Former Etihad Stadium CEO Ian Collins advised Australian Football League side Port Adelaide "against signing the contentious Adelaide Oval agreement, warning chairman David Koch that the club would be broke within three seasons under the deal it was being offered," according to Caroline Wilson of THE AGE. Collins' 20-page review "predicted a number of pitfalls in the agreement, which have since become reality and will be debated at next week's review of the Adelaide Oval contract." The review will be chaired by AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan. The "highly sensitive negotiations" to move AFL football from AAMI Stadium to the Adelaide Oval -- highlighted by outgoing AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou as the "greatest achievement of his regime -- took more than four years to come to fruition." Signed at the "11th hour" in March, both clubs "only agreed to terms on the condition of a mid-season review of the agreement, which will start on July 18." Adelaide and Port Adelaide remain "disenchanted at the financial model and concerned the agreement was reached in haste with the AFL determined to complete the deal on the eve of the season." Both parties "were alarmed at the high costs and low match returns from early season games, and remain concerned that the forthcoming review sees the Stadium Management Authority under no legal compulsion to change the deal" (THE AGE, 7/10).
