17th licence clears last major hurdle, expansion on track as others contract

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17th licence clears last major hurdle, expansion on track as others contract

Authored by: Brett Northey
on Sunday, March 22 2009 @ 04:08 pm ACDT

The AFL have said they are committed to two teams in Adelaide, but also that Port need to get a better deal with the SANFL - that's debatable. But I think at the end of the day the SANFL won't want the Power to fold and aren't in as strong a position to stand firm as the AFL, so the most likely outcome is:

1. SANFL provide a compromise stadium deal (near term)
2. Port rebuild some of their lost crowds (medium term)
3. AFL provide more assistance at grassroots level in SA (medium term and not so confident)
4. Port grow a larger base as a percentage of Adelaide population, so obviously the Crows' base will shrink (longer term)

Port to Tassie just doesn't make sense. There's no connection between them, at a stretch perhaps Port would fold and Tassie would get the licence and the core of players.

If the Power were to continue to struggle then selling a couple of games to the NT would surely be an option - strong SA links with NT both politically and through footy, strong indigenous content in current Port side.

As for an NT club itself, said it before, the population is far smaller than Tasmania, so if it is a struggle for them, the NT would have to be 50 years away at best. Perhaps a Northern Australia side, embracing NT and North Queensland? A long way off though.

The bottom line for me is that Port are not in any immediate danger, and I think it's far more likely that the outcome will follow the 4 points I made above, and (hopefully less likely) the SANFL will lose one more club, reducing the split on the money they share from AAMI Stadium. This year also sees yet another move to conform - the SANFL will have an under 18 competition after having been under 17s and under 19s previously.

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

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