Aussie Rules goes global

Tomorrow is the last Saturday in the season and all eyes will be on the ‘G’ (the Melbourne Cricket Ground, MCG, and the ‘Mecca’ of Aussie Rules football). Of course there will be a big crowd, of 100,000-plus to see a replay of the epic battle of 1966, when St Kilda snatched its only flag by one point over Collingwood.

Unfortunately, for many St Kilda fans like my Great Uncle Maurice, they missed the Saints’ big moment. The 1966 Grand Final fell on Yom Kippur, and Maurice had to sneak a transistor radio into the synagogue (and poor old Molly Meldrum, then a young St Kilda cheer squad member, fainted and missed the final siren).

But tomorrow, while they’ll be a big crowd at the game, all eyes will be glued to the telly, at many grand final barbecues in suburban Melbourne and all over the land, from the Tiwi islands to the southern tip of Tasmania. Not only that, there’ll be parties all over the globe with the MCG on the screen from Rio de Janeiro to Romania. In fact, in my travels as The Airport Economist around the world, I have noticed that wherever there are Australian exporters there are expatriates and wherever there are Australian expatriates there is sport and it’s often Aussie Rules.

For example, when I was China, the Shanghai Tigers played the Beijing Bombers at China’s own MCG. In Hanoi, the Vietnam Swans played the Laos Elephants in a special match to raise funds for the Craig Senger Indonesian Memorial. In addition, the South American Aussie Rules competition recently kicked off with a game between Brazil and Chile, with Austrade Sao Paulo’s Greg Wallis (who is a keen South Adelaide supporter) leading the charge. And at this stage, many of us sports loving types would like to “go to Rio”, and “go to Freo” as the World Cup and Olympics approaches a ‘golden era’ for Brazil). Of course, there have been strong expatriate leagues in the UK, US and Europe as well for some time.

But as The Airport Economist, I am not alone in seeing Aussie Rules globally. In fact, the AFL now has a full-time international development officer, Tony Woods, who has tracked South Africa, India, Europe over recent days before he too heads to Shanghai on October 17 for the special Kaspersky Cup – AFL Shanghai Showdown between Melbourne and the Brisbane Lions as part of Shanghai Expo 2010.

Woods, a former Hawthorn player is a trained musician and choreographer who has many strings to his bow. So the AFL’s international expansion plans are in good hands. After all, it’s not just expatriates playing for fun; the AFL itself is organising matches around the world on a regular basis now.

As well as the famous NAB Cup game between Collingwood and the Adelaide Crows at a converted polo ground in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), there are regular matches in South Africa, as there almost as many AFL footballers in South Africa as in Tasmania. In fact, according to the AFL, South Africa leads the charge in terms of home grown players playing Aussie rules outside Australia.

There are also plans for games in India (spearheaded by former UAE Senior Trade Commissioner, Peter Linford, now based in New Delhi) after the Shanghai match. According to the AFL there are more than 733,000 registered participants across Australia and 53,000 players in 38 senior leagues around the world.

And then there’s China and, of course Kevin Sheedy. The build up to Shanghai has been a long time coming. Richmond and Essendon legend and now coach of Greater Western Sydney, Kevin Sheedy regularly tours China with the AFL’s Ken Gannon to promote the activities Shanghai 2010. This comes on the heels of a strong involvement by Melbourne in China with Ron Barassi, Max Walker and former Melbourne Lord Mayor John So doing their bit. China, of course means lots of people and lots of viewers.

And thanks to the broadcast rights – through an agreement between the Shanghai Media Group (SMG) and the Australia Network, the game is being broadcast right across China. While Australian football contributes $3.4 billion annually to the Australian economy, with seven million people attending AFL matches each year a bit of broadcast action in the Chinese market would certain help the cause of footy exports.

AFL matches are already broadcast to 31 million households in 44 countries across the Asia Pacific region via the AFL’s international broadcast partner, Australia Network. The chief executive of Australia Network, Bruce Dover, said Australia Network’s role was to explain Australia to the world and AFL showcased the qualities of teamwork, mateship, determination and inclusiveness which make this country unique.

“This historic agreement to expand the audience for Australian football to China is a significant move in helping explain Australia and Australians to the Chinese,” Mr Dover said. “As the Chinese say, it is the first step in a journey of a thousand miles but a step in the right direction and one that represents enormous opportunity to promote AFL to a whole new audience.”

In addition, as Tony Woods points out, the Grand Final is not the end of the season at all. “It’s just the beginning. From Saturday September 25 at the MCG until October 17 when Brisbane Lions play Melbourne in Shanghai, there’s 23 days straight of footy in South Africa, Tonga, PNG, USA and Europe. Grand Final days launched the international season so they’ll be plenty of thrills and spills on the fields, and parties off it well after Collingwood or St Kilda lift the Cup.”

But is this a plan for world domination by the AFL? Not at all. According to Gillon McLachlan, the AFL’s Chief Operating Officer, the AFL wants to grow international participation in the game, serve the Australian expatriate market and grow the game financially too among Australian and international business interests. The financial side of the game is increasingly a global proposition.

“We need to support their global ambitions of our corporate sponsors and partners and the international matches are an important part of this strategy,” says McLachlan. “The international matches help us to showcase the game and build the Australian brand among potential foreign investors and sponsors and give our global Australian partners some good leverage in new markets.”

But McLachlan emphasises that the main focus of the AFL is on national development of the game: “our main focus is on being the national code, hence our work in New South Wales and Queensland and regional areas. But the international program is a good investment in the game’s development – particularly given the global focus of many Australian exporters.”

As well as the international business objectives, the game does have a development objective as well. The work by the Fremantle Dockers in the townships of South Africa has helped reduce smoking and other anti-social activities. Kevin Sheedy and Indigenous leader and Essendon legend Michael Long have emphasised the strong indigenous participation in the game and taken that message offshore. And the Shanghai Tigers football club have raised funds for the Half the Sky foundation that helps Chinese orphanages. Football is, in a sense, part of Australia’s unofficial diplomatic efforts in many counties that Australia engages with.

Of course, there are economic benefits to a whole range of football codes and other sports. Austrade’s Business Club Australia (BCA) program leverages sporting events to help forge trade and investment links for Australian exporters and investors. As well as the Olympics, the Commonwealth Games, the Melbourne Cup, the FINA Swimming championships and the Rugby World Cups, BCA is now involved with FIFA and the FFA in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and the possible hosting by Australia of the Football World Cup in Australia in 2022, and the Asian Cup in 2015.

There are obvious synergies between the world game and world trade. And sporting events do generate big bucks for Australia. Since the Sydney Olympics in 2000, BCA has generated over $1.7 billion in trade and investment deals for the nation (not even including the Beijing 2008 Olympics).

So whether you are at the ‘G’, at home in Australia or off-shore, remember that the show will go on – especially in Shanghai on October 17. And if Aussie Rules can take off in China, Kevin Sheedy will have no trouble when he (like the Chinese Government in Beijing) adopts a ‘Look West” policy in Greater Western Sydney.

And if the Saints do come marching in, it’s lucky it’s not Yom Kippur for Great Uncle Maurice’s descendants and hopefully Molly will see it through this time. But for Collingwood fans worried about a repeat of the ‘Colliwobbles’ – the long drought of no flags and many Grand Final losses from 1958 to 1990, remember that when the great Nelson Mandela was let out of prison after 27 years cut off from the outside world, he is alleged to have said: “So have Collingwood won the Grand Final yet?” And in 1990 they did.

Tim Harcourt is the author of The Airport Economist. Thanks to Tony Woods David Matthews, Nick Johnston and Ken Gannon of the AFL for their assistance.