By STEVE MASCORD
MELBOURNE Storm chief executive Brian Waldron has warned the AFL will spend $100 million a new team in western Sydney and called on league to work on a strategy which would “protect 100 years of history”.
Reports yesterday that Australian football has brought forward to 2012 the introduction of a second Sydney team brought measured responses from the NRL and ARL.
But Waldron, head of league’s outpost in “enemy territory”, said it was time for the 13-man game to get its act together.
“They will put enormous incentives behind expansion teams, in excess of $100 million,” said the former St Kilda AFL official.
“They will utilise the heroes and resources they have to implement programs at grassroots that will have enormous impact in the next 20 years.
“I just wonder if we’ve got to use the heroes of the Parramattas and the Penriths out there to do the same. You get them out there with some structured programs, you make sure they act responsibly and you grow the game.
“We can’t just sit back and think that it’s going to be alright, even if it is one of our strongest areas.
“The key to all this is planning.”
At the last chief executives’ conference, Waldron asked what the game’s strategic plans were for the future.
He said he was yet to receive an answer.
“Three months ago at the CEOs conference, we had discussions about what our strategic vision is to grow the game,” Waldron said.
“I’ll be interested to see when some blueprint evolves about expanding, growing the game.”
He said Parramatta, Wests Tigers, Bulldogs and Penrith players should be mobilised in a co-ordinated response to the AFL threat.
NRL chief executive David Gallop said he always expected the AFL to set up a separate team.
“The Gold Coast and that part of western Sydney are two of the fastest growing population areas in the country and we are very strong in both,” said Gallop.
“Trying to get a foothold in southeast Queensland makes perfect sense and vindicates our game’s decision to put a team there.
“Western Sydney is a battleground for all codes and we are very confident of our position in our 100th year there.”
While Wests Tigers play only a handful of games at Campbelltown, Gallop argued more and more NRL teams were using ANZ Stadium _ the home of the propose AFL side.
“All our teams draw supporters from that area,” he said.
Waldron argued league would never be able to financially compete with the AFL while the competition was rooted to the eastern seaboard and Auckland.
“The AFL are pushing towards a truly national game. Our challenge is to generate the revenues the game is really capable of and the only way we can do that, as far as I’m concerned, is by having a truly national game.
“I’m not sure we need to over-panic. We need to look at areas where we can grow our own game.”
ARL chief executive Geoff Carr said: “The issue for us as has always been ‘work hard on what we’re doing’.
“We’re in a good position in Sydney, rugby league. It’s been around for a hundred years.”
Waldron said $100 million was a fair estimate on how much the AFL would spend on each team because that was how much the Kangaroos were offered to relocate.
The AFL hopes to defray these costs with private investment.
This story appeared on February 17, 2008
