The hosting stuff will get rightly critiqued, I just thought they were going to sell the TV rights separately. Ah well.

And to the argument above - we won the flag from last in 1900!

2 hours ago, titan_uranus said:

I wonder how the Demonland wildcard supporters will feel if we somehow finish 7th or 8th this year (which, FWIW, I strongly doubt will occur).

they'll be complaining most likely

Still no one asked for this

was inevitable that it would become merely another property the afl could somehow turn into a money-making venture

I’m seat 1A on the Wildcard bandwagon but hate the idea that both games could be sold to a city.

Really hope the AFL listen to the fans on this one. Most people will accept the top 10, but no way will they tolerate finals being sold.

39 minutes ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

I’m seat 1A on the Wildcard bandwagon but hate the idea that both games could be sold to a city.

Really hope the AFL listen to the fans on this one. Most people will accept the top 10, but no way will they tolerate finals being sold.

All sports sell their games these days. NFL, F1, EPL... you name it. The Olympics and the Soccer World Cup are sold to cities.

Hawthorn are desperate to keep selling games to Tasmania after the Devils join.

Melbourne purchased the GF.

Add in the Wildcard Games being limited to pay TV and sold to a one off seller and you have the new model

2 hours ago, dees189227 said:

Still no one asked for this

2 hours ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

I’m seat 1A on the Wildcard bandwagon but hate the idea that both games could be sold to a city.

Really hope the AFL listen to the fans on this one. Most people will accept the top 10, but no way will they tolerate finals being sold.

Literally two posts apart.

For what it's worth, I don't like the Wildcard Round idea, but if we're going to have it, I don't mind it being "sold" to the city or cities that provide the best offers. I'm convinced that no team playing in Wildcard round will go all the way, anyway, so what's the harm in monetising what would otherwise be a pointless activity?

AFL is not in great hands.

2 hours ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

I’m seat 1A on the Wildcard bandwagon but hate the idea that both games could be sold to a city.

Really hope the AFL listen to the fans on this one. Most people will accept the top 10, but no way will they tolerate finals being sold.

If the AFL listened to fans we wouldn’t have a wildcard round.

1 hour ago, titan_uranus said:

If the AFL listened to fans we wouldn’t have a wildcard round.

I’d suggest a small percentage of people hate the wildcard round. The majority are tolerant towards it.

The wildcard round partially balances the AFL FIXture vs Draw!

In the seasons where Teams 7&8 had an easier draw than 9&10, gives 9&10 opportunities to redress that imbalance!

15 hours ago, BDA said:

i'm all for the idea of a wildcard round as long as we finish 9 or 10.

if we finish in any other position i'm against the idea

But IF we finish 5 or 6 we would be happier, but of course #1 is what we really want.

13 hours ago, D4Life said:

The wildcard round partially balances the AFL FIXture vs Draw!

In the seasons where Teams 7&8 had an easier draw than 9&10, gives 9&10 opportunities to redress that imbalance!

9 hours ago, monoccular said:

But IF we finish 5 or 6 we would be happier, but of course #1 is what we really want.

Both of these. I think it fixes both issues. There hasn't really been any advantage to finishing 5th or 6th compared to 7th or 8th in the finals system that was, asides from security of making the finals is probably better.

As others have said, I absolutely hate the idea of selling finals. I actually don't like that Adelaide has been able to monopolise 'Gather Round' either. Both of which take us into the space of elitism having to travel and pay mega bucks to watch your team play live.

The grand final at the MCG has alot going for it really. Tradition, it's the biggest stadium in the country by a long shot and it's probably the most central location to travel to from either the Northern or Western states.

17 hours ago, Diamond_Jim said:

All sports sell their games these days. NFL, F1, EPL... you name it. The Olympics and the Soccer World Cup are sold to cities.

Hawthorn are desperate to keep selling games to Tasmania after the Devils join.

Melbourne purchased the GF.

Add in the Wildcard Games being limited to pay TV and sold to a one off seller and you have the new model

So why do we need to just follow these overly commercialised sports down the money 💰 is king rabbit hole?

I couldn't care less how the Yanks do it (just have look at how their society is going right now). They hit the sporting cuttlural jackpot with basketball, when I reflect on it, because it was a game that was easily accessible at the grass roots level, fun enough to play and watch. Their two other staples of baseball and NFL/American football are international flops, because they are [censored] to watch and other countries have games that are deeply culturally rooted.

The Olympics have been just about the most commercialised event in history, but have done stuff all for grass roots participation and now there is dying interest in the games as a whole.

The synical AFL tactic use every development as an opportunity to squeeze more out of it's fans financially will be to the detriment of the sport. We're in the middle of a global fuel shortage and price escalation which will tank the economy and make interstate travel prohibitively expensive for many and the AFL is thinking of 'monetising' finals. If they proceed, just watch these games get played in front of half empty stadiums of disinterested crowds - is that what they really want?

2 minutes ago, Rodney (Balls) Grinter said:

So why do we need to just follow these overly commercialised sports down the money 💰 is king rabbit hole?

Spot on.... Money

The TV rights are near maximised, the betting money is plateauing. It's all about new revenue streams.

The next big area is event experiences such as the Pepsi disco at the Adelaide Oval

I don't think the AFL listen to the fans.

With the Wildcard Round, new rules every year, fans, players and coaches as well as umpires have no idea what is the correct interpretation.

How can a player deliberately hand ball the ball into the leg of an opponent near the boundary line and get the free kick and then kick a goal.

15 hours ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

I’d suggest a small percentage of people hate the wildcard round. The majority are tolerant towards it.

The wild card round is a lead in to a 20 team competition. What are your thoughts on that? After what seemed like forever in the wilderness I’ve seen as many as four to five articles in the last week and a half alone about how the game is currently struggling. There was an article on Fox during the week discussing the in competition tier structure currently existing, the bottom 6 being North, Carlton, Bombers, Tigers, Port and West Coast who have only beaten each other. Many had us being in that group also. We could argue it’s premature being only at Rd 5 but the writing is on the wall.

There are also some other considerations that come into play that are not directly part of the wild card debate but still related to the structure of the competition within which the game operates.

We are about to see the introduction of the Tassie Devils as 19th club and subsequently, we will have a 20th. When you change the structure of the competition in this way, it raises questions like how many games each team plays in a season, how do you fit two byes per season in a fixture and how do you determine a fair draw given that it’s likely that the teams will play each other once but also play only four others twice?

There are mathematical considerations involved as well as the fundamental principle of having a fair and equitable fixture and a balanced competition.

A lot of food for thought packed in there.

Plus with the State of Origin carnival weekend (we know it's coming) the Season is almost non stop. But what about Indigenous All Stars etc you say.

States with their "Event" budgets are a big source of revenue.

You can feel the tension re Gather Round as to how many dollars SA is willing to offer compared to the other States such as WA.

Nothing to stop Victoria bidding for the Wild Card games but I don't see it.