Now let's just see if we have got a handle on this. Rugby union is coming to Melbourne, the AFL is going to the Gold Coast, the NBL is going nowhere. And Australia can't beat Kuwait in soccer.
North Melbourne president James Brayshaw said several Melbourne clubs will go broke just as the AFL sets about spending a cool $200 million in western Sydney. Rugby union is made up of rugby league players, the rugby league tribunal isn't made up of anybody. Somebody called Klein is representing Australia in the Davis Cup. And Betfair is now everybody's best friend.
Cricket's immediate future is uncertain, policemen and civilians are dead; umpires, officials and players in shock. The IPL is in doubt and there is not one healthy fast bowler left in Australia. Sport is in a whirl.
Brayshaw's concern is the deal with Etihad Stadium, which according to the AFL isn't Etihad Stadium but Docklands. The league is in dispute with the ground managers and therefore will not recognise the change of sponsor from Telstra to Etihad. The AFL is Australia's sporting bully-boy.
Two soccer players are sent off during the A-League final only to find the incidents were not worthy of red cards - maybe any cards - at all. Meanwhile, the AFL makes it a reportable offence to cause physical contact, accidentally or otherwise. It is a time to tread most warily.
Brydan Klein will become the first West Australian to face action in the Davis Cup when Australia plays Thailand this weekend. Whatever happened to Centre Court Tomic? The NBL played the second of its best-of-five finals series last night between the Melbourne Tigers and South Dragons. Watch that and you think the sport is vibrant, but the NBL is finished and nothing is at all certain for next year.
The Victorian Government has backed the Melbourne bid to be the home of the 15th Super rugby union team. This at a time when the last Australian expansion team, Western Force, seems all but dysfunctional and the Victorian Government will not step in to help Victorian AFL clubs squeeze a better deal from the stadium with no name. Anyway, it is doubtful there are enough good rugby players left to field five teams. Union risks diluting the talent pool to field teams of mediocrity.
Victorian clubs will meet as one before the AFL commission next assembles. Brayshaw has said that the stadium deal must be kinder to Melbourne clubs or the future is bleak. But these are the deals agreed to by the clubs and the AFL itself. The clubs worry now that the bids for AFL licences in western Sydney and on the Gold Coast are fraught in the crashing economy. Who will fund the new stadiums required? The Gold Coast bidders have been shocked to find that without commitment of significant monies from state and federal governments to rebuild Carrara their club will remain a shell.
Betfair is now a player in the marketplace where it once was a pariah. Racing Victoria once declared it would rather suspend the spring carnival than allow racing to get into bed with Betfair. Get into bed? They are having a right old time of it now.
Legislation change and court decisions now allow exchanges and corporate bookmakers to advertise. Which means sponsorship. So country racing clubs in Victoria are in for their chop. Melbourne Racing Club so slobbered at the Betfair money it renamed its Sandown track Betfair Park. Footy codes sleep with Betfair, and footy clubs welcome sponsorship.
If racing was to build its sport from scratch, exchanges such as Betfair would get no oxygen. That exchanges allow punters to back horses to lose is anathema to the spirit and security of racing.
But serious punters love them because the takeout is less and they have the chance to squeeze percentages.
Betfair will not go away now and racing must use this platform, not so long ago racing's vile child, to build its betting base. To its credit Betfair acknowledges it is more vulnerable to corrupt acts because of its facility to back horses to lose. It has continued to address this weakness by sharpening transparent integrity protocols that Racing Victoria chief Rob Hines said yesterday were more strict than any others.
As thoroughbred racing loses more and more of its revenue to online pursuits such as poker and sport betting, Betfair presents as a friend in the new media. Rehabilitation will not be easy nor quick, for its reputation was savaged when it first sought a licence to operate in Australia.
Racing is at a most crucial stage in its history. It is poorly organised. NSW pulls in one direction, Victoria in another, Queensland and Western Australia do their thing and it's years since South Australia did anything. There are too many layers of administration, too many clubs, too many races. The umpteenth limited over match between Bangladesh and anybody is more memorable than the card at Moonee Valley at night.
At some clubs winning owners are greeted in the mounting yard by nobody but horse, jockey and trainer. The romance of racing has given way to the hum-drum. It now has its own lazy language. Commentators talk about the quinella as a Q, an exacta is E and the trifecta as a T, and so racing becomes more inaccessible by the race. The Australian Racing Board is a quasi-national body, stocked with the partisan folk of the state bodies. Two networks produce much the same thoroughbred coverage.
Melbourne has three race clubs, will soon have a second soccer team, clings to its rugby league representation, stumps up nine AFL teams, wastes money on the Grand Prix and now must find cash to bid for a new union side. It might be the sports capital of the nation but it is fatigued.
The AFL promised more than a 55,000-strong crowd to the bushfire game and not 40,000 turned up. Again a sell-out was the prediction for Ben Cousins's return to football. Not 40,000 turned up. The Grand Prix loses obscene amounts of money, the two most successful basketball teams might not have a league to play in. The Victorian cricket team hasn't seen a final it believes it can win. Asafa Powell runs at Olympic Park amid a collection of the world's elite athletes. About 4000 turned up.
Sport of every brand is trying to expand or begin again in a shrinking market. The public is battered by the economy, by bushfires, by floods and by terrorism. We need a distraction. The irony is in the cure. We need footy - your type and my type. (Credit: The Australian)
Media Man Australia Profiles
Sports Betting
Australian Sports Entertainment
