General manager of the AFLW Nicole Livingstone has spoken on the competition's new collective bargaining agreement, which was announced on Thursday.
The CBA details a pay rise of nearly 100 per cent for all AFLW players, while it also confirms the long speculated August start date for season seven.
With four new teams entering the competition later this year, the total amount of player payments and prize money will increase to $25.6 million, an 146 per cent increase from the $10.4 million in season six.
The AFL is currently negotiating a new broadcast rights deal for the game which is expected to net a big payday for the league.
However, the pay rise for AFLW players is a substantial increase, and Livingstone was asked on SEN SA’s The Run Home where the extra money had come from.
“Well it’s obviously industry money, if you look at the industry overall, the major growth in our industry and diversification has been through women’s football,” she responded.
“We now have 600,000 women and girls playing the game right around the nation and to be honest, women have reinvigorated community football clubs right around the nation.
“We have a league that is six going on seven seasons old, and we’ve already seen from 420 to 540 female players contracted to clubs right around the nation.
“I know there are people that speak to the numbers in terms of the revenue it brings in, but we have amazing supporters.
“It is a big payday for women’s football but it’s what they deserve. They put in hard work to not only develop the league but develop the clubs and themselves as well.”
The only potential downside of Thursday’s CBA is just a ten-game season followed by four finals later this year.
Livingstone said that while the league had been bold in the past, it didn’t stack up to make players take part in a longer campaign after season six only concluded in April.
“Everything that we’ve done has been bold with AFLW,” she stated.
“We started three years ahead of our announcement, we went from eight to ten to 14 to 18 (teams) and this year in particular we’ve already had a 13 (10-3) round season and were backing up in one-year to have another season.
“If you add those together and the load management across the year suddenly you’re talking about over 29 games if you make it through to finals.”
Livingstone also added that the league needed time to “settle” after a rapid era of growth while also taking the time to envisage what it should look like in the future.
Season seven of the AFLW will begin on the weekend of 25th-27th of August.