Expansion India next in AFL expansion plans

[Demonoid]

<H1>India next in AFL expansion plans

Mark Hawthorne | August 19, 2008

THE AFL will push further into overseas markets by playing two exhibition matches in India in early March, in addition to the scheduled Collingwood-West Coast game in South Africa.
Feroz Shah Kotla cricket ground in New Delhi and Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai have been selected as the two preferred arena by the AFL. Both have a capacity of about 40,000. The AFL also has plans to play a further exhibition match in Miami.
Collingwood president Eddie McGuire has ruled out his club's involvement in an Indian match due to the existing South African commitment, but Richmond, Essendon and North Melbourne have been lobbying hard to be involved in the first games to be played in India.
Richmond invited Sujatha Singh, the Indian high commissioner to Australia, to a recent match against Essendon. Anita Nayar, India's Consul General in Melbourne, has also attended two Tigers' games this season.
"No decision has been made about the teams yet, but we are very keen to go and be one of the clubs involved in the first AFL match played over there," Richmond president Gary March said.
"It's a great opportunity. There are growing cultural and population ties between India and Australia. The Tigers, being a revered animal in that country, would be a perfect fit for the Indian market."
Essendon chief executive Peter Jackson confirmed that the club has been involved in negotiations for months to play in India.
"It's no secret we would love to go," Jackson said. "It's a tremendous opportunity, and would fit right in with our club's history of developing the game with different cultures and communities. We would even make a financial contribution to meet some of the costs if required."
AFL spokesman Patrick Keane said an announcement on next year's overseas schedule was "imminent", but it was too early to confirm whether the matches in India would go ahead. "We hope to have an announcement in four-to-six weeks," he said.
"But we are not in a position to say anything further at this stage as we are in a number of negotiations."
The AFL has enlisted the help of Federal Government agency Austrade and Melbourne-based Stride Sports Management, a company co-owned by Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting, to guide and promote its push into the Indian market.
Austrade's recently appointed New Delhi commissioner, Peter Linford, has been dealing with the AFL for several months to help with the logistics of playing two matches in India.

Linford was based in Melbourne until late last month, when he relocated to New Delhi.
The AFL wants to capitalise on the profile of Ponting to assist its push into India.
In May, Ponting was the special guest at an AFL function in Kolkata that promoted Australian football to Indian business leaders and the media.
Ponting is an ardent North Melbourne fan who has publicly stated his desire to join the board of the football club.
The involvement of Stride further strengthens North Melbourne's chances of playing in India — former Kangaroos players Glenn Archer, Anthony Stevens and Keith McKenzie are all part of the Stride management team.
Representatives of both Taj Hotels Group, an Indian-owned luxury hotel chain, and Austrade confirmed that provisional hotel bookings have been made by the AFL for New Delhi and Mumbai in early March. That means the matches could be part of the NAB Cup pre-season series.
"There are still some negotiations to be done over the dates," said a spokesman for Taj Hotels.
February is peak tourist season in India — New Delhi and Mumbai are the two main arrival points for overseas tourists.
Including players and officials, the AFL needs between 60 and 80 rooms in both cities.
If the later March dates are to go ahead, the AFL would limit the commitments of the clubs involved so they could fly in, play their games, and then return to Australia.
Last February, Collingwood spent almost two weeks in Dubai promoting the game. Jackson would prefer the matches were part of the NAB Cup series. "If you are going to showcase the sport overseas, then it's best to be serious about it and play games that mean something and make an impression," he said.

</H1>You heard it here first folks....
http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/ne...1218911570743.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

 

[Philhawk]

Could work.

Soccer isn't an overly big sport in India, yet they still were able to draw 120,000 to a regional match.

With India's great love of all things Australian, it could work out. Would help if that young Sri Lankan kid running around, about to be drafted by Geelong, made the trip over for the match.

 

[Duggie]

why would the AFL be bothered looking to india. i mean come on.

 

[Cosmo Kramer]

Out of all of the countries in the world. The one that makes the most sense to me to expand into is India. Behind that would be South Africa and New Zealand, it makes sense because of its population, grounds/infrastructure from cricket and because Australian cricketers could be used to promote the game.

 

[SweetLeftFoot]

Ricky Ponting wearing a North guernsey into cashed up middle class India just makes me ... and no doubt Brayshaw and Arocca ... rock hard with excitement.

Get this right and the 100,000 member mark would be a gimme ...

 

[krudmonk]

why would the AFL be bothered looking to india. i mean come on.

Probably has something to do with the assload of people and the relative lack of sporting variety.

 

[AstroboyUK]

I spend a lot of time in India for work - 2 out of every 6 weeks for the past 3 years. Ive learnt alot about Indian culture and speak a little Hindi.

In my humble opinion Australian Rules is not the kind of game Indians would ever take to - to watch or play; and its not the kind of climate where it could ever be played seriously.

I dont quite understand why the AFL would trial this - I expect they have their reasons - but if I were them, and were trying to break into Asia, I would have chosen China long before India

 

[Mitchell Madness]

Could work.

Soccer isn't an overly big sport in India, yet they still were able to draw 120,000 to a regional match.

With India's great love of all things Australian, it could work out. Would help if that young Sri Lankan kid running around, about to be drafted by Geelong, made the trip over for the match.

yep, Geelong vs StKilda.

Get Warnie to promote it, i am sure he has his old StKilda reserves jumper around somewhere

 

[Fire]

I spend a lot of time in India for work - 2 out of every 6 weeks for the past 3 years. Ive learnt alot about Indian culture and speak a little Hindi.

