In '16, Australian Football League CEO Gillon McLachlan "is facing the sort of task most chief executives would love," according to John Stensholt of THE AGE.
After leading the negotiations for the AFL's landmark six-year, A$2.5B ($1.8B) broadcast deal, McLachlan and his team "now have the job of spending the money." The bulk of the proceeds will flow from '17 but there "are already plenty of hands out for spoils." The league will actually lose about A$20M ($1.4M) "thanks mainly to the increased cost of supporting its 18 clubs in the last year of the current broadcast deal."
McLachlan, "as is his style, plans a methodical, conciliatory and collaborative approach that he hopes will result in 18 healthy clubs in financial terms, a fair but lucrative pay deal with the players and a revamped and strengthened grassroots and talent pathway identification program." A deal to buy Etihad Stadium "could also be struck" in '16.
McLachlan said, "The key priorities are clearly our clubs, our players and our communities and all of our investment decisions will be made in parallel." McLachlan also insists that "the new deal can set the 18 clubs on the path to all being financially sustainable." At the moment, at least one-third of the 18 teams "are not profitable and some only break even with additional AFL assistance." McLachlan said he is "proud of [the AFL] industry for the way it dealt with a lot of significant issues" in '15. He and the league "worked to cut the cost of attending matches and have also tried to support various other causes, including multicultural, gay and indigenous rights."
McLachlan: "We are a sport code, so I don't want to overplay it, but it is a fact that ... decisions that our game takes resonate in our community and we are conscious of that." It definitely "is not always smooth sailing, as a tumultuous 2015 season proved." The league "was rocked in July when Adelaide Crows coach Phil Walsh was murdered." Controversies off the field "also dog the code" -- admittedly an issue for most sports -- "even in the off season, including Richmond star Dustin Martin being investigated in mid-December over claims he threatened to stab a young woman with a chopstick at a Melbourne restaurant" (THE AGE, 12/29).
