Tasmania's time "has finally come", Premier Jeremy Rockliff says, after the AFL officially awarded the state the league's 19th team licence.
Key points:
- AFL boss Gillon McLachlan and Premier Jeremy Rockliff have officially signed the team licence deal
- Tasmanian AFL and AFLW teams would begin playing in 2028
- The premier says generations of Tasmanians have been fighting for this moment to arrive
AFL boss Gillon McLachlan, Acting Prime Minister Richard Marles and other game dignitaries flew into Hobart on Wednesday for the announcement.
"Yesterday afternoon at the meeting of the AFL Commission, where all commissioners were present, the AFL Commission resolved to award a license based on conditions to a Tasmanian club, a decision that will finally make our national competition truly national, McLachlan announced at North Hobart Oval.
"Today is the result of nearly 150 years of football passion by Tasmania and their proud and passionate football community … and frankly decades of advocacy."
McLachlan said the team was awarded on the condition a 23,000-seat, fixed-roof stadium be built a Hobart's Macquarie Point — a project that secured its final funding, from the federal government, last weekend.
Tasmania is aiming for its AFL and AFLW teams to begin playing in the league in 2028.
The premier confirmed a deal for the licence was formally signed on Wednesday.
"Our time has finally come," Rockliff said.
He said the state had finally earned its right to be represented in the national competition after a "hard-fought fight" by "many Tasmanians over a number of generations".
"You cannot leave Tasmania off the map and call yourself an Australian Football League," Rockliff said.
"Today, at midday, we changed all that. We change the course of history not only for the AFL, but for Tasmania itself."
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'Bloody fantastic' news for the state
Earlier in the morning, Tasmanian boy-turned-Richmond great Matthew Richardson summed up the day nicely: "What a day this will be."
"Tasmania is a grassroots heartland state of our game," said a Twitter post from Richardson, who grew up in Devonport, in the state's north, and moved to Victoria in 1992 to begin his stellar career playing for Richmond.
Another Tasmanian-born player who left the island for his AFL career, Mitch Robinson, reflected on comments he made back in 2008: "[It's] every Tassie boy's dream to play for an AFL team representing the state."
Former premier Will Hodgman also took to Twitter to cheer about the "awesome" news.
"Bloody fantastic we finally have our own AFL team," he posted.
"A dream for so many, for as long as I can remember."
Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin said Tasmania's entry into the AFL would be "fantastic" for the game.
"Tassie is a very proud football state and I think it's great for the Tasmanians, and I know they will be a pretty parochial team," he said.
"It's a big day for footy."
Decades of hopes decided in 15 minutes
During a video meeting on Tuesday afternoon, the AFL club presidents unanimously decided to grant Tasmania the game's 19th team licence.
The decision took 15 minutes and there were no objections.
But the road to that meeting was not so quick.
Tasmania launched its first serious bid for a team in 1994, with prominent businessman Michael Kent attached to a plan to build a 30,000-seat stadium at the Hobart Showgrounds.
The state and federal governments were on board before a lukewarm response from AFL powerbrokers deflated any chance of a deal.
A Tasmanian delegation launched another bid in 2008 but its members said they were met with open hostility from the AFL when they flew in to present the proposal.
$715 million stadium takes centre stage of bid
Tasmania's final, successful bid for a state team was launched by former premier Peter Gutwein before being sealed by the current premier.
An AFL stadium in central Hobart became part of the bid, with the AFL selecting Macquarie Point as its preferred location over an earlier proposal of the Regatta Grounds.
The whole licence deal became real when the federal government last weekend tipped in the final $240 million in funding for the $715 million fixed-roof stadium.
Loading...Tasmania is set to contribute $375 million for the project, while the AFL will chip in $15 million and a further $85 million will come from "borrowings against land sale or lease for commercial uses".
Home games will be played at a mix of Hobart's Bellerive Oval and Launceston's York Park before the new stadium is finished — set for sometime in 2028-29.
The plan to grow the team and the sport in the state includes a state government contribution of $144 million over 12 years for the team and $60 million to establish a high-performance centre in Hobart.
As part of this portion of the deal, McLachlan extracted a further $50 million out of the Tasmanian government during at-times tense negotiations.
The state Labor and Greens parties have supported a bid for a Tasmanian AFL team, but rejected the requirement of building an expensive stadium.
They argue the Tasmanian government will need to foot the bill for any cost overruns in the build and that the hundreds of millions of dollars required would be better spent on housing solutions to struggling Tasmanians.
Launceston-born veteran sports broadcaster Tim Lane told ABC Radio Hobart that Tasmania's successful bid was not the vision he had hoped for.
Lane, who has championed Tasmania getting its own team for decades, said he had hoped for a team that would genuinely unify the whole state.
"What I feel is in the process of being constructed is something that actually won't do that, and the early signs are that it's created divisions and not necessarily across the regions, but certainly in Hobart," he said.
AFL Commission chair Richard Goyder defended the plan to build a new stadium despite some local opposition.
"It's so easy to find reasons not to do things these days and I think this will be incredibly positive and there are a whole lot of people who at the start of this process said it shouldn't happen, it won't happen," he said.
"We're now very close to making commitments as I think it'll be just fantastic to Tasmania and obviously great for the national code."
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2023-05-03 04:07:30Z
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