Footynomics: the economics of the AFL's future

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Footynomics: the economics of the AFL's future

Authored by: Michael Christiansen
on Monday, January 04 2010 @ 09:15 pm ACDT

Good article.

I still work on the theory that 'globalisation' is a oft misused term to imply homogenisation (culturally/economically etc).

Reality is that the 'free information globalised pathway' of the internet is a localisation re-inforcement tool. It allows grass roots to have global reach.....or....at least have access to such. Who knows how long it'll last - - in many ways, the internet as is - is probably too good to be true.

For now though, the world of soccer is so big and crowded that - as the author comments - there's very little true 'global' attention rather than that there is a vast aggregation of competing forces under the banner of 'soccer'. This sort of intra-sport 'competition' worked well for cricket via the 'Packer' era. And may work well now for cricket with the IPL etc shaking the game up.

Soccer is a different matter altogether. In essence, the soccer world is made up of a dozen competing 'IPL' leagues......and that's full season rather than a 3-4 week window.

And so back to Aust Footy - - - in some ways, why should 'Australia' in the name be a hinderance? Sure, let the local 'introductory program' have a local flavour, but, Manchester United retains 'Manchester', the New York 'Yankees' retain 'New York'. Whilst the AFL is run from Australia and the international cup and new U-16 talent pathways are all centered around nice, pretty, 'safe'(!?) and remote Australia - then, why not?

The simple fact in recent years that we have seen non-Australian 'expats' starting up clubs and leagues from scratch, or 2 Aussies and 20 locals etc.....illustrates that for a portion of any population, the game sells itself.

We know that from a skills basis - that 'product' football has 3 distinct groupings....that effectively places Soccer on one pole, the Rugby codes and Grid Iron at the other, and Aust Footy pretty well in between. surely there's a marketplace demand for the void to be populated.

Footynomics: the economics of the AFL's future

Authored by: TimSmith
on Tuesday, January 05 2010 @ 01:55 am ACDT

I wholeheartedly agree with you Mick, there is space for that void to be filled, its just a matter of people knowing that there is a sport for them to play.

Costa, I wrote that piece about the AFL term not being recognised internationally (Uni article) - because it isn't!! And this written before I'd seen your comment on this article. Just like you were saying if you asked an American what AFL is... even in my 3rd training session with the Sharks (with no players who had ever played footy before) I mentioned AFL and some people had never heard of the term. The fact is its just not a known term outside of Oceania.

However, people do know of 'aussie rules', even if they've just heard the name. I believe as the sport expands it should be expanded through the use of the sport, not one league which most people can't even watch on free TV channels. Saying that, if AFL was on free-to-air TV in this country it would undoubtedly encourage growth in the sport, but you need the sport here in the first place for the free-to-air TV channels to be interested. Catch 22

Cheers,
Tim Smith
President, University of Birmingham Sharks

Footynomics: the economics of the AFL's future

Authored by: Michael Christiansen
on Tuesday, January 05 2010 @ 09:25 am ACDT

In the USA, 'AFL' means 'Arena Football League',

'Aussie Rules' sadly seems to work for many people,.....but,.....I guess it sums it up pretty well as a nick name.

re economics - - for now, surely we need to get Simon Crean to back up his 'export product' statement and get the Fed Govt doing some serious work to support an 'export' of Australian culture and effectively establish a position of cultural/sporting hegemony.

Perhaps an evolution of these 'international' junior rep sides in the National Championships is a logical start to progress to a point of greater Aust Govt support (greater......some to start with!!!).

Footynomics: the economics of the AFL's future

Authored by: Brett Northey
on Tuesday, January 05 2010 @ 03:59 pm ACDT

We should be careful to recognise support when it does occur though. Let's brainstorm for a few minutes:

- There have been a few multi-million dollar handouts to Victorian AFL clubs for facilities in the last couple of years.

- When the Pacific Islands Leaders Forum was on a few months ago, the AFL and AFL Oceania staged the exhibition game between the North Queensland selection and a Pacific selection. That was great promotion and done with all those Prime Ministers etc watching and must have been done in collaboration with the Federal Government.

- There is an expectation that the Federal Government will kick in up to $100 million for the Adelaide Oval redevelopment of AFL moves there.

- The Federal Government is contributing $36 million towards the Gold Coast's stadium

- There continue to be AusAID placements of Youth Ambassadors in several Pacific locations who are in Australian football roles.

- I expect the Shanghai AFL exhibition match later this year will be interwoven with Federal Government and state government business efforts. In the lead up to its announcement Simon Crean talked about the opportunities so obviously they are involved.

So some of those are in-country funds and some promote the growth of the game internationally. I think that's a pretty good contribution during the first two years of the new government. No doubt there's more behind the scenes in development. We'd love to see more but we probably shouldn't grumble too much - if the game is seen to be ungrateful they'll either throw more at it or spend the money somewhere else!

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

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

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