Kind of annoying that the AFL sat on their hands for so long and then as soon as the JJ's proved the market they jumped on the bandwagon. But yeah, hopefully the opposing timing of the seasons will mean public support won't be hurt too much.
What it probably will do though is dilute the corporate sponsorship opportunities.

A league likely in before 2028 also.

I cannot see the AFL making money out of it, unless the Tassie taxpayers foot the bill.

I agree that this is only in response to the success of the Jumpers, and agreed to by Labor in order to win votes.

Personally, I don't agree with the whole idea - there are a lot more important priorities in Tassie right now - but I also feel that Tassie has been treated like shit for a long time by the AFL.

I'm with hoopie, stupid investment, for quarter of the price they could invest in Bellerive and Launceston. Total waste tax payer funds just like knocking down the stadiums in Sydney. Get medi bank back in control for all the people and just not spend the money on a few afl fans in Tasmania because they are worried about the JJs.

This will hurt Tassie Basketball more than the JJs. As AFL interest and participation has suffered over that last decade, Tasmanian basketball has had a boom, even their state teams who were once easy beats are now competitive.

Come 2028 there will be a surge in junior AFL numbers in Tassie, so that will mean basketball will take a hit.

Is it overblown that because one sport booms another has to drop off? I know when i was growing up we were playing more than one sport, and the true footy heads always played footy in winter and basketball in summer!

Don't think it will be an issue sponsorship or fan number wise. In terms of sponsors JJs are aiming at primarily Tasmanian operating business, whereas an AFL team will be securing national and multinational brands.

As for participation, the JJs and basketball in general have almost 4.5 years to solidify things and then let the numbers roll through.

Also, EVERYONE in Tasmania is an AFL fan already. This won't suddenly cause some Tasmanians to drop basketball, for example, and become an AFL fan instead.

Do wonder how it might look to a prospective international buyer of the JJs though.

It's
Afl vs nrl

Off season
Basketball vs netball vs soccer vs cricket vs aflw

No pro netball in tas
No soccer team yet, 2028 possibly
No aflw team yet, 2028 or 2029 guarantee
Cricket the only competitor to basketball currently


Basketball in tas with 7 years head start....
Only downer is they need a 10,000 seat stadium. 5,000 clearly not enough now or for future growth.

The projected upgrade to MyState Arena would seat 6800 which would be a good balance of additional seating vs scarcity of tickets. Think the price tag was about $30 million from memory.

Not sure if that's harder to get support for now, or given how $30 million looks relative to the AFL investment, its viewed more favourably?

i read an upgrade will only get them to 6,200 max.
With sport facility upgrades all over tas and still yet to be funded domestic stadiums for various sports, I think it'll be impossible to get another stadium within the next 2 decades.
The Afl stadium they are going to build is only 23,000 capacity, absolutely laughable. 40,000 min it should be.
A 23,000 seater and a population in tas of 1 mill by 2060. The other 2 grounds have 19,000+ capacity.

Making tickets hard to get is the better way to go IMO.

Former Hobart Hurricanes CEO Nick Cummins in the Herald Sun today:



WHY SMALLER IS BETTER

"There are challenges around the market size and the remoteness. Everyone talks about the Green Bay Packers - the Packers are small, but Wisconsin's got 5.9 million people. So they’ve got to build a stadium the right size. They can't build it too small that they can’t make money, but they can’t make it too big that it’s a bad experience for fans. I’d err on the side of small because you want the feeling of a packed house, not an echo chamber."

THE CHALLENGE FILLING IT

“All of our stadia, except for Perth, have been built when games were not broadcast live against the gate. So when people say we should build a 35,000-seat stadium, or even 27,000, those sizes are not in line with contemporary viewing habits. If we were building the MCG again, we probably wouldn’t be building it at 100,000 because up until the last 15 years you couldn’t watch the game live against the gate if you lived in Melbourne. Blundstone Arena’s capacity is 16,000-17,000 – it's not 20,000, and it’s not close to selling out. You shouldn’t build a stadium for your biggest game, you shouldn’t build a stadium for your average game. There’ll be big crowds early, because it’s new and shiny, but Tasmania versus Gold Coast in June when it’s 14th versus 17th is getting 6000 people. It’s hard to get people to attend games – Hobart’s population is 200,000 and across Tasmania is 500,000. But Burnie is three and a half hours from Hobart and Tasmanians, just like any other fan, will select the games they want to go to, as they do in cricket.

not one of those times you should use statistics to make decisions.
Tas will have much greater support than the Gold Coast or any nsw/qld side.

Eg
They first expected jackjumpers to have an avg crowd of 3,000. It ended up 25-30% higher

I'm with you @ AntAntAnt, a lot European clubs work on that principle, it’s smart business.

Sometimes I with the AFL and NBL worked together. A joint club with the same branding in Tasmania surely would have worked well as it does with football and basketball in Europe.

I think this model really could do quite well in Australia, particularly with the seasons operating opposite each other. In an ideal world, you would then run the junior basketball championship seasons over Summer rather than Winter so you can have footy centric families also playing basketball at a higher level at opposite times of the year.

Gold Coast Duns stadium is only about 27K max capacity.

There are 1 million people on the GC (plus northern rivers of NSW and Southern Brisbane/ Logan) but only 1/2 million in Tas.

I know TAS is "an AFL state", but the Goldie has a big AFL base on the GC. The AFL junior program from Auskick & under 8s to U18s is very strong, with a lot of depth.

I think thaat a similar style and size boutique stadium in Hobart makes sense for the AFL. Hopefully with more enclosed areas than Carrara though, because Tas is much colder and more rainy in winter. It's not fun exiting Carrara to the buses in a tropical storm, but the rain in Hobart is colder.

The biggest concern would be the non-existence of public transport in Hobart. Probably couldn’t cope with any more spectators exiting. Spectators arriving isn’t such an issue after footy, people arrive more gradually than they exit.

Gold Coast Suns, obviously

I agree with you BALLER#3 - but unfortunately, the AFL see every other male comp as competition for them and they want to be the dominant sport and kill off all the others.

I find it interesting that the AFLW play over summer and not in winter. Why? They want to dominate the summer market and can get media coverage over summer, where the AFLW wont get a look in during winter. But hey, the NBL, A-League, BBL can have the extra competition instead, right?

Good to see the JJ's come out and support the Tassie AFL license with a social media post. I seriously doubt any AFL club would have done the same for an incoming NBL side. And has the AFL acknowledged the NBL in any way over this decision, even in the smallest possible way? Nup.