2 minutes ago, Diamond_Jim said:

The Darwin stadium only has a capacity of 12.5k and the Alice Springs 10k so the crowd numbers are not that relevant.

The game is underwritten by the NT government who carry the crowd risk anyway.

It's a soul destroying money opportunity that has no upside. FWIW if you are thinking of growing the membership base, the city of Casey alone has more than twice the population of the whole of Darwin.

The NT Government aren't taking that risk without some guaranteed return, particularly with the Crows having links to the NT with their AFLW side I expect we'll see the Crows in one of the games most years.

7 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

The NT Government aren't taking that risk without some guaranteed return, particularly with the Crows having links to the NT with their AFLW side I expect we'll see the Crows in one of the games most years.

I can assure you the NT government is a deal taker not a deal maker. Other than the Suns and Brisbane no one is remotely interested in playing there.

A fair percentage of the tickets are give aways as I understand it and are probably supplemented by the NT buying a stack of three game memberships.

The irony is that we could have done the China deal and be paid for one game the same as we get for two NT games

Edited June 3, 20196 yr by Diamond_Jim

we should have done a port adelaide and won the nt contract as away games

3 minutes ago, daisycutter said:

we should have done a port adelaide and won the nt contract as away games

how Port ever got that one through is akin to daylight robbery not to mention that the losses are underwritten by the AFL.

If you amortise the cost of the stadium upgrade funded by the AFL it is unlikely that it will ever break even.

On 6/2/2019 at 9:38 AM, Diamond_Jim said:

Surprised by the 'surprise" expressed in the post game thread about the crowd being Pro Adelaide.

NT has been a major supporter of South Australian teams for decades.

Similarly due to geographical location Adelaide has always been the "big smoke" for NT residents.

If anybody thinks we are building support in the NT by this fiasco they believe in fairies at the bottom of the garden and that Port will have 200M Chinese followers after today.

It's about money pure and simple.

A few people have been potting Pert lately but I'm not sure he has had much time to do anything wrong. Last year IIRC Jackson re- signed us to another four years of ignominy in the North.

If Pert can get rid of these games he'll have my backing for that alone.

No one else does such a ridiculous transition... (Port in China is a joke)... Tasmania is reasonable and will change soon when North relocates (I hope.) Even the Bulldogs are now paid to play in Ballarat whereas in recent years they were sent to Cairns.

Last year all the members had to pay $5 to go on the waiting list for GF tickets that never eventuated. We happily paid it. Would we each pay $5 to Ditch Darwin.

I would happily pay $20 DJ.  Count me as down.  I would also think we are more closely aligned with Tassie (historically given past players) than either the Hawks & Norf.  Yet here we are trying to tout an NT fan base whose roots lie with SA footy.

37 minutes ago, Diamond_Jim said:

I can assure you the NT government is a deal taker not a deal maker. Other than the Suns and Brisbane no one is remotely interested in playing there.

A fair percentage of the tickets are give aways as I understand it and are probably supplemented by the NT buying a stack of three game memberships.

The irony is that we could have done the China deal and be paid for one game the same as we get for two NT games

They said that the Demons wouldn'y fly in China.

Maybe we could have become the Dragons...  or perhaps  'the Scorpions',  might have been more to their tastes ?

This sucks to write because I was born in the NT and grew up in Darwin, and to have Darwin/the NT be a part of the team I love is just another reason to love my team…but if it's gonna cost us on-field success then we have to get rid of this deal.

You know the old saying: "You'll never never know if you never ever go."

Well we'll never never know if we can win a flag if we never ever get to have a proper season untainted by (what should be) unnecessary trips to the Top End.

Edited June 3, 20196 yr by Chook

On 6/2/2019 at 9:38 AM, Diamond_Jim said:

Last year all the members had to pay $5 to go on the waiting list for GF tickets that never eventuated. We happily paid it. Would we each pay $5 to Ditch Darwin.

NT is crap no matter how hard the club tries to spin it but 50,000 x $5 will leave you about $1,000,000 short of what these games bring in.

Factor in losing the permanent Queen's Birthday home game and dumping our pokies and there's a massive revenue gap to fill. Given that we made a slender profit last year one year of winning obviously wasn't going to be the answer.

2 minutes ago, Supermercado said:

NT is crap no matter how hard the club tries to spin it but 50,000 x $5 will leave you about $1,000,000 short of what these games bring in.

Factor in losing the permanent Queen's Birthday home game and dumping our pokies and there's a massive revenue gap to fill. Given that we made a slender profit last year one year of winning obviously wasn't going to be the answer.

It was reported as $4M over four years so make it $20 and we're square or $10 and keep the game in Alice... let some other fool of a club have Darwin if there is one.

Saints were paid over  a million plus expenses to play in China.

1 minute ago, Diamond_Jim said:

It was reported as $4M over four years so make it $20 and we're square or $10 and keep the game in Alice... let some other fool of a club have Darwin if there is one.

Saints were paid over  a million plus expenses to play in China.

Unfortunately I believe it's all or nothing on the NT. I'd certainly chip in $20 but then you run the risk of not making back the money, them ditching the sponsorship on us when the club starts raising money against it and being skint anyway.

God I hate being a poor club.

I don't particularly have a problem with us being involved with the NT, my issue is more that the fixture that the AFL provides to us ensures that it's only WA or SA clubs that we play there. that means that we don't get a 'Home ground' advantage (or crowd backing) Perhaps if we got the NSW or QLD teams in Darwin it might be more advantageous from a footy perspective.

Don't we also have our academy zone up in the NT? 

14 hours ago, Diamond_Jim said:

It was reported as $4M over four years so make it $20 and we're square or $10 and keep the game in Alice... let some other fool of a club have Darwin if there is one.

Saints were paid over  a million plus expenses to play in China.

The teams in China get the advantage of having their bye immediately in the week afterwards. I wish the NT game for us had the same scheduling.... 

Instead we have the Queens Birthday game immediately after playing in Darwin in the heat.

On 6/2/2019 at 10:53 AM, At the break of Gawn said:

Big clubs don’t sell their home games.

Collingwood doesn’t. Richmond doesn’t. Essendon doesn’t. Even Carlton doesn’t!

End the contract.

When did we become a big club? I must have missed the memo