http://www.afana.com/mt-static/ Thoughts by the Chairman of the Australian Football Association of North America on Aussie rules football, life, TV coverage, the AFL, etc. en-us rdesantos@afana.com 2004-03-23T22:49:33-05:00 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 http://www.afana.com/blog/archives/000042.html For the benefit of the general audience of footy fans, many of whom (regrettably!) do not get our TV and Media newsletter, I am reproducing below the key section of our most recent issue published earlier today. Following that I will have a brief comment. UPDATE: A deal has been done to restore coverage. AFANA received notice from the AFL with the following message: "Fox Sports World is back on board for 2004, at the... 42@http://www.afana.com/mt-static/ Daily Thoughts on Footy 2004-03-23T22:49:33-05:00 http://www.afana.com/blog/archives/000041.html There is much to the culture of sport, particularly Australian sport, to like. In many ways it is the heart of "mateship". To share a kick, to rehash the most recent match over a brew, to yell at the "telly" when the umpire rules against your club, and so on. For those fans so far removed from Australia, it is through our families, local clubs and organizations like AFANA that we participate in this. There... 41@http://www.afana.com/mt-static/ Daily Thoughts on Footy 2004-03-05T15:45:44-05:00 http://www.afana.com/blog/archives/000040.html Updating my earlier blog on this subject and in anticipation of the release of a much delayed TV update, we have some new developments on the coverage front. It seems, just as a year ago, there is an issue about how much FOX Sports International (FSI) is willing to pay for shipment of the highlights and Match of the Week master video tapes from Melbourne to Los Angeles. As a result we have no coverage... 40@http://www.afana.com/mt-static/ Daily Thoughts on Footy 2004-03-03T02:30:52-05:00 http://www.afana.com/blog/archives/000039.html Recently, journalist Martin Flanagan addressed the AFL club presidents and CEOs. An edited version of his speech is here::The meaning of football In particular, I draw your attention to these paragraphs: "The quandary facing Australian football is that we have a world-class game played, and followed, by only a tiny fraction of the world's population. That can work both for us and against us. The reason we weren't raided by Rupert Murdoch in the way... 39@http://www.afana.com/mt-static/ Daily Thoughts on Footy 2004-03-03T02:04:50-05:00 http://www.afana.com/blog/archives/000038.html Late January came and went without the rumored exhibition being so much as officially announced, never mind played. It also came and went without a courteous response from the AFL to the concerns we raised either by mail or to our Melbourne representative. It even passed without the proponents of that event coming forth to defend their efforts against our criticisms. I'd like to say that all of that is surprising, but it isn't. The... 38@http://www.afana.com/mt-static/ Daily Thoughts on Footy 2004-02-12T01:43:07-05:00 http://www.afana.com/blog/archives/000037.html Quite by accident, I was talking to a member who rang AFANA yesterday and he asked my assessment of the new top management at the AFL. That's still pretty much an open question at this early date but among the questions facing Mr. Demetriou and the other top AFL execs is the future of some struggling AFL clubs. An interesting argument by Scott Wickstein is here: Ubersportingpundit: AFL Perestroika. While I'm not yet convinced the... 37@http://www.afana.com/mt-static/ Daily Thoughts on Footy 2004-02-10T16:36:21-05:00 http://www.afana.com/blog/archives/000036.html The free trade agreement announced this past weekend between the USA and Australia is good for AFANA and footy. Here's why: When AFANA left the merchandise business a few years ago, one of the contributing causes was the difficulty in importing merchandise from Australia. While some organizations skirt the law by importing under an individual's name or use other tricks as a cover such as having people "bring" their merchandise in when travel between the... 36@http://www.afana.com/mt-static/ Not Footy But Related 2004-02-09T21:43:52-05:00 http://www.afana.com/blog/archives/000035.html Hi all, In advance of a TV newsletter now in preparation (sign up here), I wanted to post a brief update on the TV coverage situation north of the Rio Grande. Last month, AFANA was able to confirm from FOX Sports World Canada and from MHz Networks (Washington DC metro area) that those networks planned on carrying the sport again this season. More curiously however, we were told by FOX Sports World US that they... 35@http://www.afana.com/mt-static/ Daily Thoughts on Footy 2004-02-09T14:55:35-05:00 http://www.afana.com/blog/archives/000034.html I'm pleased to report that we successfully moved our site to a new host over the past weekend and things went about as well as we could have hoped. Readers should have seen only a brief interruption in service for the site. The blog was down a bit longer due to the fact I neglected to remember to set some data base id's and passwords. So far, response times seem pretty solid and we aren't... 34@http://www.afana.com/mt-static/ Daily Thoughts on Footy 2003-12-11T13:04:41-05:00 http://www.afana.com/blog/archives/000033.html After six weeks without blogging, I am now back at it. Blogs will continue to be a bit irregular over the next month or two. As some of you undoubtedly noticed, AFANA.com was off-line for about 32 hours beginning late Thursday night into Saturday. On Wednesday evening, without warning, our site was taken off line by our hosting company. We then spent the next day and a half trying to get the situation resolved. Not... 33@http://www.afana.com/mt-static/ Daily Thoughts on Footy 2003-11-30T16:57:45-05:00 http://www.afana.com/blog/archives/000032.html Two issues that are at the heart of the future of footy in North America. One is the future of AFANA and the other the future of TV coverage. As we plan the upgrade of the AFANA web site and look toward 2004, one issue that keeps coming back is how long we can continue to make our web site available for free to all visitors. It's been a point of pride with us that... 32@http://www.afana.com/mt-static/ Daily Thoughts on Footy 2003-10-12T13:14:21-05:00 http://www.afana.com/blog/archives/000031.html As some of you will know by reading our BBS or our TV & Media newsletter there is a proposal afloat for two AFL clubs to play a match in late January, 2004 in Los Angeles, California. We know for sure that the Kangaroos are involved. Early reports indicated the other club would be the Adelaide Crows however now we believe they are no longer interested. Details on this match remain pretty sparse beyond this.... 31@http://www.afana.com/mt-static/ Daily Thoughts on Footy 2003-10-09T17:12:34-05:00 http://www.afana.com/blog/archives/000030.html Recently a frequent correspondent of mine posed a question about the AFL. He asked why the AFL sees the states of Queensland and New South Wales and the Northern Territory in Australia as the "new frontiers" of footy and does not see the 40 countries around the globe (where Aussie rules has a foothold) as that frontier? I suppose only the people in the big offices on the 2nd floor at Telstra Dome can really... 30@http://www.afana.com/mt-static/ Daily Thoughts on Footy 2003-10-06T12:05:51-05:00 http://www.afana.com/blog/archives/000029.html This time I want to concentrate on the opinions fans offered about the programs. Before I do, I want to make an observation in relation to an article that appeared in the USA Today newspaper yesterday. It points up again how critical fans are to the future growth of a sport. This time it's baseball. Footy would be well advised to consider the care and cultivation of fans if it wants a future in the... 29@http://www.afana.com/mt-static/ Daily Thoughts on Footy 2003-10-02T18:33:40-05:00 http://www.afana.com/blog/archives/000028.html Now that the Grand Final is behind us, we've had a chance here at AFANA to do some preliminary analysis of the survey results. Here's a capsule view of what we have learned: The average age of the fans who responded to our survey is about 36 years old and about 53% of them are under 34. Over 85% of those who responded were male. We believe that this is a bit distorted since we... 28@http://www.afana.com/mt-static/ Daily Thoughts on Footy 2003-09-30T23:22:09-05:00