An embryonic proposal for cricket to match Australian football's financial contribution to the Adelaide Oval redevelopment has been passed on to Cricket Australia.
The AFL has stated its intention to make a significant financial investment in the Aus$ 535 million Oval upgrade, and CA are understood to have been informally asked for a similar investment in the project. However the prospect of CA providing money to help take the Oval's capacity to 50,000 has been met with little enthusiasm by cricket administrators.
Unlike the AFL, CA have never taken on a responsibility to invest in the upkeep of grounds around the country. Its board comprises representatives from the state associations who are each responsible for the maintenance of their own venues. Money earned from the game at a national level is funnelled back into the states, while CA's coffers are committed to the development of the national team and the growth of the game around the country.
"Cricket Australia doesn't make capital investments in venues. Our charter is based around organising and implementing cricket programming - we don't invest in infrastructure," a CA spokesman told ESPNcricinfo. "It is nothing to do with our financial situation, all to do with our governance structure. The states are responsible for their cricket grounds."
Adelaide Oval's upgrade, due to be completed by 2014, was cleared to proceed earlier this month when South Australian Cricket Association members voted overwhelmingly in favour of changing the SACA constitution to allow control of the venue to be handed over to the Stadium Management Authority, comprising representatives from cricket and football. The arrangement will effectively cede major control of the ground to football as the venue's major revenue-raiser ahead of cricket.
The SMA has publicly stated its desire to seek out all possible options to add funding to the project.
Football's financial strength was placed in sharp relief by the meeting of Australian sports CEOs at an annual lunch in Sydney. Having just negotiated a new television rights deal that reaped a staggering $1.253 billion for the AFL, the league's chief executive Andrew Demetriou spoke of the war-chest available for the creation of two new expansion clubs in Queensland and New South Wales.
"We spent three years planning for both those clubs," Demetriou said. "We've budgeted $20 million over the first six years and we've allocated those funds. There's a contingency fund if things don't go right, but we are working with those clubs to promote off-field revenue and on-field success with the support of the other 16 clubs."
Clearly the AFL has the sort of financial clout that CA, and all other sporting bodies in Australia, can only dream of, allowing the league to invest in projects like the oval upgrade. By contrast, part of the $535 million cost of the project, to be largely funded by the South Australian government, is destined to go towards debt relief for the SACA following the earlier construction of the new Western Stand.
Cricket in Australia remains largely dependent on Indian money to balance budgets, something that has struck a slight hurdle in recent months due to the strength of the Australian dollar relative to the Indian and US currencies. Meanwhile the AFL is yet to finalise exactly how much it will contribute to Adelaide Oval.
"We haven't had a discussion on that yet, it'll be in the millions but we're waiting for costings and the financial planning to be completed," an AFL spokesman said.
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