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Now I have put this up given recnt stadium debate in regards to Subizco, AFL etc
Poorest clubs paying to play at Etihad Stadium
Damian Barrett | April 14, 2009 11:55pm
MELBOURNE'S financially vulnerable clubs will be forced to pay to play matches at Etihad Stadium this season. The revelation comes after venue management withdrew commitments to provide fixed match returns.
In an escalation of the bitter stand-off between the AFL and the stadium's operators, the development will affect all clubs, including Collingwood, which use the venue for a home match. If they have no set deal with management of the stadium what grounds do they have to sue?
Of the stadium's regular users, it is likely to most hurt the Western Bulldogs and St Kilda, as North Melbourne and Carlton have been operating without set deals for some time.
The AFL has taken Etihad Stadium management to court and is also in a major stand-off with the MCG Trust.
It informed its clubs of the Etihad Stadium decision in an email which read, in part, "they have advised that they will not be continuing with the current fixed match return arrangements that some clubs have had in place for the last three years".
While Etihad Stadium crowds in the 46,000 vicinity will provide for the home team the possibility of making $150,000, crowds of 30,000 or less will require the club to write a cheque to the ground's operators.
Financial returns will drop sharply when crowds fall below 40,000, a crowd which would on most occasions reap about $50,000 for the home team.
Some club-stadium deals expired at the end of last year, and the clubs had assumed they would roll on in to 2009 and beyond. Here it is, apparently the deals with the clubs have expired at the end of last year, and one expires mid-2009
The Bulldogs will be financially exposed in their home matches at Etihad Stadium in Rounds 18 and 19 against Fremantle and West Coast.
Bulldogs chief executive Campbell Rose said last night the change in match payments posed a serious dilemma for his club.
"It is of significant concern," Rose said. "The battle to resolve the disparity in stadium economics has gone up a notch; the heat has been turned right up."
It is believed Collingwood had been guaranteed $200,000 for any home match it was to play at Telstra Dome.
The Magpies will now receive less than that amount for their Round 7 Etihad Stadium match against St Kilda.
The Herald Sun understands the change will not affect Carlton, as it has been operating under the gate-receipt arrangement for some time.
North Melbourne has not been subject to a deal at Docklands since 2007, and last year it was not granted financial returns that had been given previously for reaching certain crowd numbers.
It is believed the Dogs had struck an arrangement where they received $15,000 for games at Etihad Stadium against non-Victorian clubs, and $45,000 for Melbourne clubs.
The AFL's chief operating officer Gillon McLachlan could not be contacted.