The AFL will finally reveal to the 18 clubs next week the prosperous and complex new pay agreement with its players, which will see salary caps increase by close to a total of $40 million this year.
The AFL Players' Association completed its Australia-wide club visits on Tuesday with players from all clubs expected to vote overwhelmingly in favour of the new in-principle, six-year pay deal.
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The deal will see the competition open up its books to the players' union every three years as part of the new revenue sharing agreement, which will see 28 per cent of the game's unbudgeted income – potentially tens of millions of dollars – given to the players via their retirement funds.
With the clubs still officially in the dark regarding details of the new collective bargaining agreement, several chief executives contacted by Fairfax Media admitted to some frustration at the lack of communication from head office while the AFLPA bosses shared full details of the in-principle offer to the players.
However the clubs, while cognisant of the massive upfront pay increase, remained convinced that AFL boss Gillon McLachlan will keep his word and fully fund all pay increases, including the recently agreed annual 3 per cent increases in players' marketing and promotional money. The last CBA saw clubs burdened with extra costs agreed to in the final weeks of negotiations.
The 18 club chief executives are due to meet in a city location next Thursday with the CBA and the revenue sharing across the industry from the new broadcast deal at the forefront of the agenda.
More than 800 players across 18 clubs have voted for the new deal after one week of AFLPA club visits headed by executives Paul Marsh and Brett Murphy, which will see the 2017 club salary caps lift from $10.4 million to $12.45 million, a massive increase to be fully funded by the AFL.
While the majority of players will be rewarded immediately due to contract clauses, including an automatic rise in accordance with the new CBA deal, several clubs including Port Adelaide and West Coast have most players on fixed contracts and will in the coming weeks resume negotiations with those soon coming out of contract.
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Under the new deal, the salary cap will reach $13.6 million by 2022 with the player payments to increase a further 1.2 per cent next year, 1.3 per cent in 2019 followed by 2 per cent increases in 2020, 2021 and 2022 respectively.
Initially keen to spread the pay increases on a more gradual basis, the AFL eventually agreed to the push from the players for the significantly front-ended CBA. After refusing to budge for nine months on a proposed freeze on players' marketing money, the AFL has now agreed to increase the Additional Service Agreements by 3 per cent each season over six years. The small increase will see promotional budgets for players lift in 2017 by just over $30,000.
As previously reported, the players under the new deal will receive 28 per cent of unforecast AFL revenues with profits from gaming, government funding and other bequests not included in that pool.
Although McLachlan resisted including club revenues in that pool, the players will receive around 11 per cent of any extra profits.
It is understood the AFL and the players' association will review those revenues at the end of 2019 and again when the current CBA expires in 2022. The respective percentages of all all unbudgeted revenues included in the agreement will be placed in players' retirement funds.
The AFLPA is soon expected to open negotiations for a new deal for the AFL Women's league. Although the new national league players had signed on to a two-year CBA, the prevailing view is that the extra workload carried by the players across eight clubs should see the league agree to pay rises after season one.