[Archive 2009-03-23] Australian Football League: Clubs threaten to take home games interstate

Historical archive — originally published 2009-03-23. This report records what was known on that date. It is not current news; subsequent events may have changed the situation. Wikinews closed in May 2026.

Australian Football League clubs in Melbourne have threatened to move their matches interstate after a breakdown in negotiations over poor stadium deals at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Western Bulldogs president David Smorgon, who was acting as the delegate for the league's sixteen clubs, said that Victorian teams would consider moving matches interstate or to Visy Park in Carlton.

Both options - playing at Visy Park and interstate - were conditional on a fairer deal for clubs not being struck. Clubs stressed, at a meeting with the AFL, that they did not want to resort to those measure.

James Merlino, the Victorian state Sports Minister, responded by stating that the government had already spent $176 million on AFL football, and that "no code gets better support in either the grassroots or the elite from the Government than AFL football".

The AFL and its clubs are asking the Victorian government for AU$8 million a year in additional funding.

Source and licence

Text adapted from Australian Football League: Clubs threaten to take home games interstate by Wikinews contributors under CC BY 2.5. Paragraphs have been selected and abridged, and formatting adjusted. Contributor history.