Menu
Download the app

SBJ subscribers – Enhance your experience with the revamped iOS app

Facilities

Early Buyout Of Melbourne's Etihad Stadium Could Provide Competitive Balance In AFL

An early buyout of Melbourne's second Australian Football League venue, Etihad Stadium, is "seen by tenant clubs as critical to their ability to compete on equal footing with the competition's powerhouse clubs," according to Greg Denham of THE AUSTRALIAN. As part of its "equalisation program, the league is endeavouring to take control of Etihad Stadium, which is owned by a private consortium," in advance of its handover to the AFL in '25. In the "hands of the league, the Docklands stadium's tenant clubs who traditionally struggle -- North Melbourne, the Western Bulldogs and St Kilda -- have been promised better financial deals in line with other Victorian clubs" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 2/4). In Sydney, Patrick Smith wrote it is "just one of several dramatic measures the AFL has been prepared to investigate to close the dangerously widening gap between the league's rich and poor clubs." Last year the AFL and the fund managers who own Etihad came "desperately close to settling the sale." While the negotiations have "cooled monentarily, the stadium remains a premier target for the AFL." On "face value, the early settlement of the media rights package -- not due to run out" until the end of '16 -- is seen as the "most direct and beneficial way of shrinking the gap between the competition's rich and poor clubs." Property and "management experts put the current value" of Etihad Stadium -- built at a cost of A$460M ($403M) -- at around A$250M "and it is on the market." However, one source said that there "still remained" at least a A$10M difference "between the asking price and what the AFL was prepared to pay" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 2/4).

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Global/Issues/2014/02/04/Facilities/Etihad.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Global/Issues/2014/02/04/Facilities/Etihad.aspx

CLOSE