TOPIC:

ArkRoyal wrote: even the so-called 'crowning achievement' of the SANF -- Football Park -- was a stuff up in the end. They only went there because of Bradman and the SACA not out of some fantastic vision. It has ended up costing them a lot of money once it became obvious that the victorian version of PA was unable to fill the ground.

Essentially they had to sell everything back to the SACA, the government plus the Victorians to save themselves; old Donald would be laughing his what sits off.

You have it all wrong, it was the SANFL that walked away from the SACA, they wanted to have control over their own income stream, the SACA would not agree to the terms the SANFL wanted so they told them to jam it.

In the end they got all the ticketing, bar sales and events cash straight in the footy till without having to share it with the SACA, which was actually in strife when they put out the feelers for footy to return in a joint and better deal for footy. The amount SANFL put into the SACA is small fry compared to what they made out at West Lakes over the years.

Not to mention SANFL has online live streaming of every game while the wafl doesn't.

Bazza wrote:

ArkRoyal wrote: even the so-called 'crowning achievement' of the SANF -- Football Park -- was a stuff up in the end. They only went there because of Bradman and the SACA not out of some fantastic vision. It has ended up costing them a lot of money once it became obvious that the victorian version of PA was unable to fill the ground.

Essentially they had to sell everything back to the SACA, the government plus the Victorians to save themselves; old Donald would be laughing his what sits off.

You have it all wrong, it was the SANFL that walked away from the SACA, they wanted to have control over their own income stream, the SACA would not agree to the terms the SANFL wanted so they told them to jam it.

In the end they got all the ticketing, bar sales and events cash straight in the footy till without having to share it with the SACA, which was actually in strife when they put out the feelers for footy to return in a joint and better deal for footy. The amount SANFL put into the SACA is small fry compared to what they made out at West Lakes over the years.

The SANFL owned Football park (Westlakes) is being gradually subdivided for residential land, producing significant profits for the SANFL, this then supports each SANFL club via annual dividends, which the clubs have used for debt reduction where necessary, plus supports their bigger salary cap and better resourced football department. The SANFL actually promote their state league, no wonder some clubs, like Norwood who are the 2nd most successful club can average crowds of 4k, no clubs even the 3 most on field successful clubs in EF, EP & WP can get anywhere near that due to the complete lack of interest by the WAFC.

It's a self fulfilling policy by the WAFC, they dont promote or support the comp, so the comp is slowly dying on the vine, so the WAFC can say it wont increase support because the crowd numbers are diminishing and dont justify additional support. catch 22

Beasley Hutton wrote: Interesting debate this the WAFC vs SANFL?

At the end of the day one State League had-
1-A full proper home & away season starting in June and ending in October
2-Will have ALL finals plus the GF at the world class Adelaide Oval in front of nearly 30,000
3-Have a larger player salary cap per season (approx $125k more than the other State League)
4-Had the foresight to own & build their own stadium in the 1970s and not have just 1 club based there unlike here with their own bar and seating to take full advantage of all of the perks associated with it including all finals, GFs, State Of Origin games, afl games each weekend there for their 2 teams, international rules games, major concerts, monster trucks, festivals etc and from those perks 1 club was able to bank millions, buy the best players available from outside the afl, win 10 flags, play finals virtually every year and then have to have recruiting restrictions placed on them
5-Were then able to negotiate a good deal to move back to Adelaide Oval and share with the SACA and play all their finals games there in front of full houses at minimal cost and not at outdated suburban venues
6-Are able to sell off the no longer used Football Park they owned in West Lakes near the coast for a motza to developers

I will leave it up to you to decide which is the better run organisation with an actual focus on their 143yo Premier State League competition and not just the 2 afl clubs based in their particular state!

Nailed it BH. SA football had a long term plan to make their competition viable and attractive, the WAFC has failed miserably with this over many years.