Fears among clubs as bombshell report puts Tassie stadium & AFL dream in doubt - Footy Classified

Well, for decades, it's been a dream of the AFL to bring in a Tasmanian team into the competition and fully nationalise our great game.But tonight, as we're about to reveal to you on Footy Classified, the licence for that team is now on a knife edge after a bombshell economic report which has cast further doubt over the Macquarie Point Stadium.Strap yourselves in, because Footy Classified starts now.potential inception for several, several episodes over a couple of years here at this desk.I don't reckon there's a more important date than tomorrow for this footy club.The 18 club presidents will meet at Crown here in Melbourne before the AFL Hall of Fame dinner and for the first time with a bombshell report tabled by a leading independent economist, Dr Nicholas Gruen, who has essentially said, in short, that this stadium deal has blown out.

The budget has completely blown out.It's not going to be $1 .1 billion, it's going to be $1 .5 billion at best, it could be $1 .8 billion at worst, and that's not just the end of it.Now, we'll continue to talk about this and the flow and effect from the story that's in The Age tonight, but it has cast further doubt and it has essentially weaponised the potential for clubs, Damo, who were already sceptical on this deal to be even more sceptical.And you can see the budget has blown out from the first time that it was tabled in December four years ago.

This was always the fear for this particular costing on this stadium and the costs around the world with anything to do with construction.Sam, will you see that price go up to that final figure of $1 .5 billion?Isn't it the Tasmanian Government that's on the hook for the overhead on this?That's right, but they've already said there is no more money.

We've been back to the Feds, they've already said it is more money.The AFL have said, and I don't think you can blame them for this, it's not our job to build stadia around the country.But this was the deal, Damo, that was struck.And the AFL have been pretty consistent about this.

Well they've been consistent from day one, Sam.The whole licence is predicated on there being a stadium, a new stadium in Hobart with a roof.It was the words that alreadyby the then CEO, Gillian McLaughlin, back in 2023 when the license was provisionally granted.It was uttered as recently as two weeks ago by the current CEO, Andrew Dillon.

I just think that this is an incredibly important moment for Tasmania and Tasmanian football.It is now an arrangement that is, if you want an AFL team, it comes with a stadium.People had their views about that, but it's now funded.

We're out of a job there.I guess there's a view down there that we'll have an opportunity to renegotiate.And I guess our response to that is I wouldn't be running that risk because the AFL has its own politics, its own constituents.So if one of those conditions aren't met, if the AFL can't prove that the club can meet its financial needs, I reckon the Prince will be hanging on to that power and saying, well, you know, I'm not that enthusiastic about changing your mind.

Well, I think we've been really clear that we've got a license for the Tassie Devils that is There's a number of conditions in it, but one of those conditions that's really clear is we have a stadium with a capacity of 23 ,000 with a roof at Macquarie Point.If that doesn't happen, well then the licence remains conditional.

There's a fair bit of work to do, it's complex, but the stadium's the number one thing and that's the big focus for us at the moment.

On track?On track.I mean, the team's in with a licence, the stadium will get built and we'll be starting in 2028.

So Sam, cut through it all for us.What does it mean?They're pretty steadfast.Are they going to come in 2028?Of course, it's out to tender at the moment.Do we have to wait on that?

Or will that economist report, will that scare some of the club presidents off?

Well, what it will do is it will give ammunition to the presidents who are already sceptical about this to say, well, how is it that we are sitting here in June, the year before the team, well 18 months before the team comes in.We're 15 months out from their first pre -season.And the conditional licence hasn't been granted.Now I asked specifically the AFL tonight what was the timeline for the provisional licence to become a full licence and they weren't able to answer that.that trotted out the same line that they have now for the best part of a year, which is we're making significant process, we look forward to welcoming the Devils in 2028.

Sam, who asked for this report and what does it mean now?I know Jimmy just asked that question, but are you saying, which you have said for a number of weeks, that this team is as much in doubt as it is to take the field when they first said they would?

So, first and foremost, the report was commissioned by a group known as Our Place in Hobart, which on the record, don't want a stadium.They're anti -stadium.But it was funded, they started a GoFundMe page, it's been funded by private citizens.The economist himself is completely independent.Now the AFL tomorrow, you can bet your bottom dollar, will find a way to slander that report by saying that it was commissioned by people who don't want the stadium.The first time Dr Nicholas Gruen did the report, it was agreed to by the Tasmanian Government.

So you can't have it both ways.If you don't like the report, you can't You can't not like it based on who commissioned it if two different parts of the spectrum have.

You used to use the phrase Knife's Edge, this whole licence in the opening to this program.Do you maintain that this is not a guarantee that the Tasmanian team will come in in 2020?

Until Andrew Dillon stands up in front of a camera and is shaking hands with Brendan Gale saying I am granting the Tasmanian Devils a full licence.I'm going to continue to ask questions about this and so will some of the 18 club presidents when they meet Andrew Dillon face -to -face tomorrow.It was not the AFL's plan for us to get this close to them starting and there be no guarantee for a stadium and therefore because of their own language were unable to grant them a license.They have rushed this thing from day one and I fear as do several other club bosses that I have spoken to today that they are going to push this thing through without the guarantee of a multi -billion dollar asset, which scares a lot of people.and everyone's sitting at home going it doesn't affect me yet.It will affect you if this asset doesn't get built and your Kayo subscriptions are going to go up, your memberships are going up, going to the footy and buying a pint is going to go up.

That's when people will start caring.