AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan Open To Idea Of Twilight Or Night Grand Final

Australian Football League CEO Gillon McLachlan "has not discounted the possibility of the grand final eventually being staged under lights," according to Ronny Lerner of THE AGE. The sport's marquee event has always been a daytime affair, despite about 53% of the fixture "now being made up of twilight or night matches." Having just returned from the U.S. where he saw the NFL Super Bowl this month, McLachlan "conceded the entertainment aspect of the AFL's grand final day would look better after dark." McLachlan: "I don't think anyone has any doubt the broader entertainment at the grand final would be better at twilight or at night, that's accepted. You [have to] balance that up with tradition, a game that's well over 100 years old, that we've been playing on Saturday afternoons." With the AFL's current broadcast deal not expiring until the end of '16, however, "a potential change to the grand final's traditional timeslot would likely not occur until 2017 at the earliest" (THE AGE, 2/17).