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by John Stensholt

Call it the AFL's version of a tech start-up.

Or the richest sports league in the country putting a small part of its investment portfolio in a speculative high risk – and maybe one day in the future, high return – stock.

AFLX, a shortened version of the game with only seven players per side and played on a rectangular field about the same size as a soccer pitch, will debut on Thursday in Adelaide. The tournament will feature six AFL teams before two more events in Sydney and Melbourne in consecutive days.

There has been plenty of discussion about AFLX being the "Twenty20" version of Australian rules football, with fireworks, kids entertainment and a circus-style atmosphere while the occasional bit of contested sport on the field breaks out.

It will certainly be all that, as was made clear by a photo opportunity last week that saw a somewhat bemused AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan flanked by circus performers, acrobats and a giant red football mascot. (Even though the ball used in AFLX will be silver.)

But underneath the glitz of the show that will be put on – yes, the goalposts will be feature LED lights and long distance 10-point goals are "zoopers" – there are a couple of strategic reasons why the AFL, flushed with much more money than any other sport, is experimenting with AFLX.

"Look at the trends globally in sport," the AFL's project manager for AFLX, David Stevenson, tells The Australian Financial Review. "With globalisation you've got so-called regional sports that can spread more easily with technology.

'Digital-first venture'

"Children and younger people have less time now, and are interested in sports that are shorter in time, faster and higher scoring. They are watching things on digital devices. So we think of this as a digital-first venture."

That last point is intriguing. Sport and entertainment is now being consumed much more on mobile and hand-held devices than was even dreamed of only a few years ago.

The best sports to watch on a smaller mobile phone screens are rectangular-field sports such as soccer, rugby league and even rugby union. The AFL, played on huge oval grounds with 36 players on the field running everywhere is nowhere near as screen – particularly mobile – friendly. AFLX, the theory goes, should help remedy this.

AFLX's broadcast will be far more accessible than a normal AFL match, with the three days of matches telecast on Seven West Media and Foxtel and their digital streaming services, Telstra to its mobile customers and around the world on the league's Watch AFL service.

If Australian Rules football is ever to sweep the world, AFLX is likely to be its digital advance party.

Stevenson should also get his wish about the fast and high-scoring nature of the truncated game. An internal AFL research document has forecast, based on trial matches over the past two years, scoring in a 40-minute AFLX match to be 342 per cent higher than an average AFL match scaled to match the same length of time.

The number of kicks in that time should be 72 per cent higher, uncontested marks 181 per cent more, the number of tackles 61 per cent less and ball-ups should be down 78 per cent.

Stevenson says the logical challenges for the league are reasonably high, given it is taking the matches to two venues – Adelaide's Coopers Stadium and Allianz Stadium in Sydney – it has never used before. He says a crowd of more than 10,000 in Adelaide will be a success, though a decent number of spectators at the 40,000 capacity stadium in Sydney will be harder.

But if the three nights serve as a "proof of concept" and prove to be successful, then AFLX could end up driving another important facet of the AFL's strategy: getting the sport played on as many venues across the country as possible.

The AFL's ventures in NSW and Queensland have been costly but there have also been surging numbers of grassroots participants such as a 78 per cent rise in women players in NSW last year.

While the AFL has made a splash in the past decade in gaining venues in both non-traditional states, suddenly they are having a hard time getting access to grounds as cricket – and rugby league in particular – get organised and push back against it.

Should AFLX prove to be a success at elite level, the AFL will roll it out on a wider basis and given it needs less space and players than its full version it should find it easier to find venues in those newer states.

Overseas push

Then there is further afield. Stevenson says organisations overseas have already been in touch with the AFL about hosting AFLX matches, and McLachlan hinted last week at a tournament in Hong Kong late in 2019.

"China and India could be interesting," says Stevenson. "We took an AFL match (between Port Adelaide and Gold Coast) to Shanghai last year, which we had to play in a stadium built in 1935 ... that we basically had to rebuild.

"With AFLX there are a dozen stadiums in Shanghai we could play it at."

AFLX: the business strategy behind the spectacle | afr.com