“A powerful enduring stimulus”: The economics of the Tasmania Devils Football Club.

Article text written by Tim Harcourt

Introduction

The economic and social benefits of the Tasmania Devils Football Club covers sports innovation and technology, job creation and skill formation, tourism associated with the club, stadium and precinct, as well as a boost to brand Tasmania on the national and international stage.

Brendon Gale, the Devils CEO, described it to me as “a powerful enduring stimulus”, as he explains:

“I honestly couldn’t think of a more potent sort of mix of government-type policies that could deliver the sort of economic, financial, social, cultural, psychological uplift than a football club participating in the AFL, the whole economy that sits around that, and also the uplift that gives to the state and to our youth.
You know, this gives a reason for people to stay. It gives pathways, jobs, people work productively, pay taxes.

It gives Tasmanians a reason, whether working in Boston or Brisbane, to come back and raise a family. You know, we need to continue to find ways to grow, and I think this really does provide a flywheel, a really powerful, enduring stimulus.”

Sports innovation and technology

In terms of sports innovation and technology, sports tech expert Brad Van Wely thinks Tasmania can be ahead of the curve and could be a leader, not a laggard, in terms of developing the whole sports ecosystem that is happening globally.

As he says:

“There’s so many more parts of the value chain for technology that have yet to be discovered.
And I think, yes, it’s a huge opportunity when you’ve got a number of professional sports playing in the state-of-the-art smart stadium.
You know, the world is just such an opportunity to bring a lot more brains and a lot more technology to Tasmania to help improve the way that we all consume sport.”

Skills and training

Part of that is to do with skills and training. As Kelly Elphinstone of the Elphinstone Group, one of Tasmania’s most successful exporters based in Burnie on the north-west coast, points out:

“I know the Devils are working with UTAS and TAFE Tasmania on developing skills packages for our kids and our local Tasmanians that want to go and do things like sports management because they need to develop the skills required to manage these high-performance clubs going forward.
So I think the opportunities for our kids, young Tasmanians, the skills development opportunities not just across tourism is going to be significant for the state.”

She also sees the Devils’ charitable Foundation playing an important role:

“Every AFL club has a foundation as well, so the Devils are looking to establish their foundation which will be a charitable enterprise that will look to give back to Tasmania.
So I think the other thing about any successful business in Tassie is when business is successful we’re able to give back and I know we do that in our own business and I know the Devils are intending to do the same through their foundation.”

Creative industries

There are also job opportunities not just in the football club, but also in the associated infrastructure such as the stadium, the precinct and the arts.

As Tasmanian Tourism Chair Grant O’Brien says about the precinct:

“The precinct must be a great opportunity for the club and the state.
I’ve heard it described in recent days and weeks as our new Mona, in terms of the scale of the opportunity that it provides for the state.
I was at Dark Mofo during the weekend, which attracts enormous numbers to the state.
Some of those events are actually on the site of where the new stadium is set to be built at Mac Point.
And then you’ve got the Winter Feast at the Salamanca end.
And it was just a constant river of people between those two sites.
And it wouldn’t have been lost on others, and it certainly wasn’t lost on me, while walking alongside people between those on the waterfront, the bars, the restaurants and the event that is Dark Mofo.
How that could be like a football game.”

The Adelaide Oval redevelopment

A good example is the Adelaide Oval redevelopment and Gather Round experience that has helped boost South Australian economic activity in terms of investment, jobs and tourism.

South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas tells me:

“That’s got to represent a big economic opportunity for Hobart and Tasmania more broadly.
I think, you know, in a South Australian context, there was opposition to over 500 million dollars being invested in Adelaide Oval at the time that existed and it was real.
And, you know, I got those arguments at the time.
But once it was done, the naysayers disappeared very quickly because it was self-evident to everybody in Adelaide and South Australia that this was something that stood on its own two feet.
I hope, I hope that in Tasmania and Hobart, they get to experience the same satisfaction in the event that it goes ahead.”

The Tasmania JackJumpers

As shown in basketball by the Tasmania JackJumpers, the Devils are a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Tasmania.
The JackJumpers have only been in existence since 2021 but have been amazingly successful on the court, making the finals in their first year and actually winning the NBL championship in just their third season.

