ANZAC Eve & Queen's Bday in 2021?

[Lord Nev 13,512]

Given this was to be our home game year for both ANZAC Eve & Queen's Bday, does anyone know if anything has been arranged yet about next year? (Assuming we can go by then of course)

Glad we got the MCG support money this year, but missing those two games surely had a massive impact on our budget and projections?

 

[Diamond_Jim 12,689]

No way will Anzac Eve have full crowds. Lucky if it is 50% capacity.

QB is arguable but I suspect much the same.

The sensible solution is for takings to be shared between the competing clubs in 2021 (recognizing that there was zero income in 2020) and for the rotation to recommence in 2022.

The MCC money was AFL lease money. It's still there but I'm not sure whose pocket it is in at present.

Transparency on stadium deals was never high on the AFL agenda.

My concern is that until May all games will be played interstate which will take care of Anzac eve.

 

[Dr. Gonzo 24,448]

In light of the uncertainty I wonder when the AFL will look at releasing a fixture for next year. Usually they release it end of October but it might seem a moot point so they may not bother releasing anything until just before the season?

[Bring-Back-Powell 15,257]

23 hours ago, Diamond_Jim said:

My concern is that until May all games will be played interstate which will take care of Anzac eve.

 

I don't think I could hack another season of hubs.

2020 was clearly the worst football season in living memory.

If the borders are still closed to Victorians by March, would they look at hubbing a few interstate sides in VIC so the MCG and Marvel can be used in front of small Vic crowds.

Edited October 7, 2020 by Bring-Back-Powell

[Diamond_Jim 12,689]

31 minutes ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

I don't think I could hack another season of hubs.

2020 was clearly the worst football season in living memory.

If the borders are still closed to Victorians by March, would they look at hubbing a few interstate sides in VIC so the MCG and Marvel can be used in front of small Vic crowds.

As you say it will be a border issue

The other states are insisting on around 14-30 days free of any community transmission. For Victoria this is very unlikely given the history of this virus.

The issue facing the AFL will be that they will want all their big games in the second half of the season when they have a chance of unrestricted crowds.

My guess is that we will see the first four rounds announced at some stage in January/February and the next four will not be announced until the season has commenced. The natural thing would be to have mini festivals of football in SA, WA and Qld for the first four weeks assuming unlimited crowds. Perhaps four teams in Tasmania.

That takes you to 18 April assuming a season start date of March 25. By that time we should know what the new normal is looking like for 2021

It would not surprise me if only for the sake of money that the Anzac day game for example is notionally moved to August.

On a positive note as well as vaccines there are a lot of rapid non invasive tests being developed. If one of these proves reliable we could have a near normal 2021 while we wait for the golden needle.

[Pates 9,678]

I'll admit I'm saying this as someone living in the UK, but surely with averages getting under 10 a day by the time the new season not coming until March the numbers will be such that crowds will be back with them being close to full capacity.

Then again who the hell knows in this crazy world of ours!

I actually feel like the smart thing to do for next year would be for the AFL to actually throw all profits from matches into a pot which is then equally shared. The reason I say that is because of this year certain clubs were able to benefit from crowds and others weren't, that's not fair, and next year should there be restrictions imposed early but then released further into the season it means a team (like us for instance) will have a blockbuster only at say 50% but then a team like Richmond could have one later in the year at 100%. Again that isn't fair.

Share the spoils for next year and sort it normally for 2022.

EDIT: Also adding that given we were expecting both ANZAC Eve and QB the same year perhaps look at renegotiating when we have which days so that we aren't left with all or nothing.

Edited October 7, 2020 by Pates

[ex52k2 250]

     Simple solution for 2021 draw. Just make it the same as the real 2020 draw, we just skipped a year. So we would play the eagles in RD1 in Perth and proceed from there. So the QB and Anzac games would be ours.

    Simple really.