THE AFL has announced that the proposed new Gold Coast team will be given access to 20 Queensland teenagers over the next three years.

League chief executive Andrew Demetriou said on Friday afternoon the decision was approved by the AFL Commission, in what will be the first of a series of draft concessions for the expansion club.

"Today was an historic meeting because today one of the first steps in the building of the Gold Coast team were passed by the AFL Commission," Demetriou said.

"The commission determined that the Gold Coast team will now have access to pre-sign 20 Queensland players of draft eligible age over the next three years, 2009, 2010 and 2011."

He said players signed under that system would be offered contracts of up to $70,000 per year in return for opting out of the draft.

Demetriou said the other 16 AFL clubs would be entitled to list an additional two rookies per season for each of the next two years to compensate for losing out because of draft concessions to the new club over that period.

He said it was yet to be determined exactly what concessions the Gold Coast team would be given in the 2009 Nab AFL Draft with a decision likely to be made by the commission in July or August.

He said the Gold Coast club would field a side in the TAC Cup under-18 competition next year, before playing in the VFL in 2010 as a pathway to entering the AFL in 2011.