Friday Industry News – March 22nd, 2024

2032 Olympics

• The 2032 Games’ boss has urged AFL and cricket leaders to “speak up” about their needs for a new stadium in the wake of Premier Steven Miles rejecting an independent review’s recommendation to build a new facility in Victoria Park.
• The Queensland government spent more than $6 million on its now-scrapped plans to knock down and rebuild the Gabba for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games. 

A-leagues and APL

• The A Leagues broadcast deal has been a disaster. Clubs have not received what they were promised and are on their knees financially. Some owners were not informed by APL bosses about performances clauses within the deal that allowed Ten/Paramount to greatly reduce payments, or the fact the APL was on the hook for production costs.

AFL

• THE AFL is pleased to announce longstanding partner McDonald’s Australia will come on board as the official naming rights partner of the much-loved Footy Festival that will return to AFL Gather Round…A Festival of Footy next month.

NBL

• NBL CEO David Stevenson: “I don’t think there’s any doubt at all that the Tasmania JackJumpers are the most successful expansion club, in any sport, in Australia’s history.”

SuperNetball

• Leading Super Netball players say the necessary change has occurred at the top levels of the game to repair the rift caused by last year’s damaging pay war. Chair Wendy Archer stepped down this week, although she will retain her spot on the board. But Archer’s move, combined with former chief executive Kelly Ryan resigning and ex chair and director Marina Go, deputy chair John O’Sullivan and Jane Seawright all stepping away from the board, have players believing they start the season with a clean slate.
• Netball captains are hoping the relationship between the players and sporting body will begin to heal with the changing of the guard, as they gear up to kick off another season of Super Netball.
• It’s hard to measure just how much damage last year’s Super Netball CPA negotiations did to the sport so soon after the fact, but the athletes themselves hope the ordeal hasn’t turned fans away from the sport.

Venues

• Leichhardt Oval has run its course. It is a relic. An eyesore. The weary old ground is on its last legs and there is every chance that in its current condition, it is deemed unsuitable to host NRL games in a year or two.

International

• Malaysia has rejected an offer to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games due to uncertainty over costs and insufficient funding offered, its government said on Friday, in a major setback for the quadrennial multi-sport event.