The figures that back up the benefits of a Tasmanian AFL presence

Russell Hanson, who was an administration controller and financial director for 30 years in department stores, has been working on the case study for 18 months.

It started out as a favour for Tasmanian Football Council chairman Jim Wilkinson, but in recent months taskforce chairman Brett Godfrey has asked for a submission to prove what economic benefit a new team would deliver.

"They contacted me and said they absolutely loved it," Hanson said. "It proves not only we can and it's an added value to the AFL, but how can they not give us a team?"

Hanson has crunched the numbers, taking in factors like attendances, broadcast rights and TV audiences to arrive at a $19 million figure.

An extensive investigation of Hawthorn and North Melbourne's seven total games a year at both ends of the state laid the platform for The Betterment of the Game - The Compelling Case document.

Hanson said based just on Melbourne crowd numbers, the clubs would "obviously" raise their attendances leaving Tasmania for Victoria.

Since 2012 when the teams first squared off in Tasmania, Hawthorn's average dropped to about 13,800 at UTAS Stadium and North Melbourne 12,100 at Bellerive Oval.

A combined 13,000 Tasmanian average would be set to rise to a conservative figure of 17,000 fans for Devils games, boosting overall AFL attendances by 5.2 per cent.

"That's worth money to them, the AFL," Hanson said.

Hanson examined TV ratings round by round in 2018 to calculate the worth of the $2.5 billion TV rights deal.

He applied the ratings to attendances pro-rata, considered games that attracted more fans and added the extra games a Tasmanian team hosts to arrive at $19 million.

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Based on an analysis from PricewaterhouseCoopers of what Hawthorn and North Melbourne generate for the state, a full-time AFL club in Tasmania would look to generate $80 million per annum.

That last rousing calculation is the compelling bottom line that a Tasmanian bid would be financially viable.

Hanson was confident the AFL could not fairly poke holes through his figures.

"What I would love to hear one day is Gillon McLachlan ring me up and say I give up now," he said.

Hanson had also echoed recent sentiments of Godfrey in The Examiner over the wide location of Devils games benefitting the state.

The taskforce believes a club would financially be better off should Launceston and Hobart both host home games no matter where the players are based.

Part of the ongoing research is working on the economic return to each half of the state compared to the current Hawthorn arrangement in Launceston alone.

"I have been pushing non-stop that that the games must be shared for this to work," Hanson said. "It doesn't matter which region it is, they're both well in front, therefore where the team is based is an irrelevant conversation."

Hanson believed all state leagues had gone backwards once the juggernaut of the AFL media rights took over.

The 68-year-old's interest piqued after TSL clubs in the north of the state started to disappear from five to just two.

South Launceston were forced to give up its licence to Prospect-based Western Storm, who after just three seasons had folded. Burnie and Devonport dropped out within months of each other prior to the 2018 season.

Hanson felt it was sink or swim for Tasmanian football.

"We were on a hiding to nothing, we were going to go backwards and that's what has happened," he said.

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