Mike, I just read your post. Were it not for State Government Handouts to the AFL, you would not get a penny back for your investment. With ticket sales so cheap, even with a capacity crowd of 15,000 familes getting discounted tickets, because of Australia's obsession with a game no-one else is interested in, and the Footy-culture and rewards from business for footy careers, car-dealerships, pubs etc, we artificially stack the board-rooms with pro-footy elites. Their loyalty to their code, or the 'hand that feeds them' is the major impediment for anyother sporting body to access the kind of sponsorship deals which footy can.
Were it not for this corporate favouratism, money would be available to other internationally competitive sports through sponsorship, making a creer in these other sports a viable option for young athletes.
With the media behind AFL, other sporting bodies do not have a chance. See, our economy is run on addictions. Feed people footy and they will hunger for footy. Make everything about footy, and the SA obsession with an amalgamated club, from all the wealthy clubs- just to keep Port Adelaide from being the first SA club into the AFL, and you can see that the size of the footy lobby in this state is hugely powerful and elitist to boot. As a result, basketball and soccer suffer from inadequate resources as sweetheart deals are struck in the corridors of power to protect our national game. National? It used to be that only South Australia and WA had any interest in Aussie Rules apart from the Melbourne Irish who invented the game. They call that national, where only 5 million out of 21 million have any interest in it, if we measure the populations of Victoria, South Australia (incl NT) and WA. Not exactly indicative of a national sport. there are more kids playing soccer and Basketball than AFL, although figures can be skewed by kids participating in more than one sport.
In Australia, parochialism and the reward-culture for ex-footy players provides the Sport with a much needed buffer against challenges from other Sporting activities. this is nothing more than Protectionism, Yes that ugly word that disappeared in the 1980's when Australia opened its borders to cheaper products, the reinvention of globalisation, and as a consequence, Australian produced goods disappeared from our shelves, to be replaced by imported goods. AFL is the last Australian Product to benefit from Protectionism, and while Footy players, with no particular merits in business acumen, continue to be recruited for the 'fame' they bring, and the 'contacts' then other sporting bodies will continue to suffer.
In summation:
As long as the media continue to put all their eggs in one basket, the stranglehold on 'Parliament' which the Crows enjoy, will mean the Crows continue to 'murder' all other sports when it comes to successful lobbying of Government and corporations.1
The fix is in and always has been.
1, collective nouns for Crows, are a parliament, and a murder. heh heh