‘Would be unconscionable’: Tassie stadium deadline looms after key AFL meeting

A key vote on the future of Tasmania’s AFL team is just weeks away, with several anti-stadium politicians meeting with the league on Wednesday.

Greens MPs Vica Bayley and Cassy O’Connor, and independents Kristie Johnston and Peter George, had a 30-minute meeting with AFL officials including COO Tom Harley regarding their concerns.

But the league remains steadfast that a 23,000-capacity roofed stadium must be built for the Tasmania Devils’ license to be granted.

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The lower house of Tasmanian parliament will wave through the stadium approval in November, with Labor and Liberal support, but the upper house vote is much more contentious due to a lack of major party control.

An independent panel recommended the venue at Hobart’s Macquarie Point not be built, finding it to be a poor investment.

“We had some frank conversations. They were very clear their position is no stadium, no team,” Johnston said.

“We put it to them that might have been the case a few years ago but now we have plenty of evidence that the stadium will have a detrimental effect on Tasmanians.

“It would be unconscionable for them to hold us to that condition of the deal.”

It has been suggested by some observers the stadium could be built without a roof to save up to $300 million, viewing it as a luxury, with cost blowouts up to $1.8 billion projected.

But in a statement, the league confirmed it will not move from its position.

“AFL COO Tom Harley met with a delegation of two members of the Tasmanian Greens and two Independents today. He listened to a range of views and appreciated the group travelling to AFL House and putting those views forward,” it read.

“The AFL’s continued position is a clear component of the licence bid from the Tasmanian taskforce was a new roofed stadium at Macquarie Point with a capacity of at least 23,000.

“It is a condition for the grant of the 19th licence and that position has not changed.

“The AFL look forward to the vote on the stadium in the coming weeks and the state continuing to build on the momentum and progress already made by the Tasmania Devils and their 214,000 members.”

The Devils are scheduled to begin play at AFL level in 2028, and will field VFL and VFLW teams in 2026.

They will play out of the existing venues, Hobart’s Bellerive Oval and Launceston’s York Park, until the Macquarie Point venue is scheduled to open in 2029.