HAWTHORN president Jeff Kennett says the club remains hopeful of playing “three or four” games in Tasmania this year, despite the state ruling out any matches in August.
Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein yesterday said Tasmania’s borders would now remain shut until the end of the month, adding “there will be no football played in the month of August”.
The extended closure will force the AFL to relocate another game scheduled for Hobart’s Blundstone Arena.
The North Melbourne-Melbourne game on August 9 was last week shifted to Adelaide Oval. Now, the Roos’ clash with Brisbane Lions on August 15 needs a new home.
But Kennett told sen.com.au: “I think there’s still a chance we’ll get there.
“I think there will be three or four games played in September and there’s still a chance of that. But obviously the window is narrowing.
“Who knows if we’ll still be playing football in September? It’s getting more and more difficult for the AFL. They’re managing it well, but who knows?”
A football-free Tasmania in 2020 would deliver another financial hit to Hawthorn and North Melbourne, with the Hawks’ five-year $19 million deal with the
Tasmanian Government to play in Launceston in place until 2021 and the Roos receiving between $500,000-$600,000 per game in a deal that also expires in 2021.
Kennett said talks over a new contract with the Tasmanian Government remained on hold, but he was confident the Hawks were well prepared for the potential loss of income.
“We’ll get some money. When this thing hit, we assumed we wouldn’t be playing down there in a financial sense. We hope we will, but we’ve covered our backsides as best we can,” he said.
“Our sponsorship is in two parts. One is naming rights and one is games-played, so obviously if we don’t play games down there they won’t be paying, but we’ve provided for all of that.
“We will resume those (contract talks) at some stage in the future. We were meant to do it mid-year, but obviously we can’t get down there and they’re the sort of negotiations you only want to have face-to-face so we’ll do that later in the year or even next year.”