AFL CHIEF executive Andrew Demetriou has reiterated the league’s desire to build a new club from the ground up on the Gold Coast in response to Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett’s calls for Melbourne to relocate.
Speaking at a charity event on Thursday evening, Kennett, a former Victorian premier, argued that the Demons should take a lucrative package similar to the one offered to the Kangaroos last year if they were to survive as a club.
However, Demetriou maintained his support of the 10 Melbourne-based clubs and said plans were already well in motion to build a new franchise in south-east Queensland.
“We’re not really interested in [an established] team going to the Gold Coast to be quite truthful,” Demetriou told Melbourne radio station 3AW.
“We’ve got a bid team up there already.
“I think we launched the bid team, if memory serves me correctly, a few weeks ago and we’ve got a great group who are doing a lot of work to hit some [targets] that they must meet by October the 14th.
“We’ve got people working on the ground and they’re interviewing people for coaching positions. It’s pretty clear the Gold Coast community wants their own team and a team that is built from the bottom up and that’s why we’ve been talking to the clubs about list development and the like.”
Kennett believes the Demons have no long-term future in Melbourne in the club’s current form with membership and sponsorship opportunities to become even scarcer over the next decade.
With the league’s annual special distribution to Melbourne set to decrease from $1 million to $250,000 next year, Demetriou agreed that the club faced some harsh economic realities and hoped Kennett’s comments would act as a wake-up call to supporters.
“I’m certainly interested in a call-to-arms for the Demons’ supporters and I support Jeff on that,” he said.
“The people that support this club - the members, the supporters, the people that don’t go – they’ve got to get up and get behind this football club and start to support it because it’s a club that’s in need of help.
“We’re doing our best to help them and I know Paul McNamee has rolled his sleeves up and he’s doing his best, there are people within the club and outside the club doing their best, but at the end of the day other [supporters] have galvanised behind their clubs.
“We’ve seen the Kangaroos this year get to 30,000 members and we’ve seen the Bulldogs get a $25 million redevelopment out there at Whitten Oval.
“If you support this football club get off your bum and get behind the club. Don’t sit back and watch and read things and ring up talkback and complain; support the club.
“If you love this football club, and I know many people do and you’re passionate about this football club, then it’s time to start showing that love and commitment.”
