Clash likely in Australia if football reaches cricket season

biggest collisions of Australian football season could come after coronavirus pandemic has passed.

And heaviest impacts could be sports competing for . re are only so many marquee venues in sports-m nation of 25 million.

100,000-seat Melbourne Cricket Ground is premier venue for Australia's national summer sport.

main tenant in winter is Australian Football League, which runs home-grown brand of football called Australian rules. In terms of TV audience and crowd attendance, it is most popular sport Down Under. 

G, as Aussie rules followers call it, has hosted Grand Final of top-flight football competition in September in all but five years since 1902.

AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan and Cricket Australia chief executive Kevin Roberts have said y'll work toger for both sports to co-exist if re's overlapping seasons. But with so much uncertainty over how and when winter sports leagues can recommence, something will have to give.

McLachlan has said a relaunched AFL season could run until December, three month later than usual. problem is, MCG is one of seven stiums booked out for cricket's Twenty20 World Cup, which runs Oct. 18-v. 15, and n will need to be prepared for annual Boxing Day test that starts each year on Dec. 26, It is usually most-heavily attended cricket match of year. 

Docklands Stium in Melbourne is a regular AFL ground but also a key venue for cricket's Twenty20 Big Bash League over summer.

In or state capitals such as elaide, Brisbane, and Perth, main cricket stium doubles also as major AFL venue.

Eddie McGuire, president of Collingwood Football Club, which has one of biggest supporter bases in Australia, liked idea of going back to suburban stiums  long overlooked for elite games  to alleviate any potential congestion.

"re's a real opportunity to do that and that could be something that comes up again with dramas that have been going on about wher (Docklands) would be available because of cricket," McGuire told rio network Triple M on Wednesday. 

"But re's plenty of opportunity. I think that se venues are going to play a far bigger role." 

Particularly if games are to be played in empty stiums, as y were in a surreal opening round last month when 2019 champion Richmond opened season with a win at an empty MCG.

Princes Park in Carlton, which hosted three Grand Finals during World War II, is being touted as an alternative venue, along with Essendon's Windy Hill and old VFL Park at Waverley, which hosted 1991 Grand Final.

Western Bulldogs first mooted idea of hosting AFL games at Whitten Oval, and St. Kilda club is open to hosting games, too, after staging women's AFL games last season.

With just one round completed before AFL shutdown last month, scenarios for how to play out season have been too numerous to count. A proposed relaunch date in July is possibly too soon to start amid travel bans and strict social-distancing regulations.

Meanwhile, players are taking deep pay cuts. Staff and executives at all 18 clubs and AFL have been cut, stood down, or put on reduced salaries.

Brocasting deals are in limbo, which is case for Australia's National Rugby League competition and multi-national Super Rugby tournament. Sports events around world have been canceled or postponed, including Olympics.

For w, all 18 AFL clubs have reportedly applied for federal government emergency assistance, which potentially supports some businesses to pay eligible employees a minimum of 1,500 Australian dollars ($930) every two weeks for up to six months.

"Our guys are working through it, but it feels like it's going to apply to people in industry who have been stood down. It's obviously a huge plus and an incredibly positive thing for so many people," McLachlan said. 

"If clubs' applications are successful, assistance could go some way toward ensuring y can ride out massive financial hit being taken during AFL shutdown period."