2019 taxpayer-funded study into viability of a Northern Territory AFL team remains unreleased

A study into the viability of an AFL club in the Northern Territory has yet to be released despite having been completed for nearly 18 months

As reported by the ABC, in 2018 the Northern Territory Government gave the AFL $100,000 to examine the viability of an club to be based out of Darwin and Alice Springs.

The ‘scoping study’ into a potential AFL team was first announced by Northern Territory Chief Minister Michael Gunner in October 2018, with the report due to be released in mid-2019.

Tabled to the AFLNT board in September 2019, the report has not yet been publicly released.

Advising that the outbreak of Coronavirus had led to the delay, AFLNT Chief Executive, Stuart Totham told the ABC “we've been a bit distracted. The whole industry has obviously gone through a major upheaval in the last 12 months.

"AFLNT broaching the topic of an AFL team just did not seem appropriate … so we are just waiting for the right time to release the findings of that report."

Totham suggested AFLNT was currently focussing on its "core business" of community football, remote projects and running TIO Stadium, suggesting that he could not recall why the report had not been released between the period it was handed to the AFLNT board and the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic six months later.

He added “it seems like another world ago. At that time, we were restructuring the business with our NT Thunder programs, we had the report going, so there were numerous things happening.”

Totham said he had read the report and tentatively flagged optimism at its potential release by the middle of this year.

He advised that the report covers what form an NT AFL club might take, the challenges an NT AFL club bid would face, and a game plan for how AFLNT could overcome those challenges in a potential licence bid.

With the Tasmanian Government also seeking a licence for a club, the AFL is mindful of the growth aspirations for the game but is facing significant financial challenges in the wake of the Coronavirus.

The case for commercial viability was weakened when the NT Thunder, a former elite representative club in the NT, was shut down in 2019 on the basis of tanking crowd numbers and plummeting sponsorship funds

Despite the Thunder's demise, Totham said he was "very optimistic" about the prospect of the NT gaining the next club licence released by the AFL, adding “the report is pretty clear on what the challenges are.

"Certainly financial considerations is one of them, but there are solutions also tabled in the report to help address those as well, so it's a very positive report."

It is not known when the AFL will next make another team licence available.

Image: The first night AFL game on the Barunga Oval in 2019.