Saturday News Headlines – April 1st, 2017

AFL

• Fri AFL – Bulldogs v Swans – Crowd: 42,834 at Etihad Stadium
• Brisbane: We’ve hit 20,000 members!
• The GIANTS are proud to announce BrightsideCover as the naming rights partner for GIANTS TV in 2017!
• Port Adelaide tickets for China AFL game sell out in under three hours
• AFL Rejects Broadcaster’s Demands To Shift The Grand Final To A Twilight Game
• HCF has created a new content series leveraging its ongoing partnership with the Sydney Swans HCF to start a conversation about health at all levels.
• It has been an unusual but successful pre-season for what has traditionally been Foxtel’s #1 sports channel for most of the football season.

  China Southern Airlines, the fourth largest airline in the world by passenger volume, will be positioned just below carmaker Toyota as a premium partner on the Crows’ sponsorship roster. According to local newspaper the Adelaide Advertiser, the deal is worth a high seven-figure sum over two years.

A-league

• Fri HAL – Adelaide v Perth – Crowd: 7,307 at Coopers Stadium
• FOOTBALL Federation Australia reform has been delayed with the governing body saying March 31 was a self-imposed deadline and not a FIFA deadline.
• Fairfax Media can reveal Football Federation Australia contributed just $10,000 towards indigenous football, slashing their annual funding in half from last year.

NRL

• Fri NRL – Cowboys v Rabbitohs – 13,671 at 1300 Smiles Stadium
• NRL Fri – Roosters v Sea Eagles – Crowd: 12,376 at Allianz Stadium
• Parramatta: The #blueandgold Army continues to grow, passing 20,000
• Wests Tigers submit plans for $57 million centre of excellence at Concord Oval
• The NRL is facing another standoff with clubs, who have been taken aback at a proposal from head office that they contribute a combined $20 million towards the game’s $150m digital venture. The clubs would pay $178,000 a year over seven years. This will enable the NRL to develop a world-class digital system across all 16 NRL clubs in addition to the central NRL website. The NRL will still bear the overwhelming majority of costs. Clubs currently pay a $130,000 annual fee to give them control of their individual websites.
• There was a sense of shock at some clubs when the NRL effectively tabled a salary cap offer of $8.84m to the RLPA on Thursday. That amount set aside for an expanded first-grade squad of 30 players. The figure included an allowance of $140,000 for vehicles and a further $400,000 for long-serving players. In total, it was well short of what many in the game had anticipated.