doggies4eva wrote:
Beauty! At least some sensible comments so we can have a debate. I've gotta have my 5 cents worth.
So to respond to your points Wedgie:
1. Money
$1m you say? Well money in the SANFL comes to the clubs from:
Fundraising
Sponsors
Members and attendance
SANFL distributions
The work to be done by the NTAFL will be to put together a plan which gathers revenue from the above sources - if they join SANFL distributions will be a given. Membership and attendance should not either as on a pro rata basis the NT is stronger than SA. Tassie you numbering is suspect - first of all you have counted the entire SA population. Crowds for SANFL come from the Adelaide metro area so your figuring should be 1m people divided by 9 clubs - about the same as the 110,000 in Darwin. Dunno where you got your 63% figure from but the combined attendances of NTAFL games exceed the average club attendance in SANFL - hence NT is more strongly supported.
Sponsors - now that could be a problem - they are not many big corporates up here so Marketing would have to work hard - however having an Adelaide team in town every second week must be some sort of incentive for accomodation and the rest of the tourism industry to get behind the concept.
Fundraising - I can't seen any problem there - Nt has pokies too!
2. Dry season - Yes this is an issue - It is perfectly possible to play in the dry but currently it is played in the wet. The problem is how do you keep your reserves match fit?
3. Recruits - a lot you say? Looking at that composite side on Saturday I'd say they were two or three players short of a win. North were bigger and stronger. The strength issue can be fixed by a more professional gym program and the bigger is where recruiting comes in. Note that at the moment there are quite a few NT players of high quality in the AFL. If there was a SANFL team up here I suggest that there'd be more! Those AFL players would probably be keen to have the opportunity of playing for a home team when their AFL careers are over. I suggest that recruitment may no be the issue you think. If the dollars are there the players will come.
4. Darwin is small - yeah but I think point 1 covers this - it is about 1/9th of Adelaide. About the right size for a team to be competitive.
The main issues as I see them are off the field - do we have NT administators with the vision and drive to make this happen? Will the AFL be supportive or white ant the idea? The AFL have a fair bit of control over NT having bailed them out recently.
I'll reply to your posts doggies:
1 Money: Do you think SANFL clubs are going to want to have their distribution dwindle even further by having it going to a 10th team in the NT plus the cost of travel and accom? It is going to cost 400 000 to fund travel for 20 games involving the NT team. The AFL fund the travel for 35 people for games interstate, can the SANFL afford fund 20 games involving 30 people? Or do you make the NTAFL pay for the privilege of playing in our comp. Therefore the budget for the NT team is going to be ~$1.8 Million based on Glenelgs expenditure for 2005 ($1.4 Mill and the cost of travel and accom). I only use Glenelg expenditure as an example, because we weren't successful I'm sure the succesfull clubs spend more......
Expenditure for consumables, medical supples and all the costs associated with putting a team on the park for the NT team are going to be higher than a SANFL team due to the "NT Levy" placed on all goods going to the NT. Having been involved at the SANFL level and the NT Institute of Sport we paid a lot more for medical supplies etc than we would in Adelaide. Doggies I'm sure yuou the differences in cist between Darwin and Adelaide......
Pokies, Doggies talk to NT cricket and NT 8 ball about their dwindling returns from the Casuarina club, pokies aren't the panacia for sporting orgs up there as they are in Adelaide. The NTAFL club is located 20 km away from the ground in a population centre of 20 000 people. As you know Doggies Darwin people won't travel to Palmerston to play the pokies when they drive to one of the several pokies places in Darwin itself....
Have a chat to company marketers, thir budgets are miniscule compared to SA marketing budgets as the NT market is so small, 200 000 v 1.7 Mill. I know I had the conversation with them regarding the test cricket in Darwin....Major sponsorship decisions are made in southern states not at the Darwin level.
The plan for this team has been in place since 2000, talk to Bob Elix and the last three NTAFL General Managers. If they could raise the funds for this it would have been done by now.
Govt funds....NT S&R has a budget of $14 Mill, the funds for events is $5 Mill, that has to help pay for 4 AFL games, 1 game each of NNL, NBL & NRL along with Masters games in Alice and the joke Arafura games in Darwin. The last two are biennial plus there are 2 test matches to be played in 2007 & 2008. The stated policy of the NT Govt is the best competiton events to be played in Darwin and Alice, not regular 2nd best comps. In other words it is not part of the current NT governemts agenda. The U/18 program fits into their NTIS concept. So chances of NT Govt funds, zilch.....
AFL already prop up the NTAFL (bailed them out of the poo in 2002) and significantly fund the U/18 team. As I have said previously they do not want the SANFL to become to strong compared to the other state leagues....
2. Good AFL players who could play in the NT SANFL side play Rugby league and Union in the dry season......e.g. Jarred Illet
For the team to be viable they need the NTAFL to move to a dry season comp but the clubs will not allow it as they now they will lose players to other codes. This debate has been in NT footy circles for 30 years
3. Having worked at the NTIS I know the footy players application towards weight training and physical conditioning very poor. Darwin footy culture is social not elite sport, far easier to go drinking with you mates and brothers than to train hard....An example of NT footy palyers attitude to training is I know of one team that only had 12 players rock up to training on the Tues before a GF once!!! Great application hey??
4. Irrespective of my figures, I agree the population of darwin is 110 000 but only 2/3 of that follow footy, so the footy specific market is only 70 000. My population arguement not only covers sponsorship $$$ but the player development base to put a league team on the park. That is my point using the SA figures (all of it) SANFL teams with their county and Metro zones produce a league team based on 170 000 people not 70 000.
The crux of sports development is that all successful sporting organisations have a broad base of participation, In Darwin that broad base of participation just isn't there to support the development of SANFL league footballers. Read some of the sports developemt papers of the Australain sports Commission and a bloke called Istvan Balyi if you doubt what I say.
In short it is a great idea, and my heart says I would like to see it happen but my head knows the population of the NT that follows footy, the funds required and the entrenced sporting culture of the NT will not permit the formation of a viable long term 10th team in the SANFL comp.
Better off putting a team in the growth areas of Adelaide.
Personally, when I take over from Leigh, I will relocate North Adelaide to Golden grove, give Woodville the Prospect/Broadville area , push Westies and Glenelg further south and put West Torrens back in their heart land......

Let that be a lesson to you Port, no one beats the Bays five times in a row in a GF and gets away with it!!!