NO. You can't be a genius to alienate the mkt with one franchisee club..
So the it seems the AFL Comm. has rubber stamped this.. i can't see the Marketing Director making this move all by itself/himself
this following info is 3 yrs old but i doubt the ownership structure has changed. NFL is Amurca is committing suicide now by allowing its players to kneel down during pre-game anthems.. either they have been mandated by their ownership structures/powerbrokers OR they have been given tonnes of money by other backers OR maybe simple they don;'t care about money since they have already earned so much
=)=_
The nature of club ownership in the AFL varies, and in general is different from other sports such as EU based soccer clubs and US NFL/MLB/NBA clubs which are privately-owned franchises or the public shareholder-owned clubs.
Most clubs in the AFL have been and are member-owned (now typically companies limited by guarantee) with club members normally electing the Board of Directors, who appoint professional managers to run the club.
Before the VFL became the AFL in the 1980's, all Victorian-based clubs were member-owned. From the late 80's to early 90's things started to change. North Melbourne was one of the first, become shareholder-owned and in the 90's both Sydney and Brisbane each went through a short period of private ownership. Brisbane has now reverted to a traditional member-owned club, whilst the Sydney licence is AFL-owned with its Board approved by the AFL. The two expansion teams in GWS and GCS are also AFL-owned, and there was a push by the AFL some years back to acquire both the West Coast and Fremantle clubs which was rejected.
The two clubs in Adelaide and the two clubs in Perth are owned by their respective state football Commissions which also manage football in those two states, including the SANFL and WAFL.
There was a push a couple of years back to privatise AFL clubs and it was heavily rejected and never progressed past an initial proposal.
The AFL Commission runs the game and has the final day over decision making. It's an independent body with Commissioners elected by the clubs. A 75 per cent vote by clubs is required to overturn Commission decisions
