ICYMI – and, if viewing figures are to be trusted, not many of you did – Saturday’s All-Stars clash between the Western Bulldogs and Melbourne kicked ratings expectations out of the park.
At peak viewership, over a million Aussies tuned in to watch the Dogs overpower the Dees, and the AFL’s chief Gillon McLachlan even said “these are massive TV numbers, and beyond our expectations.”
We’ll have spectacular highlights from the momentous Women’s @AFL game last night on #Offsiders at 10am @AFLfemale https://t.co/cBHX2YgKXQ
— Offsiders ABC (@OffsidersABC) September 3, 2016
Still, that cracker of a match came after revelations players in next year’s inaugural comp will only receive a tiny fraction of the wages their male counterparts are offered.
“We’ve seen the potential. It will get challenged further when we go to eight teams and set up a national league,” McLachlan told ABC Radio National this morning. Those challenges include locking down broadcast deals, sponsorships, and the innumerable commercial frameworks the men’s comp has refined over decades.
“We don’t have any commerciality around the league… we’ve got to start up, a complete start-up, so we’re investing millions of dollars next year in establishing a league.”
“The thing for us is that we want this to be a fully professional league, next year it’s part time and eight matches but our job is to make this professional for the women as fast we can.”
