The Tasmanian government remains confident the AFL will award the state its own team but has asked the league to set a firm date for the presidents’ vote to occur.
Officials from the Apple Isle have applied subtle pressure on the AFL, reiterating that Tasmania had “significant government and taxpayer investment” underpinning the push for a new club.
The vote was originally scheduled for some time in August, but time is fast running out.
Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff said he was in “constant contact” with AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan and his understanding was that the vote could still happen before the end of the month and they were still in negotiations.
Furthermore, the state’s Sports Minister Nic Street called for an exact date for the vote.
“If they are not going to meet the August 31 deadline, then we would like a firm date when a decision will be made,” Street said.
“Everything they have communicated to us has been positive. We still believe in the bid, we still think we are going to get a yes, but, we would like to know when exactly that will be so we can put some planning in place for the introduction of a team.”
Rockliff said Tasmania wanted to make sure they got everything right and the offer of $150 million in funding including $10 million a year over 10 years remained in place despite reports the AFL wanted more public money committed.
“We’ve put forward a very strong bid and the AFL has said it is a strong bid,” Rockliff said.
“We believe that bid can support an AFL licence for Tasmania. We are still in discussions and there is a lot to work through.
“This is a significant government and taxpayer investment and we want to do our due diligence to get this right.”
McLachlan told the AFL website this week that at every function that he attended to speak about the issue the majority of people supported Tasmania having a team.
“When I go around talking publicly, which I do a lot, I ask who is supportive of this,” McLachlan said.
“More than 80 per cent of every room I have spoken to wants a team in Tassie and these are Victorians or South Australians or West Australians [etc].
“Not only do they want a team in Tasmania, they see themselves in Tasmania and their team playing there and the full national grid being completed.
“People are very proud of our game being national and want to see a team in Tasmania and see themselves there as well.”
Rockliff welcomed McLachlan’s comments calling them a statement of fact.
“We are over 90,000 signatures on the [bid] website,” Rockliff said.
“The vast majority of Tasmanians support the push for an AFL team, a team they can support and call their own. There are more than 90,000 members of AFL teams in Tasmania at the moment and we think we can convert them to members of the Tasmanian team – if and when it happens.”
