NORTH MAY STILL RECIVE COAST CASH
BY STEPHEN BAKER
THE North Melbourne Football Club may still receive the financial sweeteners promised to them by the AFL, despite advising the league that they will not play games on the Gold Coast in 2009.
League CEO, Andrew Demetriou, confirmed today that despite snubbing the AFL’s push to relocate them to the Gold Coast, the club believes that it remains entitled to over $1.2 million dollars promised to the club to as part of their deal to play three “home” games at Carrara next year.
“We don’t walk away from agreements,” he said.
“We’re very consistent, we’ve got a great record on that but the fact of the matter is that we’ve got on-going discussions with the North Melbourne Football Club.”
“They’ve made it clear that they don’t want to play on the Gold Coast and we respect that, they’ve said clearly… that they want to play all their games in Melbourne, so we respect that and we’ll do what we can to accomodate that.”
Mr Demetriou bristled at suggestions that the Kangaroos were loathe to initiate formally breaking the contract, fearing the loss of their cash bonanza from the AFL.
“It’s not about the cash,” Mr Demetriou argued.
“It’s about the fact that they’ve got a great desire, which we respect, to play all their games in Melbourne and if they want to be the North Melbourne Football Club we should respect that.”
“North Melbourne Football Club wants to play every game in Melbourne and we respect that,” he repeated.
FOOTYHEADS: Should North still receive the money promised to them for playing three “home” games at Carrara if they refuse to be fixtured to play there?
You have to be kidding? They tell the AFL to get stuffed and then keep their hands held out for the money?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!!!
When is this club ever going to pay their own way?
May 23rd, 2008 | #
That is pathetic, how many more dumb decisions will the AFL make this year?
May 23rd, 2008 | #
and rightly so…North have stated they don’t want to play there but won’t pull out of the deal if it means losing the remainder of the money the AFL was offering (400k per game) . The AFL know that if North continue to play games up there its only going to damage there push for the gold coast so the afl don’t want them playing there either so they should pay them out.
May 24th, 2008 | #
Shocking comments and biased riddled article.
We, the North Melbourne Football Club, have stated many times - we are happy to play three home games at the Gold Coast next year.
The, AFL, have said they do not want us to play at the Coast next year.
There is no doubt both would prefer to play in Melbourne, but if it meant losing 1.2 million pure revenue, then the Roos would lose.
We have made our stance clear; we will play 3 home games at the GC next season, however if the AFL wish to cancel this agreement, compensate us.
May 26th, 2008 | #