The Big Deal Weekly: AFL trades talk, ex-coach into a CEO role, the Australian World Cup bid, EPL media rights, netballers #FightForFair & more

Newsletter no.54, 11 October 2023

Ah, silly season. It’s rife, it’s here and it’s rampant. With all that and more, it’s been a hectic week in sports business.

Tune in to the episode with Tredders and Huddo below or scroll down for the weekly notes.

Listen to the wrap and subscribe for free now on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

TRADING PLACES

The AFL Trade Period is here with a bang, with controversial compensation picks again a talking point.

Adelaide scored Pick 19 for Tom Doedee, while North Melbourne scooped up Pick 3 for Ben McKay.

Port Adelaide meanwhile is pushing Xavier Duursma out the door according to reports for draft capital.

As has been known for a while, Port is in the market for Brandon Zerk-Thatcher, Esava Ratugolea and Jordon Sweet.

TREDDERS’ AFL TALKING POINTS

In the audio wrap, Tredders talks about:

• Max Gawn opening his doors for Clayton Oliver.

• Sydney’s trading masterstrokes

• Fremantle’s failures

• Don Pyke - a CEO in waiting?

• Nathan Murphy’s concussion situation

• Collingwood’s eyewatering guernsey auction

PIES’ SECOND IN THE WORLD

What do Bayern Munich, Manchester United and Inter Milan all have in common?

They’re all in the top five in the worldwide average home attendances for 2023, and they’re all below Collingwood on that same ranking.

The Magpies boasted an average home game attendance of 77,659 and sit less than 4000 behind leaders, German soccer giant Borussia Dortmund.

Not a bad effort considering who they’re up against on the world stage.

WALLABIES IN ALL SORTS

The Wallabies are out of the World Cup. In the group stage.

An absolute disastrous campaign highlighted by their first loss to Fiji since the 1950s, what is going on the world of rugby?

Eddie Jones is a legend, but there’s talk of him going to Japan.

TV rights, interest and viewership all in the air - got to get creative to get the people back.

AUSTRALIA’S WORLD CUP BID

Football Australia has not ruled out hosting the 2034 FIFA World Cup but would need to build extra stadiums to stage the event or team up with at least two other countries.

Football Australia has until October 31 to lodge a confirmation of interest to host the World Cup.

The FIFA documents stipulate host nations must also provide:

• A minimum of 72 suitable base camp training sites

• A minimum of 72 base camp hotels within a 20-minute drive of the training sites

• Each hotel must be a minimum of four stars with at least 80 guest rooms

• A minimum of four team hotels and four training sites per competition venue

• Two referee base camp hotels and training sites

• One five-star hotel per host city for FIFA VIPs

However, it looks as if Saudi Arabia is in the box seat.

Saudi Arabia has two stadiums with a capacity of at least 40,000, but plans to build three more and redevelop four more in time for the 2027 Asian Cup.

ANGE SUCCESS CONTINUES, PREMIER LEAGUE SET TO CAPITALISE ON MEDIA RIGHTS

Aussie manager Ange Postecoglou’s journey in the Premier League is still going well - Tottenham is unbeaten and top of the Premier League.

Better for Spurs, they lead rivals Arsenal on goals scored currently.

They couldn’t, could they?

Meanwhile, the Premier League will soon take bids on new domestic media deals to start in 2025.

Currently, Sky Sports, TNT Sports and Amazon Prime Video show matches in the UK. Here in Australia, Optus Sport is the broadcaster.

The EPL however, appears to want to extend the deal cycles to four years and have fewer broadcasters with larger packages.

In the US, NBC has begun its second decade broadcasting the Premier League, reportedly paying $2.7 billion for its most recent six-year pact.

REAL MADRID’S BOLD PLAY

Real Madrid is sitting atop La Liga currently, despite forgoing an additional chunk of media rights.

La Liga has huge media rights deals around the globe — including its $5.6 billion domestic pact with Movistar and DAZN and its $1.4 billion contract with ESPN for US rights. It also has a $30 million deal with EA Sports.

With the extra revenue, La Liga has been trying to incentivise clubs to be more open with media access.

One club isn’t complying - Real Madrid.

The club hasn’t allowed extra cameras and microphones near coaches and players — costing the team its $14.2 million share of the initiative’s $137 million pot.

“I would prefer to accept a pay cut for it not to come in,” Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti said.

Could it be a case Madrid is after its own check, potentially with Apple, with whom it met in September?

BRADY’S BID FALLING FLAT

Tom Brady’s purchase of a minority stake in the Las Vegas Raiders hasn’t gone further since becoming public in May, and it doesn’t look like it’ll be approved any time soon.

Raiders owner Mark Davis is reportedly selling Brady between 5-10% of the team, for about a 70% discount.

The NFL finance committee has also reportedly balked at the discounted purchase price offered to Brady for a minority interest in the Raiders.

SUPER SHOE WAR HEATS UP

Yep, that’s a headline.

A fortnight ago we spoke about Tigist Asseefa’s world-record obliterating run with the Adidas Asizero Adios Pro Evo 1 shoe.

Well, now Kenya’s Kelvin Kiptum shattered the men’s world record in the Chicago Marathon wearing a Nike prototype, ‘NikeDev163’.

How much it costs is unknown.

SUPER NETBALL’S SUPER DISASTER

Almost the entire Super Netball playing cohort has taken to social media to express their disappointment at what they say is Netball Australia’s unwillingness to enter into a real partnership model.

Netball Australia is refusing to come to the party with the ANPA on a new partnership model, leaving netballers technically unemployed.

What Netball Australia is offering players:

• A three-year term from 1 October 2023 to 30 September 2026, running in parallel with the term of the current Foxtel broadcast agreement.

• Players and clubs may enter into 1, 2 or 3 year contracts.

• Annual increases of 3% in guaranteed player base salary and private health insurance contributions (based on a materially higher threshold after the previous year’s 22% CPA increase).

• A 3% increase to the maximum salary cap.

• Players receive 25% of league generated profits, after Netball Australia retains the first $500,000 in league generated profits.

• An increase in the minimum base salary in 2024 of 10% to $44,000, then annual increases during the 3-year term of 3%.

• Increases to the Additional Part A caps and improvements to the approval of third-party agreements.

• An initial increase of 10% in both the Nominated Athlete honorarium and weekly payments for 2024, then 3% annual increases during the 3-year term.

• The introduction of rookies – whereby one nominated training partner per club is eligible for selection outside of injury or illness.

• The establishment of the Professional Netball Committee with formal ANPA representation.

• Increasing ANPA investment by 30% to $425,000 (excluding GST) in each year of the CPA term.

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