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The Northern Territory is ramping up its bid for a 20th AFL licence to enter a local team into the national league.

The  Northern Territory AFL Taskforce,  co-chaired by NT Minister for Sport, Kate Worden and AFLNT Chair Sean Bowden and which includes former Melbourne Football Club Chief Executive Peter Jackson among its members, is hoping to piggy-back on Tasmania’s bid for a 19th AFL licence, which will be voted on when the AFL Commission meets in August.

As such, consulting firms have been brought in on Northern Territory’s AFL push with two further feasibility studies commissioned and awarded to global consultancies PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and GHD Pty Ltd – a company that has been in the Territory for 65 years and employs 54 staff.

GHD have been awarded the tender to complete a Social Impact Evaluation.. The core team to deliver the Report includes specialised staff with previous experience completing similar social impact assessments.

GHD, better known as a global design and engineering consultancy, beat out EY, RSM and Nous Group among others on the tender, and will now be tasked with identifying “the likely positive and negative social consequences” of the Northern Territory having its own AFL team.

The GHD social impact assessment follows on from a previous study conducted by Bastion. The brand consultancy concluded an annual $15 million operating shortfall due to the Territory’s relatively small population but suggested potential socioeconomic benefits in the range of $460 million per year.

A key focus of the GHD consultancy will be making recommendations on how to create a Club which is not only successful but inclusive, and one which engages young people, and creates widespread social benefits across the Territory.

The development of a Territory AFL Club will require firm support from private enterprise, all levels of Government, and entities such as Land councils. The broad experience of the Taskforce Membership means these voices are well represented in their work.

Minister Worden notes “our vision is for a Territory Club to become the pathway for Territory boys and girls to achieve their dreams of playing for a local AFL team at the highest level of sport in the country. We want this team to become a sustainable part of Territory life, and a source of pride for all Territorians on the national stage.

“An AFL Club licence is not just about new sporting heroes. We want to make sure that opportunities presented have flow on affects for communities. This is what generational change looks like.

“We know that when the opportunity for an AFL licence becomes available, the Territory needs to be ready.”

Further work of the NT AFL Team Taskforce, is to explore and build on the foundations laid by the AFLNT’s Feasibility Study to develop a business plan that would effectively champion, lobby and drive the Territory’s AFL licence agenda. 

This report will be included in the final report due at the end of the year.

Should AFL clubs vote later this year to expand into Tasmania, the NT’s bid will go into overdrive behind a pitch to become the 20th team and create 10 matches per round.

The NT AFL Team Taskforce has also commissioned a business case study to be conducted by PriceWaterhouseCoopers over the next three months on the viability of a team in the Top End.

The PwC contract is presumably a follow-up to a strategic assessment for a proposed $300 million CBD stadium that the professional services giant was brought in to conduct last year, as a centrepiece of the bid. The proposed 25,000-seat stadium in Darwin’s CBD has a closer proximity to the city centre than the current TIO Stadium.

Renders released in May offered a look at two possible designs for the multi-purpose facility – one featuring a stadium roof that covers most of the ground, with the alternative being a more open venue.

PwC Chief Executive Tom Seymour highlighted that the Northern Territory in building a new stadium would reap economic benefits beyond the social impact on the local population noting “to get families to move here you need schools and hospitals, but you also need lifestyle and recreation. If you look at it as a linear investment it doesn’t stack up, but it does if you want to create an environment where you attract people here.”

Image top: Renders released offer a look at two possible designs for the multi-purpose facility. (L) features a roof that covers most of the ground and (R) a more open structure Credit: NT AFL

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