Geelong football fans will see their heroes every week on free-to-air television next season.But the short-term bonanza for Cats supporters is unlikely to translate into long-term gains for the club.Cats CEO Brian Cook yesterday said the free to air footy feast would increase interest early next year but suggested the game could suffer without a strong pay-television presence."From a club point of view and a supporter's point of view, it's a positive for the short term but in the long term there are some issues. I think it's going to be great for people to watch eight games free-to-air but in the long term there needs to be a pay TV component,'' Cook said."If you look at other sports around the world, the television arrangements that work best are when there's a 50 per cent split between pay and free-to-air.''However, the business projections are unlikely to worry football fans as they gear up for a serving of eight matches each week from Channel Seven and Channel 10.Cook said the extensive coverage could result in a revised fixture."I think what the AFL will do is stagger the starts so that there are games rolling into each other,'' he said."You'll find that generally speaking every game will be live somewhere in Australia but not all over Australia.''Cook said the club was confident the increased free-to-air coverage would not affect attendances."There's been no evidence in the AFL that shows an inverse affect on crowds in relation to live coverage of games. In the past we have even weighed up the benefit of having one million viewers by showing games live against the gate,'' he said."Time will tell but there is such a thing as overexposure. I don't think there will be many people watching eight games a week on TV.''News of the free-to-air football flood came after negotiations between Channel Seven, Channel 10 and Foxtel broke down.The two networks won the AFL broadcast rights in January after they combined to bid $780 million to televise matches for the next five years.They had hoped to onsell matches to Foxtel for $60 million but the deal fell through after the pay TV provider indicated it had no intention of increasing its $45 million offer to show four games a week.