Andrew Demetriou knows how to use the AFL's best assets

News that Southern football league team St Kilda City had done a deal with a local brothel on some desperately needed sponsorship dollars was swiftly followed by another headline announcing the Australian Football League (AFL) had stepped in to stop it. How is this possible you may ask? 

For decades local football clubs have thrived, barely survived or died depending on 1. The integrity of their administrators and 2.  Access to local sponsors and support.

If you’ve got some honest blokes running the place, some loyal sponsors and the odd ex AFL player in your ranks and Premierships beckon. If, on the other hand Joe (the club treasurer) has been employing the old one for me one for you or worse the 2 for me 1 for you finance policy from the bar and tuckshop take at your club then you’re gonna struggle.

In recent years a perceived white knight with pocketfuls of cash arrived promising all your troubles will be over.  For some clubs it sounded pretty attractive. To have a big national league looking after you in principle seems like a good idea. As long as you sign away your league constitutional rights to self government we’ll look after you and it’ll be happy days was the line from the AFL.  

Deals were done and now the AFL can legally dictate policy to local football clubs just as they do the AFL clubs. They have the power to stop you from engaging in a sponsorship deal they don’t like just as they have done to St Kilda City.

Now I don’t know about you but it seems to me that a having these self serving knobs from the AFL bossing around local football clubs is not my idea of democracy.  

The AFL has proven since its creation to be driven by financial secrecy, totalitarianism, bullying and greed. In fact you might say they have a structure a 3^rd world dictatorship would be proud of. They have the cheek to insult our intelligence and sell AFL ‘memberships’ that have no voting rights! Their hierarchy is a boys club (with the odd chick thrown in to satify PC zealots) and they are forever lobbying for taxpayer money from state and federal governments to help them grow.

After the South Australia state government announced its funding to redevelop the Adelaide Oval to accommodate football Mr Demetriou had a woody for a week. If I’m not mistaken the AFL are a private for profit business. Why are they receiving taxpayer funded grants?   Within a year or so they will be negotiating a new deal on broadcasting rights rumoured to be in the vicinity of $1 billion.

Presently I’m reading that at least 4 AFL clubs can’t make a profit on their own and survive only because of the bailout cheques the AFL drip feed them. The AFL could easily distribute ALL the cash they get for broadcasting rights amongst the clubs and there would be plenty of money for clubs to pay their bills but wait…no the AFL are too smart for that. It’s much better business to constantly have your clubs cap in hand and out with the begging bowl pleading with their fans to buy a membership every year. It’s sickening.

The AFL has a contract to supply 8 games a week. The AFL cannot let a club go under without breaching their contract. There is no way they would let one fold. They keep this quiet. They think we’re all stupid. The present strategy is they like to keep the fans in perpetual fear that their beloved club could get the chop or merge so they will cough up for another membership each year.

The AFL has a history squeezing the nuts of everyone they are associated with and now local footy has sold it soul and is no longer free to make its own decisions.  It’s a Pity, those who signed away their league rights may think Big Brother will look after them but if I know Big Brother he only looks after himself.