Re: AFLW 2022b - R7 vs Saints - Friday night
Reply #24 –
I suspect you will find the AFLW is already pretty heavily sponsored, perhaps much more than fans realise.
To me the AFL walks on eggshells regarding this issue, because they might well fear that if they get it wrong they will be alienating some major sponsors of the AFL as well as the AFLW.
The problem of equal time and scheduling is more an issue of resources than will power. I suspect the AFL would have liked to run the AFLW as a curtain raisers, but the reality is the facilities required to do that in an equal opportunity manner just aren't available, so it becomes another eggshell issue. The AFL would be lambasted if the girls changeroom was a shed out the back, in fact it was lambasted in the previous season for this very issue although the reason behind it was COVID related not due to limited resources.
I mentioned before the AFLW players could have avoided some of this by willingly redirecting funds to facilities development over player wages, but it didn't happen. I'm sure the player managers have a say in this as well.
Club's aren't jumping on board for NADA, they know the dollars are there.