Western Bulldogs president Peter Gordon has suggested that Essendon counterpart Paul Little has an eye on succession planning after announcing two new board directors.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Former federal Labor MP Lindsay Tanner will join businessman Andrew Muir as a new director, replacing Greg Brown and Phillip Pryor, who have opted to stand down.
Gordon said Tanner, a former lawyer with a history in occupational health and safety, was a "strategic choice" by Little, who has overseen a transformation in governance at Essendon as a result of the supplements saga.
"It's a pretty strategic choice from Essendon. Lindsay Tanner, of course, was one of four people to have alleged to have been running the country as part of Julia's 'Kitchen Cabinet' a few years ago," Gordon said on Friday.
"He has a pretty strong history in occupational health and safety, so not a bad choice from the Essendon Football Club."
Tanner had been an articled clerk and solicitor at Holding Redlich Lawyers in Melbourne before heading into politics.
"But he has always retained that interest in workers' safety, so a pretty good choice and a pretty good governance choice," Gordon said.
"A guy like Paul Little – you have got to hand it to. He has no doubt got a view in mind about the future of the Essendon Football Club and succession planning and who knows if we may not see Lindsay Tanner in that role sometime in the future."
Little has not publicly indicated whether he has any plans to move on once the supplements saga comes to an end but there has been speculation this could happen at the end of the year.
Former Bombers chairman Ray Horsburgh has asked Tanner about his interest in taking on the key role.
The AFL anti-doping tribunal will announce on March 31 its decision on the fate of the 34 past and present players alleged to have been administered a banned drug.
On ABC Radio, Gordon said all clubs were working towards improving their game-day experience for supporters, having felt the pressure from league headquarters to do so.
As reported by Fairfax Media, while all clubs admit the fan experience needed to be enriched, some are concerned about the cost of this added expense, with some budgeting for about $300,000 over the season.
While some aspects can be relatively cheap, such as using club greats in promotional roles or even as ushers, the use of fireworks and pyrotechnic displays — if a club heads down that path — will cost considerably more.
"Certainly, [AFL chief] Gillon [McLachlan] has made it a big priority to listen to the fans more, and he has made that pretty emphatic in a number of ways ... there has been a lot of emphasis and, may I even say pressure, on the clubs to improve what the fan experience is like on match day," Gordon said.
"We are all trying to do our best to conform with that."
Another focus has been on variable ticketing, with clubs now having the authority to set their own reserved seating prices. Victorian clubs are set to divide their home games into three categories, with ticket prices according to demand.
However, Gordon said this would be another challenge for smaller clubs, as they did not have experience in setting prices.
"I must say, I have made that point to the AFL about that – that the Western Bulldogs don't actually have a ticket-pricing policy unit within our vast administration. I would hazard a guess that a lot of the smaller clubs in the competition don't," he said.
"We don't have a lot of experience or expertise in it, so it did throw a bit of a curve ball within my administration over the last few months.
"We went back to the AFL and said what would you do if you were in a our situation, and got some good advice. That's where we are.
"As much as anything else, we want to see more people coming to the games, and part and parcel of that is making some of them [tickets] cheaper, particularly those [clubs] that have vast, empty, cavernous stadiums."