The JackJumpers have also been winners off the court too.
When I interviewed the JackJumpers CEO Christine Finnegan, I asked if there was a ‘JackJumper effect’ on the Tasmanian economy and society as a whole.
She explained its effect in a number of ways:

“We measured the economic and social impact that the Jack Jumpers have had on the state, and there’s certainly a three to one return almost for the state in terms of their investment in this club.
So, it should never ever— a sporting club should never ever just be measured through economic benefit, although that is clearly an upside— but there’s certainly that mental and that hearts and minds benefit that we’ve been able to really tap into.”

Lost opportunity?

I asked Brendon Gale what would happen if the Tasmania Devils didn’t enter the competition and, whilst he admitted Tasmanians are “used to adversity,” he said it would be:

“A massive lost opportunity …for our kids and for our grandkids, and for sport, for jobs around this whole big sports business ecosystem.
We’ll employ probably 100, 120 people in graphic design, and event management, and finance, and marketing, and sport.
So I think there’ll be a massive lost opportunity.
We’ll break hearts, we’ll endure, but we won’t be as good as we can be.
And I think the other thing is, if it didn’t get up, what message it would send around the country, around the world.
We need businesses confident enough to invest, to invest in growth, to create opportunities for our future, to ensure governments can fund essential services and health and education.
We need to invest to grow.
I just wonder what message it would send to the investment community.”

Bottom line – it’s about football and the community

When Brendon Gale talked about investment it reminded me of the investment in human and social capital as much as physical capital.

As Grant O’Brien summed it up:

“My motivation for doing it is only in part to see an elite team or teams, AFL and AFLW teams be granted to Tassie.
I think it enables what I think is most important for Tassie.

And it was a stamp on me from a very early age growing up in Penguin where 1800 odd people in the town, but they all emptied into the ground on a Saturday morning.
And the guy who was on the gate was a news agent, the bloke who was up plugging in the PA system was the mayor.
And the guys who had white overalls on and a towel around their neck posing as physiotherapists were actually wood chippies and plumbers and electricians.
You know, it was all in. And it was a mechanism for the town to engage and connect and check up on each other in a way.

And given the layout of Tassie with communities all around Tassie, sport, not just football, sport is at the heart of keeping Tassie together and engaged.
And I think having the AFL teams, and we’re already seeing it, is encouraging more and more people to pull on a Devil’s Guernsey and whether it’s Auskick or whether it’s in the more senior clubs.

I want community footy and I want communities to benefit from this.

It isn’t for the AFL to benefit singularly or even in a major part, it’s for Tasmania to benefit.
And that’s what we’re building. And I’m sure if you ask Brendan Gale and Kath McCann and the directors of our football club, that’ll give you the same answer, because we sat down at our first board meeting and we went around the table and we said, what do you want as directors to get out of this club?

And the answers were basically the same. This is community benefit driven by having elite teams that are more than competitive in the national competitions, teams that we can be proud of, that play in a way that we can be proud of, have a culture that we can be proud of, that inspires people to engage and to participate in their communities.
And I think that’s for the good of Tassie.”

Economists often write about ‘social capital’ and how community connections bring stability and strength.
Grant O’Brien’s memories of the Penguin Football Club and its importance to the community is the reason why he came back to help the Tasmania Football Club succeed in the national competition.
To me it was an example of an investment in social capital which goes hand in hand with investing in physical capital – infrastructure like stadia, precincts, high performance centres and upgrades to local ovals and sport facilities.

The Tasmania Devils Football Club are as much about human capital and social capital as they are about physical capital in terms of infrastructure, for the benefit of all Tasmania.

Professor Tim Harcourt is Chief Economist for the Centre for Sport, Business and Society at University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and host of Footynomics: The Business of Sport TV series on Ticker News.

Watch the full series on Ticker News

Featured Interviews

• Brendon Gale, Tassie Devils FC CEO

• Brad van Wely – Sports stadium expert

• Premier of South Australia, Hon. Peter Malinauskas

• Kelly Elphinstone, Elphinstone Group

• Christine Finnegan, CEO Tasmania Jack Jumpers

• Grant O’Brien, Chair Tasmania Football Club & Tourism Tasmania