Diamond_Jim

Yes... You can build a team around HR Koz is top quality cream

CEO of an AFL club is not exactly a plum appointment. Most of the key drivers you have control over in business are absent in the AFL model. Even the Boards are more guardians than true boards of management. Revenues are fuzzy to say the least given AFL support, hard and soft caps, controlled stadiums, managed fixtures etc My guess is that we will end up with an administrator type. My first question to a candidate would be how she/he would manage a club with stagnant if not declining membership

Makes sense in that Optus Sport was mainly a play to boost Optus mobile subscriptions. The trouble with Stan is that it follows the old Foxtel model of sport only being available if you take out the base movie/tv subscription. Definitely increases the profile of Stan if it goes ahead. As an aside interesting to see that very few if any of the NFL play off games on Kayo are in 4k. US broadcasters still in the relative stone age.

The concept is akin to the jewel and its surrounds. Very popular for NFL grounds. Take an industrial site, build a stadium and then sell the surrounding land to investors who then build and lease franchised restaurants and sports bars etc to various operators. If done well you get a new entertainment complex. If done badly you have a group of uninviting windswept fast food joints attracting business maybe ten times per year. It's useful to remember that the original owners of Docklands in Melbourne lost a fortune.

They are planning on building a $60M indoor training facility so they're not quite there yet. Not sure if they have a second oval which is considered de rigeur The AFL club is hoping to raise $20 million of its own to contribute to the project, while continuing to work with governments to bridge the gap for the project, with Cats CEO Steve Hocking saying the club was keen to secure more government funding to secure the project’s future. https://www.austadiums.com/news/1409/geelong-planning-new-60-million-addition-for-gmhba-stadium

Believe it or not but I had Collingwood as a second team back in the mid seventies. Under Tom Hafey they played a good game of football. Don't worry I saw the light in 1988 when abused by a little old lady magpie supporter for cheering a Melbourne win. Since then GWS has been my second team. For a while they were like a fantasy football league

NRL are considering offering State of Origin as a separate package for streaming companies to bid on. Like the AFL it's protected by the anti siphoning laws but Vlandys is a powerful player. We're seeing the AFL doing the same thing with "Streaming Saturdays". Gather Round is another easy target but would they dare offer the GF as a separate package. Personally I would pay say $50 for an ad free GF with bells and whistles such as alternative commentary, choice of camera angle and of course high quality sound and vision (4k minimum).

The deal is done at 7 x EBITDA (chicken feed for a digital player) but at least News and Telstra get their loans repaid. News Corp and Telstra will take a small equity position in DAZN. I suspect they would have preferred cash but perhaps they're hanging out for a bid by Saudi Arabia What does it all mean for us... who knows News Corp-controlled pay TV and streaming company Foxtel has been sold to DAZN, a sports streaming platform controlled by one of the world’s richest people, for an enterprise value of $3.4 billion. News Corp will hold a minority (6 per cent) equity interest in DAZN and gain a seat on the company’s board of directors, it said in a statement to the market. Foxtel’s current debt will be refinanced, while News Corp and Telstra’s loans to the company of $578 million and $128 million respectively, will also be paid off. https://www.theage.com.au/business/companies/billionaire-backed-sports-streamer-buys-foxtel-20241216-p5kyqd.html Dazn does have worldwide rights to a lot of lower tier niche sports. If you're a follower of Bare Knuckle fighting you could be in luck !!

Not as stupid as it sounds. I suspect AI analysis is already being done in sports that involve set plays such as NFL and soccer (corners, free kicks etc). AFL is far more random but someone will write a program. (Enter the moving diamond or similar)

Lynch is the outlier.... Between him and Dustin Martin Richmond certainly sold the farm

Both Murdoch and the billionaire Dazn owner are in town. Wouldn't you love to be a fly on that wall during the negotiations

Many can't but he couldn't dominate around the ground either. The one positive is that Casey as a team in 2024 were largely dysfunctional form wise so no one really stood out. Also there were a few too many windy days at Casey Perhaps he will have a better 2025

A gun player would never sign such a contract. The best you might do is have a clause amortising the injury years over a number of years thus spreading the salary cap risk

The area that is now Rushton Park was first gazetted as a sanitation site on 20 August 1926, and was converted to a recreation reserve in September 1958, under the Mandurah Road Board So we're playing Freo at the old sewerage farm... sounds about right

DAZN (pronounced Dah-Zone) deal to buy Foxtel almost done. Expected to close before Christmas. DAZN, which broadcasts the NFL, MMA and UEFA Women’s Champions League in Australia, emerged as the likely buyer for Foxtel after talks broke down between News Corp and US private equity firm Platinum earlier this year over the former’s unrealistic asking price. The deal to sell Foxtel for an undisclosed sum could be completed before Christmas, three sources with knowledge of the deal said. Foxtel’s debt load is about $1.2 billion. I would not expect many changes in 2025 but 2026 could be interesting. It seems that streamers in the US are moving away from the costly subscription model to cheap subscription fees with ads. (See for example Disney). Hopefully it doesn't happen here but hard to see how Kayo could ever be profitable without ads https://www.theage.com.au/business/companies/british-streamer-closes-in-on-foxtel-20241209-p5kww0.html Interestingly DAZN like Foxtel is owned by a multi billionaire: Blavatnik is one of the world’s richest men, with an estimated net worth of $46 billion. DAZN is run by Shay Segev, formerly chief executive of British gaming firm Entain, which operates Ladbrokes in Australia. DAZN has also been rumoured to be strengthening ties with Saudi Arabia for some time. It recently signed a deal to broadcast the Saudi Pro League in several major international markets. The Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), which is chaired by Crown Prince Mohamad bin Salman, has been heavily linked to a deal to buy a 10 per cent stake of DAZN, which would value the company at $1 billion.

The key words in your response are "pay to use". This is what worries me about Caulfield... We will pay $100M plus to develop the facility and then "we pay to use" it. Contrast this with other clubs like Hawthorn etc who don't "pay to use" their training grounds If the lease is for 99 years at $1 per year that would be different

Out of curiosity what's the benefit to the racing club of having the MFC in the middle of the track. They're not a charity

And that's real US dollars or A$1.2 Billion !!!

That's Deep Water methinks

Reid is signed until the end of 2026 which is when Tassie gets picks (I think)

Have they seen the Gary Ablett saga (hope they have a clawback clause)

$$$ always worry me but unless Eagles are being stupid we should be okay. Prefer a 3 year deal rather than 4 for the usual reasons Eagles appear to have not been very good at attracting the talent back home unlike Freo

Not great seeing McAdam in rehab... from what I wonder

Thanks for the wonderful reports. Gives Baseball Spring training camp vibes where the cost of tickets reach A$100 for a spot behind the dugout or the plate. And we get it for free... long may it occur

Max could improve his centre bounce connection work. (Sticks head beneath the parapets but our centre clearance work has not been clean for a while. To some extent it's also Oliver's decline in form that he has the ability by hand to turn a crowded possession into an attacking move.)