Three of the Australian Football League's "most high-profile footballers" this week "fronted" AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan "in talks which saw both parties settle upon a raft of measures that should soon see a significant new deal for the players," according to Wilson & McClure of the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD. The six-year collective bargaining agreement will see AFL players earn 26-29% of the game's revenue, "ending a year of complex and sometimes acrimonious negotiations which included the threat of a players' strike." The percentage share is "expected to be framed differently by the AFL," which has "long opposed the revenue sharing model and the revenue specified will come with key exceptions including poker machine revenue, government grants, some stadium funding and club foundation earnings." In a meeting which has "dramatically hastened the path to a resolution," the players and head office "virtually set in place a mechanism by which the players will be rewarded should the game's revenues exceed the AFL's forecasts." Both sides "now believe an agreement could even be reached before round one" of the '17 season (SMH, 3/2).
