Roos eyeing million-dollar payday for home game from Eagles or Dockers

The AFL is set to unveil the 2025 fixture on November 14th and one potential titbit could see North Melbourne selling a home game to Perth, directly to Fremantle or West Coast.

7AFL’s Mitch Cleary believes both West Australian teams are very interested in acquiring the extra home game and could potentially pay in excess of $1 million for it.

The benefits for a team like Fremantle speak for themselves. It’s one less week of travel, and the opportunity to host a bottom four team at Optus Stadium could be the difference between making or missing finals.

Cleary says this all ties into the Tassie Devils and the potential loss of revenue for the Kangaroos, who currently sell multiple home games a year to Hobart.

“North Melbourne and Hawthorn are preparing for life after Tasmania with the Tassie Devils coming in 2028 contingent on the stadium build which is still yet to get off the ground,” Cleary told SEN Breakfast.

“I think Hawthorn will keep their four games in Launceston. It’s just a watch on whether North Melbourne keep their four in Hobart from as early as next year, whether they try and sell one or two of those to Perth is the question.

“The Eagles and Dockers are pretty keen to get hold of one of those as a home game for North Melbourne in Perth.

“It would mean the Eagles or Dockers fly one less time to the east coast. I think it would be a fair financial windfall for the Roos to try and cash in on where the league is at at the moment.”

Cleary believes the Roos could potentially be paid over $1 million by the Eagles or Dockers to acquire the home fixture.

“I reckon it’s around $750,000 to $800,000 is the going rate for selling a home game. Melbourne does it into Alice Springs,” he said.

“The Hawthorn one is a little bit different because they have deep roots into Launceston.

“I think if you’re North and you’re doing this, you’d want to hit seven figures to sell a game into a market to a direct rival. You’d want a million dollars, if not more.”

West Coast and North Melbourne discussed a similar idea mid-season in 2021, with the Roos reportedly set to receive as much as $700,000 to sell the home game to the Eagles during COVID. The AFL ultimately said no.

The question remains as to whether the AFL would tick off directly selling a home game to a rival club and how that fits into the competitive balance of the league.