RICHMOND moving games to Hobart would enhance, rather than inhibit, the creation of a Tasmanian team, Tigers chief executive Brendon Gale believes. And while Gale would rather his team played all its home games at the MCG, semi-regular trips to the Apple Isle, in a deal similar to Hawthorn's, could be financially advantageous for Richmond, which has a debt of about $4 million.
Of the three clubs linked to the push for a second AFL side to make Tasmania a home away from home, the Tigers are pursing it most actively.
North Melbourne, by contrast, is almost distancing itself from the notion given its sensitivity to even the slightest suggestion of relocation.
North chief executive Eugene Arocca said yesterday: ''We hear this chatter that's coming out of the AFL and around town. We haven't sat down with anyone. We are not chasing it. Unlike Richmond who are all over it like a rash.
''We have two non-negotiables: we're a Melbourne club and we ain't leaving Arden Street. It's as simple as that.''
Gale met Tasmanian Premier David Bartlett and Cricket Tasmania chairman Tony Harrison 13 days ago to officially lodge interest in playing home games at Bellerive Oval as soon as the 2012 season.
The Premier has indicated there will be no negotiations with a second AFL club until the state's arrangement with Hawthorn - a five-year deal worth about $16.4 million to play four times a year in Launceston - is renewed.
Melbourne's board has also discussed the prospect of moving home games to Bellerive, which is planning to expand its seating capacity of 17,000.
''I think it could potentially further enhance Tasmania's ambitions to have their own side,'' said Gale, who is also an AFL Tasmania board member.
''At the moment the AFL experience in Tasmania is four games a year. If they're going to have a team of their own they're going to be looking at playing 11 home games a year. That's a massive jump. I think the staging of more AFL games, involving the whole of the state, will cultivate support which will be required eventually to sustain a team of their own.''
If Tasmania did have its own AFL team - which Gale, a Tasmanian, supports - the Richmond boss believes any arrangements with other AFL clubs would cease. Asked whether Hawthorn had any issues with Richmond's exploration of Tasmania as a second home, Gale said: ''I wouldn't have the faintest idea and I don't care, to be honest.''
The Tigers, who are playing one ''home'' game in Darwin next season and another in 2012, have strong support in Tasmania - almost 1500 financial members this year, the club's largest interstate supporter group - as well as a historical connection.
''It goes without saying we wouldn't make a decision lightly,'' Gale said, ''But we can't sit back and expect to play 11 games at the MCG. I wish we could, but I don't think we can. So it's incumbent on us, as managers of football clubs, to look at opportunities like this."
Tigers push ahead with Tassie deal
Samantha Lane
The Age
July 15, 2010
http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-new...714-10b36.html
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