The Australian Football League's "historic stand against moving potentially sold-out games" from Etihad Stadium to the Melbourne Cricket Ground "looks unlikely to change despite the league's new position as landlord at the Docklands venue," according to Caroline Wilson of THE AGE. This is "despite a move by anchor tenant Essendon to revisit its long-contracted right to switch games," with club CEO Xavier Campbell pushing for the Bombers "to keep that flexibility if we were playing really good footy." While no Etihad games in '17 "loom for the Bombers as potential lock-outs," Campbell said that "the club's soon-to-be negotiated new tenancy agreement at the ground would involve a discussion about switching games in unforeseen circumstances." The current Essendon deal states that the club can move games to the MCG should all parties agree upon a predicted attendance of "at least 60,000." But the AFL has "regularly refused to move games for a variety of logistical reasons and is privately saying that long-held practice is unlikely to change." AFL Clubs & Operations GM Travis Auld said that the league had "not yet contemplated the issue of moving games" now that it owned the stadium. Auld: "They (Essendon) may want that, but whether it happens I'm not sure" (THE AGE, 3/7).
