Australian Football League side Port Adelaide President David Koch has "suggested the AFL grand final be shifted away from the MCG," once the current deal with the Melbourne Cricket Club expires, according to Jon Pierik of THE AGE. As part of a round-table interview with Collingwood President Eddie McGuire, who has "labelled the AFL 'negligent,'" Sydney President Andrew Pridham and Western Bulldogs President Peter Gordon, Koch said that having the league's marquee event outside Victoria would be one way to "improve club finances." Responding to McGuire's comments on the "financial issues facing his Magpies and the league as a whole," Koch said, "If you want to have equalization, let's have it. The grand final is not played on someone's home ground -- let's undo the deal." The contract between the MCC-MCG Trust and AFL is "due to expire" in '37. During "tense negotiations" with the MCC in '09 over the need for more funds to be directed to clubs, the AFL "threatened to shift the grand final -- once the contract expired." Sydney's ANZ Stadium would be an "obvious choice should that ever eventuate" (THE AGE, 6/1).
