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Australian Football League (AFL) on eBay
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Articles
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| AFL players to enter Virgin |
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THE bad news just keeps coming for Qantas, now the AFL has dumped the airline as its official carrier and has turned to Virgin Blue after a nine-year association with the flying kangaroo.
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The new arrangement - believed to be worth $6 million annually - will take effect from January 1.
Industry sources said last night the two offers were comparable, but the AFL had demanded exclusivity from Qantas, which has ongoing commercial arrangements with soccer, rugby and rugby league.
Virgin Blue is believed to have promised to refrain from any arrangement with any other football code in return for the business of Australia's biggest sport.
Virgin Blue sees sport as a powerful marketing tool and will gain huge exposure flying the AFL's 17 clubs round the country for seven months a year from Feburary next year.
Qantas spokesman Ken Ryan said today: "We've had a relationship with the AFL since we took over from Ansett in 2002.
"It's been a good partnership, but the AFL had issues with our arrangements with the other codes.
"We have a proud history of supporting all sports in Australia, including all codes of football and that's not going to change.
"We will not enter into exclusive arrangements with any sporting body.''
Several clubs, alerted to the Qantas-Virgin Blue battle by the Herald Sun on November 10, have expressed serious misgivings about the switch.
They say Qantas has a more accommodating schedule, particularly from the eastern seaboard to Perth, and a history of going above and beyond the standard in-service requirements.
Players often are upgraded to business class, particularly those who would be cramped in an economy seat.
Presently, Virgin Blue can't provide business class, but that situation is expected to change midway through next year.
(Original story by Mike Sheahan at heraldsun.com.au)
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Posted on Nov 19, 2010 05:53am by admin
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