In my humble opinion Australian Rules is not the kind of game Indians would ever take to - to watch or play; and its not the kind of climate where it could ever be played seriously.

I dont quite understand why the AFL would trial this - I expect they have their reasons - but if I were them, and were trying to break into Asia, I would have chosen China long before India

Why? India is full of AFL stadiums, and the rest of Asia has a real, very real, problem of space.

Why do you think Indians would have a hard time adopting the sport, out of curiosity? I see many people of Indian decent at AFL matches. (One even returned my phone for when when I left it at the MCG). Promotionally, its a dream, as the sport was born to keep cricketers fit. Why is Australia so good at cricket?

There is no contact sport already established.

Why do you think they wont like it?

 

[Subprime]

Good initiative, hope its a NAB Cup game between North and St Kilda. This would seem to be the dream match-up given the Punter/Warnie connections.

 

[Alpha1]

It will take off there they just have to make sure to promote it the right way. Imagine if we could get it established in India, the clubs would love to have a share of over 1 billion people.

 

[Atomboy]

Not about converting Indians to playing footy IMO.

All about the AFL and clubs being able to tap into the HUUUGE amounts of corporate cash over there (ie. TV rights).

Combine Footy succesfully with Cricket, and the thing would be a sure fire winner !.

 

[finders]

why would the AFL be bothered looking to india. i mean come on.

Typical "head in the sand attitude" why bother to do anything at all you tool!Australian Football HAS to explore all areas to expand in a shrinking world dominated by TV sport

.Even if a small foothold was gained in some cities in India it would be massive. Australia = 22,000,000 Mumbai alone = 22,000,000.
Money well spent.

 

[Docker Clint]

I thought this was a joke thread at first. The AFL are in cloud cuckoo land if they think this would work.

 

[pazza]

Hmmmm...Essendon v Richmond at Mumbai in March. I could live with it....wonder if we could give Tendulkar a jumper....

 

[Doctor Jolly]

I've heard the reason that soccer struggles in India, is because the attraction of playing such a physically exhausting sport (like all footies) on a dust bowl pitch puts many off.

Cricket on the other hand, can be played in hot, humid, dust bowl pitches.

I think footy will struggle for the same reason as soccer, but like what was already said, footy's international expansion really has to ride on the back of cricket, as only cricket has the correct field size.

 

[cos789]

In my humble opinion Australian Rules is not the kind of game Indians would ever take to - to watch or play; and its not the kind of climate where it could ever be played seriously.

They play soccer don't they .What's the problem ? I'll tell you the real problem.
Can you ever imagine someone umpiring a Pakistan Vs India game .

I dont quite understand why the AFL would trial this - I expect they have their reasons

Lot's of big big Indian entreprenaurs . They've seen the 20/20 matches .
They've seen the AFL crowds . They want to fill those stadiums in winter .
Again this isn't so much as the AFL wanting to expand internationally
it's about finding sponsorship to underwrite the proceedings .

I would have chosen China long before India

Well you're right , the AFL has targeted China already and has set up a venture with Melbourne , the club and the city .Each country needs an individual approach . In the RSA , it's the government through the schools with private sponsors . In India it will be Indian entreprenaurs .In China it will be a diplomatic and business approach .In Ireland it's the rape and pilage approach .

 

[Rob]

Unless they can get it on a credible TV network on a weekly basis, they're wasting their time.

 

[Stenchiss]

We're becoming an international embarassment.

 

[ArachniX]

The commentators were talking with one of the Indian coaches about Indian cricket last time the side was out here and they made mention that one of the reasons the Indian cricket team weren't very good fielders is because the grounds are too hard for them to dive on when trying to stop a ball. Its been very hard for them to train compared to the Australians that get to practise and play on fully grassed grounds.
Imagine getting tackled and taken to ground on a cricket ground in India. It's bad enough for pre season football in Australia!

 

[Subprime]

The commentators were talking with one of the Indian coaches about Indian cricket last time the side was out here and they made mention that one of the reasons the Indian cricket team weren't very good fielders is because the grounds are too hard for them to dive on when trying to stop a ball. Its been very hard for them to train compared to the Australians that get to practise and play on fully grassed grounds.
Imagine getting tackled and taken to ground on a cricket ground in India. It's bad enough for pre season football in Australia!

The outfield at Mumbai looked fine to me when the IPL was on.

Worst case scenario: the AFL blows an extra 1000 rupees watering the oval.

 

[cos789]

Imagine getting tackled and taken to ground on a cricket ground in India.

Yes , it'd be much like most of WA, SA,NT and much of drought affected Eastern Australia .

 

[eldorado]

Anyone who clings to a belief that AFL could gain anything more than a foothold on homesick ex-pats is just plain thick.

Have you guys heard of kabbadi?

National sport of India, up with cricket...

Go look it up on Wiki.

Now, imagine a bunch of Indian kabbadi fans, on an internet forum. They are talking excitedly about how Kabbadi could really take off in Australia, that Aussies are crying out for a new sport, that crowds of, say, 50,000 could be expected in the big cities.

What would you say to them?

 

[Guus_Hiddink]

Ricky Ponting wearing a North guernsey into cashed up middle class India just makes me ... and no doubt Brayshaw and Arocca ... rock hard with excitement.

Get this right and the 100,000 member mark would be a gimme ...

BAHAHAHAHAHAHA......wait you're serious arent you?

 

[eldorado]

I do believe he is...



Sad but true.