. Ireland would be unlikely due to the AFL's relationship with the GAA. Perhaps India would be a chance with cricket support.

That's just my initial thoughts on it all. I'm very pleased to see the AFL are opening the location up to tender - the event is big enough and important enough that cities should value it and be required to put in a good bid.

You could imagine 10 European countries alone turning up if it was in Europe. And that would be much more convenient for the US and Canada. A big ask for Oceania countries but they have had it on their doorstep 3 times already now.

There also remains the question of whether some form of amateur Australian team would compete. I'd like to see some consideration given to that, but it should be tested first to make sure that it would be competitive with the top 2 or 3 nations, not blow them away. It may be that no sensible conditions could be imposed just yet. How would PNG go against an All-Australian Under 18 side? And would it be fair on the Aussie kids to subject them to that many games against adults playing hard footy for their country in a short space of time? It's probably still 10 years too early, but should be weighed up, and there was some discussion on it already.

We'll hopefully get more information from the AFL about the tender process later on.

---
Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

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