The current political climate within Australian football had seen growing disenchantment from the non-Victorian clubs over the Victorian clubs home ground advantage.
Although eight of the past 16 premierships have been won by non-Victorian clubs, the past five grand finals have seen Victorian clubs defeat interstate teams ranked higher on the AFL ladder.
The new AFL chairman Richard Goyder is West Australian and sat on the Fremantle board in 2013, the year Hawthorn humiliated the Dockers after the interstate team was horribly inconvenienced by flights and finals fixturing.
As recently as Thursday night, when McLachlan briefed the 18 club chiefs, Adelaide boss Andrew Fagan — whose Crows thrashed Richmond in Adelaide last year but failed at the MCG on grand final day — asked whether the new MCG deal meant that the mooted prospect of a three-game grand final play-off was now off the table. The answer was yes.
But the MCG returned serve with an offer of about $8 million each year for its tenant clubs, roughly guaranteeing an extra $170,000 for each tenant club and every home. Having traded away a guaranteed preliminary final, the MCG bosses demanded long-term grand final security. McLachlan, knowing any alternative was unfeasible, agreed.
The MCG, demanding a commitment of a minimum 43 home-and-away games a season until 2057 and 10 of the best 12 fixtures each year, also promised to fund the redevelopment of its Southern Stand.
Meanwhile McLachlan secured his Etihad funding and has promised to retain its 54,000-capacity.
On paper the government funding shortfall for the AFL is $75 million but that amount will be achieved in the infrastructure to be developed around Docklands including the AFLs new headquarters and the construction of a five-star hotel expected to host the Brownlow Medal.
The timing of yesterdays rushed state government announcement, leaked to The Footy Show, caught all the other parties on the hop, including the AFL and the MCG, which only approved the deal on Friday morning.
It proved a triumph for Carltons Ikon Park ($20 million) and bore testimony to the lobbying skills of Western Bulldogs chairman Peter Gordon. St Kilda, which received significant state government funding to return to Moorabbin and also sits in a marginal electorate, won $13 million.
This historic sporting agreement, which should secure the finances of all 10 Victorian clubs, surely paves the way for an exit from pokies given the improved stadium deals.
The only Victorian clubs overlooked in the complex multi-stadium deal were Essendon, whose government submission came in late, North Melbourne and Richmond. Hawthorn, which spent much of 2017 in an administrative black hole and is still finalising plans for its new Dingley home, did not apply.
The Andrews government decision proved bitter-sweet for Richmond. Although the new MCG deal is worth an extra $2 million annually to the Tigers, CEO Brendon Gale said he was shocked and deeply disappointed to learn their submission to upgrade their sporting, community and Indigenous education facility at an overcrowded and under-resourced Punt Road Oval as well as providing facilities for their forthcoming AFL Womens team was rejected.
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