The State Government has extended Hawthorn's contract to play matches in Tasmania for five years, the club has announced.
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The contract, announced this afternoon by Hawthorn at a press conference in Melbourne, will see the AFL club play four games a year at Aurora Stadium - from 2012 through to 2016.
The current contract expires at the end of the 2011 season.
Premier David Bartlett said that under the new agreement, Hawthorn will guarantee four roster matches at Aurora Stadium each season, and where the Hawks are rostered 12 home games, it will include a fifth game at no extra cost to Tasmanian taxpayers.
"That’s in addition to a saving of $1.6-million dollars over the life of the deal, compared to the current five-year contract," Mr Bartlett said.
Continuation of CPI indexation in the current contract for 2012 would have been around $3.7-million - the new deal will set the base at $3.375-million a year, indexed.
"We want to grow AFL in Tasmania but we need to protect Tasmanian taxpayers. This deal strikes that balance,” Mr Bartlett said.
“We will be looking at ways to use a significant proportion of those savings to support grass roots football, and I will be talking directly to Tasmanian football clubs and AFL Tasmania about that in the coming weeks.'
Cabinet also today agreed that the Government would look at ways to bring additional games to Bellerive without damaging the integrity of Hawks games at Aurora.
Mr Bartlett said the Government had looked closely at the North Melbourne proposal, but it would have cost Tasmanian taxpayers around $70 million in recurrent and capital expenditure over the next 10 years.
“The AFL originally offered North Melbourne $100 million over 10 years to relocate to the Gold Coast, but when it came to this proposal, the costs would’ve been largely borne by Tasmanian taxpayers," Mr Bartlett said.
“Nor did the North Melbourne deal offer a pathway to create a Tasmanian team because North Melbourne chairman James Brayshaw specifically ruled out relocation last week.
“The proposal for seven matches each season in Tasmania, split between Aurora Stadium and Bellerive Oval would have been more attractive as a long-term investment, if it had been the first step to the club relocating to Tasmania. However that was ruled out."
