Essendon chief executive Ian Robson fears a luxury tax could drive members away from Windy Hill. Picture: Glenn Daniels Source: Herald Sun
VICTORIA's power clubs will rebel against plans for a luxury tax, fearful the bid to help battling clubs could backfire.
Chiefs said controversial proposals to impose a levy on high-spending clubs could drive down membership and rob the league of vital revenue.
Heavyweights Essendon, Collingwood and Hawthorn have united to fight what they see as a tax on success.
Essendon yesterday called on the AFL to accelerate plans to buy Etihad Stadium to add another revenue stream and help ailing tenant clubs.
The AFL will inherit the Docklands Stadium on March 8, 2025, but if the league acquired it early it could not only restructure stadium deals but make money from soccer and cricket games.
But it became clear yesterday that having closely considered that move 18 months ago the league believed the price - believed to be over $200 million - was too high now.
A luxury tax would see clubs spending extra money over a set amount on their football departments handing back a slice of that money to battling clubs.
Bombers president Ian Robson said the league had only just implemented a complex equalisation strategy.
"Luxury taxes have been applied in the NFL and those clubs are for profit and owned by billionaires," Robson said.
"When they write a cheque to pay luxury taxes, they are writing them with their own money. We would be writing them with the money of members.
"We are against luxury taxes and caps on spending. It's not sensible or logical to go to our members and say that 90 cents of the dollar goes to us and 10 cents goes to a pot of central revenue.
"There was a radical equalisation policy put in place only last year. Don't we need to give it a bit more than 12 months to say it hasn't worked?"
Hawthorn chief executive Stuart Fox said stadium deals should be the No.1 priority for the AFL as it seeks to find a balance between rich and poor.
"We want a healthy competition so we are supportive of keeping clubs in trouble up with the pace," he said.
"To me it a lazy way of generating revenue to give to poor clubs and is a disincentive internally and externally.
"The message it sends is terrible. Members wouldn't be supportive of being taxed. Their membership fees would effectively pay for the tax. I think it's hard enough for clubs to break even or make small clubs. We are only every one or two poor decisions away from posting a loss."
Clubs will soon respond to the AFL's request for feedback on equalisation reform, with that information to form the backbone of a discussion at a meeting with the AFL Commission in March.
AFL chief operating officer Gillon McLachlan stressed yesterday luxury taxes were just one of several proposals and he was aware every equalisation measure had a drawback.
Collingwood president Eddie McGuire was similarly emphatic about proposals that are taxes on wealthy clubs.
"The two biggest issues to make sure that the smaller or poorer clubs can compete against anyone is to get the salary cap right and to get the draft right," he said.
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