West Australian Football Commission chair Wayne Martin has reflected on the disappointment of his state on the AFL’s Gather Round extension, saying he can’t understand the new three-year contract with South Australia.
The inaugural Gather Round has been seen as a resounding success with the hype and ticket sales generated, with praise coming for Adelaide and the state of South Australia.
SA Premier Peter Malinauskas announced the news that South Australia had secured the contract extension prior to Sunday’s double-header in front of the Adelaide Oval crowd and said the deal will provide more certainty for his state to improve the marquee round next year.
But Martin expressed his disappointment and confusion at how the deal was negotiated so quickly.
“I think I speak on behalf of all West Australians, probably indeed everybody outside Adelaide and Victoria, to say that it’s disappointing to see they’ve locked it in for that long,” he told SEN WA Mornings.
“I was expecting they would generate a bit of competitive tension in the bidding process that other governments… could get a seat at the table and possibly put in a better bid.
“That hasn’t happened… the WA football commission wasn’t involved in the negotiations, it was I think between the AFL and the various governments, obviously I know nothing about those negotiations but the speed with which this announcement was made makes me suspect the negotiations for the extension were well in place before the round was held.
“I doubt that they would have been able to negotiate a three-year extension with all the finance packages that go with that over the course of a day or two in Adelaide.
“I suspect there might have been a provisional deal done with the South Australian Government...”
Reports surfaced in the week leading into Gather Round that South Australia was set to host in 2024, yet the longer extension came as some surprise.
“I can understand some certainty being required because it's helpful for the fans to know a long time out when it’s going to be and I think this Gather Round came on pretty quickly,” Martin continued.
“A lot of people missed out on accommodation, Adelaide’s got limited accommodation let's face it compared to other potential cities like Sydney or Perth, so I can understand why they wanted some certainty and they could have announced, ‘let’s go with this next year…’
“But I don’t understand why they had to lock it away for three years, unless they got a really good deal from the South Australian government in order to do that, which is what I’m guessing must have happened.”
Martin went on to state that Gather Round would be a resounding success if held in Perth.
“Absolutely, we’ve got the best stadium in Australia, I don’t think there’s any doubt about that, even the Victorians almost begrudgingly admit that now,” he added.
“We’ve got fantastic local support, we saw that when the AFL finals and Grand Final were played here… and I think the novelty of coming over to West Australia would attract a ton of people from the Eastern states too.”
The concept of Gather Round was originally one to grow the game, yet the objective from the league has seemingly changed in creating a footy festival.
Sydney and Brisbane are viewed as the next most likely cities once the idea of Gather Round becomes clearer over the coming years.